(June 9) - There must be something in beer that helps people explain complicated matters, not only in a simple manner but also in a very entertaining way.

I noticed that connection when I found myself reading anything that beer writer Michael Jackson wrote, whether the topic interested me or not. And now I'm aiming to read anything and everything that Garrett Oliver writes. Oliver, brewmaster at the Brooklyn Brewery, has a passion for beer that leaps out of every page of his new book, "The Brewmaster's Table."

If you ever have thought about pairing beers with food at your restaurant, his findings will guide you through the process painlessly. Heck, you even can cheat by going straight to the chart at the back of his tome, where you'll find a list of food dishes along with the appropriate beers to serve alongside them, but I don't recommend that tack unless you're in a big rush. Read Oliver's words, chapter by chapter, and you, too, might become a beer freak.

"If you've tasted only mass-market beer, I'm afraid that you haven't actually tasted beer at all," Oliver writes. "Real beer can be imperial stout, matching your dessert with flavors as bold, chocolaty, and roasty as espresso, or it can be Belgian witbier, matching your fish dish with flavors as light and citrusy as fresh lemonade." Those words are found in the introduction to the book — I was sucked right into it. And Oliver goes on to say that, after hosting hundreds of beer tastings over the years, "not a week goes by when someone doesn't stop me on the street and thank me for introducing him or her to real beer."

The book begins with a chapter on what beer is and how it's made. And this highly technical topic is tackled not only with wisdom but also with a sense of humor and a style that makes even yeast interesting: "The joke around the brewhouse is that in reality we work for the yeast. We're there only to feed it and keep it happy. Actually, I'm not quite sure that this is a joke — there's a large element of truth in it," Oliver writes.

After a chapter on the history of beer, Oliver then explains the principles behind matching beer with food, actually promising the reader a "better life" after learning about the "amazing variety and complexity of flavor that traditional beer brings to the table." That's a heck of a promise but not one that Oliver takes lightly: "Traditional beer . . . can turn a quesadilla into a fireworks display or a simple roast chicken into a spectacular meal," he writes.

Oliver takes a simple approach to deciding which beers to match with food. When asked about tips on the subject, he says, "You want to first match up the impact on your palate. You want to avoid overwhelming delicate foods with a beer with a huge flavor. So you'll match delicate food with delicately flavored beers. Then, you can match up some of the flavors in the food and the beer. I call this the 'flavor hook' — the part of the beer's flavor that links up directly with the flavor in the food."

And if you've been guilty of holding wine and cheese parties, Oliver plans on changing all that. If he has his way, we'll be throwing beer and cheese events from now on: "Cheese coats the tongue, blunting wine flavors, and wine doesn't tend to have flavors that harmonize with cheese.

"The best you can usually do is a nice contrast, but more often they clash," he continued. "Beer, on the other hand, has carbonation to cleanse the palate and a broad range of flavors that link up with the flavors of the cheese."

If you ever wanted to learn more about beer but were intimidated, this book is the one you've been waiting for. It's not just easy to read; it's downright pleasurable. I hope that some of you will heed my advice on this one. Oliver has brought a complicated subject within the reach of everyone.

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