Over the past thirty-plus years, the beer industry in the United States has slowly transformed itself from the butt of international jokes (courtesy of Prohibition and the subsequent dominance of mass-produced, lifeless lagers) to the most innovative and delicious craft beer culture on the planet. No region of the country has been more influential in helping shape and inspire the craft beer movement than Northern California. Following Fritz Maytag's revitalization of San Francisco's Anchor Brewing in the mid-1960s and the establishment of New Albion Brewing Company in Sonoma in the decade afterward, current brewing innovators such as Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and Russian River Brewing continue to ensure that there's never been a better time or place to seek out great beer.
The Northern California Craft Beer Guide is the definitive handbook to the artistry, people, and culture of the region's craft beer scene. Many guidebooks rely on second-hand accounts or provide coverage that fails to do the groundwork discerning the insipid from the delicious. This isn't one of those books. Beer writer Ken Weaver and photographer Anneliese Schmidt have invested months of precious drinking time into visiting the furthest corners of Northern California and tasting everything the region has to offer - from the latest Belgian-style beers coming out of Arcata to the newest beer-centric burger joint in Santa Cruz, to the phenomenal brews of Central Valley nobody's ever heard of -- to create a guide that does this beer scene justice.
"Intrepid"? That's a good word. "Funny"? Hopefully sometimes. "Useful"? It had better be.
Encompassing breweries, beer bars, restaurants, bottle shops, and homebrew shops (as well as plenty of other people and places that were just too cool to leave out), The Northern California Craft Beer Guide is a collection of over three hundred entries and topics highlighting the very best the region has to offer.
