Good Beer Guide West Coast USA: Including Las Vegas, Alaska and Hawaii

As a (sort of) native I can't fault this guide in including nearly every beer emporium that I've found. However, California is a big place and there are plenty in the south of the state (I'm in Oakland) that I've never visited. That said the guide goes a little whacky when it gets to San Francisco! Yes, all the main places are there, but it as if the authors finally fed up with wholesome air-conditioned micro-beer places, suddenly let their hair down and partied. Many of the venues, especially in the Mission district of San Francisco, are simply not beer bars. Visiting many of these for the first time, the bar staff just laughed when I told them that they were in a British beer guide! All the same essential reading.

I run a small brewing web site (BS Brewing: the Champagne of Blogs) and consider myself extremely knowledgeable about Portland's brewing scene, and couldn't believe two Britons could nail it so soundly. Just about everything you could possibly want to know about Oregon beer is in this book, and I haven't even sampled the other states (Alaska, Hawaii, Las Vegas, California, Washington ...) yet. Sharp, witty writing with great background stories (the McMenamins empire, the Horse Brass, Bridgeport and Widmer) and very current reviews (Hopworks Urban Brewery). Sadly, a few favorites are missing, including the Green Dragon and Produce Row, but everything else you could want to know about beer in Portland is here. HIGHLY recommended.