To the folks who suggest: "inferiority complex, pompous, lunatic" I say, "well I am sure the author thanks you for keeping him grounded, and that he'd love to have a beer with you sometime". At least it will give him the chance to show Mr/Ms Manning how naughty it is for them to have taken stuff out of context; e.g. it was in a historic setting that the book tells of the ancients planting other stuff amidst the grapes: he did not say it happened now. Methinks Mr/Ms Manning doth protest too much.

I am always amazed that people often go for the throat of another human being, rather that stating the positive aspects of what we see and leave the criticism to the individual reader. I have seen Charles Bamforth speak on a few occasions and he is delightfully playful. He jokes about nearly everything, both the beer and the wine industry. In regards to the book, I just get that he wants people to understand that it takes skill to brew beer as well.

I actually prefer the taste of wine over beer, and not being an expert about either, had no idea how each is made in great detail. From all the advertisements I have ever been exposed to however, beer certainly has always been made to look like the lesser form of the two beverages. Now that I have been exposed to more information from Dr. Bamforth, I know that's not true. They both take a lot of skill and expertise to produce a good product.

I mean, when it all boils down to it, just like anything, no one is better or worse than the other and I think Dr. Bamforth would heartily agree it is all about individual preference. I think beer has just gotten a bad rap and the book was intended to give readers a little clearer perspective as to what it is really all about.

Relax, K Manning! I think that when the author said he had no idea what a winemaker does "the rest of the year" he was being facetious. I would suggest that you try not to take yourself and your love of wine so seriously and brew up a sense of humor. And by the way, your comment that "it is propaganda like this that has helped lead to so many cases of genocide in the past" is completely ridiculous, offensive and does nothing other than to discredit the rest of your review, because you come across as a bitter, and dare I say pompous, wine snob. This is an extremely well written book, full of humor and while there is no small amount of bias towards beer I would suggest that this be taken with a "grain" of salt. Factual, interesting, informative, funny and it kept my attention throughout. Highly recommended.

I think some of you may be missing the point a bit. The author, I believe, is trying to make the arguement throughout the book that the wine industry has, undeservedly, stolen the moral high ground when it comes to comparing beer and wine. The arguements Bamforth puts forward are really asking why has the wine industry been able to do this, while the beer industry has not (either intentionally or not)? He points out that there really is no proof that wine is any healthier than any other type of alcohol, that the retail mark up of wine is disproportionate to what is costs to produce and he questions the hole notion of "vintage" as an excuse for lack of consistencty. Bamforth just dares to say the beer deserves its place at the table just like wine. A great read.

Please, take this book for what it is worth. It's written by a brewer, so obviously it is going to be skewed to brewing. The author never denies this. Look at the first paragraph. This books is great at showing why wine has gained the social status that it has and why beer has not, but should have. Wine has always been considered a rich mans drink, and beer is considered to be a poor mans drink. This book goes to show why this is not true. Beer is just as social and respectable as wine and should be considered so.

The author obviously knows his subject, but his presentation wanders and mixes very technical aspects with gross simplifications. That combined with his beer bias detracts from what could be a more useful and informative book.

Why is wine considered the more sophisticated drink than beer, and why is it considered healthier when beer has more nutritive value? Wine and beer receive an unusual contrast in GRAPE VERSUS GRAIN, a comparative survey of the history of wine and beer over thousands of years. From technology and health issues to social value and business distribution, GRAPE VS. GRAIN discusses all aspects of beer and wine making and is a recommended pick for college-level holdings strong in food and wine education.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

There is interesting material in this book about how beer and wine are made, and what influences their quality. But you have to really want to extract it to make it through to the end.

The first problem is the author's huge inferiority complex over being a brewer. He keeps going on and on about how much harder it is to brew beer than to make wine. (Without much nod to the challenges of growing and picking grapes so that the rest flows smoothly.) I kept wanting to shake him and say "beer and wine are different, but they both have their place; get over it".

Then there is the pompous, lecturing style of the prose. The author actually seems like he would be better suited to writing the ridiculous kind of over the top descriptions sometimes given wines by their producers than the simple prose that a defender of beer ought to be able to summon. Despite the interesting facts, this book is a hard slog. (Which is saying a lot given that it is under 200 pages.)

If you want to read a short book that tells you how beer and wine are made, and why they taste the way they do, the information is here. But the premise could have been much better realized with a better writer or a suitably ruthless editor.

This guy has no idea what he is talking about. Several times admitting his own ignorance (saying he has no idea what a winemaker does the rest of the year, the author probably should have figured that out in order to put up a reasonable argument) This book is also filled with historical innaccuracies, (Greek amphoras were in fact not stored on theresides as the author states) ignorant statements (he questions the worth of aging wine saying it is mysticism or trickery by the manufacturer to command more money for the bottle) and other technical fallacies (the author states that different plants are planted amongst the vines to encourage flavor or aroma trasnfer, that is nuts and doesnt occur, he also says Foxy smells derived from grafted vines, grafting does not change the characteristics of the rootstock or scion and no flavor transfers occur) He also claims grapes are over priced, again through trickery of the grower. This notion is derived form his somewhat flawed comparison between the farming techniques of grapes vs. grain. Negating to mention the difference in yields per acre of the two crops or the five years taken to establish a vineyard. Where as grain is planted in harvested within a matter of months, not years. Nor does he take into account the planting and harvesting methods. that for quality grapes is almost always done by hand, where as grain is machine processed on huge scale. I could go on and on. I am a winemaker and grower with two degrees in my field. This guy is lunatic with an agenda to push. I like beer just as much as the next guy but it is propaganda like this that has helped lead to so many cases of genocide in the past. Lying or mistating the facts is not the proper way to go about an argument, but again ignorrance is bliss.