Customer Reviews

The Beer-Taster's Log: A World Guide to More Than 6000 Beers

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Obviously the author is over his head here--probably too many tastings for one person. Also, he has a unfortunate tendency towards over-rating domestics, and apparently little understanding of the most interesting, rare styles of beer (he gives Cantillon lambic something like a 20 out of 100 (less than some American "premium" lagers) because it's "too sour.") You might as well criticize Scotch as being "too peaty." Frankly, I haven't found any beer reviewer that I agree with more than half the time other than the great beer diety, Michael Jackson. The notes on the tasting process, however, are well laid out and the process explained in clear terms--I guess that's the best thing I can say...It's mostly the beer reviews themselves that are lame.

Great book.. but it's getting old. There are many new breweries & beers not in the book. The reviews are good and fairly consistent. The book has the beer indexed by brewer, name, and state (US beers only). It really needs an index by type/rating as well.. it's difficult to find a highly rated beer of a certain type. The book is also biased towards 'holiday' beers that are unavailable.

As a novice beer taster, I enjoy this book a lot. It has easy to understand language and beers are arranged according to country of origin and brewery and also through an alphabetic index. While no book could contain all beers, this volume does a nice job including both macro and microbrews. A friend once brought a case of various little known microbrews to a party, and "The Beer Tasters Log" had over half of them. For beers that are not listed, there is plenty of room to write your own "reviews" and keep them in order with the other entries. If you are an experienced beer taster or a novice like me, I'm sure you will enjoy this book. Incidentally, all of the beers I have tasted that are in the book, I have agreed with the authors review of them.

this book is a bible of beers, regardless of whether or not you agree with Robertson's opinions... he hits the great beers (Salvator, Piraat, Aventinus, EKU 28, Orval, etc.) and the horrible ones... for someone just starting to discover the world of beers to all the self-proclaimed "beer experts" out there, this really is a comprehensive, well organized catalog... i was starting to think i was running out of beers to taste, now i have a whole list of targets! enjoy... keep it on the basement bar...