Product Description

Traditional craft-brewed beer can transform a meal from everyday to extraordinary. It's an affordable, accessible luxury. Yet most people are only familiar with the mass-market variety. Have you tasted the real thing?

In The Brewmaster's Table, Garrett Oliver, America's foremost authority on beer and brewmaster of the acclaimed Brooklyn Brewery, reveals why real beer is the perfect partner to any dining experience. He explains how beer is made, relays its fascinating history, and, accompanied by Denny Tillman's exquisite photographs, conducts an insider's tour through the amazing range of flavors displayed by distinct styles of beer from around the world. Most important, he shows how real beer, which is far more versatile than wine, intensifies flavors when it's appropriately paired with foods, creating brilliant matches most people have never imagined: a brightly citric Belgian wheat beer with a goat cheese salad, a sharply aromatic pale ale to complement spicy tacos, an earthy German bock beer to match a porcini risotto, even a fruity framboise to accompany a slice of chocolate truffle cake. Whether you're a beer aficionado, a passionate cook, or just someone who loves a great dinner, this book will indeed be a revelation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54890 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-01
• Released on: 2005-05-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Oliver, the brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery, argues that brewing beer is far more complicated than making wine, and pleads with beer drinkers to reach past the shelves of mass-produced hops toward bottles produced in more specialized breweries. His message may seem past its sell-by date, but his tour of beers and his brew-and-food match-ups are anything but stale. After explaining beer-making processes, Oliver launches into his beer-food combinations; though he offers no recipes, his recommendations- the classic pairing of Irish stout with oysters; the dark, caramely flavors of Trappist ales balancing a duck confit; the IPA from his own brewery complementing Thai, Mexican, and Vietnamese food-are excellent. Beer drinkers of all sorts will happily drift along Oliver's exhaustive tour.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Bob Townsend, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"The best and most important book ever written on the subject of pairing food and beer.."

About the Author
Garrett Oliver, author of The Brewmaster's Table: Discovering The Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food, likens his role as Brewmaster at the award-winning Brooklyn Brewery in New York City to a chef: "The Brewmaster is essentially the chef of the brewery." Gourmet magazine described him as "a passionate epicure and talented alchemist."

In Oliver's new book, his expertise about beer is as entertaining and authoritative as his culinary tips, especially in the numerous savory beer and food matchups he recommends. How did Garrett Oliver come by these consuming passions?

After years of amateur brewing inspired by beers he had encountered during a year in England, Garrett Oliver began brewing professionally at Manhattan Brewing Company in 1989. He was appointed Brewmaster there in 1993. He soon became widely known both here and abroad for his flavorful interpretations of traditional brewing styles and as an avid and entertaining lecturer and writer on the subject of fine beer. Garrett has hosted hundreds of beer tastings and dinners, writes regularly for beer and food-related periodicals, and is internationally recognized as an expert on traditional beer styles and their affinity with fine food.

In 1994, Oliver joined The Brooklyn Brewery as Brewmaster and partner. Many of his beers have won national and international awards. He has also served as a judge for the Professional Panel Blind Tasting of the Great American Beer Festival for eleven years, has judged the prestigious Great British Beer Festival competition five times, and the Beverage Industry International Awards twice.

Oliver has hosted tastings and talks for numerous cultural institutions, including the Smithsonian, MassMOCA, and The Jewish Museum. In the United States, Garrett has made numerous radio and television appearances as a spokesman for craft brewing, including segments on NPR, CNN, ABC, PBS, MSNBC, The History Channel, Food Network's "Emeril Live, and CBS' Martha Stewart Living.

Garrett has hosted beer tastings and dinners at many fine restaurants, cooking schools, and food events including dinners at James Beard House, Oceana, The Waldorf-Astoria, the Slow Food Cheese Festival and Salone del Gusto in Piemonte, Italy, The Association of Westchester Country Club Chefs, The American Institute of Wine and Food, The Culinary Institute of America, the Sommelier Society of America, The French Culinary Institute, and Peter Kump's New York Cooking School (now ICE), and the London BAR show. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Slow Food, USA.

Garrett's first book, The Good Beer Book, co-written with Timothy Harper, was published in 1997. Oliver is a graduate of Boston University, and holds a degree in Broadcasting and Film. He is the recipient of the 1998 Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation and Excellence in Brewing, granted by the Institute for Brewing Studies. It is the highest award given within the United States brewing profession.

Customer Reviews

The Brewmaster is the Master
I have read this three times and continue to return to it. The author has a very easy to read style and is very knowledgeable. Reading about biking through Belgium makes it that much harder waiting to go there myself. I highly recommend it for anyone that is interested in beer.

Best beer and food book I have found
This is without a doubt the best book on pairing beer and food I have found. It's also one of the best beer books available, with detailed, even passionate descriptions of most beer types, and knowing descriptions of representative individual beers and famous breweries. One can quibble ... it's possible to disagree with a few of his reviews or a few of his selections, and after a while one tires of hearing of beers that can be matched to beef cheeks. But, by and large, a fantastic book. I've started giving copies to friends ... even friends who don't drink beer ... so that they will have a vague idea of what it means to be a beer enthusiast.

A Bible for the beer foodie
Between 1850 and 1880, "Brewers Row" in Brooklyn became home to eleven breweries, due to a massive influx of immigrants from Germany. By the end of the century, Brooklyn had become a major center for brewing, boasting 48 brewing establishments.

In the spirit of this brewing tradition, Garrett Oliver emerges. As Brewmaster and a partner of Brooklyn Brewery, he imparts his knowledge like flakes of gold, creating traditional styles of beer with classic depth. An avid lecturer, he articulates the connection between fine food and beer with the passion of a master.

THE BREWMASTER'S TABLE - DISCOVERING THE PLEASURES OF REAL BEER WITH REAL FOOD is a bible for the beer foodie. Mr. Oliver entices you into his world, using colorful words to tease you into submission. Once captured, he takes you on a grand journey, matching food tastes with beer styles, introducing you to fine European traditions, and creating a burning desire for more.

The reader travels with him throughout Europe, to the Payottenland district west of central Brussels, home to lambic beer. Discover the Bavarian Weissbiers, with their strong spices and malt sweetness, merging seamlessly with Thai, Indian, Mexican and Chinese foods. Visit the pubs of London, with their English Bitters and Imperial Stouts. Enter the fascinating world of Trappist and Abbey Ales - Chimay from Abbaye Notre-Dame de Scourmont and Westmalle from Abdij Trappisten van Westmalle - and onward, through the Czech Republic and returning to America, where traditions are merged by the artisans of beer.

Whether you are a connoisseur of beer, a gourmet cook - captivated with the art of pairing food with beer, or an individual with a passion for palatable treats, THE BREWMASTER'S TABLE leads you into the pleasures of real beer with real food.