Product Description

Encompassing brewery locations throughout the UK, this is a guide to all the commercially produced real ales from small rural breweries to city-based concerns. Brews as quirky as "Skullsplitter" from Orkney, "Blunderbuss" from Warrington, "Devil's Water" from Hexham and "Monkey Wrench" from Harrogate line up alongside giants such as Burton Festival Ale, Marston's Bitter and Boddingtons. Ingredients are given where available, along with details of reception facilities at each brewery and tasting notes to help the beginner understand the nuances and flavours of the various ales.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #294964 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .54 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Intense smoky character in the mouth; toffee and coffee in the dry finish." No, it's not someone describing their favourite, purple-wrapped Quality Street. It's a dark ruby ale from Springhead Brewery in Newark as described by Roger Protz in his fifth edition of the Real Ale pocketbook.

There are, no doubt, thousands of beer lovers around the country and this is aimed at the enthusiast. Protz, who won the 1997 Glenfiddich Drink Writer of the Year award for his beer writing, lists around 300 breweries with helpful notes on each of their products. The listings are broken down into rather large regions (Scotland, Central England etc.) and one of the book's downfalls for travellers is a lack of even the most general map. A note of the whereabouts of the nearest decent pub to each brewery might also have been useful.

Having said that, if you fancy a trip around any part of Britain and want to take in a few breweries, the book is invaluable. There are details of guided tours and reception centres and, if you're a bit of a novice, there is a short introduction to what beer's all about. And you might just discover that particular brew with a "spicy orange hoppiness". --Nick Tarayan