New Book of Beer Knowledge

CAMRA’s Book of Beer Knowledge- the essential source of pub trivia ammunition
Pocket-sized book of beer wisdom returns for second edition


CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, is pleased to announce the release of the second edition of its Book of Beer Knowledge, a pocket-sized compendium to load beer drinkers with the ultimate pub trivia before a trip to their local.
Compiled by award-winning beer writer Jeff Evans, this must-have title for lovers of pub ammo contains more than 200 entries covering the serious, silly and the downright bizarre from the world of beer. Packed with beer facts, records, stats and anecdotes, CAMRA’s Book of Beer Knowledge reveals everything from the smallest pub in Britain to how to say ‘cheers’ in 26 different languages.
Jeff Evans, author of CAMRA’s Book of Beer Knowledge, said:
‘I’ve always been fascinated by facts and figures so it’s been a great pleasure to put together tables and charts showing lots of information beer and pub lovers will hopefully find useful. At the same time, I’ve been looking at the crazy side of beer production – the wacky facts and oddball bits of trivia that sum up the fun of beer drinking around the world.
‘In addition to compiling lists of best-selling beers, important hop-growing regions and other hard facts, I’ve been discovering a beer in Australia that is made for dogs and the Japanese beer made with barley grown in space, as well as unearthing the truth about names such as Samuel Adams and JD Wetherspoon. It’s been great fun.’
Some of the unusual facts contained in the book include-

• China produces the most beer of any country in the world (410.3 million hectolitres each year)
• Home-brewing is still illegal in Alabama and Mississippi, USA
• Buddhist monks in Thailand have built an entire temple from old beer bottles
• The longest pub name in the UK is ‘The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn’

The Beer Book

Book review – The Beer Book, published by Dorling Kindersley, Edited by Tim Hampson, £10.00 Asda, £16.99 cover price
Book: Hardcover | 9.25 x 6.25in | 352 pages | ISBN 9780756639822 | 20 Oct 2008 | Dorling Kindersley | 18 - AND UP

With Michael Jackson having moved to the upstairs bar I had started to think that no one would ever be able to write another big well-written, full-colour book on the world of beer. Luckily Tim Hampson assembled a bevy of beer writers to put this 350 page worldwide beer crawl together, each of them experts in the beers of their own country. Hence from Italy we have Lorenzo Dabove, regular on the ITV Wales Food Show, well he featured in 2 episodes, exploring the weird and wonderful bottle shapes and flavours of Italian craft ale renaissance brewers. In recent years Italian brewers have realised there is a market for individually crafted ales as opposed to the mass produced Euro lager that most people think of as Italian beer. There's more to Italian beer than Nasty Azzuro!

Similarly, experts from other countries provide other chapters; Alastair Gilmour for the UK, Corad Seidl for Austria, Joris Pattyn for Belgium to name 3 of the 13 contributers to this book.

There is a very extensive section on the craft breweries of the USA, which over the last 30 years has seen over 1400 new breweries start up, producing everything from Victorian-style IPAs to Belgium-style brews. Even the multi-nationals are trying to cash in on the craft-brewery revolution, with Coors producing its Blue Moon range of beers which include a a Belgium-style wheat beer and a Czech-style lager. It's just a shame that Coors Brewery closed down their museum in the UK, formerly the Bass brewery Musuem.

Most of the pages of the Beer Book feature reviews of 2 beers from a selected brewery with a bit of history and the photo of a beer bottle. Added to that we have beer trails in selected countries with maps and articles on beer styles liberally spaced throughout the book. It's quite enjoyable in reading the beer book to rediscover old favorites such as Cwmbran Crow Valley Bitter and some tasting notes on something new and interesting sounding. For instance, the Dogfish Head brewery of Delaware produce a beer called Midas touch whose ingredients include Muscat grapes, honey and saffron! Not a beer that I would drink a lot of but definitely one to try.

One minor fault with the book is that it says that Felinfoel Brewery has been in existence since 1878 which should come as a surprise to the Lewis family who have been brewing there since the 1830s!

All in all The Beer Book is an excellent reference book and would make an excellent Christmas gift for the enthusiast or even anyone vaguely interested in the world of beer, my only gripe is where I am going to find room to put another book about beer on my already bulging bookcase!

Above: part of the Brew Wales research libary