My Beer Year: Adventures with Hop Farmers, Craft Brewers, Chefs, Beer Sommeliers, and Fanatical Drinkers as a Beer Master in Training

by Lucy Burningham

Overview

A love note to all things beer—appreciating the history, craftsmanship, and taste of craft beer, as told by an aspiring beer sommelier
 
As a journalist spurred by curiosity and thirst, Lucy Burningham made it her career to write about craft beer, traveling to hop farms, attending rare beer–tasting parties, and visiting as many taprooms, breweries, and festivals as possible. With this as her introduction, Lucy decided to take her relationship with beer to the next level: to become a certified beer expert.

As Lucy studies and sips her way to becoming a Certified Cicerone, she meets an eclectic cast of characters, including brewers, hop farmers, beer sommeliers, pub owners, and fanatical beer drinkers. Her journey into the world of beer is by turns educational, social, and personal—just as enjoying a good beer should be.


“Part history, part travelogue, and part tasting notes, this charming, beer-soaked memoir is a must-read for anyone who ever ordered a pint and wished they knew more.”
—Amy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780834840539
Publisher:	Shambhala
Publication date:	10/25/2016
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	952 KB

About the Author

LUCY BURNINGHAM has written about craft beer and beer culture for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bon Appétit, Saveur, Sunset, Epicurious.com, Men's Journal, Imbibe and multiple Lonely Planet titles, including Washington, Oregon & the Pacific Northwest and Food Lover's Guide to the World. She has worked as a journalist for the past 15 years and holds a master's degree in nonfiction writing from Portland State University. Lucy has given presentations and conducted beer tastings at food and drink festivals, Powell's Books, and more. She is a member of the Pink Boots Society, the beer industry's professional organization for women. She hopes that one day her homebrew will be good enough to share with friends.

Editorial Reviews

Part history, part travelogue, and part tasting notes, this charming, beer-soaked memoir is a must-read for anyone who ever ordered a pint and wished they knew more.”
—Amy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist

“We all come to expertise bit by bit, pulled forward by the curiosity of discovery. Lucy Burningham takes us on her own journey in a story that functions at once as an introduction to and loving memoir of beer. I was particularly drawn to her experiences as a woman entering this masculine world; her observations offer a fresh perspective we rarely encounter in books about beer.”
—Jeff Alworth, author of Secrets of the Master Brewers and The Beer Bible

“Learning about beer can be delicious but daunting. Thankfully we have Lucy Burningham’s bold new book to guide us. Her engaging and witty voyage into the most exotic beer styles reveals not only the mysteries of these innovative brews but Burningham’s own curious, fearless, and ultimately triumphant voice. Enjoyable, illuminating, and smoothly written, My Beer Year whets a mighty thirst.” —Christian DeBenedetti, author of The Great American Ale Trail, coauthor of Beer Bites, and founder of Wolves & People Farmhouse Brewery, Newberg, OR

From the Publisher

10/15/2016
Unique among current offerings on beer, this book is written by a woman who sought the Master Cicerone certification (akin to a high-level sommelier) and needed to understand everything about the beverage, from creation to service. Burningham, a journalist in the beer epicenter of Portland, OR, takes us through her adventures (bottling a homemade stout for giving at Christmas) and misadventures (five hours of rescuing a towed car in Brussels). A chapter devoted to the fragrant matter of growing hops and purchasing them is a good example of how this title stands out by digging into places that don't often get as much attention. The author is by turns amusing and self-effacing, and the support she gets from her family and from the community of beer makers around her is a delight to read. VERDICT More than the usual insight into beer from someone who is eminently qualified to write about it. A solid choice where books on beverages are popular.—Peter Hepburn, Coll. of the Canyons Lib., Santa Clarita, CA

Library Journal