I've been tidying up

Browsing back through my blog, I noticed a regular feature I'd neglected. Pictures of my bookcases.

My passion for displaying my book collection isn't difficult to explain. So I won't bother trying. Submit to it? Yeah, that's more like it:

I'm so proud. Books I can get at without breaking any fingers.*

"What about turning it into a competition, dad?"

"Great idea, Andrew."

[In reality, Andrew said "Leave me alone." and switched on Myth Busters.]

He couldn't be arsed to think of a question (a programme he's seen before is more important than a bit of quality creative interaction with his dad). So I've come up with one. I'll tell you what it is in a minute.

The prize. You'll want to know what the prize is. Something unique. A special hardback edition of one of my books. Possibly with extra stuff in it, depending on my mood and workload. Limited editions are all the rage. Can't get much more limited than unique.

The question. Which book did I most recently buy?




* I think I might have cracked  a bone tidying the books.

More books

Lloyd Hind's "Brewing: Science and Practice" arrived yesterday. Both volumes. Once, I wouldn't have been so fussed about volume I, which covers brewing materials. But I needed a good 20th-century source on malt. Writing my book is proving a real education. (Before any HBT with a chip on their shoulder chips in: only a true twat sees no need to further educate themselves.)

"175 dollars, dad! You paid 175 dollars for a book!" I shouldn't let Andrew look over my shoulder when I'm on Abebooks. The book in question was a particularly useful brewing manual from the 1870's, one of the gaps I needed to fill. He should see how much the ones I daren't buy would cost. Dolores keeps a close eye on our credit card statements. "Ronald, you've been buying books again. We could have gone on holiday with that money." She exaggerates a bit. Not much, but a bit.

While I'm on the topic of filling holes, does anyone know a good British brewing manual published between 1880 and 1895? Not Sykes, I've got a later edition of that. Preferably something I can pick up for less than 175 dollars. I don't want to face Andrew's disapproval again.

The book pile next to my desk has returned. Time to buy another bookcase. If the kids moved into the shed, I could use their room as a library. But, for some reason, they aren't keen. "It would be fun. Like camping." "Daaaad, the shed is smelly and cold." "That's all part of the fun." "Why can't we put your books in the shed?" "Because the cold and damp would damage them." "But it's OK for us?" "Yes."

Disguised blessing

Events have overtaken my Bookcase Project. The tatty inaccessible shelves have been cleared away and replaced by a shiny new cabinet.

For you, it's a blessing in disguise. Why?

Before I answer that question, here are three vanished shelves.

An incomplete set of Good Beer Guides. I don't even have the one with a photo of my brother on the back.


More CAMRA publications. I'm such a loyal member. I have two life membership cards.

My favourite style books. I love them so much, I have some of them twice. Propped up with very outdated American guides. That's my excuse for the dust.

Disguised blessing. I hadn't forgotten. For the sake of completeness, I'll be including my new, new bookcase in the Project. Another chance to see the books from the three previous posts, arranged in a slightly different order. I've added a book to one of the other shelves. Perhaps I need to photograph that again, too. The Project may take longer than I anticipated.

Don't tell Dolores, but I ordered a German - English brewing dictionary yesterday. That will need to go somewhere. "Die Bierbrauerei der Neuzeit" that came last week hasn't got a place yet, either. I'd been meaning to translate the chapters "Obergäriges Braunbier oder Süssbier", "Berliner Weissbier" and "Lyoner Reisbier", but it's printed in gothic. I keep putting it off. So it's been lying on my "desk" for a week. That's not long at all. Some have stayed there for years.

Another difficult bookcase

This bookcase is behind another computer and a scanner. But it contains some of the books I refer to the most.

In many ways Peter Crombecq's have never been equalled. They contained just about everything you wanted to know about Belgian (and Dutch) beer. "Biersmaken '87" was the first I bought. It's the book that taught me how to taste beer. I still use a tasting form based on Crombecq's. "Die Biere Deutschlands" is in my opinion is the best book ever written about German beer.


More German classics here: Kunze's "Brauer und Mälzer" tells you everything you need to know about running a vrewwery in the DDR, right down to the colour of the labels; "Brauwelt Brevier" is always full of the statistices I love so dearly; "Brauerei Addressbuch" is a very useful reference, listing as it does all the breweries in Germany.


We aren't even halfway through my bookcase project. Will the remainder maintain the excitement level? Of course it will. I've still got all the Samuel E. Bring Swedish brewery histories to show you. What could be more exciting than that?

a difficult bookcase

Today's bookcase is a difficult one. Difficult to photograph, that is. Dolores's monitor is in the way.

German guides I've never used. That's the leftmost seven. Then there are two editions of Stefan Mack's inspiring "Fränkische Brauereikarte". "The Beer Drinker's Guide to Munich" is a guidebook I most definitely used. I doubt I could have found Forschungsbrauerei without it.


Here, tucked behind the monitor, are random German-language volumes. "Der Vollkomene Bierbrauer" is non-stop laughs. If you can read the blurry gothic typeface, the purpose of which seems to be to make all the capital letters look identical. Someone should invent reading glasses that convert gothic text into readable words.

Confession time. I own a book that I know has a few bits about Lichtenhainer. I didn't include it in my recent post about Lichtenhainer. For a simple reason. The gothic face it's printed in is a pain in the arse to read. Even with my glasses on. (Clearly not gothic-correction glasses.)

Wandering off. Here, crammed behind the monitor, are random German-language volumes. Some Austrian. It's a shame Conrad Seidl stopped doing his book on Austrian breweries. Packed with useful bits of information.


Leaning over is a book about Andechs. One section really annoyed me. Right after saying how the Reinheitsgebot ensured their beer was great, the author explains how they had stopped using wooden barrels and now used pressurised kegs. Kegging the life out of the beer was fine as long as it was brewed to the Reinheitsgebot.

My even older bookcase

I hadn't forgotten about my bookcase series. You don't get off that easily.

This shelf may be small, but it contains one of my all-time favourite books: Amsterdamse Kroegen Encyclopedie (Amsterdam Pub Encyclopedia). My guide to Amsterdam pubs can only ever aspire to being the second best. Amsterdamse Kroegen Encyclopedie gives full details of all 1,278 pubs in Amsterdam. A remarkable achievement that could well never be repeated.

My old bookcase

Form all the reactions that flooded in I can tell that you were as excited about my new bookcase as I was. So I've decided to show you my old bookcases, too. No, don't thank me. It's the least I can do.


This one is mostly German and British, though there are a couple of Austrian books as well. It looks so tidy, doesn't it? I doubt that will last long.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll let you see all of my bookcases, new and old, metal and wooden. Get prepared to be thrilled.

Tomorrow: the shelf with all my big books.

My new bookcase

A momentous day
Today was an important day. Me and Andrew assembled my new bookcase. For the first time in five years there isn't a single book on the floor. That's a major achievement. Now I just have to find somewhere to put all the magazines.

"What's in your new bookshelf?" About 100 mixed books. By mixed, I mean in various languages and from various periods and locations. They're all beer-connected. That is my theme, after all. Do you want to take a look? I thought you would, nosy git.

The top shelf has my Brewers' Almanacks and Statistical Handbooks:



Shelf two has a couple of Scandinavian books and assorted books on British brewing, shelf three is mostly brewery histories.



Shelf four is German and Dutch/Belgian, shelf five has bound copies of old German technical brewing magazines:


Who said I would run out of ideas in six months?