American Sour Beer – Book!

[Oldsock]

Pre-orders are now being taken for my book (American Sour Beer: Innovative Techniques for Mixed Fermentations). Release says April 7th, but it’ll actually be more like the end of May or early June. There will be an AHA pre-sale in a couple months, and an ebook version eventually if you'd prefer that.

I’ve been researching and writing it for the last three years. I was able to get lots of specific process details from New Belgium, Lost Abbey, Russian River, Jolly Pumpkin, Allagash, Cambridge, Cascade, Ithaca, and the Bruery. I’ve also included smaller quotes and suggestions on specific areas from another dozen or so brewers who do something unique (places like Alpine, Upright, Hill Farmstead, Upland, Freetail, Al’s of Hampden, etc.). Not to mention a few terrific homebrewers!

My goal was to skip over most of the personalities, stories, and lore, and get down to the hard facts, process details etc. the sort of stuff that hopefully you’ll get something out of whether you’re brewing your first batch of sour beer at home or considering stepping up from barrels to foeders at a craft brewery.

It’s gone through a rigorous editing process between the publisher, technical editors (Jennifer from Russian River, and Yvan from De la Senne), and now the capable hands of a terrific copyeditor. I'm really looking forward to having everything wrapped up in the next week!

Cheers and thanks for all the ideas, links, and so forth I’ve gotten from people on this forum over the years!

 

[masonsjax]

I'm really looking forward to this book. Thanks!

 

[dcHokie]

Kudos Mike, I hope it is a 'wild' success

 

[Weezy]

F-I-N-A-L-Y!!!!

You've been a tease for a year.

 

[Coff]

Pre-ordered.

 

[dantheman13]

Mine!!!!!!

 

[ahpsp]

This is excellent news!

 

[junior627]

Cant wait to read it.

 

[SavoryChef]

Mines already pre-ordered

 

[metic]

Exciting to hear that Yvan de Baets was involved too. What kind of input did you get from him and your other technical editor?

 

[sweetcell]

conga rats, mike! can't wait to get my mitts on the book. so who wrote the forward??

 

[eric19312]

I put in a poke to the editor from Amazon requesting the kindle version. They did a fantastic job with the e-pub version of the Yeast book. Looking forward to the read.

 

[Oldsock]

Exciting to hear that Yvan de Baets was involved too. What kind of input did you get from him and your other technical editor?

He read it cover to cover. Commented on technical bits where I over reached (I was surprised that there isn't consensus that beta-glucans enhance body for example), or places I misinterpreted the Belgian point of view/production process. It's tricky writing a book for both craft brewers and homebrewers, when you know one of those areas much better than the other. I did my best to keep it very homebrewer-friendly, which wasn't easy at times.

conga rats, mike! can't wait to get my mitts on the book. so who wrote the forward??

Can't say yet until it's all wrapped up with a bow. I'm pretty damn happy with who it is though!

 

[Hello]

Kudos Mike, I hope it is a 'wild' success

Someone had to do it...


Congrats on the book. Once I get into sours, this looks like a great resource.

 

[Oldsock]

Someone had to do it...


Congrats on the book. Once I get into sours, this looks like a great resource.

Hopefully the book will have a few things you might be interested in even before you get into sour beers. Like barrel selection, adding fruit/vegetables etc. there was a sweet chapter on gruit/kvass/spicing, but sadly it got axed. It'll find its way to the blog eventually though.

 

[dwntwnbwn]

My money is on Vinnie having written the forward. Just fantasizing though.

Sent from my XT1060 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[mbach72]

Congrats on the book! Ill have to check it out.

Sent from my MB855 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[estricklin]

I put in a poke to the editor from Amazon requesting the kindle version. They did a fantastic job with the e-pub version of the Yeast book. Looking forward to the read.

Perfect. I pretty much ONLY read books on my Kindle.

I can't believe this as I was just searching for a book with lots of info on brewing sours!!!

 

[TychoBrahe]

My copy has been preordered! Cannot wait to receive it

 

[BryanThompson]

Mine is pre-ordered.

 

[FredTheNuke]

Release the KINDLE version at the same time as the paperback!

 

[metic]

He read it cover to cover. Commented on technical bits where I over reached (I was surprised that there isn't consensus that beta-glucans enhance body for example), or places I misinterpreted the Belgian point of view/production process.

That's interesting. Can you tell us a bit about the ways you misinterpreted the way the Belgians do things? I bet if you made such misinterpretations, they are fairly common.

Also, more generally, did you find substantial divergence between Americans and Belgians in terms of ideas and production process?

 

[Oldsock]

That's interesting. Can you tell us a bit about the ways you misinterpreted the way the Belgians do things? I bet if you made such misinterpretations, they are fairly common.

Also, more generally, did you find substantial divergence between Americans and Belgians in terms of ideas and production process?

That was the big one, we had a few others based on the way Cantillon handles their wort specifically (I didn’t realize they have an extra tank that wort that doesn’t fit in the coolship is pumped into for example). He also noted that adding corn to a Flemish red is more of a big-brewery thing, not as common/classic as I had presented it.

We also had a few back-and-forths over how to present the less traditional methods (artificial sweeteners etc.). The book mostly presents the process chapter-by-chapter as if you were brewing a sour beer. So wort production, to microbe selection, to fermentation, to barrels/fermentors, to fruit, to blending etc. When we reach Packaging I started with pasteurization and other ways to kill the microbes, as this is when it would happen. There was a concern that this was encouraging a process which is less-than-ideal. I ended up agreeing to move it to later in the chapter, although mainly because it is such an uncommon process.

 

[The_Nid_Hog]

Got mine ordered. I'm really looking forward to the section on blending.

 

[thatjonguy]

Pre-ordered! Second book in two days...

So, I shouldn't put corn in my Flanders red? I don't really want to waste my ECY20 and a pack of 3763 on a corny wort (spilt into two carboys: one culture each) if it isn't correct.

 

[revansCAAD8]

I believe AHA is also supposed to be offering your book for pre-order (members-only?)? ETA?

Robert

 

[PLOVE]

Pre-ordered. Great to see so much of the accumulated knowledge and experience documented on the 'MadFermentationist' in bookform. Sounds like a great practical resource for the brewery bookshelf. Congrats!

 

[Oldsock]

I've added corn to Flemish reds with fine results. I don't see a real benefit to it though, considering we're going through all this effort to make a super-malty wort, only to dilute it.

AHA will be doing a pre-sale about two weeks out from release, so something like mid-May.

The book really started out as a distillation of the blog, but it has grown into much more (and made me a better blogger for it I hope)!

Cheers!

 

[Remmy]

Good stuff!

 

[metic]

Here's what Jeff Sparrow says about corn in Flanders Reds:

Maize (a.k.a. corn) can comfortably make up around 10% of the grist of a wild beer and can go as high as 20%, although that amount can cause the lauter to seize up. Generally used for both economical and flavour considerations, maize will add starch, considered beneficial to lactic acid bacteria over the course of fermentation. According to Peter Bouckaert, beer brewed with a starch adjunct such as corn is lighter and more digestible.

Two types of maize exist: corn grits and refined corn grits. The former is cheaper, dry milled, and requires cooking times of up to forthy-five minutes, while the latter is wet milled, nearly pure starch (very desirable to bacteria), and requires only about fifteen minutes. As a substitute, flaked maize comes already gelatinized and can be ordered from your brewing supplier, although it will not add as much starch as raw grain with an adjunct mash.

He suggests its a source of starch in the wort, and that this is beneficial over the course of fermentation. I wonder if this is an example of Sparrow offering his own interpretation of Belgian practices without really acknowledging that he is. Of course, the fact that it is more typical of big breweries doesn't mean that it doesn't have this effect.

 

[Oldsock]

Here's what Jeff Sparrow says about corn in Flanders Reds:

He suggests its a source of starch in the wort, and that this is beneficial over the course of fermentation. I wonder if this is an example of Sparrow offering his own interpretation of Belgian practices without really acknowledging that he is. Of course, the fact that it is more typical of big breweries doesn't mean that it doesn't have this effect.

In my opinion/experience/research, corn would only add starch to the wort if it were used in something besides a single infusion mash. If it's sitting in there gelatinized, it will be broken into the same mix of carbohydrates as the starches from the malt itself. I think that is what the quote also suggests.

 

[ICWiener]

Congrats Mike. Hope it's a smashing success. With all of the knowledge that you've accumulated and made available to the rest of us over the years, it's about time you get to make a buck or two from it. You've certainly earned it! I've gone back to reference them so many times, I know half of your articles and blogs by heart at this point, so I'm more than happy to (indirectly) pay you back.

 

[metic]

In my opinion/experience/research, corn would only add starch to the wort if it were used in something besides a single infusion mash. If it's sitting in there gelatinized, it will be broken into the same mix of carbohydrates as the starches from the malt itself. I think that is what the quote also suggests.

Yes, definitely, I think that's what it suggests. I guess I'm wondering if de Baets was suggesting that this kind of thing was a misinterpretation of the Belgian process (I've read other people question whether starches are important as Sparrow suggests). Or if he just meant that the practice wasn't widespread outside of bigger breweries.

 

[40watt]

Starches and proteins seem to be very important. I think the misconceptions come in how best to provide them.

 

[Oldsock]

Starches and proteins seem to be very important. I think the misconceptions come in how best to provide them.

It’s always tricky to talk about “best” when it comes to sour beers. There are many options for just about every step, all of which can work in the right combination and for a particular goal. There are breweries that mash their sour beers in the 140s F, and others in the 160s F, for example.

For the book I tried to present how a variety of breweries address each step. Hopefully if you enjoy (for example) Jolly Pumpkin’s beers, you can take some notes from their process and apply it to the recipe of your choice.

 

[40watt]

It’s always tricky to talk about “best” when it comes to sour beers. There are many options for just about every step, all of which can work in the right combination and for a particular goal. There are breweries that mash their sour beers in the 140s F, and others in the 160s F, for example.

For the book I tried to present how a variety of breweries address each step. Hopefully if you enjoy (for example) Jolly Pumpkin’s beers, you can take some notes from their process and apply it to the recipe of your choice.

Absolutely correct. I'm certain your book is as useful as your blog, which is really saying something.

So many ways to reach your goal. I could do a turbid mash to get the compounds I want in my wort. I'm not going to. Not at this point. I happen to know other viable ways of reaching my goal that suit me much better.

I get to stand on the shoulders of creative folks that came before me. I get to experiment myself. Really looking forward to more and more information coming to light.
Your coming book is a great example of this info getting easier to find.

 

[neovox]

Congrats on the book. I enjoy your blog quite a bit, so I'm sure the book will be great.

 

[kosmokramer]

It’s always tricky to talk about “best” when it comes to sour beers. There are many options for just about every step, all of which can work in the right combination and for a particular goal. There are breweries that mash their sour beers in the 140s F, and others in the 160s F, for example.

For the book I tried to present how a variety of breweries address each step. Hopefully if you enjoy (for example) Jolly Pumpkin’s beers, you can take some notes from their process and apply it to the recipe of your choice.

will you sell directly to retail stores at wholesale pricing or do i need to go through my distributors? i would like to have some copies on my shelf asap!!!

 

[estricklin]

Any updates on the availability of the electronic version??

 

[dantheman13]

Can I be the first to request an audio version?

OK, now I am just being greedy.