First of all,
It’s been a bumpy ride here at
school because I have technically 8 courses. That’s right EIGHT! I’ve been told by many that this is NOT
NORMAL! So apologies to the following are required:
- to my friends and relatives that are reading this expecting my aforementioned and promised weekly email updates. Yeah, I hooped that one. I didn't think that 8 courses would be so demanding on my time.
- to my fellow beer aficionados and enthusiasts that expected more from this blog. All I can say is "Umm, I'm going to school? Uh...(looks at the ground sheepishly), I've never been to college before? Er...I'm learning lots of beer stuff and things?....Look! A BARKING SQUIRREL! (makes a run for it)"
- To other beer bloggers or even bloggers in general. All of you can't tell me that starting out blogging was easy is it? It's like anything, it needs dedication right? I apologize for dragging down any stand up reputation of the term "Beer Blogger". (Whew, that should keep them pacified because I never considered myself a "Beer Blogger" in the first place.)
So
I AM dedicated...to my studies. For example, here is a pic of the bookshelf in
my room.
 |
| It’s like a well stocked beer fridge! Recognize any? |
Notice
they’re all beer books, not books about the other subjects I’m taking, like
Business Mathematics. Keep in mind I have about 4 more sitting in my locker at
the college. Oh CRAP! I just realized I have to get that “Designing Great
Beers” book back to Adam (Sorry Adam).
I guess
this mini-library is a lot like the stereotypical woman who has many pairs of
shoes in that I have a fair number of beer books. Yes, I do read them when I can. Now do I say
this to brag? No, because of course in the beer-geek world, some guy is going
to get his nose out of joint, say "Oh YEAH?!" and then go and one-up you. Regardless, I get
bored with that sort of nonsense VERY quickly. So if you’re one of those
people...stop, just stop. Thanks.
Please
keep in mind that I have about another 6-7 beer books at home in BC. I didn’t
feel the need to bring them ALL here but I’m glad I toted the ones I did.
I find
that there are SO many books out there that I want to still get, such as the
following:
The Brewmaster’s Table by Garrett
Oliver. - I’ve been recommended this book many times by
many people. I should just cough up the money & get it. Garrett Oliver is
the Brewmaster for Brooklyn Brewery in New York. I’ve been told the book is a
journey of his beer pairings with food. Considering the guy wrote an article
for Cigar Aficionado magazine about pairing beers with cigars, I think he’s
pretty well travelled. I don’t smoke, but that’s pretty cool.
Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels – Just from perusing this book,
it has great charts and insights on brewing to style guidelines. For a wanna be
homebrewer like me, this would be a great start.
Yeast: The Practical Guide to
Beer Fermentation – I have
the book from this series about hops (For the Love of Hops) and the one about
Water. According to my pal JP, this book strictly talks about dry yeast...or
was it wet yeast? Damnit! I can’t remember now. Well basically it eliminates
one of the yeasts from the text, which is a bit one-sided in my view.
Sacred & Herbal Healing Beers
by Stephen Harrod Buhner– My pal
Mike Victory has this book and it’s very informative. It
inspires me to want to brew a Heather Ale. I also like history and this book
has some great historical references including recipes!
How to
Brew by John Palmer – I’ve been told in no uncertain
terms by a few colleagues in my class that it’d be “foolish to start home
brewing without this book”. I’ve heard of this John Palmer fella before so it
seems like a good bet. I have a home brew book written by Randy Mosher (who’s
Tasting Beer book is pretty much one of my bibles) but what is one more right?
So what are some of the beer related books that YOU are looking to get? Please,
put it in the comments. Are there books
that you’d think I’d benefit from purchasing? It’s not that far off from the
holiday season so maybe, just maybe, the books we want will end up under the tree or in a
stocking...if we've been good.
Thanks for reading,
BeerLearner
Disclaimer: Above I
made reference to the “stereotypical” woman with lots of shoes as a matter of
perspective and an attempt at humor. It wasn’t meant to offend. For the record,
I have about 18 pairs of shoes and boots – which, last time I checked is a LOT
for a guy. Oh yeah, I own 3 pieces of
glassware that are shaped like boots. Does that count?
