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An American Beer Trail Reviewed By Conn Withay of Bookpleasures.com
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Conny Withay







Reviewer Conny Withay:Operating her own business in office management since 1991, Conny is an avid reader and volunteers with the elderly playing her designed The Write Word Game. A cum laude graduate with a degree in art living in the Pacific Northwest, she is married with two sons, two daughters-in-law, and three grandchildren.

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By Conny Withay
Published on April 10, 2016
 


Author: Zach Stinehour
Publisher: Outskirts Press
ISBN: 978-1-4787-6843-2




Author: Zach Stinehour
Publisher: Outskirts Press
ISBN: 978-1-4787-6843-2

“More than anything, I don’t think of the beer so much, but more, the moments I spent reflecting,” Zach Stinehour writes in his book, An American Beer Trail.

This one-hundred-forty-page paperback targets those who enjoy taking road trips and tasting beer. Using a third to the full page, colored photographs of the author’s trip grace approximately every other page.

The book covers almost eleven-thousand miles of riding on a motorcycle from Upstate New York and the South, through Texas, to the West Coast and returning via the Upper Midwest.

Tasting two-hundred-forty-four beers from forty-four breweries, Stinehour not only explains the pub or locale’s beers but the scenery on the way.

After an introduction and history, method, and beer styles information, there are usually one to two pages about the state/area, followed by one to six places to drink beer. Style and historical notes are included in the chapters, and the book ends with the author’s thoughts, references, and addresses visited.

With a son who makes beer and is a PhD chemist, I got this book for him. I like the history of each location, its ambiance explained, and the style notes that offer eclectic information about the beer.

With only one brewery visited in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arizona, Nevada, and Wyoming, over five are from New York and California. As the road trip is mentioned often, there are many photographs of the author’s motorcycle resting on the side of the road with landscape backdrops.

Living in Upstate New York, Stinehour has a degree in BioChemistry and BioPhysics and works in the brewing industry.

I wish the pubs chosen were more thought out, and there were more photographs of the exterior or interior of locations visited. Being biased, I was surprised no microbreweries were mentioned from Oregon (I live in Salem). Also it should be noted that McMenamis has over seventy locations with the majority in Oregon yet the one of seven in Washington was visited.

If you are looking for a book that mainly catalogues a motorcycle trip around the United States and several beer stops, this may be interesting. I found it missed the mark regarding the area I live in that is second in producing hops in America.

Thanks to Bookpleasures and Outskirts Press for furnishing this complimentary book to read and review.