Our planet earth is truly a mesmerizing place. With so many natural wonders, man- made structures, and incredibly diverse culture, it’s not surprising that world travel is such a large and growing industry. The craft beer movement is also growing and the number of breweries worldwide continues to skyrocket, prompting many people to schedule brewery tours as part of their vacation itinerary. Lonely Planet keeps a watchful eye on all things travel and the preponderance of breweries across the globe has resulted in the publication of this new book, Lonely Planet’s Global Beer Tour.
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Around the World
Lonely Planet’s Global Beer Tour is a travel guide to some of the world’s best breweries and it wastes little time moving directly to the action. The book begins with a short introduction followed by a couple of pages covering ingredients and a pair of pages discussing the brewing process. It then launches on its world tour, taking the reader on a malty and hoppy journey through the world’s top beer- producing and beer- loving nations.
This beer guide is sorted by continent, with sections for Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Within each continent, breweries are presented with brewery bios, listed in alphabetical order by country. Between the continents, there are a couple pages dedicated to assorted trivia, like hangover cures, great ale trails, etc. But the book is mainly about the different countries of the world where beer culture is an important part of life and it wastes no time directing the curious traveler to the best breweries to visit in each nation.
With the listings, the guide tells you what services you can expect to find at the brewery (food, bar, tour, takeout, etc) along with a short summary of the brewery and what it offers. Each listing provides either 2 or 4 Things to do Nearby, with web site links, in some instances. A percentage of the listings receive a full page of coverage while others receive only half a page. And the book is loaded with illustrations throughout, with at least one picture with each of the spotlighted breweries.
Brewery by Brewery
Travel is important to us at Great Beer Now. We try to incorporate beer into all of our travel plans and often consult the internet or reputable publications to guide us on our drinking way. Lonely Planet is certainly a reputable company for travel, and Global Beer Tour is a useful guide to help travelers discover the best beer the world has to offer.
With this reference guide, world travelers can discover new breweries including some of the more unique, historical, and otherwise fascinating places that dedicate themselves to the magical art of water, malt, hops, and yeast. All you do is turn to a specific region of the world, lookup a country, and discover brewery after brewery, just waiting to be visited and explored. The extra listings of things to do is also nice, for it helps make a beer excursion better rounded by directing travelers to local points of interest.
The illustrations in Global Beer Tour are nice and I like that they include at least one picture for every brewery in the book. No matter how vivid a written description might be, it’s always a plus when a picture is presented. The quick summary of the services at each brewery is also handy because it equips the traveler with the minimal information needed to make every brewery visit a success.
I would like to conclude this review on a high note and immediately recommend this book as the definitive guide to world beer travel, but I cannot quite go there for several reasons. The greatest issue I have with Global Beer Tour is one that will be obvious to any beer/brewery aficionado who picks up this book and glances at a few sections. That most glaring of problems is the lack of breweries mentioned in the book, and some of the omissions really had me shaking my head. Where this problem is most glaring is in the United States. Now, I realize the good old US of A has thousands of breweries and every brewery and city cannot possibly be covered. But how do you leave out a beer and brewing powerhouse like Philadelphia? I had to go back and check a second time to make sure I didn’t overlook it, but Philadelphia gets no mention at all. Yes, the book does give nods to Austin, TX; Asheville, NC; Bend, OR; Portland, OR; San Diego, CA; and Denver, CO and others so it does make mention of what are arguably the greatest American beer cities. But far too many cities are given no mention at all, like Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia, and stated before.
The other issue I have with Global Beer Tour is that the brewery listings and information seem like exercises in brevity. They are far too brief- only a few short paragraphs at most and they inform you mainly of what to expect when you visit, like hours of operation, tasting room essentials, beers to make sure you try, trivia facts, etc. This is good information, but there is much more that someone like me wants to know. I want to feel compelled to visit a brewery. I want hear things that present a more personal, intimate dimension that induces a sense of inspiration, and anticipation. This guide offers some good information as a whole, but it sticks with things that are more general and trivial in nature.
Book Your Trip
Traveling for beer is a regular part of life for me and I like to consult resources, both online and in print, to assist with my agenda and overall travel planning. Lonely Planet’s Global Beer Tour is a reasonably good book overall, with nice illustrations and useful information that can help lead you to some of the best beer the world has to offer. If the listings were more complete and more cities and breweries were included, the guide would be much more satisfying, but it’s still a respectable effort from the folks at Lonely Planet and could come in handy for the beer tourists among us.
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