Ultimate Beer

This is a large, coffee-table sized book on nice, glossy paper with beautiful photos and graphics. Those of you who know Jackson as a beer and scotch writer need no introduction to him, but for those of you who won't, Jackson has authored numerous books on single-malt whisky and beer and starred in and wrote the "The Beer Hunter" TV series, where he travelled the world in search of great beers.Jackson puts his vast knowledge of beer to work in this very attractive work. There is a tremendous amount of enjoyable detail, history, tasting notes, and other information in this book. In contrast to some of his other books, this one is more topically organized--that is, there are sections on many of the different types and styles of beers, "Winter Warmers" (i.e., the bock beers), "Strong Ales," and "Belgian Wheats"-- and so on. Also interestingly, the later sections are on picking beers to go well with foods, and there are separate sections on seafood, beef, poultry, etc. These sections take up perhaps one-third of the book.The layout and writing is well organized and fits well with the graphics on each page. Each section has an introductory paragraph or two to introduce the style of beer, giving the basic facts and some history. Then the rest of the area on each page shows photos of prominent examples of each beer with descriptions, including historical info on the brewery and tasting notes. Over 450 important beers are pictured and discussed, making this a veritable treasure trove of fun information on all types of beer. Overall another great beer book from Jackson, and if I had to pick one beer book from him to have, this would probably be it.

I own almost 10 books on beer, and this book has by far the best photographs in it. Hundreds of beers are shown in the bottle and in a full glass from the respective brewery. The beginning of the book has a nice intro to beer if you are not familiar with the process of brewing. The featured beers are chosen by the occasion which suits the style of beer. I have tried about half of the beers featured and most of them have been excellent. Michael Jackson includes helpful information such as serving temp and alcohol content for each beer. I hope you enjoy this book as much I do.

I LOVE "Ultimate Beer." My friends at work have been passing it around and I doubt I'll ever get the book back. The recipes are unique and challenging and I plan to try some out when I can get the book away from my boss.

Wow! I can't imagine a better book than this is you love beer. The photographs are incredible and the text doesn't put you to sleep with a lot of unecessary detail.The book is arranged by specific catagories so finding what your'e looking for is superbly easy. And the index is incredibly extensive.Included with the decriptions are recipes, and tasting techniques which are quite informative. This book will definately get you to try something new.Highly recommended.

Thank heavens another Jackson book is out. We can only hope that it will displace that last slot containing Bob Klein dribble on bookstore shelves. Apparently someone has been placing false posts in support of Bob Klein. Whoever is doing this please at least attach your email in the future. I think the brewing community would like to have a word with you.