What should my next book be? Assuming I want to actually earn some money from it.
Porter! vol. 2
Range!!
Mild! vol. 2
1959 Beer Style Guide
Victory!
1859 Beer Style Guide
Let's Brew vol. 2
Vote in the poll. I probably won't pay any attention to the result. I didn't last time.
The book of yours that I've most enjoyed has been The Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer, so something in that vein would be appreciated. You could probably zoom in and focus on one or two styles (e.g. mild or porter & stout), or zoom in on a particular era.
ReplyDeleteAlternatively I've never seen you write much about Irish beer. I once did some poking around on the internet trying to find information about the Wrastler porter (not the modern stout brewed by Porterhouse, but the original porter brewed by Deasy in Clonakilty). It was said to be Michael Collins's favorite drink (hence Porterhouse's branding), and I found a few other tantalizing references, but nothing about what it tasted like or how it was brewed. (As for why I'm so obsessed... it's because the beer plays a minor but colorful role in one of my favorite books, The Third Policeman, which in fact did have a description of the beer, but mostly concerning its intoxicating effect - something like "if you had 3 or 4 pints it was nearly bound to win.")
Anyway beyond my particular interest in that beer, all of Irish brewing outside of Guinness is terra incognita to me and I suspect to most of your readers, so even if you didn't write about the Wrastler I would like to read about Irish brewing generally.
How about Victorian era style guidelines?
ReplyDeleteRon,
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you have the material for it, but I'd purchase a book in the vein of, "Don't call it ale: the English language homebrewer's definitive guide to German top-fermenting beer".
Personally, I'd love you to do a book on the BJCP style guides and show historical recipes that deviate from the style guidelines and show them to be inaccurate but also recipes that might fit the guidelines too. You could even include your new suggestions for styles with recipe examples. Hopefully a published book by an authority might start a debate about whether rigid style types make much sense. Millions of brewers treat the guidelines as gospel but they typically don't know the history of the style, the beers that made up its history and the way the modern guidelines have compartmentalised beer and made it somehow less interesting.
ReplyDelete1959 Beer Style Guide.
ReplyDeleteLager!
ReplyDeleteA properly composed book, not just blog posts. *True* history (no monks smuggling yeast, obviously), styles, development, your work linking traditional Bavarian and Czech styles, brewing/fermenting techniques etc. Brilliant.
The all-time definitive book on lager, destroying all the myths, written by someone who speaks German, Netherlands, Czech and (I think I heard you once say) Danish.
There will never be anyone with your research, knowledge and linguistic abilities.
Lager! will be the definitive book on the subject forever.
"Not sure if you have the material for it, but I'd purchase a book in the vein of, "Don't call it ale: the English language homebrewer's definitive guide to German top-fermenting beer"
ReplyDeleteYeah - I'd buy that too.