Bitter!

Those that drink in the ways of righteousness may be thinking, hang on a minute, shouldn't that be Mild! But fear not, it's due to May being mild month that I finally finished reading Bitter! Ron Pattinson has done a discount on his mild related books during May, and as I bought a copy of Mild! plus it was really time to finish reading Bitter! 

Bitter! is volume III in his mega book series on the four British beer styles. Or volume XII in his mini book series if you go by the cover. At 560 pages it seems more mega than mini to me so I'll stick with that. I've got a copy with the bottle of Bass from Manet's "Bar at the Folies-Bergère" on the front, though Ron has now entered his pastel period as far as covers go.

It's packed full of information on bitter beers through the ages, based on historic reports, brewing records and recipes. There are the some typos, and even randomly appearing blank pages, but this doesn't give me my usual urge to put the boot in. There's just so much quality data with Ron's explainations of what it all means that I found it a delight to read. And let's face it, if Ron spent time re-checking all his work we still wouldn't know the truth about Scottish beer.