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Beer Books
Brewing Techniques and Canadian Culture
Modern Moonshine Techniques
By Bill Owens
White Mule Press, soft cover, $35, 94 pp
JUST AS THE GRASSROOTS BREWPUB concept began almost 30 years ago, the past few years have seen the microdistilling movement starting to gather steam. At the forefront of both was Bill Owens, founder of the pioneering Buffalo Bill's Brewery in Hayward, CA, in 1983. Buffalo Bill's was one of the first two brewpubs in the United States, an innovation that has catapulted American brewing into high respectability in the brewing world. Owens' interest in distilling is no less fervent and visionary, and his approach is just as populist. In his book, Modern Moonshine Techniques, Owens tackles the most basic aspects of distilling while concentrating on the spirit legendarily ingrained in American folklore.
Owens, as president of the American Distilling Institute and spokesman for the distillers' cause, presents his case for making legal moonshine by basing the craft on traditional American recipes. Moonshine is often associated with illicit activity and at times, sketchy product, but as Owens points out, it is worthy of production by legal craft distillers.
The book contains a brief history of moonshining, including its roots as a backlash to taxation after the American Revolution, and later as a means to fill the tipple vacuum during Prohibition. Owens offers his definition of moonshine as "untaxed liquor from an unregistered still." He goes on to describe the difference between liquor made cheaply to turn a quick buck, and those "moonshine-inspired" whiskeys that require a bit more skill and careful attention, and in the end, are far more interesting to explore. Subsequently, several chapters are devoted to recipes and techniques for fermenting and distilling sugar moonshine, corn whiskey and more complex whiskey containing corn, barely, rye and wheat. The latter requires mashing, and Owens describes in detail the planning, assemblage and workings of mash tuns and basic mashing techniques. He also has a chapter dedicated to building a corn cooker, a necessary element to making corn grits fermentable. In addition to mashing, he covers fermentation in enough depth to make it relatively foolproof for the uninitiated as well as offering special considerations for unique distilling applications.
The most important, and complicated, aspect of moonshine/whiskey production is in the distilling itself. Owens gives a thorough rundown on the necessary apparatus from basic pot stills to fancy column stills, along with their feasibility, operation and general application. His outline of still operation and collection of the runnings is exact, methodical and comprehensive, describing the theory and precise conditions needed at each step. Recipes are included for bourbon, corn, wheat, malt and rye whiskey. Owens finishes with a few appendices that cover and describe a small distillers operational plan, regulations, licensing and resources.
Modern Moonshine Techniques is a basic book that takes the mystery out of distilling these elixirs and would be worth exploring if becoming a distiller is of interest. In light of the ever-growing number of microdistilleries, perhaps we are ready for a new manifestation of American spirit, and Bill Owens has no shortage of that.
–K. Florian Klemp
Brewing With Wheat: The Wit and Weizen of World Wheat Beer Styles
By Stan Hieronymus
Brewers Publications, soft cover, $17.95, 295 pp
THE INTEREST IN CRAFT BEER has never been greater, and along with that has come a keen curiosity and awareness of everything surrounding beer, including the craft itself and those who practice it. No one brings that into focus better than Stan Hieronymus, one of the best beer journalists of today. His newest book, Brewing With Wheat approaches this segment of beerdom in fashion similar to his previous, and equally stellar, book Brew Like a Monk.
Hieronymus seems to have a depth of appreciation, insight and enthusiasm that goes beyond that of many. His manner of conveying the broad subjects that he tackles makes for enjoyable reading, his breadth of knowledge accessible to all levels of audience. Brewing With Wheat is simply one of the best composite beer culture/brewing books I've read.
Brewing With Wheat is, as expected, impeccably organized, and the content logically presented. It begins with an assessment of wheat itself: its historical role in brewing, the inevitable link between bread and beer, and the status and employment of wheat compared to other common cereal grains of the past several centuries in Europe. Hieronymus examines the vast number of unique, regional historical wheat beers that most of us have never been aware of. He follows this with a short chapter entitled "Wheat Basics: Why is My Beer Cloudy?" which serves to explain the nature of the beast and its behavior, portraying wheat as a complex and versatile character.
The bulk of the tome, and by far the most fascinating, is composed of three parts, covering the three main families of wheat beer found worldwide. It is here where Hieronymus rolls up his sleeves and delves deeply into "The White Beers of Belgium," "The Weiss Beers of Southern Germany" and "The Wheat Beers of America." Each part is divided into several short chapters, each of those concentrating on significant touchstone topics, from historical to modern interpretations, their development and the uniqueness of brewing with wheat. Hieronymus makes this text very personal and informative, with recipes and methods for specific brews sprinkled throughout, and quotes from the brewers themselves. This offers a glimpse into the mind of the artisan, a melting pot of their own philosophy, approach and grasp of the method. The simplistic, homespun wisdom of the people who brew is on full display and is quite compelling in its commonality and individualism. Of course, there is a blend of cultures and crossover in this respect, as American brewers are included in both the Belgian and German sections, a testament to America's newfound obsession with beer. Both famous (Pierre Celis, Dan Carey) and newcomer practitioners hold sway with Hieronymus in his appreciation for their efforts.
Finally, Hieronymus spends some time discussing the obscure and vanishing wheat styles like Berliner weisse and gose, as well as lamentably defunct styles like Gratzer. He finishes with a primer on critiquing the assorted styles and tabular information about specs and characteristics of the various wheat beer yeasts, valuable stuff for those who choose to brew their own. Stan Hieronymus has emerged as perhaps the beer writer around in recent years, diving into his subject headfirst with his personal accounts of the craft and verve for exploration. Brewing With Wheat captures perfectly the genre of beer culture that is captivating to both brewers and non-brewers alike. Even better, Stan is an
excellent storyteller, and Brewing With Wheat is an engaging tale.
–K. Florian Klemp
Cheers! An Intemperate History of Beer in Canada
By Nicholas Pashley
Collins Canada, Soft cover, $19.99, 298 pp
YOU'LL KNOW WHEN YOU SEE the deliberately blurry illustration of a Mountie on the cover and the publisher's classification of Cheers! as "humour," that this is a quirky beer book: part history, part travelogue and part rant. Cheers! is a lively, funny and very well-written look at the Canadian brewing scene.
Nicholas Pashley is a Canadian writer and retired bookseller who ought to be better known in the United States. His earlier book, Notes on a Beermat, had an endorsement from Bill Bryson, and Pashley is very Bryson-like both in his comedy and his approach to writing. Indeed, the last third of the book, in which Pashley drinks his way across Canada, from Halifax to Whitehorse, is very much like what Bill Bryson would write if he ever wrote a Canadian beer travel book.
Cheers! is billed as a history, and does accurately describe the history of beer in Canada. But this isn't a straightforward account. For example, in a chapter on the consequences of Prohibition in Canada, he notes that Canadian provinces imposed all sorts of peculiar prohibitions. British Columbia tried to ban women from drinking in bars, on the grounds they would be corrupted. Provincial regulators then mandated, until the late 1940s, that women had to be served in the "Ladies and Escorts' Lounge," while men could drink by themselves. Men, however, could only enter the "Ladies Lounge" if they were escorting a woman.
Ontario regulators until the 1970s barred drinkers from standing up to order a beer, on the theory that forcing drinkers to sit down encouraged moderation. A drinker in Ontario was breaking the law if he carried his beer from one table to another. Pashley credits Quebec for teaching Anglophone Canadians how to have fun while drinking. "I can remember drinking outdoors at Expo 67 in Montreal, an activity still strictly illegal in much of the country at the time." Falling airfares in the 1970s enabled Canadians to visit Europe, "where drinking wasn't considered a social disease," and return home and successfully lobby Canadian legislators to remove arcane restrictions.
Quebec still offers Canadians many examples of joie d'vivre in beer drinking, in Pashley's view. He contrasts the laidback atmosphere of Montreal's Mondial de la Biere with the more puritan Toronto Festival of Beer, where, before he entered, he had to face "the kind of frisking I haven't experienced since I spent a day at a major conspiracy trial of Black Panthers in the early '70s." The Festival of Beer, he writes, "isn't a proper beer festival. There's no beer judging here, and considerably less quality beer than used to be the case. But there's a lot of loud music and pretty girls."
Americans should know more about Canada's beer culture and traditions. Nicholas Pashley's Cheers! is an entertaining and delightfully quirky snapshot of Canadian beer history.
–Martin Morse Wooster
Modern Moonshine Techniques
By Bill Owens
White Mule Press, soft cover, $35, 94 pp
JUST AS THE GRASSROOTS BREWPUB concept began almost 30 years ago, the past few years have seen the microdistilling movement starting to gather steam. At the forefront of both was Bill Owens, founder of the pioneering Buffalo Bill's Brewery in Hayward, CA, in 1983. Buffalo Bill's was one of the first two brewpubs in the United States, an innovation that has catapulted American brewing into high respectability in the brewing world. Owens' interest in distilling is no less fervent and visionary, and his approach is just as populist. In his book, Modern Moonshine Techniques, Owens tackles the most basic aspects of distilling while concentrating on the spirit legendarily ingrained in American folklore.
Owens, as president of the American Distilling Institute and spokesman for the distillers' cause, presents his case for making legal moonshine by basing the craft on traditional American recipes. Moonshine is often associated with illicit activity and at times, sketchy product, but as Owens points out, it is worthy of production by legal craft distillers.
The book contains a brief history of moonshining, including its roots as a backlash to taxation after the American Revolution, and later as a means to fill the tipple vacuum during Prohibition. Owens offers his definition of moonshine as "untaxed liquor from an unregistered still." He goes on to describe the difference between liquor made cheaply to turn a quick buck, and those "moonshine-inspired" whiskeys that require a bit more skill and careful attention, and in the end, are far more interesting to explore. Subsequently, several chapters are devoted to recipes and techniques for fermenting and distilling sugar moonshine, corn whiskey and more complex whiskey containing corn, barely, rye and wheat. The latter requires mashing, and Owens describes in detail the planning, assemblage and workings of mash tuns and basic mashing techniques. He also has a chapter dedicated to building a corn cooker, a necessary element to making corn grits fermentable. In addition to mashing, he covers fermentation in enough depth to make it relatively foolproof for the uninitiated as well as offering special considerations for unique distilling applications.
The most important, and complicated, aspect of moonshine/whiskey production is in the distilling itself. Owens gives a thorough rundown on the necessary apparatus from basic pot stills to fancy column stills, along with their feasibility, operation and general application. His outline of still operation and collection of the runnings is exact, methodical and comprehensive, describing the theory and precise conditions needed at each step. Recipes are included for bourbon, corn, wheat, malt and rye whiskey. Owens finishes with a few appendices that cover and describe a small distillers operational plan, regulations, licensing and resources.
Modern Moonshine Techniques is a basic book that takes the mystery out of distilling these elixirs and would be worth exploring if becoming a distiller is of interest. In light of the ever-growing number of microdistilleries, perhaps we are ready for a new manifestation of American spirit, and Bill Owens has no shortage of that.
–K. Florian Klemp
Brewing With Wheat: The Wit and Weizen of World Wheat Beer Styles
By Stan Hieronymus
Brewers Publications, soft cover, $17.95, 295 pp
THE INTEREST IN CRAFT BEER has never been greater, and along with that has come a keen curiosity and awareness of everything surrounding beer, including the craft itself and those who practice it. No one brings that into focus better than Stan Hieronymus, one of the best beer journalists of today. His newest book, Brewing With Wheat approaches this segment of beerdom in fashion similar to his previous, and equally stellar, book Brew Like a Monk.
Hieronymus seems to have a depth of appreciation, insight and enthusiasm that goes beyond that of many. His manner of conveying the broad subjects that he tackles makes for enjoyable reading, his breadth of knowledge accessible to all levels of audience. Brewing With Wheat is simply one of the best composite beer culture/brewing books I've read.
Brewing With Wheat is, as expected, impeccably organized, and the content logically presented. It begins with an assessment of wheat itself: its historical role in brewing, the inevitable link between bread and beer, and the status and employment of wheat compared to other common cereal grains of the past several centuries in Europe. Hieronymus examines the vast number of unique, regional historical wheat beers that most of us have never been aware of. He follows this with a short chapter entitled "Wheat Basics: Why is My Beer Cloudy?" which serves to explain the nature of the beast and its behavior, portraying wheat as a complex and versatile character.
The bulk of the tome, and by far the most fascinating, is composed of three parts, covering the three main families of wheat beer found worldwide. It is here where Hieronymus rolls up his sleeves and delves deeply into "The White Beers of Belgium," "The Weiss Beers of Southern Germany" and "The Wheat Beers of America." Each part is divided into several short chapters, each of those concentrating on significant touchstone topics, from historical to modern interpretations, their development and the uniqueness of brewing with wheat. Hieronymus makes this text very personal and informative, with recipes and methods for specific brews sprinkled throughout, and quotes from the brewers themselves. This offers a glimpse into the mind of the artisan, a melting pot of their own philosophy, approach and grasp of the method. The simplistic, homespun wisdom of the people who brew is on full display and is quite compelling in its commonality and individualism. Of course, there is a blend of cultures and crossover in this respect, as American brewers are included in both the Belgian and German sections, a testament to America's newfound obsession with beer. Both famous (Pierre Celis, Dan Carey) and newcomer practitioners hold sway with Hieronymus in his appreciation for their efforts.
Finally, Hieronymus spends some time discussing the obscure and vanishing wheat styles like Berliner weisse and gose, as well as lamentably defunct styles like Gratzer. He finishes with a primer on critiquing the assorted styles and tabular information about specs and characteristics of the various wheat beer yeasts, valuable stuff for those who choose to brew their own. Stan Hieronymus has emerged as perhaps the beer writer around in recent years, diving into his subject headfirst with his personal accounts of the craft and verve for exploration. Brewing With Wheat captures perfectly the genre of beer culture that is captivating to both brewers and non-brewers alike. Even better, Stan is an
excellent storyteller, and Brewing With Wheat is an engaging tale.
–K. Florian Klemp
Cheers! An Intemperate History of Beer in Canada
By Nicholas Pashley
Collins Canada, Soft cover, $19.99, 298 pp
YOU'LL KNOW WHEN YOU SEE the deliberately blurry illustration of a Mountie on the cover and the publisher's classification of Cheers! as "humour," that this is a quirky beer book: part history, part travelogue and part rant. Cheers! is a lively, funny and very well-written look at the Canadian brewing scene.
Nicholas Pashley is a Canadian writer and retired bookseller who ought to be better known in the United States. His earlier book, Notes on a Beermat, had an endorsement from Bill Bryson, and Pashley is very Bryson-like both in his comedy and his approach to writing. Indeed, the last third of the book, in which Pashley drinks his way across Canada, from Halifax to Whitehorse, is very much like what Bill Bryson would write if he ever wrote a Canadian beer travel book.
Cheers! is billed as a history, and does accurately describe the history of beer in Canada. But this isn't a straightforward account. For example, in a chapter on the consequences of Prohibition in Canada, he notes that Canadian provinces imposed all sorts of peculiar prohibitions. British Columbia tried to ban women from drinking in bars, on the grounds they would be corrupted. Provincial regulators then mandated, until the late 1940s, that women had to be served in the "Ladies and Escorts' Lounge," while men could drink by themselves. Men, however, could only enter the "Ladies Lounge" if they were escorting a woman.
Ontario regulators until the 1970s barred drinkers from standing up to order a beer, on the theory that forcing drinkers to sit down encouraged moderation. A drinker in Ontario was breaking the law if he carried his beer from one table to another. Pashley credits Quebec for teaching Anglophone Canadians how to have fun while drinking. "I can remember drinking outdoors at Expo 67 in Montreal, an activity still strictly illegal in much of the country at the time." Falling airfares in the 1970s enabled Canadians to visit Europe, "where drinking wasn't considered a social disease," and return home and successfully lobby Canadian legislators to remove arcane restrictions.
Quebec still offers Canadians many examples of joie d'vivre in beer drinking, in Pashley's view. He contrasts the laidback atmosphere of Montreal's Mondial de la Biere with the more puritan Toronto Festival of Beer, where, before he entered, he had to face "the kind of frisking I haven't experienced since I spent a day at a major conspiracy trial of Black Panthers in the early '70s." The Festival of Beer, he writes, "isn't a proper beer festival. There's no beer judging here, and considerably less quality beer than used to be the case. But there's a lot of loud music and pretty girls."
Americans should know more about Canada's beer culture and traditions. Nicholas Pashley's Cheers! is an entertaining and delightfully quirky snapshot of Canadian beer history.
–Martin Morse Wooster
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