Monday 20 February 2012

Institute of Beer and Distilling beer books

One of my favourite pub books
and on the list
Presciently it arrives in the inbox, just as I was lazily gearing up to write up a list of my 10 favourite beer books (but then I realise it’s very difficult to keep it to 10 so I’m glad of the diversion). The Institute of Beer And Distilling Beer Book Sale/Auction is an annual event in which the Institute gets rid of a load of second-hand books on brewing, beer, the industry, history and pubs — I’ve got a list with guide prices in front of me, which as a member of the Brewery History Society I received yesterday. They are some intriguing titles here including The Brewers Pocket Companion (1901, guide price: £26), the magnificently off-centre London Pubs (1962, guide price £6), my own Big Book of Beer (2005, a snip at £6) and plenty of brewery histories, pamphlets and so on. I must admit to being tempted by a few things on display. For more information go here where there will be a full list of books and details on how to bid. And perhaps my best beer books list will have to wait a bit longer. 

6 comments:

  1. Surely these great tomes of literature ought to be required reading at schools?

    No wonder beer illiteracy is so high and the kids are all necking cheap cider, instead of IPA.

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  2. You’ve hit the nail on the head, why only today I sent off my 13 year old to school with my copy of the Brewmaster’s Table with which he is wont to regale his classmates by reading great globules out of it.

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  3. Yes, the other books in that Batsford series are perfectly serious, but Mr Reece-Jones was clearly taking the pipi when he wrote his one.

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  4. I know, that is what I love about it, that’s him by the way on the cover talking to the young lady. And the publishers have a disclaimer at the front somewhere, somehow I don’t think his beer writing career ever took off.

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  5. I'm not allowed to bid any more. That was made very clear after last load of Brewers' Journals clogged our living room floor.

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