Another Kindle book!

Yes, I've managed to get another book onto Kindle. Not sure how. The interface is a mystery to me. Like magic, but more erratic.

But enough of my technophobia, on with shameless self-promotion.

Unique. How many books can be called unique? I know one. "Peace!" The only book about brewing in Britain between the two wars. Not only is it unique, it's filled to brim with all the detaily things I fill my books with. Tables, charts, numbers, numbers, numbers, statistics, and a few more numbers. With 40-odd recipes from the period.

Buy Peace! (How impractical does that sound?)

War and Peace! (again, again)

Now even better, using the worlds best quality toilet paper*.



*It's not meant seriously, it might not be printed on toilet paper. These books are printed in the U.S.A and for anyone outside Europe we recommend that War! and Peace are bought separately.

War and Peace! (again but with a preview!)

Amazing book offer

You'll never guess what I've got for you today. An amazing book offer.

For a limited time only, you can buy two of my books at a 15% discount. What a generous chap I am. And they aren't even crap books. No. "London!"and "Peace!". Fun-filled, fact-fattened, fabulousness.




Click her to buy "London!"


Click here to buy "Peace!"


No beer library is complete without them.

Relaunch

I'd hoped everyone wanted peace. But the sales of "Peace!" have been disappointing. Not sure what that says about human nature.

It got me thinking. Bit of a slim volume. Just 106 pages. Only two appendices. And nowhere near enough enormous tables of numbers. What was I thinking of? My next beer, most likely.

How could I improve it? Add an index, for a start. I hate books that don't have one. Home brewers. They like recipes. OK, add forty-something recipes. Should be a great book.

But, hang on. That's not enough. What else can I offer?

I know. Stuff from my new mega-table. With full details of grists and hopping rates. Pretty groovy stuff. Great idea. I've every year of Whitbread's Porters and Stouts from 1919 to 1939. I'll stick those in. With a few others because, well, I'm the generous type.

The partly-new "Peace!" is now available from all good bookstores. More than 80 extra pages! An index! Two new appendices! Buy several copies now.

War and Peace

No, not the doorstep written by Tolstoy. But a book. Well, two books. "War!" and "Peace!".

Andrew has suggested that I combine them into a single volume. Good idea, but I haven't written "And!" which would complete the trilogy. Andrew wasn't keen on my idea that he should write the middle volume. "I've got enough to do with my school work, dad." Yes, that and sucking your brain out with that iPod for five hours every evening. I didn't press the point.

In the meantime,  why not get your own personal copy of "Peace!"? "The best book ever written about beer between the two World Wars." At least that's what Andrew said, when I threatened to cut off his pocket money. He's such an obedient boy.

And, if just the idea of 1920's mashing techniques doesn't get something to stir in your trousers, it's also the only part of my meisterwerk BAML to have so far appeared in print.

Buy "Peace!" now!






And what better to help prop up "Peace!" on your bookshelf than companion volume "War!".

It contains all the gory details of how British beer was senselessly slaughtered in the name of war. Does that make sense? No? Not to worry. This is an advert. Few adverts make much sense.

"The best book ever written about beer in the two World Wars." At least that's what Lexie said: "Yes dad, it's the best book about beer in the Wars. Will you take my head out of the toilet now?". Aah children, aren't they cute?

Buy "War!" today.






And while I'm in advertisement mode, can I tempt  can I tempt you with "London!"?. The final book in my Mini Book Series is worth 50 euros of anyone's money, but costs less than half that. A bargain. If you're looking for a book about beer in Britain's capital. And don't mind my annoying prose style.

Fact-filled doesn't do it justice. I had to use a hammer to fit them all in. Let's just hope none of them got bent in the process.  I wouldn't want to lumber you with shoddy facts. Amaze your friends with details of the gravity of 1950's London Mild. Shock them with the story of Porter's decline, retold in numbers. Yes, it has something for everyone*.


Buy "London!" now.




* Everyone hopelessly obsessed with beer details.

Peace!

 Yes, it's true. Yet another of my books is now available for purchase for you lucky punters: "Peace!".

It tells the story of beer between the two world wars. A pivotal, but often neglected, period in the evolution of British beer. Marvel at the Milds. Bewonder the Bitters. Revel in the Russian Stout. Do something else beginning with B to Brown Ales. (That's enough alliteration.)

I'll let you into a little secret. It's actually a chapter from my book BAML. The book. The one due to be finished just after the Noord-Zuid Line (little local humour there). Please let me know if I'm wasting my time before I write the remaining 700 pages.

Buy "Peace!" now!

Come to think of it, you should buy Andrew's "World War 2 Tanks : The Pocket Guide", too. It's the perfect pocket guide to the tanks of WW 2. Funnily enough. If you buy just one WW II tank book, this should be it.

Want to see if Andrew is as crazy a writer as me? Then download his "Armoured Personnel Carriers of WW2". It's FREE!!!!












Visit my book store to see the full range of wonderful Barclay Perkins books. 

Peace at last

Here's a excerpt from my latest Mini Book, "Peace!". Not a particularly long or exciting excerpt, but you can't have everything. If you want to see the bulk of it you'll need to be either lucky (get one of the free copies) or lay down some dosh.



Once the dust had settled after WW I, average gravity had dropped by about 10º from its pre-war level. It remained at around 1043º until 1931, when a big rise in beer duty (from 80s to 114s per standard barrel) prompted brewers to cut gravities to avoid increasing the price of a pint. The tax increase was reversed in 1933, but gravities never got back to their old levels, remaining around 1041º.

The uneven approach of brewers to the tax increase - dropping the gravity of some styles, such as Mild and Porter, increasing the price of others like Bitter - widened the gap in strength between the cheap and expensive beers. In 1923, Whitbread's X Ale had an OG of 1042.1º and its PA 1046.4º. In 1933, X was 1036.1º and PA 1048.8º.

Aside from that one little blip in the early 1930's, beer tax was remarkably stable in the interwar period, remaining at 80s per standard barrel from 1924 onwards.

This table gives an overview of beer output and taxation between the wars:

British brewing overview 1920 – 1939
	Production (barrels)	Production (hl)	Average OG	tax per standard barrel	Net excise receipts (pounds)
1920	35,047,947	57,358,068	1039.41	70s	71,276,230
1921	34,504,570	56,468,799	1042.61	100s	123,406,257
1922	30,178,731	49,389,304	1042.88	100s	121,844,583
1923	23,948,651	39,193,404	1042.72	100s	92,262,893
1924	25,425,017	41,609,566	1043.04	80s	76,110,638
1925	26,734,825	43,753,145	1043.12	80s	75,825,827
1926	26,765,610	43,803,527	1043.23	80s	76,320,021
1927	25,100,461	41,078,410	1043.28	80s	78,763,480
1928	25,435,145	41,626,141	1043.17	80s	77,800,471
1929	24,608,000	40,272,468	1043.10	80s
1930	25,061,956	41,015,395	1042.90	80s	71,254,674
1931	23,900,000	39,113,784	1042.50	114s
1932	20,790,812	34,025,411	1041.04	114s	68,710,020
1933	17,950,303	29,376,748	1039.52	80s	67,097,581
1934	20,182,308	33,029,558	1040.99	80s	53,884,405
1935	20,864,814	34,146,520	1041.06	80s	53,582,335
1936	21,969,763	35,954,835	1041.02	80s	55,451,926
1937	22,724,450	37,189,926	1041.10	80s	57,318,585
1938	24,205,631	39,613,967	1041.02	80s	61,241,404
1939	24,674,992	40,382,105	1040.93	80s	62,370,034
Sources: Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 110 Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50

Finished . . . . just about

You'll be pleased to hear that the 1909 Beer Style Guide is complete. Well, my bit of it is. I'm still waiting for the recipes from Kristen to fully complete the book. With any look it should be out in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile I've started a new book. I need something to keep me occupied in the evening. It's called "Peace!" and will be volume X of my Mini Book Series (aah, I should have had "Mild! as volume X). No time to hang around, as I want this one ready for Christmas, too.



Blah di blah di blah. Just trying to fill some space. Blah di blah di blah. I don't like the picture jutting past the end of the text. It's an aesthetic thing. Blah di blah di blah. Almost there. Not long to go now. Blah di blah di blah. Just a couple more sentences and I'll be there. Blah di blah di blah.

Right, that just about does it. Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you what "Peace!" is about. Other than not killing each other.