Patrick Melmer is a young homebrewer who wants to make his name with a special beer nobody will ever forget... and quite possibly never remember. At least not once they get out of the hospital.
The struggling novelist Don Graeber announces his plan to drink nothing but beer, just for the PR buzz he hopes the stunt might extend to his book sales. But he ends up learning more about his favorite drink than he ever wanted to know.
When their centuries-old church is nearly destroyed in a storm, Brother Robert and the monks of Strelsov Abbey decide to start brewing an authentic monastery beer in order to pay for repairs. But what is an authentic monastery beer?
It's a troika of tales, three complex stories about beer -- a true Triplebock. It contains:
THE GRAIN MEN
AN ALL-BEER DIET
THE BREWERY AT STRELSOV ABBEY
Praise for Evan Rail's Kindle Singles, Why Beer Matters and In Praise of Hangovers
"Evan Rail's Why Beer Matters and In Praise of Hangovers are beer writing taken to a new philosophical plane, beer writing as a matter of musing, personal recollection, philosophical probing all brought together with an erudite and personable writing style. They are essays, elegant in their design, but also robust in the way in which they celebrate beer and its universe."
-- Adrian Tierney-Jones
"Rail's Why Beer Matters is a thoughtful paean to the simple joy that beer rewards: at the end of the day -- literally -- it's the anticipation and the thing itself. Read the essay as the best conversation about beer with the person on the next bar-stool over... that you've never had."
-- Thomas Cizauskas
"It's truly a phenomenal piece of writing. Rail explores not only his own relationship with beer -- how it affects his career, his travel and his writing -- but how beer affects everyone associated with it, from brewers to consumers. He takes you on a journey that spans the globe and ends up in his living room. It's a deeply personal and wonderfully beer-geeky experience, that he relates in a easy-to-come-by manner -- it really is a fantastic work."
-- Craig Gravina
AN ALL-BEER DIET
THE BREWERY AT STRELSOV ABBEY
Praise for Evan Rail's Kindle Singles, Why Beer Matters and In Praise of Hangovers
"Evan Rail's Why Beer Matters and In Praise of Hangovers are beer writing taken to a new philosophical plane, beer writing as a matter of musing, personal recollection, philosophical probing all brought together with an erudite and personable writing style. They are essays, elegant in their design, but also robust in the way in which they celebrate beer and its universe."
-- Adrian Tierney-Jones
"Rail's Why Beer Matters is a thoughtful paean to the simple joy that beer rewards: at the end of the day -- literally -- it's the anticipation and the thing itself. Read the essay as the best conversation about beer with the person on the next bar-stool over... that you've never had."
-- Thomas Cizauskas
"It's truly a phenomenal piece of writing. Rail explores not only his own relationship with beer -- how it affects his career, his travel and his writing -- but how beer affects everyone associated with it, from brewers to consumers. He takes you on a journey that spans the globe and ends up in his living room. It's a deeply personal and wonderfully beer-geeky experience, that he relates in a easy-to-come-by manner -- it really is a fantastic work."
-- Craig Gravina
