Get expert ratings for the world's distilled beverages, and select the brands that taste best and give the most bang for the buck. Every category gets its own special evaluation process, from Whiskey (American, Canadian, Irish, Scotch), to Brandy (cognac, grappa, Spanish), and from rum, gin, vodka, and tequila/mezcal, to liqueurs such as port, sherry, and vermouth. Includes practical definitions of common terms, along with the 10 most important things to know when buying spirits.

Home cooks and gourmets, chefs and restaurateurs, epicures, and simple food lovers of all stripes will delight in this smorgasbord of the history and culture of food and drink. Professor of Culinary History Andrew Smith and nearly 200 authors bring together in 770 entries the scholarship on wide-ranging topics from airline and funeral food to fad diets and fast food; drinks like lemonade, Kool-Aid, and Tang; foodstuffs like Jell-O, Twinkies, and Spam; and Dagwood, hoagie, and Sloppy Joe sandwiches.

Explore Illinois mug-by-mug!

If you've ever spent as much money on the wine as on the meal, it's time to find the world's best bargains and enjoy them at home and in a restaurant. Over 1,500 wines are included. You'll save the price of the book the first time you use it when you shop!

An encyclopedia guide to the thousand-year history and dynamic future of the distillation of whiskey, vodka, gin, rum, brandy, and more.

This information-packed guidebook introduces you to more than sixty breweries and brewpubs-from the Shipwrecked Brew Pub in Egg Harbor, to smaller craft breweries like Capital Brewery west of Madison, to the world-famous Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee. Robin Shepard includes descriptions and his personal ratings of some 600 local beers, plus a taster's chart you can use to record your own preferences. For each brewpub and brewery site you'll find: - a description and brief history, plus any "Don't miss" features - names, comments, and ratings for all their specialty beers - notes on the pub food, with recommendations - suggestions of other sites to see and activities in the local area - information about bottling and distribution - availability of tours, tastings, gift shops, mug clubs, and "growlers" - address and contact data, including Web sites and GPS coordinates Shepard also introduces novices to the brewing process and a wide variety of beer styles. And, you'll find a list of helpful books and Web sites, as well as information on Wisconsin beer tastings and festivals. As we say in Wisconsin, "So, have a couple a two, three beers, hey?"

The Art of Distilling, Revised and Updated presents the techniques and inspirations of the most innovative micro-distillers working today and ties it together with incredible insider photography. In this comprehensive guide to artisan distilling, American Distilling Institute founder Bill Owens will teach you how contemporary master distillers transform water and grain into the full range of exquisite, timeless spirits. The Art of Distilling, Revised and Updated is your exclusive backstage pass into the world of small-scale distilling of whiskies, gins, vodkas, brandies, and many other spirits. Like no other book on the subject, The Art of Distilling goes to lengths to explore the actual craft of distilling, in detail. Beginning with a brief history of distilling and introduction to the process itself, this book offers a comprehensive overview of the art of distilling today. The revised and expanded edition includes even more practical tips, tricks, and instruction and has been updated to include growth and development in the artisan distilling space over the past decade. The Art of Distilling, Revised and Updated is the consummate insider's guide to distilling and its techniques.

The largest group of wine tasters in the world report on 3,000 wines from over 1,500 wineries in 43 states, rating them for taste, quality, and price. See which to buy, which to avoid, and which styles, regions, and producers are right for you. All Canadian and U.S. wines are listed by grape variety, and reviews appear alphabetically by producer for easy reference. Also featured: tips on the year's best buys, progress reports on each category, and advice for beginners. "An impressive new work...Beverage Testing Institute has earned a solid reputation for the independence and clarity of its evaluations..."--Chicago Tribune.

If you read wine reviews, you're already either amused or confused by the soaring language wine writers often use to describe what they're smelling and tasting. But do you always know what they mean? Have you ever sipped a complex white and sensed what's so colorfully described as a peacock's tail? Have you ever savored a full-bodied red only to detect the ripe acrid smell of a horse stall? If not, you're in for a treat, because these terms and thousands more are all here to amuse, dismay, enlighten, inspire, puzzle, and utterly shock you . Welcome to the rich linguistic universe of wine speak: a world where words and wine intersect in an uncontrolled riot of language guaranteed to keep you entertained for hours. The author, a lifelong lover of both wine and words, has compiled and organized this unique thesaurus of 36,975 wine tasting descriptors into 20 special collections extracted from 27 categories so you can locate exactly the right term or phrase to express yourself clearly or to understand others. May your path across the galaxy of wine be paved only with labels from the very best bottles on earth. Or, much more cautiously, with wines that could introduce you to angel pee, citronella, eastern European fruit soup, Godzilla, iodine, ladies' underwear, mustard gas, old running shoes, rawhide, hot tar roads, bubblegum, sweaty saddles, crushed ants, kitchen drains, or even turpentine.