The book reads in a conversational and historical style that I find enjoyable. Throughout the narrative, there are quotes from relevant sources and often poems. The word "beer" in the title may not be entirely accurate, since it seems to include other fermented brews, like Meade, in its discourse, which may or may not have in common the bubbly effervescence. I do not consider this inaccuracy to be a fault of the title, though, because "beer" is one example of the brews covered in this book and gets enough attention to warrant its primacy in the title. I mention the point only to signal that what is covered in the book is a little larger (in a good way) than the title may imply. The practical information is not the very precise micro-brewing information of modern times, but is more informal and seems to emphasize that we do not need all the micro-brewing equipment. If one is looking for micro-brewing methods and how to use such equipment, this book is definitely not the one to read. But if you are looking for the brewing methods of many cultures, with simpler equipment and adequate to the task, then this book will prove useful. It may, however, take a little more time to learn how to brew a consistent quality this way.
I got the book to re-purpose some of the brewing information to make "Kombucha tea", also called the "Manchurian Mushroom" (because it forms a pellicule, or thick layer of cells to protect the liquid it is feeding on, that looks somewhat mushroom like). Kombucha is two yeast groups and two bacterial groups that live in synergy with each other. Because yeast is present in the brew, I thought that information about ancient beers may be useful. I found my intuition confirmed and have slightly altered the recipes in this book to this purpose. The main difference is that the bacterial groups need some caffeine as part of the feeding mix (usually from Green Tea or Yerba Mate), while the beers do not. Kombucha also seems to be better processing regular white sugar, though from the book I am now experimenting with Agave and finding it works well. I should mention that some care is needed in this process and you do need to know what you are doing, and things like sterilization matters (I cannot be responsible for any results done by people who take any implied advice on how to brew from these words, I am merely sharing something from my own experience). I have been able to glean from the book many safe herbs that feel worth trying in this new context, like Nettles and Mugwort. I am look forward to trying Saint John's Wort. Because of this orientation, I find that practical and historical weave together for me and both kinds of information have been useful. The historical information gives me a lot of clues as to the usefulness of the herbs and any precautions to take. It is like a record of how people experienced the brew.
Many herbs are described in a lot of detail, sometimes touching upon things that are scientifically verified about them and sometimes just giving traditional lore about them. I have many herbal books and have found with a few of the herbs that this book had new information about some of them, which is fairly rare for me to find. I think the reason why the author sometimes has some extra information is from his ability to extract some vignettes about the herbs from unusual historical lore, whereas many herbal books are presenting information mainly from some standard herbals plus a few updates from recent science. It is one of the things that I find valuable about the book.
In summary, the book is well organized, has a lot of historical narrative about the herbs used in brewing, and summarizes how many cultures brewed their sacred beers and even why they considered them sacred, and has many actual recipes. I found it easy to repurpose the information to my Kombucha brewing and found the historical perspective fascinating, informative, and practical. It fills a niche in my exploring how to make healing herbal tonics.
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