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300 Beers to Try Before You Die
Willard Clarke
by Willard Clarke, 09/2005
Roger is far too modest to blow his own trumpet over this one, so I'll do it for him! His new book, 300 Beers to Try Before You Die, has just been published by CAMRA priced £12.99. It is a beautifully produced, large format paperback in full colour.
I know from chatting to Roger that this book was a Herculean undertaking and a challenge. Identifying and settling on the 300 best beers in the world was one part of that challenge, but each beer is given a full-page
or double-page spread of its own in the book. Each comes complete with Roger's
authoritative and comprehensive briefing notes on the beer: not just a tasting note, but, with Roger's typical thoroughness, history, background and development are all explained.
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But 300 Beers is more than just another beer guide book. It is laid out as a project for you to undertake: for some, this may turn into a long-term or even lifetime committment! Against each beer are panels for you to fill in your own tasting notes and assessments once
you've tried the beer in question. The back of the book has a one to 300 checklist of all the beers, so that you can tick off each one as you taste it.
Half the fun of this book is simply reading it, to discover which beers Willard Clarke has chosen to include, and trying to spot those where you agree or disagree with his conclusion. This book could have so easily been a "dumbed down" shopping list
of indiscriminately selected brews, but instead it becomes a fascinating tour of the world's great beer styles. But it is a stimulating book that works on the other level too; as a fun and inspiring companion as you set off on your own voyage to
discover these beers, and see how your assessments stack upagainst one of the world's great beer commentators.
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I cannot recommend 300 Beers highly enough. I guarantee that the first thing you'll do is skim through the beer index counting up how many of the 300 you have tasted personally (it's about 70 for me), then
begins the fun of discovering all the rest.
300 Beers to Buy Before You Die by Willard Clarke is in bookshops now, but you can also buy it online from CAMRA, or you can buy it direct from Amazon UK at £9.09
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