Synopses & Reviews
The world's 500 best beers! Which beers are the best? Get the inside stories on Czech pilseners, German lagers, Belgian wheat beers and Trappist brews, classic British ales, Irish stouts, and American microbrews. The shelves of the supermarkets are packed with an every-changing array of beers from around the world. Bars, pubs, restaurants, and clubs stock an ever-greater range. Which will suit your tastes? Which is the beer for the moment? Will this beer be light, crisp, and refreshing; this one sweet, that one dry and bitter? TV Beer Hunter Michael Jackson has tasted them all. He describes the flavor and body of each beer, explains why beers taste the way they do, notes their strength and ideal serving temperature. Spot the best beers with aid of superbly shot photographs, each showing the bottle, label, and the properly poured beer in its ideal glass. Never before has beer looked so beautiful.
Review
A must for the connoisseur's shelf. (Oakland Tribune)
Review
Jackson's most readable book yet. (Abilene Reporter-News)
Review
A beautifully designed, lushly photographed surveyÖ (Portland Oregonian)
Synopsis
Work up a thirst for 500 of the world's finest beers -- from established classics to little-known gems and modern microbrews.
BRIMMING WITH FLAVOR
In this personal selection of 500 world-class beers, Michael Jackson presents ales, lagers, stouts, and porters with aroma and flavor to rival the finest wine. From light Pilseners and weissbeers to gloriously rich Trappist brews, there are beers to suit every taste, style, season, and occasion.
PERFECT POCKET REFERENCE
Listed alphabetically, each beer is superbly photographed in appropriate glassware, with "vital statistics" that include expert tasting notes, tips on serving, and a history of the brewery. With information on beer styles and advice on teaming each beer with food, the Great Beer Guide is set to become classic reading for discerning beer drinkers everywhere.
About the Author
The Maven of Malt. The Bard of Beer. The True King of Beers. The Sultan of Suds. Michael Jackson has been called by all of these names and more. Born in Leeds in the north of England and raised in Huddersfield, Michael Jackson has been a beer lover ever since his first taste at age 14. His other great love is journalism, and Michael has been a reporter since his teens. He first practiced his craft in Yorkshire and Scotland, then later throughout Great Britain. By the 1970's he combined his two favorite pastimes, becoming a roving beer reporter for The Independent. His travels eventually took him to the United States, where he is credited with helping launch and publicize the renaissance in microbreweries (particularly in the Pacific Northwest) and beer appreciation throughout the nation. Michael Jackson is now internationally recognized as the foremost authority on the beers of the world. In a front-page profile, The Wall Street Journal lauded him as "the world's leading beer critic." He travels the globe constantly, visiting hundreds of breweries every year. Hailed as a national hero in Belgium and regarded as one of the Founding Fathers of the North American microbrewery movement, his writings on beer have become standard reference works for beer makers and enthusiasts alike. No one has visited more breweries, tasted more beers, met with more brewmasters, or talked to more beer lovers than Michael Jackson. Michael is a Director-at-Large of the North American Guild of Beer Writers and a founding Chairman of the similar Guild in Britain. His Beer Hunter television series, broadcast on The Discovery Channel and PBS in the USA and shown in a dozen other countries, and his best-selling CD-ROMs have introduced the public to a whole new world of beer. He has written for The Washington Post, Playboy, The Wine Spectator, and many other publications. Among his other books on brew is Ultimate Beer, also by DK Publishing. Michael is a regular guest lecturer at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Geographic Association, the Anthropological Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, and numerous beer festivals around the world. He is also an expert on whiskey, and has written extensively on cocktails. He currently resides in London.