The Brewer's Tale - A History of the World According to Beer (William Bostwick, 2014)

I enjoy beer mightily.  As POC 'n NOC know, so this book was a gift from them.

I'm pretty sure there's never been a better time to be a fan of beer.  Quality and variety are both far superior to anything I knew even 10 or 20 years ago (and, it seems, times prior to that).

The author goes through something of a beer tour across time and geography - so the book is pretty ambitious in that sense.  Starts with Babylonians and works up to contemporary.  Interesting throughout, though some of the pieces are more interesting than others.  I will keep the book handy as a reference as I run across various beer styles - useful information but too much detail to remember.

Among other topics:  the beginnings and spread of using hops; "Trappist" definition; world war devastation in Belgium (the breweries there don't have quite the continuity I would have expected); IPAs; porters; saisons; Prohibition and its beneficial effect on the largest U.S. breweries.

The author had the idea to make his own attempt at brewing various of the styles he discussed; that idea could have been dropped.