Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation (Paperback)

by Stephen Harrod Buhner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Filled with nourishment for the soul, body, and mind, this book is a unique view of the intersection between herbal medicine and fermentation. It will delight anyone interests in herbs, honey, brewing and folktales. Great Book! -- Susan S. Weed, Author of Healing Wise

Product Description
This is the first comprehensive book ever written on the sacred aspects of indigenous, historical psychotropic and herbal healing beers of the world.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 450 pages
• Publisher: Siris Books (October 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0937381667
• ISBN-13: 978-0937381663
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,235 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #20 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Beer
  #53 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Alternative Medicine > Herbal Remedies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting recipes, great herbal info, October 29, 1999

By A Customer

I find this book fascinating! Months after buying it, I find myself sitting down to look for a recipe to try, and spending hours reading the historical and herbal notes. Never would have expected the best herbal I own to be a beer book! There is also information on the religious practices of early Celts and Norwegians as they relate to the use of herbs, as well as lots of information on the spiritual use of herbs by modern traditional peoples.

As for the beers themselves, Buhner takes a relaxed attitude. Indigenous people make beer without fancy equipment, and we can too. What matters most is what tastes good to us--which means we have to do a lot of experimenting! There are lots of recipes to try here, from the Middle Ages up to the present. But the choice is not as wide as it first looks, because not all of the ingredients are easily available. If you get into this, the next book you'll want may be "The Brewer's Garden."

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plenty safe, December 26, 2004

By	Charles A. Wingard (Latrobe, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Stephen's book on beers is great because you learn about brewing, other cultures (human), and herbs. He is also very clear about how powerful plants can be, and for each herb he gives 2-5 paragraphs of well cited information. Some of the measurements are a little vague or confusing in the recipes but like he says the point is to make a mess and have fun. This is a great read for anyone into health as well, just for the chapter on fermented honey and bee products alone. And if he includes a recipe with jimson weed or henbane, he is very clear about the inherent risks. Lighten up and drink some meade.

74 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting, if you can stomach the subtext (overtext?), May 24, 2002

By	oldtaku (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

There are many interesting nuggets in here. Since there are other books that give you plenty of information, including recipes, about brewing with unusual or 'primitive' ingredients, I found the passages about native rituals, ancient brewing traditions, and the like to be most interesting.

Unfortunately, Buhner has an obvious agenda to push (he makes no bones about this), and can't resist continually beating the reader over the head with it. Even when I agree with a lot of what he says, it's very annoying to be reading an interesting passage about tribal prayer ritual and have him go off on a screed about how much better this is than traditional patriarchal western spritless yada yada yada... again.

Furthermore, he seems unable to list an ingredient without mentioning how it cures every disease known to man ('studies have shown') and that 'growing number of scientists' are 'just beginning to realize' how far superior this ingredient is to anything science has ever been able to produce. It gets old very quickly.

In spite of my negativity here, he has gathered a lot of fascinating information. If you love the idea of 'Beer Soup for the Soul', this book is absolutely for you. Or if you're looking for some neat information on the history of brewing, and you can stand wading through what my friend calls, less charitably the 'hippie dippie crap', give it a look.