BEER: Taste the Revolution in 50 Styles

Beer's four main ingredients are malt, water, hops and yeast and here, after a quick skim of beer's history from ancient times to the industrial age, the story picks up. This beautifully designed and colourful guide discusses how beer styles are defined, and chapter by chapter we learn about the modernisation of the process and the new beer styles that these changes created along the way. You will find the beer and the brewery name, the beer's style, strength and a few flavour descriptors, then any relevant notes on why this particular beer was chosen, and all the while the author has made sure they are not too difficult to find at your local supermarket, bottle shop or online. A few base malts worth knowing are the Pilsner with its light golden hue, pale ale malt, amber coloured, Vienna malt with its toasty, nutty tones or more popular specialty malts like Crystal or Caramel or Black bringing coffee-like or burned notes. It's pretty incredible to think beer gets such a broad range of colours and flavours from one simple grain. It can also be brewed with malted wheat, oats and rye and even corn and rice can be added in small quantities. We go from Burton-upon-Trent to Bavaria, Belgium and Munich to America to sample many boozy barrels of beer. 208 colourful pages, illus.