Book review – The Oxford Companion to Beer

The Oxford Companion to Beer Edited by Garrett Oliver
Oxford University Press, £35
ISBN 978-0-19-536713-3

Beer is a perenially popular subject. The internet froths with reviews, histories and other beer-related anecdotes from many a self-styled beer writer, and the trend just seems to keep on growing. It is that fact that makes the door-stopping Oxford Companion to Beer all the more impressive.

The work, edited by Garrett Oliver, the legendary brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery in the US, oozes authority from the first of its 920 pages to the last. It is no less than an encyclopaedia of the world's third-most popular drink (after water and tea).

Presented in a straightforward and largely unillustrated alphabetical series of definitions, it takes in famous breweries, beer styles, brewing techniques, brewing regions of the world, chemistry, equipment, hops varieties, yeasts and malts. The entries are provided by 165 experts from 20 countries, including the UK's Pete Brown and Barrie Pepper.

Among the more unusual entries in the compendium we learn, courtesy of Garrett Oliver's contribution on cheese pairing, that sheep's milk cheeses go nicely with brown ales and porters. Flick on a few pages, and beer historians can test their knowledge by checking the entry on gruit - apparently a generic term referring to the herb mixtures used to flavour and preserve beer before the general use of hops took hold in the 15th and 16th centuries.

One area it does not cover is any kind of definitive list of individual beer brands, presumably because to do so would require several more similarly-sized tomes.

Nonetheless, the book is a great educator and beer geeks - both professional and amateur - will doubtless derive hours of pleasure roving through the more obscure entries, possibly with a beer in hand.
By Neil Gerrard

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