Great American Craft Beer Book by Andy Crouch
Andy Crouch has authored his new book, Great American Craft Beer, with a focus on the current craft beer movement – no imports, no macros, no BS. He did a great job of uncovering and exposing a lot of beloved regional beers including a handful of North Carolina breweries! I’ll get to those in a moment…
Great American Craft Beer is less of a book of reviews and more of a list of great category defining beers. For example, in the Belgian Witbier category you’ll find some of the most talked about samplings of the style being produced my the nation’s best breweries: Jolly Pumpkin’s Calabaza Blanca, Allagash White, Bruery’s Orchard White and so on. This format helps create a fairly comprehensive assessment of breweries, the beers they produce and the styles they are creating RIGHT NOW!
The book is rounded out with several essays on the brewing process, historical perspective, 25 Best beer bars, glossary of beer terms, and extensive sections of serving beer properly and pairing beer with food. In a way the book covers a lot of ground but seems to be careful to get right to the point of each subject.
The rise of the North Carolina beer scene is recognized here with the inclusion of ten beers by seven breweries. Each entry helps round out the style category they were featured in.
Big Boss Angry Angel
Cottonwood Pumpkin Ale
Duck Rabbit Wee Heavy Scotch Ale & Milk Stout
Foothills Torch Pilsner & Sexual Chocolate
French Broad Rye Hopper & Dunkle Witte
Highland Tasgall Ale
Pisgah Solstice
So, yes, apparently Cottonwood is being farmed out to a Pennsylvania brewery for production now. I’ll get to that in a future post!
Books like this can tend to cause a bit of debate when a readers favorite beer in not represented. I would recommend you use this book to explore what’s out there – available in cities across the country. Make a travel planner with this book or update your “wanted to trade” list!! It’s a better read than sifting through the many beer review websites out there!
