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The Oxford Companion to Beer (Oxford Companion To... (Hardcover)) Hardcover – October 7, 2011

by Garrett Oliver (Editor), Tom Colicchio (Foreword)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 475 ratings
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1st Place Winner of the 2012 Gourmand Award for Best in the World in the Beer category.

For millennia, beer has been a favorite beverage in cultures across the globe. After water and tea, it is the most popular drink in the world, and it is at the center of a $450 billion industry.

Edited by Garrett Oliver, the James Beard Winner for Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional, this is 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 book 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 our 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 book.

Packed with information, this comprehensive resource also includes thorough appendices (covering beer festivals, beer magazines, and more), conversion tables, and an index. Featuring a foreword by Tom Colicchio, this book is the perfect shelf-mate to Oxford's renowned Companion to Wine and an absolutely indispensable volume for everyone who loves beer as well as all beverage professionals, including home brewers, restaurateurs, journalists, cooking school instructors, beer importers, distributors, and retailers, and a host of others.
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  1. Part of series
    Oxford Companion To.
  2. Print length
    960 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    October 7, 2011
  6. Dimensions
    10.1 x 2 x 7.5 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0195367138
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0195367133
  9. See all details
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From the Publisher

The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Take a Look Inside The Oxford Companion to Beer:
Barley Wine: The strongest of beers. While not always literally approaching the alcohol content of wine, they are often brewed to alcoholic strengths of 10% ABV, and sometimes more. CHARLES FINKEL
Barrel-aging: A brewer at the Avery Brewing Company in Colorado prepares a blending session for barrel-aged beers.
JONATHAN CASTNOR PHOTOGRAPHY
Britain: A team of horses delivers beer from Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery, founded in 1758, to citizens of Tadcaster, England. Horse-drawn drays are still used to this day for many deliveries. MERCHANT DU VIN
Glassware: Photograph, c. 1933, illustrating various classic beer glass shapes. Prohibition caused a lack of public knowledge of how to serve alcoholic beverages, an issue addressed in this nationally syndicated photograph. PIKE MICROBREWERY MUSEUM, SEATTLE, WA
Insert, page 7: Home-grown and hand-picked Cascade hops and barley ready for homebrewing in Connecticut. The popular Cascade hops has become a signature flavor of many North American craft beers and is known for its grapefruit-like profile.
ERIC S. MCKAY

Insert, page 16: A collection of antique beer labels ranging from 1920–1950, from countries all over the world. While bottling has been around for millennia, the attachment of labels only gained general usage in the mid-19th century. PIKE MICROBREWERY MUSEUM, SEATTLE, WA

Review

"The Oxford Companion to Beer is like having an assortment of 24 terrific beers in one box. Pick one out, pop the cap, turn to a page, savor the beer, enjoy the random read. There are
more than 1,100 terrific companions for your beers." --Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association and author of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing

"If scholarly detail and accuracy for brewing is your thirst, this book will be your definitive goto over and over again. Like a perfect pour, beer lovers will be able to appreciate this book for its artistry, craftsmanship and precision as well as its endless source of inspiration."--Mario Batali , acclaimed chef and restaurateur

"Beer―like baseball statistics or action movie quotes― is one of the many things guys act like they are experts on, but oftentimes are actually clueless about. This book is for anyone, male or female, who has ever wanted to know the once-and-for-all real facts about ales, ambers, porters, and lambics but was too afraid to ask. It's the clearest, most user-friendly guide to hoppy heaven I have ever come across and in my opinion the only 'beer book' you will need."--Adam Richman, host of Man V. Food Nation and author of America the Edible

"Garrett Oliver has become widely acknowledged as an expert not only in making beer, but in tasting it, pairing it, and talking about it."--New York Times

"[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, The New York Times

"The Oxford Companion to Beer [is] an unprecedented compendium that encompasses global hops history, new-wave brewing techniques and anything else you could possibly want to know about the world's most popular alcoholic beverage." m--Time Out New York

"[The Oxford Companion to Beer] promises to be a comprehensive resource for those in the know and those hoping to get there some day." --SF Weekly.com

"We live in an amazing time for beer lovers. With more than 1,700 American breweries and counting, Oliver's massive reference book is a timely masterpiece that will make the perfect companion for craft beer's meteoric rise." --Mobile Press Register

"[W]ith the publication of The Oxford Companion to Beer we now have 920 pages of serious beer writing each page of which alone will trigger any number of arguments, plenty of scurrying for further sources and the occasional drifting of the book across the room, hopefully missing the lamp. This is a very good thing." --AGoodBeerBlog.com

"The most essential beer book you can buy . . . You open a page at random and you start reading, and you lose yourself in trivia, history, and bits of brewing science you always wanted to know but never got round to asking . . . Just about everything any sane person could want to know about beer is in this book . . . if you write about beer, study it or brew it, you simply cannot do without this book" --Pete Brown's Beer Blog

"[T]he largest amount of knowledge about beer ever assembled in one book."
--Huffington Post

"The rise of craft beer has meant a lot of happy developments for beer lovers -- more quality breweries, more great bars and, lately, lots of interesting books. Among the most ambitious beer books is The Oxford Companion to Beer." --Chicago Tribune

"[T]he volume is encyclopedic in both scope and detail, and though I've spent hours looking through it, I've barely made a dent. What I have read, though, has been consistently fascinating." --Chicago Reader

"If ever you were in need of knowing every single fact there is to know about beer, this is apparently where to find it." --TotalBeerEnlightenment.com

"A book every beer lover must have . . . This is the new beer bible: the Encyclopedia Beertanica . . . You must have this book. It is magnificent. Whether you are an aspiring beer geek, an avid home brewer, or a professional brewer, you must have this book. It is the beer book." --Washington Beer Blog

"[A]ll sorts of fascinating beer-related facts have been poured into this 920-page everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know beauty of a book that has the answer for everything . . . In all sincerity, the book is terrific. It looks good, thanks in part to 16 pages of beautiful color photographs and hundreds of tasteful black-and-white images. It's got the heft you'd expect from a $65 scholarly tome. And it covers all the bases-from the variety of agricultural commodities that go into beer to the vast number of ways it can be brewed, with each method imparting its own taste and texture." --Fortune.com

"Thoroughly illustrated and beautifully typeset, the book is precisely what a companion should be: an engaging, subjective, erudite guide to the interested novice and, at the same time, a quick reference for the initiated. As a dedicated drinker all but ignorant of the chemistry behind brewing, I feel I've already learned a lot -- and I've only read through the five entries that start with 'acid-.'" --TheAtlantic.com

"So far I've read only a tiny fraction of what's in this book, and already my beer education has taken great leaps forward." --BostonGlobe.com

"Now, beer's faithful have their bible. The Oxford Companion to Beer, a formidable 920-page volume, chronicles the drink's history, from its birth more than 5,000 years ago in the grasslands of ancient Iraq to the modern craft-beer movement." --Globe and Mail

"And now the movement has a book so fine that it isn't likely to need another for a millennium or so. The Oxford Companion to Beer is, first of all, so handsome as to border on the pornographic . . . [It] is like a pub with enough taps to satisfy every variety of drinker . . . [Oliver] deserves unqualified praise for what is a huge achievement."
--TheNewRepublic.com

"The major release of the year . . . highly-anticipated." --Esquire.com

"[T]he only book you will ever have to read, from this point on, to survive. The Oxford Companion to Beer is your new BFF." --USAToday.com

"[W]ithout a doubt the most comprehensive educational resource on beer available . . . like any inexhaustible resource, it'll be with you for life." --Men's Health.com

"This may be one book that beer-lovers can't live without." --Culture: The Word on Cheese

"The Oxford Companion to Beer joins the drink-book canon as perhaps the most important tome on the subject. Why? Because it offers serious scholarship on everything from the details of the German hop industry to the controversy of California's 'steam beer' designation . . . a remarkable work. Even if you think beer is better drunk than contemplated, you'll find yourself cross-referencing this into the wee hours." --San Francisco Chronicle

"simply an incredible resource that every beer lover should have on the shelf."
--BayAreaCraftBeer.com

"This massive tome has the power to turn you from beer lover to beer connoisseur."
--ModernMan.com

"This title hits the sweet spot of popular appeal and bona fide subject rigor and is likely to catch the eye of even the most casual browser-display prominently. Recommended for the ever-increasing number of public collections serving local-beer enthusiasts and for most academic collections; likewise suitable for any beer imbiber's home collection."
--Library Journal

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (October 7, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 960 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195367138
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195367133
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.79 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.1 x 2 x 7.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 475 ratings

About the author

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Garrett Oliver

Garrett Oliver

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Garrett Oliver is the Brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery in New York City and one of the foremost authorities in the world on the subject of beer. A host of more than 700 tasting and pairing events in 12 countries over the past two decades, he is perhaps best known as the author of the award-winning book The Brewmaster’s Table. He has made many appearances on television and in other media, writes regularly for food and beer-related periodicals, and is a veteran judge of professional brewing competitions. His principal occupation is the creation of The Brooklyn Brewery’s well-regarded range of beers.

Garrett was a founding Board member of Slow Food USA and later became a member of the Board of Counselors of Slow Food International. He was also a 2009 and 2010 finalist for the James Beard Award as “Outstanding Wine or Spirits Professional.”

His last book, The Brewmaster’s Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food, first published by HarperCollins in May, 2003, 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.

Garrett is a graduate of Boston University and holds a degree in Broadcasting and Film. He was the recipient of the 1998 Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation and Excellence in Brewing, the 2003 Semper Ardens Award for Beer Culture (Denmark) and Cheers Beverage Media’s “Beverage Innovator of the Year” Award for 2006. In 2007, Forbes named him one of the top ten tastemakers in the country for wine, beer and spirits.

Garrett Oliver’s latest book is The Oxford Companion to Beer, published in September, 2011 by Oxford University Press; he is Editor-in-Chief. Covering more than 1,100 subjects, it is the most comprehensive reference book on beer ever published.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
475 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

D. Blankenship
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent refrence book
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2024
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This one is a great reference book and one that is just fun to browse. It you have the slightest interest i in beer, the this is the one for you.
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Nycto
5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Useful Book in my Library.
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2015
Verified Purchase
I recently purchased this book used. It was marked as "good" condition, but came almost brand new. Literally no marks, tears, or anything throughout the entire book or cover.

I'm currently studying for my Cicerone level 2, and am in the "Road to Cicerone" course for English/Irish styles. The book is a requirement for the class, as the class takes numerous readings from the book.

Originally, on purchasing the book, I had little idea what its contents were like. I had assumed that it would be much like the numerous wine encyclopedias or beer books on the market, where you can read from front to back in a coherent manner. This book is NOT like that. It's better. It's essentially a beer dictionary... but for every word, idea, or person, there is an in depth article. Imagine a dictionary where for each word, you get the entire history, context and usage of the word. That's this book, but for beer.

For instance, if you want to get an idea of what decoction is, you go to the D section of the book and there is an entire article that tells you the history of decoction brewing, the reasons for its existence, flavor attributes the style imparts on the beer, the differences between different decoctions... and then it gives a few examples of decoction mashes, including temperatures, ratios of water to grains, amount of thick mash that is generally pulled per decoction, and example styles which are generally single, double, or triple decocted.

I have yet to find a term that isn't covered in this book. There are easily over a thousand entries, and each is written with such a degree of detail that I have yet to look up a topic and NOT learn something about it.

My father got into brewing when I was five, I've been listening to him or helping him since I was eight, and I've been brewing on my own since I turned 21, I've been in beer sales for a few years, and have been a professional vintner for a few years as well. I have an extensive history with beer, wine, and fermentation in general. I have roughly 50 books in my beer/brewing library (And I've read all of them, save this book, from front to back), but this book is ALWAYS teaching me something new.

This book is TRULY a must have for any beer lover.
2 people found this helpful
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KJS
5.0 out of 5 stars Cheers to beer here! Highly recommended for R.W.I.
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2011
Verified Purchase
Well written and truly encyclopedic, the OCB is OCD in the best ways. If you love cracking a cold one and settling in with a good book and perhaps some Bill Evans on the stereo, this beery tome looks to be good for years of pleasant mental meandering.

I've been brewing beer for ten years now and still feel like I may know the specifics, but the miracle of fermentation bringing mellow joy still happily baffles me. It's fun to learn about all those yeasty beasties in their frothy oceans of ale, and the OCB aims to cover any and all topics the brewer and/or drinker might have in mind; it seems to have hit the mark. There are a whole tonne of somewhat arcane things Oliver mentions here that make for fascinating reading.

Well printed on good paper, this volume seems destined to be perused on many sofas for many years while many beers are lifted. And so should it be, for we gentle lovers of ales and lagers have always deserved our own reference book. And this is without doubt the Beer Book we have been waiting for.

Prost.
9 people found this helpful
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V. Vasquez
5.0 out of 5 stars Beer Maven Reviews
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2012
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First of all let me say that the service and price I paid for the book through Amazon could not be beat. The book is simply bound with blank end pages. It has very few photo plates considering the number of pages and amount of information in the book. The Editor in Chief, Garrett Oliver brings elegance to the undertaking of the job which is well bore out in the Preface. Horst Dornbusch who is Associate Editor as well as founder of Cerevisia Communications is a great asset to the of compilation which is a massive undertaking for the subject. Another heavyweight in the industry and advisory board is Charles Bamforth. It is difficult to undertake any serious research of beer without coming across his name. While the book is very modest in print it is behemoth in content. The topical outline is comprehensive. Each subject is a wealth of concise information in relatively brief entries. Reading such an entry requires a great amount of meditation on the subject. A book of this depth is well overdue. No serious beer writer, researcher, aficionado or consumer should be without this book.
3 people found this helpful
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F. Gordon
5.0 out of 5 stars The beer version of McGee's "On Food and Cooking"
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2021
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A serious, comprehensive and easily-navigated tome of history, ingredients and terminology pertaining to what is surely every relevant subject on the study of beer and brewing. This book should be on the desk of every serious student and practitioner of beer.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Danilo
5.0 out of 5 stars Beer dictionary
Reviewed in Italy on October 16, 2023
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Great Garret Oliver!
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MrMonterrubio
5.0 out of 5 stars Mejor libro de cerveza posible.
Reviewed in Mexico on May 26, 2019
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Es como la enciclopedia británica de la cerveza. Un libro meramente de consulta, pero QUE LIBRO!!! Todas TODAS tus dudas serán resueltas por esta maravilla.
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murilo antonio figueiras das silva galvao
5.0 out of 5 stars Muito bom
Reviewed in Brazil on March 8, 2018
Verified Purchase
Muito bom, extremamente detalhado. Entrega o que promete, e como um enciclopédia com milhares de versículos, ou entradas, sobre os mais diversos temas ligados a cerveja . Recomendo !
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Deruelle Jérôme
4.0 out of 5 stars Encyclopédie de la bière
Reviewed in France on July 31, 2018
Verified Purchase
Un vrai travail encyclopédique sur la bière ! Un ouvrage de référence passionnant et foisonnant...Mais attention, on ne le lit pas en une fois, on picore ou on cherche une précision ou un renseignement...Le dico de la bière en résumé !
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sjessjes
5.0 out of 5 stars Your one-stop beer resource
Reviewed in Singapore on September 26, 2020
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A beautiful, well-written book that tells you all you need to know about beer... basically a Beer Encyclopedia.
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sjessjes
5.0 out of 5 stars Your one-stop beer resource
Reviewed in Singapore on September 26, 2020
A beautiful, well-written book that tells you all you need to know about beer... basically a Beer Encyclopedia.
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