Starlight in a Glass – Home-Brewing Beer as an Existential Journey, a Narrative
Published By Jonas Rembert – Get Your Digital Copy Here
Despite what the author says, Starlight in a Glass – Home-Brewing Beer as an Existential Journey, a Narrative, isn’t about homebrewing. Not really. It’s about discovery (Belgium’s Cantillon Brewery, the virtue of Milwaukee’s Best Light), it’s about the experience of learning from mistakes (home-brewed Lambic) and turning those errors into a better beer; it’s about making something from almost nothing (French Broad Brewing Company).
I first met Jonas Rembert in a closet in the back rooms of Asheville’s Jack of the Wood’s pub, probably 1997. With fermentation tanks and brewing equipment scattered among several dusty, tiny rooms, he called it his brewery. Watch your head, the “tour” took three minutes. His story is his journey, from Grateful Dead concert parking lots to Belgian breweries to teaching in Taiwan, with stops in London and time to snub his nose at Reinheitsgebot in between.
Rembert “studied literature in school. [He] didn’t have a scientific thought in [his] head. Brewing is an art.” And maybe it is. This book is art. Flipping backward through the digital pages, I find recipes, brewing techniques, discussion on extract and all-grain homebrewing. It was there all along, but I read right through it. So, maybe I was wrong. Starlight in A Glass is about home-brewing… and a lot about Jonas’s novel look at his life’s passions.
Starlight in a Glass – Home-Brewing Beer as an Existential Journey, a Narrative is a witty, bouncy, wonderful read. Jonas Rembert is a Bohemian brewer with a flair for serendipity. Charlie Papazian has nothing to fear.
Reviewed by Bobby Bush
Beer Connoisseur Sewer
