Did you know that some 19th-century porters contained narcotics? That's just one of the interesting tidbits of knowledge contained in the recently released "Oxford Companion to Beer" (Oxford University Press, $65).

With 900 pages, 1,120 entries and weighing in at 4 pounds, the book is a comprehensive encyclopedia of all things brew, from "abbey beers" to "zymurgy." It is the product of a five-year effort by executive editor Garrett Oliver and an impressive team of brewing-world luminaries.

The book was conceived to fill a void in the literature. "'The Oxford Companion to Wine' has been out there for many years, but this book was missing. In the United States, the craft-beer market is bigger than the better wine market, so that was a strange disparity," Oliver explained on a recent visit to the Twin Cities.

An overwhelming task

Compiling the book was a serious undertaking, and one that Oliver, who is also the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery in New York, initially refused. "My first reaction was, 'I am not insane, and I'm not going to take this on.' It turns out, of course, that I apparently am insane." But he didn't have to tackle it alone. The volume, now in its fourth printing, represents the efforts of 166 contributors in 24 countries.

The book has impressive breadth, with something for everyone from the novice beer drinker to the professional brewer. Its contents cover everything from an entertaining history of ale houses to highly technical chemical analyses of the essential oils in hops. Whether the context is light or dense, the writing is generally easy to understand and often entertaining.

Well-organized for easy searching, it is also exquisitely browsable. Opening the book at random, I always discover something intriguing. One article leads organically to another, and I find myself wandering the pages, happily lost in the art, science and history of beer and brewing.

Some in the beer world have challenged the accuracy of the book's content, particularly entries on the histories of particular beer styles. Indeed, some content choices could be open to question, such as why certain breweries merit inclusion while others do not. Despite this, the work remains the most comprehensive collection of beer knowledge yet produced, and an important addition to the canon of beer literature.

  • Michael Agnew is a certified cicerone (beer-world version of sommelier) and owner of A Perfect Pint. He conducts private and corporate beer tasting events in the Twin Cities, and can be reached at michael@aperfectpint.net.