Good Beer Guide West Coast USA: Including Las Vegas, Alaska and Hawaii Paperback – Illustrated, 3 Mar. 2008

An invaluable tome for anyone travelling the West Coast of the USA.Packed with all the info you need to track down a quality brew almost anywhere, the lack of an updated edition means the now somewhat dated research could prove to be inaccurate in some locations where changes have inevitably occurred.

For the most part, I really enjoyed this book: informative, with good background on typical west coast beer styles and some of the key breweries and personalities. It would make an indispensable guide and merit five stars were it not for one flaw - it completely misses out San Jose, the third largest city in California. While San Jose and the environs certainly aren't the most likely tourist destinations, they do deserve some coverage.

My fiance and I bought this book because we were visiting West Coast America recently and wanted more than the usual 'Rough Guide' books offer. This book was just the ticket and after the first visit we knew that the reviews by Ben and Tom were honest and reliable...when they recommend a beer, try it, they are the masters and really know their stuff.......We subsequently visited a load more of their review places!!! It's not just a book about beer, we had great food because of them too...and we would never have seen or heard of Snoqualmie falls without them. I can't recommend this book enough.Believe what these men tell you, you won't regret it.

We picked this book up while we were out on the West Coast and it proved to be a truly trusty travel and drinking companion. Wonderfully witty, well-written and rigorously researched, it introduced us to beers and bars that we simply would never have discovered had we relied on more conventional travel guides. If you like beer, even a little bit, then buy it. If you don't like beer, buy it anyway and you soon will do!

If you're going to this part of the world and love beer then pack this book. Ben McFarland and Tom Sandham have managed to create a very amusing guidebook with all the relevant info you might need - travel, history and so on. They clearly love what they do and have an in-depth knowledge and appreciation of the best of the West Coast craft brewers and their beers.