‘Tis the Season for Craft Brewed Books

2011 was quite the year for craft brewed literature — among them, works from New Belgium, Stone Brewing Co., Shmaltz and Dogfish Head.

If you’re still looking for that last minute gift for the craft beer lover in your life, consider skipping yet another trip to the local bottle shop and try the bookstore instead.

Here are six new books that you shouldn’t forget while you’re making that naughty or nice list.

Brewing Up a Business6. Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Beer from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Revised and Updated

In 2006, Sam Calagione released the first edition of Brewing Up a Business, a first-person account of how he turned his home brewing hobby into one of the nation’s fastest growing craft breweries. The revised edition still has all of the same entertaining content as the first release, but also includes chapters on social media and home brewing, with new pictures. In these chapters, Calagione discusses Dogfish’s marketing ideas and how other business can utilize social media to keep up with larger competitors. The updated version makes the perfect holiday gift for the entrepreneurial beer lover in your life.

Price: $12.31

Purchase on Amazon.com

Tour de Fat5. Tour de Fat; Sights, Sounds, Feelings, Flavors

Every craft beer fan needs a coffee table book and New Belgium’s first dip into the world of publishing makes for a perfect oversized coaster. The limited-edition hard cover book chronicles the trials and triumphs of building an event from the ground up. It is a compilation of Tour de Fat photos since the events inception 12 years ago.

Price: $20.00

Purchase online.

Brewed Awakening4. Brewed Awakening: Behind the Beers and Brewers Leading the World’s Craft Brewing Revolution

Brewed Awakening is the newest book that chronicles America’s fast growing craft beer movement. Author Joshua Bernstein takes the reader on a journey through the craft beer biz, tackling various trends, beer styles, hop varieties, festivals, the brewers behind the movement and much more. The book makes an excellent gift for both the beer geek and the new craft beer drinker.

Price: $16.47

Purchase on Amazon.com

Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah3. Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah: How it Took 13 Years, Extreme Jewish Brewing, and Circus Sideshow Freaks to Make Shmaltz Brewing an International Success

This book authored by Jeremy Cowan, the founder of Shmaltz Brewing, is a small business memoir that discusses why he started the business and how he expanded it over the past 15 years. It’s a personal tale of a small business entrepreneur struggling to figure out exactly how to force a brewing project to be successful. Shmaltz is famous for its Jewish shtick, and this book could easily be one of the eight Chanukah gifts for the Jewish drinker in your life.

Price: $11.17

Purchase on Amazon.com

2. The Craft of Stone Brewing Co.: Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes, and Unabashed Arrogance.

Stone Brewing’s CEO and Co-Founder Greg Koch had a big year. Even in the midst of announcing a $26.6M expansion, the self-proclaimed ‘arrogant bastard’ found time to release a 200-page hard-cover book and travel the U.S. on a nine-city book tour. The book offers a behind the scenes look at the 15 years of Stone Brewing straight from co-founders Koch and Steve Wagner. In addition to a history of beer, the book also offers up award-winning recipes from the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens as well as some never before released homebrew recipes. This book is the perfect gift for that ‘arrogant bastard’ on your naughty list.

Price: $16.50

Purchase on Amazon.com

1. The Oxford Companion to Beer

One of the more anticipated book releases of the year, The Oxford Companion to Beer is the most comprehensive reference book ever published on the subject of suds. Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster Garrett Oliver has collected and edited the knowledge and research of more than 165 beer experts from around the world. The Companion is the largest compendium of the world of beer and also features over 140 images. It’s the perfect gift for a beer nerd and a must-have in any beer lovers’ library.

Price: $39.00

Purchase on Amazon.com