John Schlimm has decent credentials for the author of a beer cookbook, and I don't mean his master's degree in education from Harvard.

His family has been in the beer business since the 1870s, when his great-great-grandfather, Peter Straub, left Germany for Allegheny City, now the North Side of Pittsburgh. There he worked at the Eberhardt & Ober brewery before moving to a brewery he would buy in 1876 in St. Marys, Elk County.

That's still home to the Straub Brewery, and to Mr. Schlimm, who invokes his beery bloodlines in the introduction to the new "The Ultimate Beer Lover's Cookbook" published in May (Cumberland House, $24.95).

In it he shares more than 400 recipes he has collected for cooking with beer, some of which he published in "The Straub Beer Cookbook" that the brewery still sells (for $16.90; straubbeer.com).

Yes, the new cookbook contains classics such as beer batters and beer breads and beer chilis, but it also offers a wide range of dishes you probably wouldn't think of using beer in -- from scrambled eggs and pancake syrup to salad dressing and glazed carrots to double chocolate cake and cannoli.

In a nod to his hometown's Allegheny National Forest surroundings, there's a chapter of game recipes, including "Tangy Barbecue Elk Brisket" and "Squirrel Dinner for Two."

And in a nod to his connections to the Straub brewery, there are pages and pages of beery mixed drinks recipes he started compiling for "The Straub Beer Party Drinks Handbook" (also available from the brewery, along with his pictorial history), from politically incorrect "chuggers" to party punches to floats and milk shakes -- even flaming drinks he groups under the heading, "Beer on Fire."

Even if you love beer (or "the Golden Rock Star," as he calls this liquid international celebrity), the whole thing is a bit wacky, but as Mr. Schlimm stresses in his loopy, beer history-drenched intro, "Beer = Fun."

"I'm just having great fun," he says over the phone, not long after returning home from three book-signing appearances at Harrah's casinos -- in Memphis, North Kansas City and Lake Tahoe.

He jokes about how nobody at the brewery ever would want him to work there; he makes a living doing promotional writing and also is an adjunct professor in communications at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

The recipes don't suggest using Straub or any other specific brand of beer, and while most of the recipes work with a "good basic lager," which is how he tested most of them, he hopes cooks will experiment with the variety of craft beers available.

At his Memphis publicity event, the casino served his chocolate cannoli made with a vanilla beer, which he says just added to the great flavor.

Truth be told, many of these recipes contain relatively little beer -- just two tablespoons, for instance, in the accompanying July 4-themed burgers (he also includes "4th of July Hotdogs" in the book). As Mr. Schlimm points out, one mixed drink --the Grand Dame -- calls for nothing more than a topping of draft beer foam.

"It is in many cases just one more ingredient," he says. "It's not like you're going to absolutely taste it. And yet, you can tell a difference if it's not there."

You can always add a little more beer, or just serve it as a side dish. He encourages experimenting. As he puts it, "No cookbook ... is ever truly complete until each cook adds a pinch of this or dash of that -- or in this case, a few more swigs of beer!"

Mr. Schlimm's may well be, as he claims, the "largest beer cookbook ever published," but more have been coming out recently.

In October, the Brewers Association published "The Best of American Beer & Food: Pairing & Cooking With Craft Beer" by Lucy Saunders (the Wisconsin editor of beercook.com, who also wrote 1996's "Cooking With Beer" and 2007's "Grilling With Beer"). The new soft-cover book -- available for $22.95 from the trade group's Web site beertown.org -- suggests beer pairings for 80-plus sophisticated, sometimes elaborate recipes contributed from brewers and chefs across the country. It's all handsomely arranged with chapters on regional trends (Pittsburgh's Penn Brewery's beer-flavored cheese spread is mentioned) plus "Craft Beer and Cheese" and "Chocolate."

Published in December was "The Anheuser-Busch Cookbook: Great Food, Great Beer" (Sunset, $24.95). The soft-cover book compiles 185 recipes, not all of which include beer as an ingredient. But each is marked with a glass icon suggesting what style of beer to serve with it (with handy suggestions for A-B brands, although you could use others).

Expect to continue to hear more about cooking and pairing food with specific beers. If you want to hear more right now, check out the audio coverage of the Brewers Association's recent festival in Washington, D.C., titled "Savor: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience." More than 2,000 attendees sampled pairings of 96 craft beers and 35 sweet and savory appetizers. Pittsburgh's own Craft Beer Radio covered the salons -- including "Cheese & Beer: Two Arts That Taste Great Together" and "Pairing America's Favorite Dips" -- that you can listen to at craftbeerradio.com/savor.

In the Pittsburgh area, beer dinners are happening a bit more frequently. Monday, the Springfield Grille in Adams hosted "BBQ & Beer," which paired five brews with five dishes for $50. The Roxy Cafe at South Hills Village Mall holds its first beer dinner, with Magic Hat brews, July 17 (four courses for $40 plus tax and tip; call 412-854-2400).

The Cultural Trust's Craft Beer School at the Cabaret at Theater Square, Downtown, teaches thirsty students about good brews by pairing them with foods from Cafe Zao. The last session before summer covered "Craft Beer and BBQ," and Chef Toni Pais made pulled pork with a barbecue sauce that included a beer reduction. What kind of beer did he use? "I just grabbed two from the cooler," he told the class. "I can tell you the color was a very nice amber." (You can buy tuition -- $90 -- for the four-class session starting in the fall at pgharts.org.)

I for one am not a huge fan of putting beer into the food, but I'm very much into cooking with beer. I just put the beer into the cook.