Food lovers also tend to be drink lovers, which often means wine. I like a nice bottle as much as the next guy and do a decent job generally pairing the right kind of wine with most food but I’ve lately come to accept that I’ll never be a wine expert. I am, however, a great fan of beer in all its many forms, so I was quite excited to receive The Naked Pint: An Unadulterated Guide to Craft Beer as a gift from my future sister-in-law.

If your idea of beer is limited to the mass-marketed dreck that gets advertised at half-time or if you’ve never thought to consider beer as a high-class beverage worthy of pairing with the food you cook, this is certainly a book worth checking out. The authors, Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune (yes, they’re both women and they certainly know their beer better than most men I know) do the challenging work of introducing just what beer is, how it’s made and the incredible variety of craft beers that are possible from just four ingredients. They discuss nearly every style of ale and lager you’re likely to encounter, and even many you’ll have to seek out, with specific brands to try and tasting notes to look for. There’s further discussion on how to properly store and age your beers, proper glassware, a chapter on home brewing and a pretty extensive list of recipes for cooking with beer and how to pair types of beer with food.

My one complaint with the book is the style of writing, which I would best describe as flirtatious. The language is a bit too cute, the metaphors and puns a bit too often, with an undercurrent of, well, sexuality that wore thin pretty quickly. There were a few too many “sorry fellas, size matters” type jokes for me to take the writing seriously. I appreciate a certain amount of irreverence and conversational writing, particularly when the topic is something that I love, but Perozzi and Beaune were approaching desperation by the end.

The Naked Pint is a quick, fun and incredibly knowledgeable, if a bit syrupy sweet, read that will certainly help you have a better appreciation for beer and just might introduce a new tool to your culinary arsenal.