Beer, Food, and Flavor

“From lessons in cheese-and-brew pairings to sketching a menu for a multi-course, beer-pairing dinner party . . . [this] excellent, 300-page guide to beer and food is a steal.” —Evan S. Benn, Esquire.com

“Yes, great beer can change your life,” writes chef Schuyler Schultz in Beer, Food, and Flavor, an authoritative guide to exploring the diverse array of flavors found in craft beer—and the joys of pairing those flavors with great food to transform everyday meals into culinary events. Expanded and updated for this second edition, featuring new breweries and other recent developments on the world of craft beer, this beautifully illustrated book explores how craft beer can be integrated into the new American food movement, with an emphasis on local and sustainable production. As craft breweries and farm-to-table restaurants continue to gain popularity across the country, this book offers delicious combinations of the best beers and delectable meals and deserts.

Armed with the precise tasting techniques and pairing strategies offered inside, participating in the growing craft beer community is now easier than ever. Beer, Food, and Flavor will enable you to learn about the top craft breweries in your region, seek out new beer styles and specialty brews with confidence, create innovative menus, and pair craft beer with fine food, whether at home or while dining out.

Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Good Books and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of cookbooks, including books on juicing, grilling, baking, frying, home brewing and winemaking, slow cookers, and cast iron cooking. We’ve been successful with books on gluten-free cooking, vegetarian and vegan cooking, paleo, raw foods, and more. Our list includes French cooking, Swedish cooking, Austrian and German cooking, Cajun cooking, as well as books on jerky, canning and preserving, peanut butter, meatballs, oil and vinegar, bone broth, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Schuyler Schultz is a chef, sommelier, and craft beer enthusiast. He has worked in everything from small-town bistros to Las Vegas resort hotels and strives to spread the joys of sustainable, ingredient-driven cuisine paired with craft beer and wine throughout the country. He lives in San Diego, California.

Peter Zien is the owner and brewmaster of the award-winning AleSmith Brewing Company in San Diego, California.

"An engaging look at American craft beer through the eyes of a working chef. It's enthusiastic, opinionated, and analytical, teasing apart the mechanics of flavor combinations and then layering on recipes, brewery stories, interviews, tasting notes, beer dinner menus, and even a useful guide to cheese. If you want to know how to bring craft beer into your culinary life, this book will take you all the way there."
—Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery, author of The Brewmaster's Table, and editor in chief of The Oxford Companion to Beer

"The real gold is chapter 2, where Schultz navigates complementary and contrasting pairings, menu-building and choosing beer with food in mind (and vice versa) by channeling focus elements of each. Behind the casual guidance is the refreshingly unsnobby mantra that while it's pretty tough to really go wrong with beer/food pairing, you can always do better. Classic dishes and widely available beer suggestions make the whole thesis tangible." —Draft Magazine

"If all you do is read the 'Beer and Cheese' chapter in Schuyler Schultz's Beer, Food, and Flavor, you've gotten your money's worth from this thoughtful craft beer guide. . . . On either side of this practical primer, the book is filled with mini histories of American craft brewers and tasting notes on their signature beers. Schultz's descriptions are educations in themselves: '. . . the flavor consists of a crisp malt core surrounded by mild earth and spice hops characteristics with inflections of orange peel and a mild, pleasant graininess.' We'll drink to that." —Culture Cheese Magazine

"A wonderful introduction to the world of American craft beer and its place in our nation's exciting local food movement. Schuyler Schultz brings a chef's palate, imagination, and vocabulary to the subject in ways that will expand your appreciation and knowledge of beer's place at the table."
—Steve Hindy, co-founder and president of The Brooklyn Brewery