'You're Not the Usual American Sycophant.'

That's what Tim Webb told me once. It was his own sort of compliment, I think. I assured him I was a completely new and different kind of American sycophant.

Anyway: It's impossible for me to write an honest, objective review of the new Good Beer Guide Belgium. So I won't try. Instead I'll sum up my bias: Well before I met Tim and co-wrote a book for his small publishing outfit, the GBG's fifth edition was the best guidebook we'd ever owned. And we've owned a lot of them.

Besides being an instant course on serious Belgian beer—and a platform for Tim's merciless wit—the Guide allows you to suck more of the good life out of this country than any other book on the market. Anyway, that's what it did for my wife and I. We reflexively recommend it to visitors and fellow expats. Even if the only thing they know about beer is that they like it. Especially then.

(Aside #1: Ever notice that places with good beer also tend to have pretty good food? Generally speaking. Trust a beer guide to send you to a decent restaurant, that's all I'm saying.)

The Babblebelt has a review of the Guide here. Meanwhile CAMRA is having a little contest to promote it, with a weekend in Brussels as the carrot.

(Aside #2: A simple recipe for an excellent day is a set of wheels, a navigation system, and a decent guidebook.)

A solicited endorsement from the Missus: "I have seen so much more of Belgium, from the countryside to small towns to its larger cities' side streets, than I would have seen without the Good Beer Guide. My husband and I had a lot of fun adventures with the GPS taking us down cow paths to find tiny little bars that serve some very special beers. I gained a whole new appreciation for what 'special beer' means."

I knew she would work in the cow paths, somehow. Our GPS has a knack for finding all of them.