Brew Like A Monk does a great job of demystifying how famous Belgian beers – especially trappist ales – are brewed.  As a budding homebrewer, I thought that great Belgian ales like Rochefort, Chimay and Westvleteren relied on complex grain bills and exotic ingredients like coriander, orange peel and who knows what else to make their distincive beers.  The truth, as author Stan Hieronymus reveals, is far simpler, with all those great flavours coming from a relatively short list of ingredients and straightforward brewing practices.

Hieronymus uncovers the fascinating history of trappist brewing.  These guys really understood the golden rule, with some of the trappist brethren from different breweries coming to each others aid, a practice that persists to this day.  In addition to the potted histories of the six trappist breweries there are pictures from within the walls of the various abbeys and their breweries - sights that I imagine that you would be unable to see even if you were to visit in person.  Incredibly, he has managed to get many of the trappist brewmasters (sometimes monks, sometimes laypeople) to open up about their methods.

The book then walks us through the “affiliated” (though not truly trappist)  abbey beers of Belgium before landing in America, where microbrewers – unencumbered by the “rules” of trappist brewing tradition – have expanded the various Belgian styles to create a unique range of beers limited only by the imagination of microbrewer and homebrewer alike.  Again, the brewers behind these great beers discuss their methods and the philosophies behind their approach to making beer.

Be advised that this is not a recipe book (though there are a few recipes), nor does it provide you with step-by-step instructions to brew Belgian-style beers.   However, if you have a bit of brewing knowledge there is a veritable fermenter-load of useful information that will more than likely help you in your quest to brew authentic dubbels, tripels and beyond.