The Library

Andy Hamilton takes you step by step through more than 100 recipes from foraged ingredients. He has a funny and approachable writing style which makes this book excellent for beginners, and his sense of humour means experiences brewers will have fun with the book too. If you are an expert looking for a very detailed homebrew guide then this is probably not the book for you though.

The book includes more than 100 recipes including beer made from hops as you would expect, but also from pumpkin, yarrow, elder, and other foraged plants. He also covers wine, infusions, cider, and perry from fruit, vegetables (carrot whisky?!) and the hedgerows.

There are some non-alcoholic drinks like leaf cordials, teas, and fizzy drinks from herbs as well.

Booze starts with the basic principles of making drinks and preparing your equipemnt. After that it is divided up by alcohol type, from beer, cider, and wine to herbal spirits and fruit liqueurs. John Wright's approach is quite a technical one with a glossary of terms and a good level of detail about ingredients and techniques, including alternatives with some pros and cons. He does throw in his own opinions and his personality comes through which stops this from being a dry book of techniqes. There is enough basic info for beginners but the book feels better for people with a little more experience who want to understand the principles behind brewing and infusing rather than someone diving in for the first time.

Each section starts with an introduction to the basic techniques, methods and other useful information. It then goes into recipe details for delicious tipples like rhubarb wine, sparkling elderflower wine, mead, cherry plum wine, orange beer, lager, real ginger beer, sweet cider, zubrovka vodka, amber spirits, rose infusions, blackberry whiskey, pomegranate rum, chestnut liqueur, mulled cider. Even a version of absinthe. And if you drink all those there is a bonus hangover cure thrown in for good measure.

This book opens up a world of possibilities for a reader who wants to explore the flavours of their surroundings. It is focussed on fermented drinks and is all about exploring and having fun.

The author's passion is a real strength and draws you into the book. He writes enthusiastically about foraging and brewing with the foraged plants, fruits and herbs. Baudar goes from simple wild sodas, to non-grape-based ccountry wines, to primitive herbal beers, meads, and traditional ferments like tiswin and kvass. The book is well illustrated with high quality photos.

This book would suit any experience level. His enthusiastic writing style and an introductory section mean this would be suitable to inspire a newer forager/brewer. There are a huge number of recipes and tips included. This, combined with the range of unusual ingredients and the passion with which the author writes, means that everyone will get something out of the book.

The Homebrewer's Almanac is a practical guide for those who are interested in incorporating fresh and foraged ingredients into their beer, written by the brewers of one of New York's's hottest new breweries. It features recipes like:

• Sweet Potato Vienna Lager
• Chanterelle Mushroom Saison
• Nettle Spicebush Ale
• Sumac Sour Ale
• Basil Rye Porter

The book is very focussed on using local and seasonal ingredients. There are some traditional recipes but most of them include unexpected ingredients. Also good to note that the book is more suited for someone with homebrewing experience.

The Forager's Calendar tracks a year's foraging in the UK. Every month has details of the plants and fungi with good quality photos for identification, recipes, and other tips.

The book is engaging and written by an enthusiastic expert who pulls the reader into the subject. The illustrations and photos add to this, making it a joy to read even for the armchair forager.

This is a comprehensive guide to foraging with a focus on the recipes that can be made from foraged ingredients from the UK. It does emphasis safe and responsible foraging, but lacks some of the basic information for the absolute beginner and is definitely not a field guide despite the name.

Each plant is clearly identified through detailed text and photos. There are recipes for every plant, and the book is more of a recipe book than a guide to how to forage the ingredients. The author includes some tasting notes and historical uses of the plants by our ancestors. It is aimed at drinking rather than eating too.

It is a well written book with a lot of content and would be a good companion to a field guide like the Forager's Calendar or Food For Free.

Incredibly well researched, packed with information and anecdotes. This is a general foraging book so this isn't for someone only looking to forage for drinks. It is a nice book to inspire and educate the forager, aimed more at someone who is already experienced in foraging than a beginner, with a focus on plants found in the UK and northern Europe.

The first part of the book goes into foraging practice and techniques, including sustainability and foraging practices. Afterwards it goes into details of around 100 types of plant with black and white photos, recipes from some well known chefs, and tasting notes.

This is a weighty book so this is not a field guide. It suits someone with experience who wants to learn something new or to go into a lot of detail.

An essential guide to every species of tree found in the British Isles outside of arboretums

This is an excellent guide which goes into detail of the different parts of the tree, which keeping an easy-to-read style. It covers all 360 species of tree found in Britain & Ireland. Each tree is covered in detail with information on how to identify it through its leaves, twigs, bark texture or overall shape with extra information like a map of its coverage, size, and some usage and historical notes.

The book includes photos and illustrations of every tree. It is especially interesting if you want to learn more about nature and have something of a sciency bent, but it would really suit any interested reader.