An Ankoù
Landlord.
Bought this book a little while ago in a fit of desperation, having run out of beery literature. I wasn't expecting a great deal, but it's one of the best books I've read for some time. In fact it's amazing. Haven't finished it yet, but flagging it up in case anyone's looking for last minute Christmas pressies. Dredge starts off talking about Schlenkerla Rauchbier, one of my favourites and he deals with historic and modern German beers, on the one hand, as if he's giving an account of an extended pub crawl, and on the other, with all the historical detail, sources and references you would expect from a proper historian. The combination hits the spot for me (in the same way that lager and lime doesn't)! This is followed by a fascinating and detailed study of Pilsner Urquell and related breweries followed by in in-depth analysis of what modern brewing owes to Carlsberg- basically, brewing science! Looking forward to subsequent chapters on the U.S. take on lager with Budweiser et al and so on. There are no recipes and it's a history book rather than a brewing book, but I doubt anyone who likes this sort of thing will be disappointed.
