Since this is the forum for beer nerds and book nerds, this is the perfect spot for books about beer. What beer books and apps do you have that you can recommend? My books fall into a few different categories. Reference The Essentials of Beer Style by Fred Eckhardt. The Complete Handbook of Home Brewing by Dave Miller
I haven’t home brewed if over 20 years so these are probably well out of date.
Travel guides CAMRA’s London Pub Walks
CAMRA’s Lake District Pub Walks
CAMRA’s Peak District Pub Walks all by Bob Steel.
These are good with valuable info such as the pub opening times, food availability, and route descriptions including maps. Around Amsterdam in 80 Beers by Tim Skelton Around Bruges in 80 Beers by Chris Pollard and Siobhan McGinn
Haven’t been to Bruges yet, but the Amsterdam guide was very helpful for finding good beer bars. CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide Edited by Roger Protz
Not really a travel guide, but a guide to the 4500 pubs deemed of high enough quality by CAMRA members. It also includes the list of the more than 1000 breweries in Great Britain with list of beers, and descriptions when available. The just released 2014 edition is the 41st guide produced. My oldest guide is from 1995 and is just over 500 pages, the current guide is over 900.
Beer lists 300 Beers to Try Before You Die by Roger Protz
A listing of excellent beers from all around the world with tasting notes, history, and colour photos of the bottle or label. The follow-up 300 More Beers to Try Before You Die has just been released but I don’t have it yet. A Beer a Day by Jeff Evans
366 beers described. The beers chosen relate to an event that happened on that day. For example, today Sep 24 Fritz Maytag bought into Anchor Brewery in 1965. The beer described is Anchor Old Foghorn. Good Bottled Beer Guide by Jeff Evans
Pretty much what it says on the tin, a listing of bottle conditioned beers available in the UK with information about the brewery and availability.
Entertaining beer books Hops and Glory by Pete Brown.
Pete decides to recreate the journey of India Pale Ale from the source in Burton on Trent to India including crossing the Atlantic on a tall ship, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, dodging Brazilian pirates and Iranian customs along the way. Very entertaining and well researched. Shakespeare’s Local by Pete Brown.
Pete traces the history of The George Inn, the oldest coaching inn left in London from its earliest references in the 1500’s to the present day.
Beer Apps
I’ve got several on my phone, but only 2 get regular use. Untappd A social media type app which lets you check in what beer you’ve just had a where. The database of beers is huge but if what you’ve had isn’t there you can add it yourself. I’ve currently logged just over 600 unique beers. CAMRA Good Beer Guide Mobile It’s like having the book on your phone. It integrates with GPS to point you to the nearest GBG pub and includes the usual useful info about opening times and food availability.
Wow, that was probably my longest post ever! Now over to you, what books and apps do you have and like?
Well, of course I use the app Untapped. A local beeratorium does a top-shelf tasting one evening each month. It attracts beer nerds from far and wide. It is hilarious to check Untapped and see that 20 out of the 30 people in the room are on Untapped.
My favorite (Android only AFAIK) app besides that is The Beer Expert. I can’t recall searching for a beer and not finding it. You get a picture, brewer’s description, and comments by drinkers.
"How to Brew" by John Palmer is probably the single best homebrewing reference out there. Comprehensive, accurate and modern, it’s all you need to brew great beer.
**“Designing Great Beers” **by Ray Daniels is probably the second best overall homebrewing reference out there. It’s not about technique, but rather about recipe formulation and WHY certain beers taste the way they do.
"New Brewing Lager Beer" by Greg Noonan is another excellent reference book, specifically aimed at lager brewers and highlights the differences between the garden-variety ales most people brew and the very different requirements of lagers.
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"Brew Like a Monk: Trappist, Abbey, and Strong Belgian Ales and How to Brew Them "** by Stan Hieronymous is an interesting read, although more of a history and tradition book than an actual how-to book I thought.
I don’t much mess with books on beer that are about drinking it versus making it; I mostly just drink it!
That said, I did learn a whole lot when starting out in the beer world from the Michael Jackson** “New World Guide to Beer”** back in college in the 1990s. I don’t know what the latter-day equivalent would be, since Mr. Jackson died some years ago.
And that’s about it. The only other brewing book I have around the house is his Homebrewer’s Gold. Anything beyond that, I just research on the Internet or just throw a bunch of ingredients together without a real recipe, just going on whim and loose guidelines.
I have a Kindle copy of that (I think it’s that, anwyay), and it’s a great book.
I think if you’re into homebrewing, you’ll have figured most of that out on your own anyway by reading those books and the online resources, but if you’re not interested in brewing your own, it’s an excellent start.
