500 of the World’s Finest
Craft Brews
By Ben McFarland
Published by Jacqui Small | £25.00
19th September 2013 | Hardback
Written by the award-winning author of World’s Best Beers,
Boutique Beer is the dapper drinking companion that every craft
beer connoisseur wants to have beside them.
Beer is in the midst of a remarkable renaissance and pushing for a premium place in the drinking repertoires of the discerning drinker. Boutique Beer captures this reawakening and proves that beer is every bit as suave, complex and sophisticated as wine.
500 of the world’s finest premium beers are examined here together with case studies of the most daring, exciting and innovative breweries. It includes sections on evaluating and tasting beers; a study of the craft in cans; the acute importance of glassware; a guide to ingredients such as hops, yeast and grain. It looks in great detail into types of ale, including bottom-fermented brews, old school classics, extreme-strength sipper beers to relish, wild yeast ales, premium pilsners and left-field lagers, hop monsters, beer cocktails, curiosities (unusual ingredients) and collaboration brews, in which two star brewers or breweries collaborate to create a unique, and sometimes challenging, beer.
Timeless and traditional classics from embedded ale making European nations are included, together with the cream of the American craft brewing crop as well as bright-eyed, ground-breaking brewers in Japan, Scandinavia and Australia. Boutique Beers catalogues and encapsulates the personalities and passions of the people behind them and the inspiration behind their ale-making alchemy.
Ben McFarland’s in-depth knowledge and extensive travels means his beer hunter’s antennae is perfectly primed to seek out the brews, the brewers and the insider knowledge that inform the world’s finest premium ales.
This quality connoisseur’s compendium should be read by discerning drinkers everywhere, so slide yourself onto the bar stool of enlightenment, fill your glass and prepare to be amused, delighted and well-versed as you witness beer’s esteemed revolution.
Ben McFarland is a leading drinks experts and writer. He has been named the “British Guild of Beer Writers Beer Writer of the Year” on three occasions – the first time in 2004 as the youngest ever recipient. He regularly writes for a wide range of consumer and specialist beer magazines including the Jamie Oliver Magazine, Guardian, Independent on Sunday, Daily Telegraph, Imbibe, Draft Magazine and Time Out. Along with his business partner Tom Sandham, he is part of www.thinkingdrinkers.com.
For further information or to request further press materials, please contact
Jessica Axe, Publicity Director, Jacqui Small, T: 0207 284 9364, E: Jessica.axe@jacquismallpub.com