If you have a back garden, or even a sunny porch or balcony, you can grow your own hops, brewing herbs, and malt grains to enhance the flavour, aroma, and uniqueness of your home-brewed beer - and ensure that you have the freshest, purest, best ingredients possible. Simple instructions from experts Joe and Dennis Fisher guide you through every step of the process, from setting up your first hop trellis to planting and caring for your herbs, harvesting and drying them, malting grain, and brewing more than 25 recipes specifically designed for home-grown ingredients. This fully updated second edition includes a new section featuring colour photography of the plants, expanded information on growing hops in small spaces, innovative trellising ideas, an expanded section on malting, new profiles of prominent grower brewers, and up-to-date information on grain-growing best practices.

"Associations and societies such as the Bordeaux Club are the very acme of civilization. Botticelli and Bach were engaged in the eternal quest for truth and beauty in painting and music, and the Bordeaux Club did the same for viniculture." - Andrew Roberts The story of 12 friends who gathered to share and celebrate the extraordinary wines of Bordeaux. Like-minded in their love of wine, they differed wildly (often alarmingly!) in their personal wealth, life and circumstances - their opinions, always voiced, had the power to ignite anger and divide friendships just as easily as they bound them together. Neil McKendrick, member and minute-taker for 57 of the Club's 70 extraordinary years, weaves the tale of this convivial group with the rigour of a Cambridge academic (he is ex-Master of Gonville and Caius) and the humour of a born raconteur. Alongside the likes of Hugh Johnson, Steven Spurrier and Michael Broadbent, he celebrates the beauty of top-class Bordeaux and the splendour of each setting - from glorious country park to rickety Dickensian boardroom - in which these men were lucky enough to dine, serving up memories of vintages the like of which we will never see again.

Anthropologists and historians have confirmed the central role alcohol has played in nearly every society since the dawn of human civilization, but it is only recently that it has been the subject of serious scholarly inquiry. The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails is the first major reference work to cover the subject from a global perspective, and provides an authoritative, enlightening, and entertaining overview of this third branch of the alcohol family. It will stand alongside the bestselling Companions to Wine and Beer, presenting an in-depth exploration of the world of spirits and cocktails in a groundbreaking synthesis. The Companion covers drinks, processes, and techniques from around the world as well as those in the US and Europe. It provides clear explanations of the different ways that spirits are produced, including fermentation, distillation, and ageing, alongside a wealth of new detail on the emergence of cocktails and cocktail bars, including entries on key cocktails and influential mixologists and cocktail bars. With entries ranging from Manhattan and mixology to sloe gin and stills, the Companion combines coverage of the range of spirit-based drinks around the world with clear explanations of production processes, and the history and culture of their consumption. It is the ultimate guide to understanding what is in your glass. The Companion is lavishly illustrated throughout, and appendices include a timeline of spirits and distillation and a guide to mixing drinks.

At one time, Italian wines conjured images of cheap Chianti in straw-wrapped bottles. More recently, expensive "Super Tuscans" have been the rage. But between these extremes lay a bounty of delicious, moderately priced wines that belong in every wine drinker's repertoire.
Vino Italiano is the only comprehensive and authoritative American guide to the wines of Italy. It surveys the country's wine-producing regions; identifies key wine styles, producers, and vintages; and offers delicious regional recipes. Extensive reference materials--on Italy's 300 growing zones, 361 authorized grape varieties, and 200 of the top producers-- provide essential information for restaurateurs and wine merchants, as well as for wine enthusiasts.
Beautifully illustrated as well as informative, Vino Italiano is the perfect invitation to the Italian wine experience.

"From the Hardcover edition.

From Scratch: Brew includes recipes and top tips on everything you need to know to make your own beer from scratch. Making good beer at home is easy, and oh so cheap. From Scratch: Brew takes the novice beer-enthusiast by the hand and talks you through every last step of the process.

The craft beer revolution is upon us. All over the world we're enjoying bottles of American craft, old Belgian, real British ale and exquisite German lager, and you can make it all for yourself. You don't need to go out and buy loads of kit. With a plastic bucket or two, you can make beer as good as any beer in the entire world and customize it to your own tastes.

Extracting from and updating his book Brew, James Morton offers comprehensive sections on how and what you need to get started, bottling and storing, a glossary of key ingredient types, troubleshooting tips and proven beer recipes that result in complex flavors; every taste and skill level is catered for.

From Scratch: Brew isn't like other brewing books. It is for those who have never brewed and want to understand more, for those who have a basic grasp and a few beers under their belt, and it is for those with experience who want inspiration to continue to grow. Text is extracted and updated from Brew: The Foolproof Guide to Making World-Class Beer at Home by James Morton.

A simple concoction--bourbon, mint, sugar, and water--the mint julep has become a legendary drink. Few people know its history and even fewer know how to properly mix this classic cocktail. Lighthearted, entertaining, and informative, The Kentucky Mint Julep explores the lore and legend of the Kentucky Derby's traditional tipple. Joe Nickell looks at the origins of the julep and the etymology of the word itself, offers a brief history of American whiskey and Kentucky bourbon, and shares some classic julep tales, including Irvin S. Cobb's theory that a disagreement over a julep's ingredients was the real cause of the Civil War. Information on julep cups, tips on garnishing and serving, and reminiscences from the likes of Charles Dickens, Washington Irving, and General John Hunt Morgan give a fun, historic look at Kentucky's favorite drink. The book includes numerous recipes--for classic juleps, modern variations on the drink, non-alcoholic versions, and the author's own thoroughly researched "perfect" mint julep. This delightful book is illustrated with historic photographs and illustrations, a map of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, and more.

The rivetingly strange story of the world's most expensive bottle of wine, and the even stranger characters whose lives have intersected with it.

The New York Times bestseller, updated with a new epilogue, that tells the true story of a 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux—supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson—that sold for $156,000 at auction and of the eccentrics whose lives intersected with it.

Was it truly entombed in a Paris cellar for two hundred years? Or did it come from a secret Nazi bunker? Or from the moldy basement of a devilishly brilliant con artist? As Benjamin Wallace unravels the mystery, we meet a gallery of intriguing players—from the bicycle-riding British auctioneer who speaks of wines as if they are women to the obsessive wine collector who discovered the bottle.

Suspenseful and thrillingly strange, this is the vintage tale of what could be the most elaborate con since the Hitler diaries.

When George Washington bade farewell to his officers, he did so in New York's Fraunces Tavern. When Andrew Jackson planned his defense of New Orleans against the British in 1815, he met Jean Lafitte in a grog shop. And when John Wilkes Booth plotted with his accomplices to carry out a certain assassination, they gathered in Surratt Tavern. In America Walks into a Bar, Christine Sismondo recounts the rich and fascinating history of an institution often reviled, yet always central to American life. She traces the tavern from England to New England, showing how even the Puritans valued "a good Beere." With fast-paced narration and lively characters, she carries the story through the twentieth century and beyond, from repeated struggles over licensing and Sunday liquor sales, from the Whiskey Rebellion to the temperance movement, from attempts to ban "treating" to Prohibition and repeal. As the cockpit of organized crime, politics, and everyday social life, the bar has remained vital-and controversial-down to the present. In 2006, when the Hurricane Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act was passed, a rider excluded bars from applying for aid or tax breaks on the grounds that they contributed nothing to the community. Sismondo proves otherwise: the bar has contributed everything to the American story. In this heady cocktail of agile prose and telling anecdotes, Sismondo offers a resounding toast to taprooms, taverns, saloons, speakeasies, and the local hangout where everybody knows your name.

An all-inclusive, easy-to-use primer to all things wine

Want to learn about wine, but don't know where to start? "Wine All-In-One For Dummies" provides comprehensive information about the basics of wine in one easy-to-understand volume. Combining the bestselling "Wine For Dummies" with our regional and specific wine titles, this book gives you the guidance you need to understand, purchase, drink and enjoy wine.

You'll start at the beginning as you discover how wine is made. From there you'll explore grape varieties and vineyards, read labels and wine lists, and discover all the nuances of tasting wine. You'll see how to successfully store wine and serve it to your guests-and even build up an impressive collection of wine. Plus, you'll find suggestions for perfect food pairings and complete coverage on wines from around the world.Features wine tasting, serving, storing, collecting, and buying tips, all in a single authoritative volumeIncludes information on California wines, as well as other domestic and foreign locations including the US, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, and Argentina.Helps you choose the best vintage for your needsAlso covers champagne, sherry, and port wineEd McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan are the authors of seven Dummies books on wine including the bestselling "Wine For Dummies, 4th Edition," other contributing authors are recognized wine experts and journalists in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada

Whether you're a wine novice or a budding sommelier, "Wine All-In-One For Dummies" is the one guide you need on your shelf to make your wine experience complete.

This title provides a complete history of one of the world's most iconic cocktails - now the poster child of the modern cocktail revival - with fifty recipes for classic variations as well as contemporary updates.

In recent years there has been a rapid growth in the popularity of wines of all sorts. And although commercially produced wine has become less expensive, it is always a challenge to turn your own hand to reproducing the flavour and quality of commercial wines in your own home, using easily-obtained ingredients. Sauternes, Hocks, Moselles, Chianti, Madeiras, Champagnes and Liqueurs can all be made at home cheaply from easily available ingredients - are all possible with the help of this book. You can become a wine connoisseur on a shoestring budget! The line illustrations are all based on photographs from the Radio Times Hulton Picture Library.

Originally published in 1963, this was the first modern book on home brewing and was an instant success. Since then, the book has gone through many revised and improved editions and to date has sold 750,000 copies. This latest edition contains full instructions on how to brew fine beers and stouts of authentic flavour and strength. From palest lager to blackest extra stout, these are brews of which you can be proud. There is much more to the home brewing hobby than simply making up a kit; home brewers need to know the theory behind the techniques they use and how to devise their own formulations for any type of beer. This book is the ideal introduction to the subject.

Beginning in 17-century Holland, with the creation of medicinal 'genievre', this book follows the global adventures of gin over four dark, decadent centuries of consumption and excess."

Written over a century ago when Japan was abandoning its rich traditions to embrace the hysteria of colonization, this classic written by Okakura Kakuzo helped preserve the masterpieces of Japanese art and culture by illuminating the spirit of the Japanese Tea Masters. The Book of Tea doesn't focus on the Tea Ceremony itself, but the Zen Buddhist thought behind it known as the Way of Tea or Chado. Kakuzo teaches us to listen to the language of flowers as well as the language of art. His considerable charm is as apparent today as it was one hundred years ago as he introduces us to the aesthetic and culture of Japan. This edition has a new foreword by Andrew Juniper who runs the Wabi-Sabi Art Gallery in West Sussex, England and an introduction by Liza Dalby, the first American woman to be fully trained as a geisha in the 70's.

Fully revised and updated by Oz, with new entries on key wineries, vineyards and producers from around the country. 'It's brilliant. Exactly what's wanted. -' Hugh Johnson One of the great pleasures of wine is to drink it where it is grown and made. The opportunity to meet growers, winemakers and winery owners is what draws people to visit wineries and to 'have an experience in the vineyard'. This is your essential guide to find out about England and its world beating sparklers and still wines that have captivated the wine world. The modern view of English wine is of a country amazingly blessed with vast tracts of soil suitable for viticulture, much of it almost indistinguishable from the chalky slopes of Champagne and Chablis, and of a country taking full advantage of the vagaries of climate change to ripen Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to levels perfect for sparkling wine, and increasingly excellent still wines. this book helps you find the best English and Welsh wines, from fizz, whites, some impressive reds and even dessert and orange wines. The book includes: -Exciting Times How it used to be; The Nyetimber effect; Climate: is it almost perfect now?; Location is key; Planting like made; A question of style: sparkling or still; and Grape varieties: a race to the top. -British Bubbles What is needed to make good fizz; Champagne, the original fizz; Bubbles and how they're created. -A Tour Of the Regions - covers personal experiences and reflections from Oz's many years of visiting talented and passionate producers up and down the country. From Yorkshire to the far west of Cornwall and across to Wales, a small but dynamic part of the UK's wine movement, Oz recommends wines he has enjoyed and found interesting and encourages you to try for yourself.

Why drink Bordeaux when you can make your own Buddha's Hand Cherry Bomb wine? Feeling spunky? Try some Ginger Squash Sake! Or maybe you're in the mood for some Strawberry Lemon-Guava, Triple Basil, Pomegranate Citrus-Symphony, or Cherry Black Currant wine. These are just a taste of the 148 unique recipes in this creative guide to small-batch winemaking that goes far beyond specialty grapes for an easier, more forgiving process. Readers learn how to make wines with fruits like lemons, blueberries, cherries, peaches, and pears, as well as flowers like dandelions and roses, and even herbs like rosemary, basil, and even cannabis. And these recipes are just the start; readers will gain the skills they need to branch out, incorporate their favourite ingredients, and create their own unique wine flavours.

The Recipe for the Perfect Bar Cart! Like with any good drink, the secret to creating a winning bar cart is to understand its components. The Bar Cart Bible breaks down these elements and provides you with the necessary information, including: 300+ cocktail recipes Bottles to have on hand A glassware guide Required equipment Measurement charts Definitions of bartending terminology Garnish suggestions Mixology tips 4 pieces of frame-ready, decorative art Now isn't it time for a drink?