Craft Beer Revolution to Compete for the Best Beer Book in the World Award

Joe Wiebe has put the B.C. craft beer scene on the map with his book, Craft Beer Revolution: An Insider's Guide to BC Breweries (Douglas & McIntyre, $19.95), which has won a Gourmand Award for the Best Beer Book in Canada. The book will now go on to compete for the title of Best Beer Book in the World. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony in Beijing in May, 2014.

In Craft Beer Revolution, Wiebe (also known as the "Thirsty Writer") documents the fascinating craft beer movement in B.C., profiling its history, the breweries themselves, and the people behind the kegs and casks. The book is filled to the brim with recommendations for beer tasting tours, lists of the best brews that B.C. has to offer, and entertaining trivia that will make beer geeks salivate.

To write this book, Joe Wiebe undertook what he called his "Craft Beer Odyssey" -- a road trip around the bottom half of the province, visiting as many craft beer hubs as possible. On this trip, he found that British Columbians are embracing craft beer like never before. It may, in part, be associated with an ever-growing movement to consume high-quality, local products. However, there is more to craft beer than its superb ingredients. Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery, writes that "craft brewing universally involves boldly flavoured beers coupled with a defiantly independent spirit." In Craft Beer Revolution, Wiebe celebrates this independent spirit that has overwhelmingly soaked into B.C.'s beer scene.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards were founded in 1995 by Edouard Cointreau, with the objective of increasing knowledge of food and drink culture around the world.