Tasting Beer, 2nd Edition: An Insider's Guide to the World's Greatest Drink

Create new and unusual homebrewed favorites with recipes guaranteed to work well with home equipment. Enjoy more than 240 beer and ale recipes contributed by brewing suppliers, homebrew clubs, and individual artisans across North America.

“Send us your best”, said Karl F. Lutzen and Mark Stevens, in their appeal for the favorite recipes of homebrewers across North America. Homebrew clubs, brewing suppliers and homebrewers took up the call. Now here it is!

Homebrew Favorites is a nuts and bolts guide to creating unusual brews at home, including:

Sake began with a grain of rice. Scotch emerged from barley, tequila from agave, rum from sugarcane, bourbon from corn. Thirsty yet? In The Drunken Botanist, Amy Stewart explores the dizzying array of herbs, flowers, trees, fruits, and fungi that humans have, through ingenuity, inspiration, and sheer desperation, contrived to transform into alcohol over the centuries.

Of all the extraordinary and obscure plants that have been fermented and distilled, a few are dangerous, some are downright bizarre, and one is as ancient as dinosaurs—but each represents a unique cultural contribution to our global drinking traditions and our history.

This fascinating concoction of biology, chemistry, history, etymology, and mixology—with more than fifty drink recipes and growing tips for gardeners—will make you the most popular guest at any cocktail party.

Aging isn't just for wine. Some of the world's finest beers -- barley wines, stouts, sour beers, and other strong brews -- develop and improve with age, showing richer flavor in two, five, or even fifteen years. Closely examining what's happening in the bottle as beer ages, cellaring enthusiast Patrick Dawson provides everything you need to know to build a beer cellar you will savor for years to come.

Much like good wine, certain beers can be aged under the right conditions, a process that enhances and changes their flavors in interesting and delicious ways. Good candidates for aging are high-alcohol brews, bottle-conditioned beers with yeast in the bottle, barleywines, lambics, and winter ales. Patrick Dawson explains how to identify a cellar-worthy beer, how to plan and set up a beer cellar, what to look for when tasting vintage beers, and the fascinating science behind the aging process. He also includes a comprehensive buying guide to help you select already-aged beers (from the readily available to the tantalizingly rare) to enjoy as your own collection is aging.

About the Author
Patrick Dawson has been accredited as a judge through the Beer Judge Certification Program. He travels the United States and Europe collecting beers worthy of aging, and has become a respected voice on the subject. He is the resident beer columnist for the North Denver Tribune, and his works have been published in DRAFT and Zymurgy. His ever-revolving cellar holds hundreds of beer at any given moment. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

Beer has inspired, influenced, and excited human beings for thousands of years! Discover the mysteries of the fermented beverage, revealed at last in this intriguing book of cultural history, poetry, song, little-known facts, and quirky quotes by beer drinkers from Nietzsche to Darwin.

Readers will be astonished to learn the esoteric facts that were discovered such as that in most ancient cultures only women were allowed to brew, and for much of history beer was considered a nourishing alternative to drinking water!

From the Back Cover:

Did you know that...
- The Mayflower abandoned its search for further destinations and landed in Plymouth because they had run out of beer?
- Women in ancient Sumeria dominated the art of brewing and tavern keeping, operating under the protection of Siduri, goddess of the brewery?
- Twenty people literally 'drowned in beer' in 1814 when a vat in a London brewery exploded, creating a tidal wave of beer?
- Alewives in Colonial America brewed a special high-test 'groaning ale' for a mother-to-be to swig while she was in labor?

If you have a backyard, or even a sunny porch or balcony, you can grow your own hops, brewing herbs, and malt grains to enhance the flavor, aroma, and uniqueness of your home-brewed beer - and ensure that you have the freshest, purest, best ingredients possible. Simple instructions from experts Joe and Dennis Fisher guide you through every step of the process, from setting up your first hop trellis to planting and caring for your herbs, harvesting and drying them, malting grain, and brewing more than 25 recipes specifically designed for homegrown ingredients. This fully updated second edition includes a new section featuring color photography of the plants, expanded information on growing hops in small spaces, innovative trellising ideas, an expanded section on malting, new profiles of prominent grower/brewers, and up-to-date information on grain-growing best practices.

Garrett Oliver, award-winning Brewmaster and Vice President of Production of the Brooklyn Brewery, recognized by Gourmet Magazine as a 'passionate epicure and talented alchemist', reveals the full spectrum of flavors contained in the more than 50 distinct styles of beer from around the world.

Most importantly, he shows how beer, which is far more versatile than wine, intensifies flavors when it’s appropriately paired with foods to create a dining experience most people have never imagined. Garrett, along with photographer Denton Tillman, traveled throughout Europe visiting fellow brewmasters to trace the beers of the world to their sources. Back in the States, he met with the star chefs he has advised about beer. The resulting book is a motherload of information, lushly illustrated with Tillman’s gorgeous photographs of the world’s best beers and the breweries that produce them. Above all, The Brewmaster's Table is a new way of thinking about beer – one that will bring this under-appreciated brew to the status it deserves.

Whether it’s a Belgian wheat beer with a simple salad, a Brooklyn Pilsner to wash down spicy tacos, a pale ale alongside a porcini risotto with foie gras, or even a Framboise to accompany a dark chocolate brownie, beer is the perfect complement to any dining experience, at home in front of the TV or in a four-star restaurant.

He explains how beer is made, shows you its fascinating history, and then leads you through the amazing range of flavors displayed by the dozens of distinct styles of beer from around the world. Finally, he suggests beer pairings that will please your tastebuds and blow your mind. Whether you’re a beer aficionado, a passionate cook, or just someone who loves a great dinner, this book will indeed be a revelation.

Master home brewer Stephen Snyder presents the A to Z guide for producing expert home brewing results every time. Everything there is to know about home brewing is here - how to ferment, condition, bottle or keg, store, serve and savor your homebrews.

Also Included:
- Tips on choosing yeast, malt, hops, specialty grains and additives
- Lists of every type of beer in the world - and how to make them
- Discoveries of supply shops, beer associations and publications
- Master Brewers’ suggestions for improving your beer

Providing easy-to-follow instructions and with the zeal of a true believer, Snyder walks novice brewers through their first simplest batches to more advanced techniques to the ultimate in homebrewing - formulating your own recipes.

Topping it all off is a mind-boggling array of recipes collected from brewmasters around the world. It would take a lifetime to brew them all. For each beer type - from India Pale Ale to the heaviest German Bock, from fruit- and spice-flavored beers and Christmas beers to the blackest chocolate stout - Snyder includes endless variations and professional advice, making this, truly, the only brewing guide you’ll ever need.

Does the beer buyer at the liquor store ask your advice? Do you understand the difference between a turbid and a single infusion mash? Do you travel with a tulip glass handy? Have you even eaten ramen just to afford a vintage Cantillon gueuze? If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, you may be a Beer Geek and in need of this hilarious guide. Patrick Dawson provides everything you need to fully live a life ruled by beer, from the Ten Beer Geek Commandments and the Beer Geek Hall of Fame to guidance on what to drink, how and where to drink it, how to gracefully correct an uninformed bartender, where to buy 'geek goods', how to flawlessly execute a beer tasting, how to plan the ultimate beer-centric vacation, and much more. Includes quizzes to help you determine your level of geekery, as well as witty illustrations by Greg Kletsel.