Whether you are looking for a beer book as a gift for someone or looking for something new to read yourself, the curated list of books below offers something for anyone interested in beer-related topics. While most of the books in this list were not written in 2022, they are still the best on the market in their respective categories at the date of writing this article.
Table of Contents
Best book for the beginner beer enthusiast
Tasting Beer: An Insider’s Guide to the World’s Greatest Drink - Randy Mosher
What I like about it
- A one-stop guide to everything you need to know to start appreciating beer more today
- Understandable for beer beginners but thorough enough for more advanced beer enthusiasts to still enjoy
Far more than the book’s title suggests, Tasting Beer takes you on a journey through the history of beer, the brewing process, overviews of classic and modern beer styles, and (of course) how to taste beer. The book’s content is accessible to the complete beer novice but goes into enough depth that the seasoned beer drinker will also surely learn something new. Loads of visuals in the form of pictures, graphs, and tables make the content more easily understood and make the book a great quick reference guide after the first read. This book is the place to start if you’re looking for your first book on beer.
Best book for the aspiring homebrewer
How to Brew: Everything You Need to Know to Brew Great Beer Every Time - John J. Palmer
What I like about it
- Helpful to someone brewing their first batch of beer at home, to the 10-year homebrew veteran diving into a specific topic in more detail, and everyone in between
How to Brew starts with a step-by-step guide to get you through making your first batch of beer, from what essential equipment and ingredients you need to transforming those ingredients into your first bottles of beer. As the book progresses, the methods and materials Palmer presents become increasingly more complex, as do the brewing concepts. So whether you are looking to make your first batch of beer or want to know how water chemistry will affect the flavor of your next batch of IPA, this book is a great starting point.
Best book on pairing food and beer
Beer Pairing: The Essential Guide from the Pairing Pros - Julia Herz and Gwen Conley
What I like about it
- Concrete guidance on how to learn how to pair beer and food so you can do it on your own beyond the book
- The book’s “palate trips,” which are guided exercises with samples of beer and food that show you good (and bad) interactions between beer and food
- There are example pairings you can use directly out of the book
Beer Pairing: The Essential Guide from the Pairing Pros guides the reader through all the steps needed to learn how to pair beer and food. The book begins with guidance on how our perception system works and how to taste beer, then dives into how to pair beer with food. A section of the book called “palate trips” guides the reader through activities to explore the interactions between beer and food by recommending some beer styles and basic foods to try together in one sitting. The palate trips are fun to perform and help in learning how different beer characteristics work with food. There are also specific sections for pairing food with beer by beer style and pairing chocolate and cheese with beer.
Best nonfiction, craft beer story
Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out: Goose Island, Anheuser-Busch, and How Craft Beer Became Big Business - Josh Noel
What I like about it
- Compelling story-telling of the history of Goose Island from inception to years after its acquisition by the world’s largest beer company
- Provides great insight into the dynamics of the craft beer industry and why your favorite brew might eventually be owned by big beer too
In Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out, Josh Noel lays out the origin story and rise of one of the early rock stars of the craft beer movement, Goose Island, and chronicles how they were ultimately sold to the world’s largest beer company. The book provides incredible insight into the people, business, and culture of not only Goose Island but of the beer industry in general in the US from the 1980s to today. Unlike many books on this list of recommendations, this one is not technical but is a story of people and craft beer culture, making it a good addition for someone who already has a huge collection of brewing books.
Best deeper technical dive on brewing
Brewing Element Series - Brewers Publications (various authors)
What I like about them
- A series of books with each one focusing on a core beer ingredient: malt, hops, yeast, and water
- Enough depth that an experienced brewer will likely learn a few things, but accessible to most intermediate beer readers
- A good mix of technical content, historical content, and real-world examples from industry professionals makes the books a more enjoyable read
While plenty of good brewing textbooks are on the market, they are often dense, expensive, and targeted toward industry professionals. The Brewer’s Element series offers a more accessible deep dive into the ingredients that make beer, with one book for each of the core four brewing ingredients: malt, hops, yeast, and water. For beer enthusiasts with a good base level knowledge of brewing process and science, these books provide a deeper look into the science, history, and processes of brewing. The four books in the series are:
Yeast: The Practical Guide to Fermentation – Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff
For The Love of Hops: The Practical Guide to Aroma, Bitterness and the Culture of Hops – Stan Hieronymus
Malt: A Practical Guide from Field to Brewhouse – John Mallett
Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers – John Palmer and Colin Kaminski