Phil Markowski

A great discussion of the history and influences of the Saison and Bière de Garde beer styles. However, it's rather repetitive — it's 256 pages should have been more like 128 — and more focused on talking about existing brands than helping you brew your own. You can decide if that's worth $12 to you ($10 on the Kindle) but, while I enjoyed reading it, I wish I had just found it in a library somewhere.

This book has inspired me. I don't have much refrigerator space, so it's difficult to keep my fermentation temperature under proper control in the summer. After reading the saison half of this book, I feel confident that I can brew a good beer in the summer and not have to agonize over keeping my fermenter on ice.

Much like the other books in this series, it focuses more on the history and process of brewing Biers de Garde and Saisons, and little space is given to recipes.