Against All Hops: Techniques and Philosophy for Creating Extraordinary Botanical Beers

December 18, 2017 By Daniel Hartis

Against All Hops: Techniques and Philosophy for Creating Extraordinary Botanical Beers
By Butch Heilshorn
$18.99, Page Street Publishing Co.

While brewers and drinkers alike in New England obsess over hops, Butch Heilshorn has a different passion. At Earth Eagle Brewings in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he is one of the country’s preeminent brewers of gruit, a historical beer style brewed not with hops, but with herbs and other botanicals. Heilshorn has learned much during his time as a professional brewer (and his wife, April O’Keefe, is an herbalist), and he passes those tips on to aspiring all-grain brewers: from foraging and identifying botanicals, to harvesting and finally brewing with them. Thanks in part to the subject matter, the photos inside are some of the most intriguing of any beer book.–Daniel Hartis