People who know a lot about a subject can really struggle when they try to write a book for beginners. That’s because they tend to forget what it’s actually like to know almost nothing about the subject. And so they write a book that an actual beginner finds more than a little confusing.
If it’s a book about beer, there’s also the problem that the expert can come across as a bit elitist, a bit of a beer snob. And that tends to turn off a lot of newbies. Having read more than a few beer books, there’s one that’s snob-free, informative and interesting – and I wish I’d found it when I was starting out on my beer journey.

That would be Let Me Tell You About Beer by Melissa Cole. In the subtitle it promises to be “a beginner’s guide to all things brewed” and I reckon that’s a pretty fair assessment. Like every other beer book it starts with an explanation of what beer is before moving into a series of chapters broken into beer styles.

What makes it different is a combination of a layout that is quite pleasing to the eye and the relaxed tone of Cole’s writing (though she needs to go easy on the exclamation mark – seems to be several on each page. If the world experiences an exclamation mark shortage, this book will be at least partially responsible for that). It’s friendly and easygoing – there’s still loads of information in this book but Cole’s easy writing style makes it very simple to digest.

So if you know someone who is dipping their toe in the world of beer and needs a guidebook to explain a few things (or if you feel your own knowledge might not be up to par) I can recommend giving this book a look.