Weekend Cooking...99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall..

Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, Ninety-nine bottles of beer.
Take one down, pass it around, Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall.

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I have always, yes always, had a certain fondness for beer.

Yet me share a story told in my family about wee Caite and beer.
I can tell it now, since it is too late to call Child Protective Services.

My father used to come home from work, and like many fathers of that time, pour themselves a before-dinner drink. In his case, the beverage of choice was beer.
He would pour his beer in a glass, sit down in his favorite chair, place his beer on the floor and open his newspaper. On this particular occasion, after a few minutes, he reaches down for his beer to find an empty glass.
What could have happened to it?
Wee Caite, about 3 or 4 years of age, had drunk it!
For some reason my mother found that story very funny although I doubt she found it too amusing at the time.

Worry not.
There appears to have been no damage.
I grew up to be a very, very moderate drinker.
But I still like beer. Wine is fine, but beer is better!
I mean real beer. Not the watery swill that many Americans favor. No, no Bud or Miller for me and do not even mention the word Lite next to beer. Just go all out and throw some ice cubes in there so you can serve it so cold that you can't taste it anyway.
Oh, don't get me started!!

So when I read about this book,  The World Atlas of Beer: The Essential Guide to the Beers of the World by Tim Webb and Stephen Beaumont, I knew I had to get my hands on a copy of it.
And I am very happy that I did.
If you are a fan of beer, or know someone who appreciates beer in all its many varieties, this is a book that will be enjoyed. 256 pages, 450 photos, 28 maps and lots and lots of beer fun await you in these pages.

The authors start with a short discussion of what beer is, how it is made and the wide, wide variety of the styles of beer. From which I learned that most attempts to classify a beer by variety is almost impossible, there are so many variations.

Then they go on to the heart of the book, a region by region, country by country, exploration of    beers. There are maps, with breweries marked, beautiful photographs, and descriptions of hundreds of beers. I am considering moving to Belgium because there is no other way to try all the beers of that country. The history of many beers is fascinating, as is the discussions of the rising role of the small craft breweries, helping to keeping the Mega-breweries at bay and the more unusual styles of beer available for the average beer drinker to try.

They throw in many fun beer facts too. There is a very detailed explanation, with photos, of how to pour beer, what glass to use with which beer, a short beer/food pair up suggestions and a list of some of the best beer festivals worldwide, just in case you are planning a beer based vacation trip. Do you know beer should always be stored upright, even bottles with corks, because it seems once again beer get shorted, with lesser quality corks that  may damage the taste of the beer.
Well, I could go on and one because there is an amazing amount of beer information in this book.

And did I mention that this is a beautiful book? Yes, I did, but it bears repeating. This is a very attractive book that will take you on a tour of the world, granted from a beer lovers point of view.

a few bottles of beer at my local store..there is another whole aisle.

..and some chilled if you just can not wait.

Still, even if your beer purchases go on further than the local liquor store you will find this book helpful. Gone are the days when they carried only a few major brands and maybe a local favorite. I suspect my local story in not unusual, with several aisles and many coolers filled beers from around the world.

Which lead me to my only issue with this book.
A major flaw.
My favorite major brewery beer (as opposed to a craft beer) is one brewed in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania, quite near the small coal mining town my maternal grandparents were from. The beer is Yuengling, brewed in Pottsville, PA and their traditional lager is a quite nice beer. And let  Yuengling, a very popular beer here in South Jersey, get only one sentence in the book and they misspell the name in that one.

Yuengling is a fine beer, brewed in the oldest brewery in the United States, family owned and operated by the fifth generation, recently became the 20th most popular beer in the US and has surpassed Sam Adams brewer Boston Beer Co. as the largest domestically owned beer brewer in the country.
And they get only one misspelled sentence in this book??

Still, nothing, even an excellent book about beer, is perfect.
But this one is very good, so I will forgive them.
However, if there is a second edition......

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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