The Big Book of Beer

Yesterday I picked up a book that I had seen at various places since early December and I had almost purchased several times but kept putting it off. The book is called "All Belgian Beers" , translated into English. All parts of the book are in English, French and German I believe. It is a very, very thick book that is maybe 6 inches by 5 inches by 4 inches and could prove very useful as a weapon. Although it does not have "all" Belgian beers in it, it has 750 or so. Some of the hardest to obtain beers are not included and beers from smaller breweries may not be included if they were not readily available at the time the book was published. They also did not include all seasonable beers for summer or Christmas for the same reasons. The numbers of beers is still very impressive.

The book starts with a brief description of the purpose of the book and ends with some descriptions of the various beer types and the brewing process. In between are 2 pages dedicated to each beer. The left page describes the beer by fermentation type, beer style, ingredients, alcohol level, the proper glass to serve the beer in, the proper temperature to serve it under and some tasting notes and a place for your own tasting notes. The right page has a full color picture of a full bottle next to a beer in the proper glass.

Although some of the descriptions are not very detailed or well thought out, just the volume of data and pictures is pretty imressive and gives me ideas on many many beers that I have not run into before but many that I should. The cost if the book was €35 so it was a little pricey but will make a good addition to our extensive library of books. Ok, the library is not very extensive but this thick book makes it a little more full. Hopefully it is available in the US for thos beer lovers out there as the cost for me to ship one would be a bit expensive. Sorry.