Customer Reviews

Travels with Barley: A Journey Through Beer Culture in America

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm not much of a beer drinker but this is a terrific book. Wells is an entertaining writer and also a good reporter and observer of human nature. You learn tons about the beer industry but he is clearly most interested in beer people, the quirkier the better. By the time you finish the chapter on Extreme Beer, you will understand practically all you need to know about the microbrew business but also why it attracts the kind of people who could be running companies in Silicon Valley. I had no idea I would want to read an entire chapter about beer yeast but I couldn't put it down. The trip down the River of Beer meanwhile is fun and a nicely paced travelogue. He ends up in one of my favorite cities New Orleans and his essay about its drinking proclivities is very, very funny (and true.) I highly recommend this book. It will make a great stocking stuffer this Christmas.

Wells is smooth writer with a good sense of humor and a talent for telling a good story. I'll admit I'm what he calls a beer geek but you don't have to be a beer geek to enjoy this book. He ambles down the Mississippi River searching for The Perfect Beer Joint but he finds some nice slices of the real America along the way. His encounters with various "Beer Goddesses" are pretty hilarious. He peels off the river and discovers a place called Beervana and people who spend their free time poaching beer yeast. The book is full of good travel writing. And if you do like beer and are interested in the subject, this is a great book to get up to speed on beer in America as it stands today. Wells is a real reporter and the book is filled with stats and observations but never in a dull way. You'll learn about the evolution of the beer joint, why Budweiser rules American beer and why the Mayflower REALLY landed at Plymouth Rock.

I have borrowed the title for this review from another reviewer, who I completely agree with.

First, the book is fairly entertaining and has a lot of info about beer, the beer industry, the popularity of home-brewing, etc.

That said, the book suffered from the following major flaws:

1) the author was supposedly seeking to find the "perfect beer joint" and drove down the Mississippi from Minnesota to New Orleans to conduct this search. Actually this "search" was totally perfunctory and uninspired--he essentially drove to a new town every day, stopped in one or two bars, usually in the middle of the day when no one was around, asked the same question ("what is the perfect beer joint?" to whoever he happened to bump into there, and then moved on to the next town. Often the people he met said things like "you have to come back tomorrow to go to bar x or meet person y", but no matter, he was on an expense-account determined schedule and would leave the next morning for the next day's tedious "adventure". I didn't count, but it sounds like in the course of this "search" he went into maybe half a dozen bars at night, on a weekend, where you might have any expectation of finding something interesting to write about.

2) While I can't say that the book is dry or overly boring, it is almost completely devoid of actual humour, which I found difficult to believe. When you're writing about beer, bars, and drunks, it seems inevitable that some pretty funny stuff would creep in, but such is not the case.

CONCLUSION: This book was evidently conceived and executed as a quicky, check-the-box type of exercise rather than a true labor of love. This is a book that begs to be written by someone like Bill Bryson.

TMR

This is not a perfect effort but Wells has written a damned fine book that I think will go down as a beer classic. First of all, he's obviously a good reporter and an honest broker and he does a remarkable job of synthesizng beer's place in both contemporary and historical America. Second, contrary to a statement or two by some reviewers below, Wells is NOT a beer snob and in fact takes pains to explain why Bud got to be so popular and lager came to rule the beer world; he does both without being dismissive of lager or lager drinkers. As a beer geek myself I probably would have liked to have seen a little less travel writing and a little more attention paid to craft beer. But his chapters on yeast and yeast smuggling, home brew competitions and what he calls Extreme Beer are excellent and, by the way, first-class magazine journalism.

Wells has done a great deal of good for good beer in America while writing with wit and style about God's favorite beverage. But his is a catholic approach, which means it's not just about the craft-brew movement. He does a nice job of bringing readers up to date on how beer achieved its exalted place in contemporary America (as the book notes, it outsells wine and spirits seven to one.) Some chapters really stand out: his take on the Extreme Beer Movement is wonderful and his exploration of the subcult of beer-yeast rustlers is excellent and virtually unexplored territory in beer literature. But Wells also doesn't forget Norm of Cheers in the Bud bars across America and writes with empathy and humor about the America he sees "through the prism of a beer glass."

I heard Wells speak in April at the Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia. He was hilarious and I bought his book afterward and definitely got my money's worth. He tells a good story (often with humor) and though I consider myself reasonably knowledgeable about beer, I learned a great deal. It's pretty evident he cares about the subject. Wells is a nice writer and the book never slows down. You come away with a good sense of beer's place at the American table.

I agree with the other reviewers that have rated this book low (3 stars or less) - the supposed mission that the author was on is completely blown by his choice of territory to cover and his personal schedule. This is like reading about the authors vacation - driving from small town to small town and going out for a beer each day. Let me tell you, this gets repetitive very quickly.

The only thing I learned from this book are some towns to avoid if I am looking for a flavorful craft-brewed beer.

Wells is the first person to attempt this kind of beer book and I think he succeeds wonderfully. Neophites can learn a lot about beer and the craft brew movement (not to mention a nicely delivered short history of beer in the world and America) and the beer savvy will like his chapters on Extreme Beer, yeast rustlers and a home brewing contest. Meanwhile, if you like travelogue there's lot of tasty stuff in there. The first chapter on a "beer spill" at a legendary Florida beach bar is funny and informative and Wells' trip down the Mississippi River in search of the perfect beer joint is a nice ride. Perusing the reviewer before me who declared the book "awful" I can't help but think: it's not that Wells can't write. It's that some reviewers can't read!

Even though it was stated that a goal of this book was to find a perfect beer joint, the true essence of this book (as the TITLE depicts) is to show Beer Culture in America.
It is an entertaining read spotted with humor. I don't think Ken demonizes the American Lager Style and, in fact, drinks his share of those industrial beers along his journey. But he does prove that there's far more being brewed in the US than tasteless yellow beer.
This book is great for anyone who enjoys beer, whether you're a beer geek, brewer, beer judge, or just occasional sipper.

Sharp, smart, funny book. Nice reportage. It's strength is its determination to write about the big universe of beer in an engaging way. (No one has actually attempted to do this before.) Wells made it plain at the outset that he wasn't trying to write a tasting or pub guide or a technical tome about beer (there's already a million of 'em, most of them dreadfully dull.)But the best chapters in Barley in fact have to do with beergeekiness and Wells' ability to explain the beergeeks and their passions to the rest of world. The travelog is smooth and it isn't a bad thing to know (even for a geek like myself) what the national beer drinkers are thinking and doing. I've bought one for a Bud drinking friend and I'm buying another for my dad for father's day.