This book is like if your chatty British friend happens to be a major beer nerd. It seems to operate on the assumption that most people don't know that hops, barley, water, and yeast are the ingredients in beer - and that's news to me. Perhaps I'm too much of a beer nerd for the premise of the book, but I thought most people knew those parts!

Despite that initial operating assumption clashing with what I understood of the world, the reading is easy with that conversational, jokey - and did I mention, very, very British? - tone. There's some interesting stories about beer and it's ingredients, as well as the science and history behind it. Overall, it's a very un-intense way to learn about the ingredients that make up beer - you might not even notice you're learning as you go.

A super fun look into the science and history of brewing. I enjoyed getting all the background information . I am a home brewer and have read a bunch of books specifically about beer. Yet I still found things in here that were informative.

But more than that, it was simply fun and easy to read.

I have made beer before. Several batches and I fell in love with the process and the results. When I saw this book I jump to the opportunity of reading it and learning some more.
Well, it really was A LOT more. You can read the passion in every line. It takes you through history. It goes in deep into each ingredients.
It took me a long time to finish the book. I was a little over my head. The beer brewing kits I had bought on eBay years ago were like beer kindergarten.
If you are crazy passionate about beer brewing, this book is for you. If you are like me, just like the beer and like saying I did it, it might be too much.
But the book is excellent and well written.

Great resource for anyone interested in beer, the production of beer or just who are interested in the production and history of produce. This book is divided into 6 parts: the Nature of Beer, the 4 ingredients (barley, water, hops, yeast), and Reinheitsgebot. This makes it easy for the reader to start with the ingredient that interests them the most (or they know least about).

Personally I loved all of the history included in this book. It made the perfect compliment to the stories about the mechanics of making beer and it gave me a whole new appreciation of beer. It really is a piece of history that has traveled and grown with humans to become the product it is today.

I definitely recommend this to any fan of history or beer :)

Miracle Brew is a fantastic, fascinating look at the four seemingly-simple ingredients that go into every beer: barley, yeast, water and hops. Rather than a how-to for brewing or a guidebook for best beers, this book tells you the backstory - WHY humans have made and drank beer for thousands of years, and WHY we love it.

Though Brown could've gone full nerd and gotten too into the weeds to make this book accessible to anyone but the snobbiest or scientist-iest of beer lovers, he thankfully doesn't - his humorous style and interesting anecdotes (traveling to a secret farm to harvest the "Mother Field" of a prized type of barley; sneaking tastes of the most famous IPA brewing water in history) combine with the more complex topics (the scientific process behind malting; the various theories on the historical origins and discovery of brewing) to make for a thoroughly compulsive read. Beer enthusiasts will love this book; beer skeptics just might change their minds after reading it.

The only thing I would've added is photographs - I would've loved to see Warminster's malting floors, Schlenkerla pub, Budvar's "baby water" wells, and the utterly nutty-sounding Chmelfest in Zatec.

I really enjoy a good craft beer and enjoy having conversations about the beer when I am at a brewery. I have learned a lot about beers and brewing over the years, but I wanted to learn more. I hate asking too many questions. This book is divided into six sections with numerous chapters in each section. Those sections are The Nature of Beer, Barley, Water, Hops, Yeast, and Reinheitsgebot. Each of these sections is broken into various topic related chapters. While I looked to read this book to help me understand the process and history of beer, I found it a somewhat humorous read and enjoyed it more than I anticipated. There is some adult language in this books, but then it is a book about beer which should only be consumed by adults. Thank you, Mr. Brown, for an informative and humorous read on beer!

Have you ever had a conversation with someone (at a party etc) who is passionately fond of and knowledgeable about a subject? Those people I've met who are really really REALLY into something, a hobby, a passionate study of a particular subject, even the most obscure things, generally enjoy talking about them.

One of two things happen, after 20 minutes or so, you're willing to fake a heart attack to get away from them or you're suddenly catching the fever and find yourself signing up for a beginner beekeeping/water gardening/butterfly collecting/14th century Danish textile history class and thinking, 'Ok, this sounds really cool'!

This is the latter. As a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, I have brewed beer (and mead and wine etc). I'm a beekeeper, I'm a fanatical gardener, but apart from my relatively hit-or-miss forays into beer brewing, I hadn't really thought about the magical process itself or why the things which happen, happen. Even as a hobby historian, I hadn't really thought about the complex and fascinating history of beer and brewing. I (like most) had heard the oft-told apocryphal Egyptian 'accidental brewing' story (i.e., grain got wet, dried out, got wet again and someone hungry said 'I'm gonna eat/drink it anyhow, can't afford to let it go to waste' and got drunk, then sat and thought, 'That was great, I'm gonna do that on purpose from now on'!).

Pete Brown logically dissects and debunks that story and many others about how and when humans settled down into more or less stable groups (malting for brewing could be one reason we did settle into more agrarian settlements). His writing style is wonderfully accessible and humorous (but not in the slightest precious or overly cute). He writes WELL about a subject on which he displays a stunning depth of knowledge. Additionally he backs it up with extensive research and references and does it in a way which isn't dry or boring at all. His descriptive powers concerning such relatively mundane acts as swallowing the first mouthful of beer on a hot day are amazing.

I really enjoyed this book very much.

The book is set up in sections, Barley, Water, Hops, and Yeast comprise the majority of the book. The last section is more narrative and discusses the cultural implications of beer, specifically the Reinheitsgebot, a 500(ish) year old law passed (some say it was the first and oldest food standards legislation in human history) in Bavaria to insure that beer was only made from its 3 principal ingredients (hops, barley, water - and later when we figured out what yeast is, included that as well).
This section of the book is really very funny and discusses amongst other things, the way beer fanatics discuss beer between themselves, beer tourism and beer-bonding.

The best takeaway line in the book:

Keep calm and have another beer.

I think I will, thanks! :)

Four stars