Customer Reviews

365 Bottles of Beer Page-A-Day Calendar 2004 (Page-A-Day(r) Calendars)

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Bob Klein might be able to pick out good beers from around the world, but he doesn't write about them very well. His descriptions of each beer are full of buzzwords that he doesn't know how to use properly. For example, the words "body" and "mouthfeel" refer to the tactile sense of the beer in one's mouth, whether heavy, light, syrupy, watery, etc. Klein instead refers to a beer's "delicious mouthfeel," and "dark-brown body," which are nonsense. A beer might be delicious or dark-brown, but that says nothing about how the liquid feels in one's mouth. Occasionally he uses the words correctly, which makes me wonder if he is knowingly misusing the terms or if he just gets lucky sometimes.

He also writes of a beer (Young's Double Chocolate Stout) whose taste finishes on a "tangy-sweet cushion of hops." Does he know what hops do? For one, they provide bitterness. They are tangy, perhaps, but not sweet. Only their relative absence makes a beer sweet. It seems like he just wanted to throw the word "hops" in there somewhere, even if it didn't make sense. A good beer writer should know something about the ingredients of beer and what they contribute to the final product.

I think he potentially has good observation and tasting skills, but he needs to learn how to properly write about beer instead of just throwing around catch phrases and buzzwords. I'm afraid that this calendar has become more a source of amusement than information for me. I expect more from a beer writer.