A new guide to Britain’s beer scene has launched with the first in what promises to be a series covering the whole of the UK. Can they hope to cover it all? And are printed guides still useful in today’s digital age?
The team behind The Brewery Bible have just launched the first print edition of their guide to Britain’s beer producers, focussing this time on the South West of England. It’s not just breweries though, the guide also covers notable bottle shops and taprooms.
With information on over 200 breweries, venues and stockists, this will be on the only guidebook you will need on your beer adventures around the South West.
The Brewery Bible
At first I questioned the need for a printed version. The thing about print guides is they’re gradually going out of date as soon as they’re created. But this little book is beautifully produced and small enough to pop in a pocket and take it with you on your travels. There are a few short articles in the front to leaf through over a quiet pint, all pulled together under the watchful editorial eye of Adrien Tierney-Jones (a former Beer Writer of the Year). And if you’re still worried that the information in there has grown a bit stale, there’s an online version too, plus plenty of contact information for each brewery so you can check them out directly.
The maps are not the most useful I’ve seen but they’re enough to give you a general idea of where things are and what other breweries might be close by. One other detail that puzzled me was the inclusion of a figure for hectolitres per year produced by each brewery. But even if your average beer lover might not know what a hectolitre is, they can still use this figure to get a feel for the relative size of one brewery compared to another, so I guess it serves a purpose.
For a very reasonable £6.99, anyone wanting to explore beer in the south west would do well to pick up a copy of The Brewery Bible’s beautiful and informative guide. It’ll take you to new places and keep you company over a pint while you wait for your mates to arrive.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the guide, but the decision to write about it was my own. The images in this post were supplied by The Brewery Bible and displayed with permission.
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