Heavenly Beer

Rating:
Summary: Not an authoritative book on monastic beer
Review: This is a nicely written and glossily illustrated book on some beers and breweries that can trace their tradition to the monasteries of Europe.

It is unfortunately not the guidebook to existing monastic breweries and their beer that I was hoping and looking for. For instance, in the German (exclusively Bavarian) section, only two of the five breweries mentioned are monastic breweries today. The other three (all in Munich) can claim some heritage, even if remote and mostly in name. But worse than that, at least five monastic breweries that I know of in the same area are totally omitted, as are several more with as much or more monastic heritage than the ones that are mentioned. Some of the German or German inspired beers can barely claim monastic heritage, unless all beer can, which could be argued. The next chapter on Austria gives most of its coverage to a commercial brewerey that brews some non-monastic beers in a castle that once was a monastery. But the two Austrian breweries that are truly monastic get scant mention although they are far more interesting from a monastic brewing point of view.

There are many pictures of beer, labels, bottles and people drinking beer, some related to the topic at hand, some less so. The single picture that illustrates a Czech cloister brewerey depicts the front of a well-known tourist restaurant in Prague. The six pictures of beer drinkers in various countries show beer of unknown origin consumed in locations that are obviously anything but monastic (ski resort, street cafe, restaurant, Oktoberfest, etc.). With one or two possible exceptions, there is actually little in the book that would indicate that the author was on location - the descriptions are almost without exception void of any personal observations. No directions are given to the location of the breweries, and especially the true monastaries can be well hidden and difficult to find and get to. There is no reason to think, though, that the beer tasting notes are not based on personal observations. But then again, if the beer was sampled elsewhere from bottles rather than on location....

It surely is a book about beer, and also a book about the monastic tradition of beer brewing. But it is not an authoritative guidebook to monastic breweries and their brews. Michael Jackson's little pocket guide to beer does a better job at that, without the glossy pictures.