Ian Coutts

I'm a writer interested in beer and brewing, food and cooking, history and a wealth of other subjects. My newest book, The Perfect Keg: Sowing, Scything, Malting and Brewing My Way to the Best-Ever Pint of Beer, has just been published in Canada and the United States.

In it, I describe my adventures brewing beer totally from scratch - growing my own hops and barley, capturing my own yeast and malting my own grain - on a remote, 150-year-old farm. And adventures they were: crop failure, acrid smoke, snarling hounds, band-aid beer, frozen yeast, and a mercurial barrel maker, to name just a few. Despite all that, in the end what I got was... well, I can't reveal too much about that final, aiming-to-be-perfect keg, but I can tell you that I met some wonderful folks, learned a huge amount about brewing, and gained enormous respect for the people who really know how to do it.

This and my other books reflect what I most love to do: really research a topic, and then present it in a way that's lively and fun. I'll be doing media stuff and getting out and around in the U.S. and Canada to talk about the book. Please keep an eye on my Events feed or follow me on Twitter to see if I'll be turning up somewhere near you.