As the nation’s craft breweries proliferate and home beer making becomes even more popular than it was in the days of Prohibition, consumers are becoming ever more sophisticated. No longer do Americans drink industrially produced lagers with their meals; they demand brews especially designed to complement gourmet dinners. Baime and Michaels follow the seasons to offer beers specifically paired to recipes. They compare beers’ variations in taste and aroma to the complexity of chords in the notes of a symphony and encourage readers to explore widely. Fruity apricot ale softens the heat of spicy peel-and-eat shrimp. Very ambitious cooks may feel compelled to churn up some of the authors’ homemade butter to drench summer lobster. To harmonize with this shellfish’s richness, they suggest the spicy notes of chili beer. Recipes assume some expertise on the part of anyone wanting to replicate these dishes at home.

Booklist

[A Year in Food and Beer] starts off strong as Baime and Michaels open with a useful rundown of beer styles, adequately informing amateur beer enthusiasts and everyday cooks alike of the various qualities of porters, pilsners and lambics.

Publishers Weekly

A delicious offering, reinforcing the reality that beer truly is the most divine and versatile of drinks and the preferred accompaniment to foods of all kinds. In A Year In Food and Beer, the world's favorite alcoholic beverage gets the respect and reverence it deserves.

Charlie Bamforth, professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences, University of California, Davis