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Beer Essentials: The Spirit Journal Guide to Over 650 of the World's Beers
The ultimate consumer's handbook to the world's best beers from the editor of the highly acclaimed SPIRIT JOURNAL newsletter and author of KINDRED SPIRITS. F. Paul Pacult gathers five years of tasting notes as well as previously unpublished assessments of over 650 individual beers from around the world.
- GenresBeer
256 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1997
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July 18, 2019
On the very off chance that anyone has come to this review at all, let me say first that given how terribly out of date this book already was when I first posted this review on Amazon (in 2009) and how even more out-of-date this is now (10 years later), I consider this a "time capsule" review of sorts - what beer appreciation really was back in the dark days before the turn of the millenium, before there was a brewpub in every mid-sized town and hundreds in a city like Chicago, before ancient, defunct styles like "gose" were available in dozens of variations in any competently-run store with a decent beer selection. Read on...
F. Paul Pacult, like many of the beer world's more serious savants, is also a whisky expert - he made his name with his periodical "The Spirit Journal" and he applies a fairly rigorous and quite serious approach to his study of this other malt beverage as well. You should know upfront that Pacult spits rather than swallows when rating beer - a practice that I personally don't think works, as the level of alcoholic burn on the throat, which varies enormously in a beverage that can go from 2.5% (Berliner Weiss) to over 15 (some Barley Wines and Imperial Stouts) is a significant component to the overall character of the beer in question. So that's an issue for me, it might not be for you. It also needs to be stated that this volume is wildly out of date and many of the beers listed - he's got them in alphabetical order by brewer within two sections (Domestic and Foreign) - are no longer available.
With all that in mind, the book still has some value as Pacult does offer a readable and non-condescending introduction to beer: it's history, variety, basic components and simplified brewing process, and how it allies with food. It's nice that Pacult back in '97 was taking beer as seriously as wine, not many Americans were. His style guidelines aren't exactly BJCP, but they're serviceable. The reviews, however out-of-date they might be, are where it's at though - Pacult is an over-the-top descriptive writer and, even as someone who has tasted thousands of beers myself, I have to say that I laugh at some of his descriptions. But in a good way: "a satiny, unctuous cloak gently wraps around the tongue like an ermine stole", from the description for Samuel Adams Double Bock. Makes me laugh - but also makes me want one, right now.
F. Paul Pacult, like many of the beer world's more serious savants, is also a whisky expert - he made his name with his periodical "The Spirit Journal" and he applies a fairly rigorous and quite serious approach to his study of this other malt beverage as well. You should know upfront that Pacult spits rather than swallows when rating beer - a practice that I personally don't think works, as the level of alcoholic burn on the throat, which varies enormously in a beverage that can go from 2.5% (Berliner Weiss) to over 15 (some Barley Wines and Imperial Stouts) is a significant component to the overall character of the beer in question. So that's an issue for me, it might not be for you. It also needs to be stated that this volume is wildly out of date and many of the beers listed - he's got them in alphabetical order by brewer within two sections (Domestic and Foreign) - are no longer available.
With all that in mind, the book still has some value as Pacult does offer a readable and non-condescending introduction to beer: it's history, variety, basic components and simplified brewing process, and how it allies with food. It's nice that Pacult back in '97 was taking beer as seriously as wine, not many Americans were. His style guidelines aren't exactly BJCP, but they're serviceable. The reviews, however out-of-date they might be, are where it's at though - Pacult is an over-the-top descriptive writer and, even as someone who has tasted thousands of beers myself, I have to say that I laugh at some of his descriptions. But in a good way: "a satiny, unctuous cloak gently wraps around the tongue like an ermine stole", from the description for Samuel Adams Double Bock. Makes me laugh - but also makes me want one, right now.
Displaying 1 of 1 review