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Selected Readings: October

A bit late, I know, but still better than last month.

Actually, I wouldn't say there was a lot (I was still quite bus) and much of the discourse was dominated by Oxford Companion to Beer, which generated a few heated debates.

Martyn Cornell, after finding a few history mistakes in some bits he'd read, asked, a bit too vehemently perhaps, if the book wasn't a dreadful disaster (no wonder after all the work he's done trying to bring some light to the myths about the history of English brewing). Of course, the book's Chief Editor, Garret Oliver, wasn't too thrilled and said his bit in an interview he gave to Alan, which itself generated a few interesting comments.

To me, however, the best review of this book was Barm's, who dissected it bit by bit and gave his opinion in a long, fair and fun to read post.

Now, if any of you is interested about the opinion of someone who hasn't read the book yet, I think The Oxford Companion to Beer has been a victim of its own ambitions and of the huge reputations of the publisher and of Garret Oliver. Maybe Barm is right when he says it might have been rushed a bit to make it in time for the Christmas shopping.

Still in the field of History. Evan Rail calls scholars to study a bit more the history of the beers of Central and Eastern Europe, of which little is known, and suggests a few books to get started. If the number of visitors my post on the historical relationship between Pilsner Urquell and Pale Ale can serve as an indicator, there are quite a lot of people out there who are interested in the topic, and I can't begin to imagine how much they'd like to know about Mum, a old, and gone, German style that according to Page 123 of this 1838 book was "made principally with wheaten malt, with a portion of oat and bean malt, tops of fir and birch and various herbs".

But enough with history. Let's come to the present.

Velký Al has heard enough about oxymoronic beers. It all started with the Black IPA and now there are people speaking of Black Pils and Black Kölsch. What's next, a Pale Schwartz?

Czech speakers should read this "parallel" interview where one of the authors of Pivni Recenze and the Head Brewer of Gambrinus the PR guy of Prazdroj both answer the same questions. Priceless.

Bollocks of the month goes to that rubbish from Murcia, of course, but you've read about it already.

Na Zdraví!

4 stars Hotels in Prague with 75% discount.

Comments

  1. Pivni recenze answers were paired with those of Jiri Marecek, teh Pislner Urquell PR guy, nit the brewer.

    Honza, CzBeer.cz

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yup, you are right.... I'm correcting it right now...

    ReplyDelete

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