New Holland 'Beervangelist' Bueltmann Has Days Left In Kickstarter Campaign For Book
By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jan 11, 2013 5:40PM
New Holland Brewing's Fred Bueltmann.
Fans of New Holland Brewing will recognize Fred “The Beervangelist” Bueltmann as the public face of the company, spreading the Gospel According to New Holland far and wide. Bueltmann is also a serious gourmand and his efforts to align New Holland’s beers with dining are as tireless and successful as similar efforts by Greg Hall at Goose Island and Vitrue Cider, Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver and Greg Koch of Stone Brewing.
One of the reasons for Bueltmann’s success here is his natural gift as a storyteller. Hall, Koch and Oliver are gifted public speakers but each possesses an authoritative tone that doesn’t play to the cheap seats at tastings and dinners. Bueltmann’s approach is more utilitarian: He talks about approaching beer and its relation to food from what he calls a “flavor first” perspective. As an accomplished home chef, Bueltmann takes the extra step in showing how to use beer as an ingredient in cooking. Finally, his blog on New Holland’s website is always an entertaining read
Bueltmann has put all of this together in a book, The Beervangelist’s Guide to the Galaxy slated to be published in late spring or early summer by independent publisher Black Lake Press. Beultmann told Chicagoist he didn’t want this book to be a parallel of Oliver’s The Brewmaster’s Table or the beer writing of Stephen Beaumont.
“I was inspired by folks like Garrett Oliver and Stephen Beaumont,” Bueltmann said, “but I wanted to take this in a different direction. I wanted to look at palate awareness, then driving it to how to integrate beer gracefully into your own life. This book is more of a lifestyle guide as much as anything. I want to demystify things so people can immerse themselves into beer.”
Because Bueltmann is working with a smaller publisher, he’s turned to Kickstarter to raise funds for the production and publishing costs. He’s looking to raise $10,000 by Jan. 18; with days remaining in the campaign he’s about $3,500 short of the goal. People who back the project will receive a range of items depending on the pledge level, from an autographed copy of the book to a trip with Bueltmann to one of six farm to table dinners in the Midwest this year. Check out the Kickstarter page here.