Book Reviews

'Gypsy' Mikkeller's voyage of discovery

Mikkel Borg Bjergso (pictured), founder of the Danish "gypsy" brewery Mikkeller, has written an entertaining book that details his shift from maths teacher to brewer in Copenhagen. Starting with traditional beers, he has broadened his scope with new styles that use herbs, spices, fruit and coffee, and he has toured the world to make collaborative brews. He also shares many of his recipes for home-brewers to reproduce
Added: Wednesday, March 11th 2015
New look Black Sheep to hit more baas

Black Sheep Best Bitter, the biggest-selling cask beer in Yorkshire, has been given a makeover to give it more nationwide appeal to drinkers in an ever-more fiercely competitive pub trade. And the packaged version is now in an eco-friendly lightweight bottle that's on sale in all supermarket chains
Added: Wednesday, September 24th 2014
The craft beer revolution is going Dutch

Tim Skelton's new Beer in the Netherlands guide book shows that craft brewing is booming there and the country no longer hides in the giant shadow cast by Belgian beer. The book lists all the breweries and the best bars, and is a boon companion for beer lovers visiting the country
Added: Saturday, July 5th 2014
Hail the ale: vivid history of beer's rebirth
Belgian guide: now it's the Magnificent 7th

Since 1992, Tim Webb (pictured) has been chronicling the amazing beers available in Belgium. As global brewers flood the market with the likes of Stella and Jupiler, it seemed that artisan styles would disappear. But as the seventh edition of Good Beer Guide Belgium proves, craft breweries are now on the increase with an even greater variety of amazing styles
Added: Sunday, May 4th 2014
Sommelier Jane on beer, whisky, vodka & every beverage known to drinking kind...
Tall tales from England's highest pub

Neil Hanson ran the Tann Hill Inn in the late 1970s, a remote pub in Swaledale that's regularly cut off by snow in winter. In his book The Inn at the Top, he looks back at the trials and trepidations of attempting to please both farmers and visitors..and fighting the rats...
Added: Wednesday, October 16th 2013
Magic carpet ride round the world of beer
Spotlight on the wonderful world of beer

Beer writer Adrian Tierney-Jones whets his whistle as he reads the new 300 Beers to Try Before You Die! and says it reflects the amazing and often startling changes in the beer world-wide as craft brewers fashion new interpretations of IPA and develop new styles while even long-forgotten beers such as Burton Ale make a comeback
Added: Saturday, August 31st 2013
Jeff Evans, the man with plenty of bottle

The eighth edition of the Good Bottled Beer Guide lists some 1,700 beers -- an enormous improvement on the number of beers available when Jeff Evans launched the first edition in 1998. The variety of beers in the new guide underlines the dramatic growth of quality beer in Britain
Added: Wednesday, May 29th 2013