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Beer Companion: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Finest Craft Beers
In this full-color, lushly illustrated volume, author Stephen Snyder recounts the history of beer and also provides a guided tour of the process of beer making. A detailed breakdown of the world's beer styles follows, including a discussion of the technical parameters for the major styles of beer. In addition, expert advice on buying, storing, and tasting beer addresses questions What are the warning signs that a brew has been exposed to heat and may be skunked? At what temperature should beer be stored? and What size head is ideal?
At the core of The Beer Companion are reviews of 125 of the world's best breweries with ratings of their top products.
Each superb profile includes the history of the brewery and its products, great tips for pairing the beers with food, and a connoisseur's rating. A complete appendix includes helpful cross-references such as top-rated beers by style and fascinating information like the ten strongest beers in the world.
At the core of The Beer Companion are reviews of 125 of the world's best breweries with ratings of their top products.
Each superb profile includes the history of the brewery and its products, great tips for pairing the beers with food, and a connoisseur's rating. A complete appendix includes helpful cross-references such as top-rated beers by style and fascinating information like the ten strongest beers in the world.
- GenresBeer
256 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1996
11 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Snyder
2 booksLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 30, 2018
I'm not much of a beer drinker. And yet some of my best travel memories are based on beer. Strange.
1. On a trip to Cambria, the highway was completely enclosed in suffocating fog. It was so bad, all the cars in front of me slowed down and pulled over, leaving me as the lone idiot trying to find the way. Feeling like the leader of a pioneer wagon train, I managed to find the town and gratefully accepted the key from the first inn I could find. It was wet and cold. Muttering profanities about my beloved California coast, I took a bath and started the automatic fireplace. Too late to find an eatery, I popped open the rather large studio refrigerator and there, like Aladdin's elixir, were several bottles of Anchor Steam beer. Some cashews and a heaven-sent bottle and suddenly fog was my best friend. Ahhhhh.
2. It was a steamy hot and humid day on the island of Carriacou. Really, really humid. Even the water tasted warm. Then, the waiter brought me a bottle of Carib beer. I'm not sure if anything ever tasted so good at that moment. Ahhhhh.
3. Piccadilly Circus, London. Winter. My last day before returning home and I decided to have a steak, which is a rarity for me. Opening the Financial Times (this was before the smartphone), I was dumbstruck to discover a stock I owned had just done a 3-for-one split. OMG. And there in front of me was a foamy glass of Stella Artois which made everything taste even better. Ahhhhh.
So that's my vast realm of beer experience, really. I'll purchase the occasional bottle but it's not the same if I'm not travelling. The next best thing is this book! Beautifully laid out with pictures for each entry, this volume provides the history of many craft beers that were in vogue in the mid-1990s. If I were more of a connoisseur, I would rush out to get these.
The selections are broken into chapters entitled, Classics, Laureates, and Rising Stars. Each page provides the address of the brewery, date of the first production, annual output, and the type of brew style (bitter, ale, porter, etc.) it would fall under. Each beer is also rated and there is a lovely description of why the brew was included in the book. All in all, quite gorgeous.
There are so many I would like to try, such as Gueuze Boon, Gouden Carolus, Hoegaarden...and it looks as though I will have to take another trip to Belgium. Ahhhhh.
Book Season = Winter (fog, cold, fireplace)
1. On a trip to Cambria, the highway was completely enclosed in suffocating fog. It was so bad, all the cars in front of me slowed down and pulled over, leaving me as the lone idiot trying to find the way. Feeling like the leader of a pioneer wagon train, I managed to find the town and gratefully accepted the key from the first inn I could find. It was wet and cold. Muttering profanities about my beloved California coast, I took a bath and started the automatic fireplace. Too late to find an eatery, I popped open the rather large studio refrigerator and there, like Aladdin's elixir, were several bottles of Anchor Steam beer. Some cashews and a heaven-sent bottle and suddenly fog was my best friend. Ahhhhh.
2. It was a steamy hot and humid day on the island of Carriacou. Really, really humid. Even the water tasted warm. Then, the waiter brought me a bottle of Carib beer. I'm not sure if anything ever tasted so good at that moment. Ahhhhh.
3. Piccadilly Circus, London. Winter. My last day before returning home and I decided to have a steak, which is a rarity for me. Opening the Financial Times (this was before the smartphone), I was dumbstruck to discover a stock I owned had just done a 3-for-one split. OMG. And there in front of me was a foamy glass of Stella Artois which made everything taste even better. Ahhhhh.
So that's my vast realm of beer experience, really. I'll purchase the occasional bottle but it's not the same if I'm not travelling. The next best thing is this book! Beautifully laid out with pictures for each entry, this volume provides the history of many craft beers that were in vogue in the mid-1990s. If I were more of a connoisseur, I would rush out to get these.
The selections are broken into chapters entitled, Classics, Laureates, and Rising Stars. Each page provides the address of the brewery, date of the first production, annual output, and the type of brew style (bitter, ale, porter, etc.) it would fall under. Each beer is also rated and there is a lovely description of why the brew was included in the book. All in all, quite gorgeous.
There are so many I would like to try, such as Gueuze Boon, Gouden Carolus, Hoegaarden...and it looks as though I will have to take another trip to Belgium. Ahhhhh.
Book Season = Winter (fog, cold, fireplace)
November 13, 2020
Beautifully illustrated, this work gives a very good description of beer and its processes. I find the tips on serving temperatures very useful. Most of the book is a listing of the various "influential" breweries around the world and their beers. This, I feel is its shortcoming, for it becomes dated very quickly with the rapid advances and changes occurring in the brewing industry, especially the craft brewing industry. Still, I love reading about beer.
September 3, 2009
dated,but v. good
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews