The Northern California Craft Beer Guide

Although there isn’t a rating system yet (there never may be), Northern California Craft Beer Guide is hands down the best resource in print for the consumer who is looking for a great place to get a great beer.

The book’s interest is elevated by the loads of attractive photos taken by Anneliese Schmidt. Her photographs tell a story that make this book colorful and appealing. Ken Weaver’s descriptors for beer and attention to style are spot on.

Ken not only includes breweries in the Craft Beer Guide but other venues as well. Local bottle shops and liquor stores are catering to the aficionado by carrying quality and variety of beers. Restaurants that are in tune with the quality of beer in California and offer these spectacular beers to enjoy are also listed. Hopefully we will see more in the way of a beer list with the marketing of beers towards the restaurant industry. Markets and homebrew shops are also included in the contribution of places to purchase or brew your own. After all, if you pay attention to some of the profiles of the brewers many got their start as home brewers. Including oh yea, Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.

The Guide breaks the Northern California area into regions and puts each region on a very easy to view map. Breweries are listed and numbered for easy reference. Great for pub crawl organizing or just your weekend Iron Liver Tour.

Weaver recommends five to try and includes under “uncharted territory” breweries that were not open at the time of printing. This may be a good opportunity to check it out and give your feedback.

Place listings includes the web address, physical address, telephone number and hours of operation.

Icons are placed over the top section of each entry to cue the user to breweries that are organic, eco-friendly. Other icons let one know if they can expect to enjoy a nice sit down dinner or just snacks.

Don’t’ confuse the cask-conditioned icon with the keg icon. They don’t mean the same thing. Most breweries have samplers for you to try and some have growlers on hand for you to take your favorite home.

Throughout the book some beer styles are addressed along with some sterling examples. There are also sidebars which discuss beer related topics indigenous to the region. Some nice nods are attributed to the movers and the shakers of Northern California beer culture as well to the up and coming.

In case you have visited all the breweries, restaurants, bottle shops liquor stores and grocery outlets there are more venues to enjoy California beer. Northern California brewers rock when it comes to making contributions to community and fundraising. Festivals and events are listed by the month toward the end of the book.

So whether you planning a trip to the market and want to pair a beer with your dinner, or are going out to a restaurant and are looking for a nice place to eat that doesn’t offer the same beer three or four times, or if your planning to impress your buddies with the best local drinking spots, or want to drink the beer where it is always the best ( at the source) this book is the book to have in hand. Salute.

I met Merideth and Chris several years ago at a low key beer event. They were a nice, quiet couple. Merideth was wearing a t-shirt that said thebeergeek.com. I don’t think I asked her about it. I probably just thought that any girl brave enough to wear the shirt had to be cool. I took a picture with her and another beer geek chick, Beth.

Facebook was rapidly becoming popular and it was easy for me to create my profile. When it came time to look for friends, Facebook recommended Merideth. Oh yea! I remember her. So I sent a friend request. Being the cool beer geek chick that she is she accepted. 
When I learned that she was coming out with a book “Teaching From The Tap“- Life Lessons From Our Year In Beer. I was excited for her. I had reviewed 3 other books that came out in the past three years. I wanted to review hers. Chris gave me a link to CreateSpace where I could purchase the book and I waited anxiously. 
When I opened the parcel I gasped at the volume of the book. 427 pages! That is a lot a reading. I read the dedication, the table of contents, the acknowledgements, and the introduction. 
The Introduction gave me the necessary insight to the self discovery Merideth refers to. She introduces their adventures by defining the word geek. She takes a self deprecating definition. As you travel through the chapters and the months with Chris and Meredith’s , Year In Beer, we see the very quiet, rather introverted pair go through an apologetic reference and evolve the term “beer geek” into a term any beer enthusiast would be jealous to own. 
I liked the friendliness of Merideth’s narrative. “This should be an easy read” I told myself. 
Reading Merideth’s book was like being on the adventure with her. If you are a self proclaimed beer geek chances are that you may find yourself in one of the chapters. Merideth introduces personalities they have crossed paths with and you may even find yourself in one of their chapters, in a tavern, a pub, a brewery or at a festival. I couldn’t help but find myself playing the game of 6 degrees of separation. 
Each chapter of the book takes you to the following month with a nice subtitle that is easy to make a connection with as you follow. 
Through the twelve months of travel we feel the jet lag, homesickness. We get a glimpse of their idiosyncrasies and crushes. Frustrations are shared humorously and we are spared their domestics tiffs as wrongs turns are taken (but we can feel them). Traveling is stressful but the stresses are forgotten in the rewards of friends and fellowships, new relationships developed and the experience of enjoying beer from the source make it all worthwhile. 
After reading the book I kept my eye out for book signings. Quite coincidently they planned a trip to Sacramento within 2 weeks of its release. With book in tow I went to meet them. It was like spending time with old friends. Chris and Merideth are still the nice, quiet couple I met several years ago. Only this time with a serious cool factor. 
Cheers to Merideth and Chris for their adventures in The Year in Beer. Thank you for sharing them with us in your book, Teaching From The Tap. Your book elevates the term Beer Geek to a new status.