Review: Good Beer Guide to New England
When people ask when the next edition of the Beer Lovers Guide to the USA will appear we simply smile and point out a need that was so apparent a dozen years ago continues to be nicely filled today by a growing number of regional guides, the latest of which is Andy Crouch’s The Good Beer Guide to New England.
This is a big country and beer is a regional product - that’s why regional guides have always made more sense for the United States. The UK has two excellent guides that are published annually, the Good Pub Guide and CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide but when you look at a map of England then how far it is from Houston to El Paso you realize why that’s possible.
That’s not to say that Crouch didn’t log a few miles. The book includes information on almost 100 New England breweries plus still more tips for pleasant New England beer traveling.
It takes some inspiration from the terrific trio of guides from Lew Bryson - Pennsylvania Breweries, New York Breweries and Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Breweries - in that Crouch picks a best beer from each brewery, lists outstanding nearby beer spots, gives you a sense of what to expect in the way of food and beer when the brewery is also a restaurant, etc.
Of course it wouldn’t matter a hill of beans if the recommendations sucked. Based upon what we know about the places described they are solid. And the fact that Crouch doesn’t rave about every brewery is a relief.
(One advantage of writing the Beer Lovers Guide is that when we didn’t like a place we simply didn’t write about it. When you do a guide to a region you have to include everybody - reservations included.)
The strength of the book is simply solid reporting, paying attention to detail and figuring out the right stuff to tell us - and, fortunately, understanding beer.
Writing about Heather Ale from Amherst, Mass. Brewing Co., he notes: “While many brewer have attempted this obscure style, where the heather plant replace hopes at the counterbalance to malt, Amherst’s offering is one of few that results in anything other than an unpalatable experiment gone horribly wrong.”
And about the brewpub itself, just as you’re headed on to the next entry, he writes: “Two particular notes are the attractive, original neon sign for Hampden Ales that hangs over the long, 30-seat wraparound bar, and the mosaic tile of two clinking beer mugs center in the middle of the restaurant’s floor.”
Given our bias toward taprooms, it’s not surprising we’re glad that he broke out a list of top beer bars that goes beyond “other attractions.” But while the essays on appreciating beer and about how to brew beer are well written we’ll be glad when a publisher doesn’t feel it is necessary to include primer-related information in every beer book.
Message to editors and publishers: You don’t have to hedge your bets. We’re grown up beer drinking girls and boys. When you read a book about wine or wineries we don’t expect to see a primer explaining hang time. Yes, some wine books include educational tips, but at some point you have to be bold and stand on the basic content - in this case a guide to breweries and brewpubs. This book already delivers what it promises.
