1st Place Winner of the 2012 Gourmand Award for Best in the World in the Beer category.
The first major reference work to investigate the history and vast scope of beer, The Oxford Companion to Beer features more than 1,100 A-Z entries written by 166 of the world's most prominent beer experts. Attractively illustrated with over 140 images, the work covers everything from the agricultural makeup of various beers to the technical elements of the brewing process, local effects of brewing on regions around the world, and the social and political implications of sharing a beer. Entries not only define terms such as "dry hopping" and "cask conditioning" but give fascinating details about how these and other techniques affect a beer's taste, texture, and popularity. Cultural entries shed light on such topics as pub games, food pairings and the development of beer styles. Readers will enjoy vivid accounts of how drinking traditions have changed throughout history, and how these traditions vary in different parts of the world, from Japan to Mexico, New Zealand, and Brazil, among many other countries. The pioneers of beer-making are the subjects of biographical entries, and the legacies these pioneers have left behind, in the form of the world's most popular beers and breweries, are recurrent themes throughout the work.
Packed with information, this comprehensive resource also features a foreword by Chef Tom Colicchio, and includes thorough appendices covering beer festivals, beer publications, and more. Written by an outstanding team of authors that includes leading brewers, academics, master cellarmen, craft brewers, and homebrewers, this book is as broad, deep, and companionable as the world of beer itself, and is the perfect shelf-mate to Oxford's renowned Companion to Wine.
BIO
Garrett Oliver is the brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery, the author of The Brewmaster’s Table, and the Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford Companion to Beer (Oxford University Press). In 2014 Garrett was the recipient of the James Beard Foundation Award for “Outstanding Beer, Wine, or Spirit Professional.” One of the founding board members of Slow Food USA, he later served for five years on the Board of Counselors of Slow Food International. Garrett has been bridging the worlds of beer and food for more than two decades, having hosted more than one thousand beer dinners in 17 countries. He is a particular champion of beer as the most versatile beverage for culinary pairings.
In 2003 he authored The Brewmaster’s Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food. The Brewmaster’s Table was the winner of a 2004 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Book Award and was a finalist for the 2004 James Beard Foundation Book Awards. The Brewmaster’s Table was released in a paperback edition in May of 2005 and remains in print.
Garrett’s most recent book is The Oxford Companion to Beer (OCB), published in October 2011 by Oxford University Press. Compiling the vast knowledge of 166 experts in 24 countries, covering 1,120 subjects, The Oxford Companion to Beer is the most comprehensive book ever published on the subject. The OCB was the top-selling book for Oxford University Press USA in 2011. Amazon.com named the OCB one of the “Best Books of 2011”. Calling the OCB “a treasure trove”, the New York Times said, “The Oxford Companion to Beer is a definitive resource not just for beer enthusiasts but for amateur brewers, professional brewers and the thousands of restaurants that serve great beers but are staffed by people who may know little about them.”
Garrett is the recipient of the 1998 Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation and Excellence in Brewing, granted by the Institute for Brewing Studies (now the Brewers Association). It is the highest honor given within the United States brewing profession. He is also the recipient of the 2003 Semper Ardens Award for Beer Culture (Denmark). In 2007, Forbes named him one of the top ten tastemakers in the country for wine, beer, and spirits.
While Garrett does travel widely, his main day-to-day focus is on the recipes, procedures, innovation and overall quality of beers produced at Brooklyn Brewery and at its sister breweries Nya Carnegiebryggeriet (New Carnegie Brewery) in Stockholm, Sweden, and E.C. Dahls in Trondheim, Norway.
Garrett is a graduate of Boston University and holds a degree in Broadcasting and Film.
REVIEWS
"[E]ncyclopedic in scope . . . In putting together the 'Oxford Companion' now, Mr. Oliver has captured the blossoming of a global beer culture at a thriving moment. . . . [A] definitive resource not just for beer enthusiasts but for amateur brewers, professional brewers and the thousands of restaurants that serve great beers but are staffed by people who may know little about them. . . . The 'Oxford Companion' is simply a wonderful resource for what, even when it's complex, unusual, unfamiliar or strikingly different, is still just beer, regardless of how it is dressed up." --Eric Asimov, for The New York Times
[H] Oxford University Press / October 07, 2011
2.0" H x 10.1" L x 7.5" W (3.75 lbs) 960 pages