America now has more breweries than at any time since prohibition, and globally, beer culture is thriving and constantly innovating. Drinkers can order beer brewed with local yeast or infused with moondust. However, beer drinkers are also faced with uneven quality and misinformation about flavors. And the industry itself is suffering from growing pains, beset by problems such as unequal access to taps, skewed pricing, and sexism. Drawing on history, economics, and interviews with industry insiders, John Holl provides a complete guide to beer today, allowing readers to think critically about the best beverage in the world. Full of entertaining anecdotes and surprising opinions, Drink Beer, Think Beer is a must-read for beer lovers, from casual enthusiasts to die-hard hop heads.

    As a journalist spurred by curiosity and thirst, Lucy Burningham made it her career to write about craft beer, traveling to hop farms, attending rare beer tasting parties, and visiting as many taprooms, breweries, and festivals as possible. With this as her introduction, Lucy decided to take her relationship with beer to the next level: to become a certified beer expert. As Lucy studies and sips her way to becoming a Certified Cicerone, she meets an eclectic cast of characters, including brewers, hop farmers, beer sommeliers, pub owners, and fanatical beer drinkers. Her journey into the world of beer is by turns educational, social, and personal--just as enjoying a good beer should be.

    Drawing on information from old brewing records, books, contemporary beer analysis, and hundreds of recipes, the author provides a wealth of data on the current and historical brewing techniques and ingredients for 14 popular ale and lager styles. It also includes brewing calculations for planning and adjusting brews as well as a thorough examination of primary brewing ingredients.

    A once-fledgling, clumsy movement, craft beer has become ubiquitous nationwide and even includes a honey ale brewed at the White House. Powered by millions of savvy, devoted consumers and raking in billions of dollars annually for producers and retailers, the movement has changed the industry landscape and the international reputation of American beer, upended the big beer giants that once seemed untouchable, and altered forever drinking habits, closet hobbies, and bar conversation. But the epic narrative of this class of brew has never been chronicled in one volume—until now.Based on interviews with all of the biggest and most influential names in craft brewing since the 1970s—including brewers, critics, and marketers—The Audacity of Hops brims with charming, remarkable stories, which together weave a very American business tale, one of formidable odds and refreshing success.The Audacity of Hops will be the holiday and birthday gift for every craft beer lover. Entertaining, informative, and accessible, this book is the first of its kind: the definitive history of the other American revolution.

    Then explore whatever calls to you: take a crash course in water chemistry, try whirlpool hopping, brew a fruit beer, capture wild yeast, make your first Berliner Weisse, or kick the bottles and start kegging. Unique recipes cover everything from traditional parti-gyle stouts to a style-bending American wild ale.

    This is the story of the world according to beer, a toast to flavors born of necessity and place—in Belgian monasteries, rundown farmhouses, and the basement nanobrewery next door. So pull up a barstool and raise a glass to 5,000 years of fermented magic.Fueled by date-and-honey gruel, sour pediococcus-laced lambics, and all manner of beers between, William Bostwick’s rollicking quest for the drink’s origins takes him into the redwood forests of Sonoma County, to bullet-riddled South Boston brewpubs, and across the Atlantic, from Mesopotamian sands to medieval monasteries to British brewing factories. Bostwick compares notes with the Mt. Vernon historian in charge of preserving George Washington’s molasses-based home brew, and he finds the ancestor of today’s macrobrewed lagers in a nineteenth-century spy’s hollowed-out walking stick.Wrapped around this modern reportage are deeply informed tales of history’s archetypal brewers: Babylonian temple workers, Nordic shamans, patriots, rebels, and monks. The Brewer’s Tale unfurls from the ancient goddess Ninkasi, ruler of intoxication, to the cryptic beer hymns of the Rig Veda and down into the clove-scented treasure holds of India-bound sailing ships.With each discovery comes Bostwick’s own turn at the brew pot, an exercise that honors the audacity and experimentation of the craft. A sticky English porter, a pricelessly rare Belgian, and a sacred, shamanic wormwood-tinged gruit each offer humble communion with the brewers of yore. From sickly sweet Nordic grogs to industrially fine-tuned fizzy lager, Bostwick’s journey into brewing history ultimately arrives at the head of the modern craft beer movement and gazes eagerly if a bit blurry-eyed toward the future of beer.

    In 1980, a handful of “microbrewery” pioneers launched a revolution that would challenge the dominance of the national brands, Budweiser, Coors, and Miller, and change the way Americans think about, and drink, beer. Today, there are more than 2,700 craft breweries in the United  States and another  1,500 are in the works. Their influence is spreading to Europe’s great brewing nations, and to countries all over the globe. In The Craft Beer Revolution, Steve Hindy, co-founder of Brooklyn Brewery, tells the inside story of how a band of homebrewers and microbrewers came together to become one of America’s  great entrepreneurial  triumphs. Beginning with Fritz Maytag, scion of the washing  machine  company, and Jack McAuliffe, a US Navy submariner who developed  a passion for real beer while  serving in Scotland, Hindy tells the story of hundreds of creative businesses like Deschutes Brewery, New Belgium, Dogfish Head, and Harpoon. He shows how their individual and collective efforts have combined to grab 10 percent of the dollar share of the US beer market. Hindy also explores how Budweiser, Miller, and Coors, all now owned by international conglomerates, are creating their own craft-style beers, the same way major food companies have acquired or created smaller organic labels to court credibility with a new generation of discerning eaters and drinkers. This is a timely and fascinating look at what America’s new generation of entrepreneurs can learn from the intrepid pioneering brewers who are transforming the way Americans enjoy this wonderful, inexpensive, storied beverage: beer.

    These range from good beginner's beers such as pale ale and brown ale to more advanced ales such as barley wine, smoked stout and Belgian wild ale, so there is something here for both the novice and the experienced home brewer.  Learn too about Mikkeller's evolution from experimental hobby brewer to trailblazing international microbrewery; the history of beer; the beer revolution of the 1990s, beer and food, and the most important beer types, from pale lagers through highly-hopped IPAs to dark stouts and strong quadruples.

    Erica Shea and Stephen Valand show that with a little space, a few tools, and the same ingredients breweries use, you too can make delicious craft beer right on your stovetop. Greenmarket-inspired and seasonally brewed, these 52 recipes include Everyday IPA and Rose Cheeked & Blonde for spring; Grapefruit Honey Ale and S’More Beer for summer; Apple Crisp Ale and Peanut Butter Porter for fall; Chestnut Brown ale and Gingerbread Ale for winter; and even four gluten-free brews. You’ll also find tips for growing hops, suggestions for food pairings, and recipes for cooking with beer. Brooklyn Brew Shop’s Beer Making Book offers a new approach to artisanal brewing and is a must-own for beer lovers, seasonally minded cooks, and anyone who gets a kick out of saying “I made this!”

    In the Middle Ages, yeast was called ‘godisgoode’ because no one had any idea what fermentation was. Malting barley, too, has for centuries seemed genuinely wondrous: it’s only in the last 200 years that science has identified and understood how man and yeast work together to gently (or not so gently) persuade this humble grain to give up its sugary stash for fermentation into beer.From the birth of brewing (and civilization) in the Middle East, through an exploration of water’s unmurky depths and the surreal madness of drink-sodden hop-blessings in the Czech Republic, to the stunning recreation of the first ever modern beer – Miracle Brew is an extraordinary journey through the nature and science of brewing.Along the way, we’ll meet and drink with a cast of characters who reveal the magic of beer and celebrate the joy of drinking it. And, almost without noticing, we’ll learn the naked truth about the world’s greatest beverage.

    By 1960 this number had dwindled to 358 and, with the “Big Six” increasingly dominant, the prospects for British beer looked weak, yellow and fizzy. In 2012, however, UK breweries topped 1,000 for the first time since the Great Depression. Moreover, they are now producing and exporting more varied and inventive ale than ever before. Across the country, evidence of this national brewing renaissance is easy to find: the Campaign for Real Ale has more members than the Conservative Party; beer festivals proliferate with every passing month; the Camden Brewery and Meantime have become international brands, producing acclaimed lagers and IPAs; the ultra-fashionable BrewDog dispenses shots of strange 40%-proof liquids to hipster media types; and cyberspace plays host to hundreds of thousands of beer enthusiasts, all debating and virtually savoring the merits of New Zealand hops, or the latest chocolate stout. The Strange Rebirth of British Beer will tell the story of this remarkable reversal. Following a disparate group of Trotskyite hacks, eccentric City bankers, hippie “micro brewers” and a lot of men in pubs, the writers behind the acclaimed Boak & Bailey blog promise to reveal how punter power pulled the British pint back from the brink.

    It is also a detailed overview of more than 500 of the greatest beers from around the world, with sections devoted to major beer-producing countries and regions, including information on craft brewing, emerging markets, extreme beers, future-trend forecasts, and more.

    “The first exciting wine book in a long time” (Frank Prial, New York Times). Illustrated throughout in full color.

    In the golden age of light, bland and cheap beers, John Hall and his son Greg brought European flavors to America. With distribution in two dozen states, two brewpubs and status as one of the 20 biggest breweries in the United States, Goose Island became an American success story and was a champion of craft beer. Then, on March 28, 2011, the Halls sold the brewery to Anheuser-Busch InBev, maker of Budweiser, the least craft-like beer imaginable. The sale forced the industry to reckon with craft beer’s mainstream appeal and a popularity few envisioned. Josh Noel broke the news of the sale in the Chicago Tribune, and he covered the resulting backlash from Chicagoans and beer fanatics across the country as the discussion escalated into an intellectual craft beer war. Anheuser-Busch has since bought nine other craft breweries, and from among the outcry rises a question that Noel addresses through personal anecdotes from industry leaders: how should a brewery grow?

    With expert advice on choosing and maintaining the best plants for your needs, Joe Fisher and Dennis Fisher show you how to turn a small patch of backyard, or even a few window boxes, into a renewable brewing supply store. Discover the satisfaction that comes from brewing tasty beers using fresh homegrown ingredients.