This looks like a fun project. Photographer Nick Gingold is creating a portrait of California brewers, a coffee table book, that’s entitled California BrewMasters. He’s photographed at least 45 California brewers and each profile will include an interview.

The book is expected to be published in June of this year, and the brewers featured are a veritable who’s who of California’s beer scene.

I first met Nick at the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival last summer, when he was showing off some of the great photographs that will be in the finished book. He’s been working on the book for over two years. To complete the book, he’s turned to Kickstarter to raise the remaining funds to get it printed. Pre-order it through Kickstarter, and you’ll both get it for less than retail plus be one of the first to have it shipped directly to your home. There’s also additional levels at Kickstarter, with more schwag including bottle openers, growlers, t-shirts, a poster and even signed copies of the book.

Here’s how the book is described at the Kickstarter page:

California BrewMasters is a collection of interviews and photographic portraits of some of California’s best brewers. I’ve traveled to over 45 breweries around every corner of the state talking to the men and women responsible for the golden state’s most delicious brews. I’m launching this Kickstarter to create a beautiful, 200 page, 10″x10″ hard cover coffee table book to share this project with the world. We plan to have it ready for distribution by June.

As a photographer and craft beer fan, I wanted to create a project that hadn’t been done before. I noticed that while a lot of books were written about the beer itself, or as a guide book to which breweries to visit, no one had really been paying attention to the men and women responsible for all this delicious beer we have. What’s going on in the mind of Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman’s? How does Mitch Steele from Stone brew such delicious IPAs? Why not talk to them and find out, and better yet bring their faces out of the brewery and onto the page in, so you can really get a connection to the guy spending countless hours bringing you a fresh, delicious, well crafted product to sip on?

So a little over two years ago I set out to do just that, and today we have the project you see before you. I photographed these brewers in their natural environments, in the brewery and in the communities in which they work and live. We would then interviewed them, having an open conversation about their history, their philosophy to brewing, what they look for in a good beer, their thoughts on the current state of the craft beer industry, you name it – we tried to ask it. These interviews will be transcribed and edited to go hand in hand with each portrait.

And finally, here’s a few examples from the book, to give you a flavor of the portraits:

Brian Hunt of Moonlight Brewing.

Ben Cook of Hangar 24 Brewing

Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing

Ignacio “Nacho” Cervantes from Pizza Port Carlsbad