Recommendations on beer brewing book

[Deon Botha]

Hi fellow brewers. I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good book on beer brewing that explains different styles of beer and the understanding of where all the different tastes in beers come from and how to actually incorporate it all into your own home brewing. Thank you in advance.

 

[Stand]

Designing Great Beers is a fantastic book. It has style histories and a lot more.

 

[Bobby_M]

Jamil Z Brewing Classic Styles

 

[JimRausch]

I 2nd Ray Daniel's 'Designing Great Beers'.

 

[Harleybrew32]

Ray Daniels and Jamil are great books,
I will add in Charlie Papazian books

 

[RoguePixels]

I really enjoyed How to Brew by John J. Palmer.

 

[shoreman]

Got this one out at my library and is a great book for what you are looking for :
Brew Better Beer: Learn (and Break) the Rules for Making IPAs, Sours, Pilsners, Stouts, and More
https://amzn.to/34Mr3Fe

 

[cire]

One of these, but if it doesn't suit your desire, it may be worthy to read the few extracts/pages available on that page. It's quite a comprehensive book for the money, but new copies are hard to find.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Designing Great Beers is a fantastic book. It has style histories and a lot more.

It really was a groundbreaking book at the time and is still valuable...I just wish either Ray would update the book or somebody else would pick up the task. A lot has happened since 1998. For example, the index lists just one page reference for "India Pale Ale", a page in the "Bitters and Pale Ale" chapter that lists Anchor Liberty, Grants IPA and Great Lakes Burning River as examples of IPAs. There is a table titled "Hops Used in NHC Second Round India Pale Ale Recipes" with the top entries being Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, Goldings, Hallertau (huh?), and a few other classics you would not use in an IPA these days.

You just have to keep in mind that in 1998, American homebrewers had much less access to ingredients, many of the hops that you know an love now did not exist (including now "classics" like Simcoe and Amarillo), only the core strains from White Labs and Wyeast were available (Imperial who?).

 

[Stand]

I completely agree. Such a comprehensive snapshot of homebrewing and recipe design. There's nothing else like it, but you're right. It would be fantastic if someone was collecting and crunching the data coming through BJCP competitions to track recipe design. I declare shinanigans and call forth the homebrew gods to make it happen.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

It would be fantastic if someone was collecting and crunching the data coming through BJCP competitions to track recipe design.

Maybe this for NHC recipes (follow the link to /r/homebrewing)?

"NHC Gold Medal Winning Recipe Breakdown 2004-2014
"[reddit poster] spent the past few weeks compiling all of the gold medal winning recipes that are posted on the AHA website from 2004-2014. [reddit poster] put them in a spreadsheet and calculated the recipes based on percentage of grains, hops used, OG, FG, mash temp and yeast used."

https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewin...gold_medal_winning_recipe_breakdown_20042014/

To be clear, I am not the the person who did this.

reminder: the AHA wiki was retired a while back so the recipes are not easily accessible for free.

 

[eric19312]

Another vote for brewing classic styles. Recipes alone are not that helpful IMO. Jamil provided enough context around both the style and the variations on the style to get you started in the right direction. I’ll almost alway start a new style reading the chapter from this book and then go to the web to see how more recent recipes and processes seem to have evolved.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Jamil is a nice dude but his opinions on styles are biased and often off the mark. If you just want recipes, Brewing Classic Styles is alright. But if you want to learn about styles, look elsewhere.

Designing Great Beers by Daniels is good in that it teaches recipe design theory. For all encompassing books targeted to homebrewers, that'd be my recommendation.

 

[applescrap]

The bjcp guide seems like a good place to look for info on styles as well. Iirc, I dont look much, they provide so much info about what the beer should look like, taste like, bitterness, grains etc. Obviously brewing classic styles which is palmer and Zainasheff. And I love my book beyond homebrew basics, karnowski, although no so sure style key points are the purpose. If you want to know the styles, I reiterate and feel strongly that the style guides themselves are valuable.

 

[applescrap]

Rereading, karnowskis book has info that you seek, basics, tinctures, using wood, wild brews, fruit, etc..it would be a great place to start.

Hi fellow brewers. I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good book on beer brewing that explains different styles of beer and the understanding of where all the different tastes in beers come from and how to actually incorporate it all into your own home brewing. Thank you in advance.

 

[Stand]

That's a really great resource! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Deon Botha]

Rereading, karnowskis book has info that you seek, basics, tinctures, using wood, wild brews, fruit, etc..it would be a great place to start.

Is that the one called "Homebrew, beyond the basics"

 

[applescrap]

Yes.

Is that the one called "Homebrew, beyond the basics"