The Brewmaster's Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food

by Garrett Oliver

Winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Award for Best Cookbook in the Wine, Beer or Spirits category. Garrett Oliver, award-winning Brewmaster and Vice President of Production of the Brooklyn Brewery, recognized by Gourmet Magazine as a “passionate epicure and talented alchemist”, reveals the full spectrum of flavors contained in the more than 50 distinct styles of beer from around the world. Most importantly, he shows how beer, which is far more versatile than wine, intensifies flavors when it’s appropriately paired with foods to create a dining experience most people have never imagined. Garrett, along with photographer Denton Tillman, traveled throughout Europe visiting fellow brewmasters to trace the beers of the world to their sources. Back in the States, he met with the star chefs he has advised about beer. The resulting book is a motherload of information, lushly illustrated with Tillman’s gorgeous photographs of the world’s best beers and the breweries that produce them. Above all, THE BREWMASTER’S TABLE is a new way of thinking about beer – one that will bring this under-appreciated brew to the status it deserves. Whether it’s a Belgian wheat beer with a simple salad, a Brooklyn Pilsner to wash down spicy tacos, a pale ale alongside a porcini risotto with foie gras, or even a Framboise to accompany a dark chocolate brownie, beer is the perfect complement to any dining experience, at home in front of the TV or in a four-star restaurant. He explains how beer is made, shows you its fascinating history, and then leads you through the amazing range of flavors displayed by the dozens of distinct styles of beer from around the world. Finally, he suggests beer pairings that will please your tastebuds and blow your mind.  Whether you’re a beer aficionado, a passionate cook, or just someone who loves a great dinner, this book will indeed be a revelation.

Genres: Beer, Food, Nonfiction, Brewing, Food and Drink, Cooking, Reference

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Garrett Oliver is the Brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery in New York City and one of the foremost authorities in the world on the subject of beer. A host of more than 700 tasting and pairing events in 12 countries over the past two decades, he is perhaps best known as the author of the award-winning book The Brewmaster’s Table. He has made many appearances on television and in other media, writes regularly for food and beer-related periodicals, and is a veteran judge of professional brewing competitions. His principal occupation is the creation of The Brooklyn Brewery’s well-regarded range of beers.

Garrett was a founding Board member of Slow Food USA and later became a member of the Board of Counselors of Slow Food International. He was also a 2009 and 2010 finalist for the James Beard Award as “Outstanding Wine or Spirits Professional.”
His last book, The Brewmaster’s Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food, first published by HarperCollins in May, 2003, was the winner of a 2004 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Book Award and was a finalist for the 2004 James Beard Foundation Book Awards. The Brewmaster’s Table was released in a paperback edition in May of 2005.

Garrett is a graduate of Boston University and holds a degree in Broadcasting and Film. He was the recipient of the 1998 Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation and Excellence in Brewing, the 2003 Semper Ardens Award for Beer Culture (Denmark) and Cheers Beverage Media’s “Beverage Innovator of the Year” Award for 2006. In 2007, Forbes named him one of the top ten tastemakers in the country for wine, beer and spirits.

Garrett Oliver’s latest book is The Oxford Companion to Beer, published in September, 2011 by Oxford University Press; he is Editor-in-Chief. Covering more than 1,100 subjects, it is the most comprehensive reference book on beer ever published.

Reviews

[Eli - Bookworm & Vine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Very good conversational writing style.

[Yaaresse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some decent information in here on beer styles and pairing with food, but most of the content is overshadowed by the author being so full of himself and his opinions that it was hard to get to them through his arrogance. Newsflash: it's possible to appreciate both beer AND wine. Second newsflash: there is a difference between making a point and coming off as a complete jackass. Chances are I will never open the book again because the author's tone is so off-putting and full of condescension. I'd rather drink "bad" beer than put up with a blowhard.

I'm giving it three stars based on content only. Written by someone possessing more interest in sharing information than with the "I"m an expert" ego, it could easily have been four stars or more.

[Lana Svitankova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Поетично про їжу і пиво? Вам сюди.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally a book with an author that agrees with me that wine is a bit overrated. Wine is seen as sophisticated and beer is thought of as blue-collar. Beer is more difficult to make and requires some thought when choosing the ingredients. A brewer can't blame a bad beer on a "bad season" the way a winemaker can. Good beers have much more complexity and depth of flavor than any wine can. You can find a beer that can pair well with any dish. The same can't be said of wine. This book does a great job elevating beer back to the position it deserves. Our oldest ancestors were drinking beer long before they were drinking wine.

[Jim Razinha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was to add to the knowledge base, even though I'm not a fan of Oliver's Brooklyn Brewery and I dislike most of the styles he crows about. Even though this was published in 2003, it still has value with respect to suggestions. He does a good job with descriptions, and food pairings (something that always makes me laugh, whether wine or beer related), and isn't shy at all about recommending his own brewery's beers as "notable producers" of the various styles he covers...most of which I've tried (the recommendations, that is...not the current menu) and not been impressed by, by the way, but that's because my tastes are my tastes.

I am so not a lager or Belgian drinker, and he gushes the crap out of them. Most of the book is a lovefest with Euro beers, almost all of which I really cannot stand (Flemish oud bruins are an exception), but for those who do like them, the book will give you some good, albeit dated, tips. I wasn't keen on his treatment of American beers, though he wasn't unkind - just not as ebullient as he was for the lagers and ...cringe...English beers. Oh My Flying Spaghetti Monster! We are so far apart on our evaluation of Irish stouts! Recognizing that so much has changed on the American craft canvas since 2003, I'm amused at most of his "notable" American breweries are second tier in my assessments - Anchor, Ommegang (third tier), Victory, Goose Island, ... Brooklyn... Well, I know I am at odds with many fans, but as I said above...my tastes. I do think I need to explore some lambics. I've only had two - two individual beers - to date. I will be touring central Europe in the fall and though I will try Czech and Austrian beers just because, I'm steeling myself in advance.

Snobbery is in the eye of the beer holder. Your mileage may vary. Regardless of whether you agree with Oliver on his likes and recommendations, and though it is old in terms of modern craft, this is still a good addition to the toolbox.

[Geoff Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful compendium on beer styles and food pairings. Author is very knowledgeable about subject, often augmenting information with good stories and beautiful photographs.

Nitpicks:

* Book was published in 2003, so some beer specifics are outdated. San Diego breweries are woefully underrepresented, although this makes sense given time frame.
* Foods presented tend to be very European-centric. Again, this is understandable given that much of what we think of as beer culture comes from Europe. Among Asian cuisines, only Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian receive much coverage. As a matter of personal taste I am far more likely to eat yukgaejang or pancit than foie gras or carbonade flamande. That being said, conceptual frameworks provided by author can be applied to any foods. It requires a little more effort from reader, which ultimately may not be a bad thing.
* Prose gets a bit purple in places. To use a beer analogy, it's malt-forward, with insufficient hops to keep it from becoming cloying.

These are first-world problems, I know. Book could use an update, but even as is, it provides a tremendous resource for anyone interested in beer, food, and pairings. I'm sure I'll be referring to it often.

[Ian Hrabe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garrett Oliver is obviously very passionate about beer. He's also obviously very good at making beer if you've ever had anything from Brooklyn Brewery (their Monster Ale Barleywine is one of my all time favorites and their Brooklyn Lager is one of my go-tos if I can find it). However, this book needs to be about half the size because while it has some really useful information, it's a bit of a slog. It doesn't help that Oliver has about 8-10 descriptors he uses ad nauseum. Like, never in my life did I expect every other Belgian beer to be described as having an aroma of "horse blankets." However, if you're interested in beer, this is worth having on the shelf to consult as needed.

[Jukka Kuva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brewmaster's Table is a beer encyclopedia type book by Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery. It lists all styles of beer, according to how Oliver sees them, along with food pairings for each and notable producers of each. It's a rather thorough investigation at the multitudes of beer and offers many useful tips in pairing beer with food. Oliver's enthusiasm for everything related to beer and good food really shines through from the text, as does his all American ability to market things. The result is a rather entertaining and informative read, that is recommended for anyone interested in finding different beers to match with food.

[JM · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this one. It starts off explaining what beer is and its history, and then it delves into most major beer styles and discusses how to pair them with food, including practical examples of specific dishes and actual beers down to the brand. The narration is engaging and full of interesting anecdotes, and for the most part avoids being too technical. I also liked that it includes some tables and annexes for easy reference, which makes attempting your own pairings much easier. I actually shared a copy of this one with a friend who's a chef and mentioned that he was interested in trying his hand at doing food/beer pairings instead of using wine, and he was very happy with it.

[Matthew Janega · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I hadn’t gone into this book knowing what I know about beer, it would likely be revelationary. A fun read with great information for anyone looking to pull increased enjoyment out of their beer experiences. Cheers. 🍻

[Xenothaulus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! This book has really changed my appreciation for beer and food.

[Nikhil · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exhaustive exploration of pairing beer with food. A little preachy at times, but very thorough in scope. Includes a handy reference guide at the end!

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book about beer. It goes into the history of many styles and even flavor pairings. It's also just a fun, compelling, and informative read, even if you're not into beer.

[Adam Best · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very knowledgeable about beer and food pairings I would never think of.

[Samuel Gaeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read. Could get boring for beers I don’t care about.

[Gordon Monaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A but dated, especially with regards to American beer developments. Also, it seems almost any beer is well-suited to spicy crab cakes, pork, or a good crème brûlée. Somewhat repetitive.

[Aldean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, what a glorious thing it is to find a guide as knowledgedable and enthusiastic as this to a subject so vital and potentially confusing! For serious beer lovers of all ages this book is a treasure of information and inspiration: a brief history of beer and descripton of the brewing process, a well-thought-out primer to the various taste elements that combine to make the beer experience without getting too snobby, and then the bulk of the book: a style-by-style guide to a sizeable number of the world's great beers, with extensive suggestions for food pairings with not just each style but often with each individual brewery's product within that style. All along the way he writes with a warm, familiar voice, peppering his prose with historical tidbits, personal anecdotes, and lots of info about beer. It would be hard to imagine a more complete or enjoyable beer education contained between two covers.

At times Oliver can be a little too enthusiastic about his beloved beverage, and he can't seem to restrain himself from making snide little digs at wine aficionados every dozen pages or so. He definitely knows he is preaching to the choir, but effuses (there is no other word for it) about the perfection of every food-beer pairing with a fervent zeal that is impressive and genuine but also a bit comical after a couple hundred pages of it.

If you love beer in all its beautiful varitey, then you should defintiely own this book. If you don't, keep this in mind for the beer-lover on your next gift list.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A review on the jacket describes this as a "delightfully erudite tome". Erudite is really the perfect adjective to encapsulate the spirit of this book. Garrett Oliver has a passion for beer that borders on hedonistic. If your are able to stick with him, it's a passion that quickly becomes infectious. But be warned, this is not a book to be taken lightly. It is not simply a guide to beer and food as the name might imply, it is an encyclopedia of beer, a veritable beer appreciation course in a book. Stylistically, there is a certain amount of repetition from section to section, so one does better to take the book in small chunks. Some may find Oliver's descriptions of beers pretentious, but personally I found them poetic. How else can one describe the sensation of eating or drinking without poetry? No two people can experience food or drink the same way, so there is no point in being dry and pragmatic. After all, this book is about the joy of beer not the formula.

I've enjoyed beer for a long time, but I can honestly say that after this book I am a changed man. I feel as though I have a solid understanding of all the styles of beer being brewed, who the major producers are domestically and abroad, and how best to pair their brews with food. It's been a joy to share Oliver's passion. If you are a beer drinker, and looking to expand your knowledge on your beverage of choice, you really can't do better than this book.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although it took two attempts separated by over a year for me to read the entirety of The Brewmaster's Table, it was time very well spent. Garrett Oliver has written the best book I've read on beer and food pairing. In addition, it's a fantastic introduction to how beer is made, including in depth discussions of the most important styles.

If you're not a huge fan of beer, I recommend initially reading it quickly. The parts to skim quickly are the stories about the breweries that produce exemplars of each style. Then, use the book as a reference when you decide you're ready to learn more about a specific beer style. Otherwise, I think the size of the book would be too daunting for the less serious fan.

One thing I didn't get was his repeated attacks on pairing wine with food. If you haven't had good wine with good food before, you might walk away thinking that the best wine pairings to most foods are just okay, and that there are only a few great pairings. While I do generally find it easier to pair beer with food, I've also had many great pairings of wine with food. Beer does have significant advantages in the wider variety of aroma, flavor, body, sourness (lots to none), bitterness, and alcohol content.

When my long threatened app for beer and food pairing is complete, there will be no doubt that it was influenced by ideas in The Brewmaster's Table.

[A-ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

My feelings for this book are a bit mixed. It was a lively read and Garrent Oliver's passion for beer propels this book forward on every page. It's that same passion that keeps this book from being great. He's almost too in love with beer. Seemingly, every combination is amazing. From his constant defensiveness of beer's food- friendliness, it seems that Garret has spent many hours of his life arguing with wine lovers over the merits of beer, which is fine, but I don't need him to claim that beer is better than wine on every paragraph. He deeply explores the history and flavors of a variety of styles (I can't think of any glaring omissions) and gives great, but limited recommendations of what fits with each. I thought the book was a bit Brooklyn Brewery-centric, but this is liberty granted when the author is its brewmaster. I'm not a huge fan of his beers, but he clearly has a fine palate and his love for beer is certainly contagious. It is not a user-friendly reference (consulting important questions of what works involves many pages of reading). I feel it lacks a section on the theories and goals of pairings, but after reading the whole book, I'm sure most will be able to piece this together. This is a fine, engaging ode to the wonders of this versatile beverage.

[Derek Wolfgram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given that this was published 10 years ago before the craft beer phenomenon really took off in the US to the degree it has now, the book is quite insightful and chock full of excellent tips on pairing food with as wide variety of beer styles. I like the emphasis on both complementary and contrasting flavor profiles that make for good pairings. And the historical context for the evolution of styles in different parts of the world is quite interesting. For that reason, I highly recommend it for either beer or food connoisseurs. However, the constant references (sometimes more than once per page) to wine's inadequacies for food pairing are obnoxious. Just make the case for beer and leave wine out of it! The third time Oliver mentions that zinfandel definitively does NOT pair with chocolate was three mentions too many. (This is not the only sin of repetition - I lost count of Oliver's musings about whether carbonnade flamande or moules frites should be considered the national dish of Belgium.) If the beer content wasn't so good, I'd knock off another star for Oliver's beerier-than-thou attitude. I guess the idiosyncrasy of the book is both its greatest strength and weakness.

[Rajiv Chopra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book. As a beer drinker, I was never a great fan of wine, but never had the courage to admit it. I have always been a great fan of the beers in Germany. Sadly, I have never had the opportunity to travel much in Belgium but I have had some of their marvellous beers.

Garret brings beer to life in this book. However, I sometimes did wonder if he was being a bit unfair to wine at times. The wonderful range and complexity of beer shines through in this book, and I absolutely love the way that he tells the tale of the various beer traditions. This brings beer to life.

The sections on pairing with food are fantastic, and the afterword is essential, especially if you want to know the temperatures at which to have beer.

Glasses. This is something most people completely miss, and it is a shame. Having beer in the appropriate glass is critical.

All in all, a superb book. Well written, and a great service to beer drinkers like me.

Now, all Garret needs to do, is to open a good microbrewery in Gurgaon, India!

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good starter in quest for a greater understanding of beer in general and specifically in its use with food. The anecdotes and history of some of the breweries were interesting but not terribly helpful in my goal of understanding pairing better. And some of the beer descriptions were similarly steeped in history rather than descriptions and processes. I also didn't care for his structure of going beer by beer within each style and telling me what they would pair well with. I need something that breaks down the flavors in beer and explains how each affects the pairing, but I still thought this book gave me some excellent background and a fuller appreciation of the grand breadth of beers.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed through a lot of the portions telling me about "the pleasures of real beer with real food," both because there's an index in the back and because it seemed like he only referenced like 10 different dishes in the entire book (probably 4-5 of which I don't ever see myself eating). There is so much good information about different brewing traditions, beer styles, and top breweries, though, and that makes this totally worth the read. I'll also probably always keep it handy to reference one thing or another.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

A helpful, though not spectacular, guide to beer and pairing it with food. I did not read it cover to cover, and don't believe it is meant to be read that way -- it is one part encyclopedia and one part cook book.

The author, the master brewer at Brooklyn Brewery, certainly knows his stuff. His prose is easy to read, which certainly doesn't hurt. He also has a sense of humor, which is at its finest when he gently mocks wine snobs and the pairing of certain food with wine.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic review of the history of different beer styles around the world, and how to best enjoy them with food. If you have any interest in bringing out the best in both your food and drink, I would highly recommend this book.

My only complaint, and it is a small one, is that Mr. Oliver is at times antagonistic towards wine, and paring wine with food. This strikes me as unnecessary ~ we should all agree that the goal should be elevating both food and drink, in all forms.

[Andrew Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably THE text to read on food and beer pairings. Great insight into pairings and a solid history of beer styles. Well laid out (logical progressions), and some insights that I have never heard before. Also compares and contrasts wine vs. beer pairings. Covers most everything you would want to know. It can get a bit dry at times. Overall a great read and a must for anyone who pairs alcoholic beverages with food.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Solidly written and sure to make you think over the types of beers you drink, their history, and their complementing of what you're eating. Garret Oliver is the Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster and his knowledge and expertise shows from the start. I would have preferred more of his opinion on beers and food pairings in separate sections, but in retrospect I think it was probably more natural the way he laid it out. Some of the cuisine choices literally run the gamut but not entirely a bad thing.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information provided in this book regarding the history of beer and bewing is fascinating and highly entertaining to read. One can learn a great deal about the various styles of beer and the cultures from which they came. It is also a good resource for pairing various styles of beer with food. That being said, the content of Garrett Oiver's prose is rather pompus. He spends more time discussing his excellent taste and cullinary skills than is really necessary.

[Mo Coghlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic! The material is dense, but the presentation makes you feel like you are reading a journal of the author's travels. Oliver describes the pubs where he enjoyed the different beers and the foods that tasted amazing with them. The stories about the cast of characters met along the way is fantastic. And, the trash talk about wines not being able to compete with any of the beer pairings is very entertaining.