Book Review: The Bluffer's Guide to Beer by Jonathan Goodall

The Bluffer's Guide to Beer by Jonathan Goodall

To make his readers more impressive to their friend, acquaintances, and the random people they may happen to meet in a pub, Jonathan Goodall has written this comedy-laced guide to the world of beer. He starts with an overview of the last twelve thousand years of beer history (some 9000 BC crop patterns in Mesopotamia have been interpreted to suggest that brewing strong drink dates back that far) and the process(es) for making beer. He goes into non-excruciating detail about the difference between bottom-fermented and top-fermented beers; various hops, malts, barleys and other ingredients used in the brewing process; the different sorts of yeasts and waters used in the process. He goes through a country-by-country survey of beer making, with some interesting trivia and details about different styles of beer brewed in various countries. The range and amount of information is surprising given the 140-odd pages that they are packed into, and the high number of jokes and puns woven into the mix.

I enjoyed the book. The style of writing is fun and the information is not too technical. There is an awful lot of information, so I'm more likely to pick and choose what I remember from the book because there is no way I can remember it all without seriously studying the book. The book's guiding idea is that readers will pass for beer experts if they take in all the info, though the result will be beyond the ability to fake beer knowledge.

Sample text [page 93, lack of Oxford commas in the original]:

The Trappist monasteries developed their beers independently of each other, so they don't all label their beers as Dubbel, Tripel or Quadrupel. Chimay, for example, colour codes its different strengths, its Red, White and Blue labels corresponding with 7%, 8% and 9% ABV respectively. Rochefort, on the other hand, has gone for a numerical system, its Rochefort 6, 8 and 10 weighing in at 7.5%, 9.2% and 11.3% ABV. If anyone asks why the numbers don't correlate exactly with the alcoholic strengths, mumble something about the chosen numbers loosely referring to the amount of malt with fermentable sugars and the original gravity of the wort prior to fermentation. If they won't go away, mumble some more.

Recommended for a fun read about beer. Warning: the book is UK-centric (as you might glean from the "colour codes" mentioned above).