The Brewer's Tale is a beer-filled journey into the past: the story of brewers gone by and one brave writer's quest to bring them--and their ancient, forgotten beers--back to life, one taste at a time. This is the story of the world according to beer, a toast to flavors born of necessity and place--in Belgian monasteries, rundown farmhouses, and the basement nanobrewery next door. So pull up a barstool and raise a glass to 5,000 years of fermented magic.

Fueled by date-and-honey gruel, sour pediococcus-laced lambics, and all manner of beers between, William Bostwick's rollicking...