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.

Just a great read all round, strongly recommended.

Booze starts with the basic principles of making drinks and preparing your equipment. After that it is divided up by alcohol type, from beer, cider, and wine to herbal spirits and fruit liqueurs.

The author has a technical approach 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, but it is definitely one for learning and less of a general read like Booze for Free.

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 a good number of recipes 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.

Recommended for someone who has made a start and wants to get deeper into brewing.

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 country wines, to primitive herbal beers, meads, and traditional ferments like tiswin and kvass. The book is beautifully 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 even a very experienced brewer will get something out of the book.

Recommended for pretty much anyone with an interest in drinking and the outdoors.

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 some pretty wild 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.

Recommended for someone with some homebrewing experience who wants to try some new and unexpected flavours.

Radical Brewing is a fun and creative journey through different beers. The author is very experienced brewer and incredibly enthusiastic about the subject.

He takes you on a tour through the history of beers and brewing, going through a lot of the traditional types before going off to fruit and even mushroom beer.

This is a book for the enthusiast and probably someone with some home brewing experience - it is not not a book of techniques for the beginner but could inspire them to start up. It is solidly aimed at brewing beer, and more about the craft than a forager's book.

This is the book version of striking up conversation with a witty and slightly tipsy stranger at a craft ale festival. You will come away entertained and educated.

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.

From the same author as the River Cottage Booze book and a lot of other related books so this is someone who really knows his stuff. The book is engaging and the enthusiastic expert pulls the reader into his subject. The illustrations and photos add to this, making it a joy to read even for the armchair forager.

You can get an idea of the author's style from his website foragerscalendar.net.

Especially recommended as a first foraging book for beginners but most foragers will get something out of it.

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 great companion to a field guide like the Forager's Calendar or Food For Free.

Recommended for people who have already begun foraging and want some creative uses for the things they bring home, or an aspirational gift for the seasonal produce-inspired foodies.

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 an experienced forager 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 and definitely one for reading at home rather than a field guide. It suits someone with experience who wants to learn something new or to go into a lot of detail. Perfect gift for an enthusiast.

An essential guide to every species of tree found in the British Isles outside of an arboretum.

This is an excellent guide which goes into detail of the different parts of the tree, while keeping an easy-to-read style. It covers all 360 species of tree found in Britain & Ireland. Each tree is described 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.