Recommend a book for me

I have Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing
I am looking for another source of information and recipes. I'm basically grounded in extract recipes because I've got young children. I could get more Papazian books. I am wondering if it is worth buying Palmer's Book. I am also wondering about books that have recipes. I am considering Clone Brews or Brewing Classic Styles by Zainasheff. Any thoughts?

The first addition of palmers book if free online, some changes have been made in his revised editions but the basics are the same.
I have been reading "the everything homebrewing book" by Drew Beechum and have found it very informative. (this book includes 100 recipes)

From what I have been told, John Palmers 'How to Brew' is a must have for any home brewer.

How to Brew is an excellent book. If you are just looking for recipes, Brewing Classic Styles is a good reference, although I personally don't put a lot of stock in recipe books in general...I tend more towards the "theory" books and make my own recipes most of the time. Also, if you really want the nuts & bolts of the recipes in Brewing Classic Styles, you ought to listen to the old episodes of the Jamil Show on Brewing Network, where he basically goes over all of the classic style recipes and discusses them in greater detail than you really get in the book.


I wasn't aware Drew had a book out, too.


It is weird with both John Palmer and Drew Beechum being locals here, I run into them all the time at various beer-related events. John was judging sours with me at a competition last weekend, and I'm supposed to be pouring sodas with Drew at a beer fest tomorrow. Still have never met Charlie Papazian in person, though. I randomly run into Drew very regularly even though he lives way up in the Maltose Falcons' neck of the woods. I swear it's like he's stalking me sometimes.

I highly recommend "Yeast" by Jamil Zainasheff and Chris White. I also enjoyed the recently released "IPA" by Mitch Steele. If you are interested in recipe creation "Designing Great Beers" By Ray Daniels is a good book with lots of info. If you are interested in a fun, informative and creative book then "Radical Brewing" by Randy Mosher is great also!

Sir-Hops-A-Lot said:

I am considering Clone Brews or Brewing Classic Styles by Zainasheff. Any thoughts?

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I think both of those are great choices if you are looking for more extract recipes. I'd lean towards Brewing Classic Styles, since I'm more interesting in brewing something to my taste, with my equipment, rather than trying to duplicate a commercial beer. So Zainasheff's book is a little meatier in my opinion to get you thinking about the recipes, unlike Clone Brews which is kinda just a cookbook.

--Jimbot

Ive made many good beers from The Complete Hombrew Beer book(Recipe book). Although its extract mainly,I was doing all grain but just converted the extract to an all grain recipe. In fact I sent a beer into a competition with one of those recipes.
Also The Hombrewers Recipe Guide book,is pretty good.its got a good variety.It even has beer-food recipes.
Also the recipe forum here on HBT,has many extract recipes. Converting all grain recipes is almost as simple as multiplying the # of grain by .8125 for LME per pound or by .6875 for DME per pound. So dont be intimdated by a good allgrain recipe.
I have Palmers and Papazians books, they are both great resources.

Get classic styles they are great base recipes

Another vote for Brewing Classic Styles. It has ~80 extract recipes, one for every style of beer.

I bought a copy of Brewing Classic Styles and I like what I see.
I have a question for anyone who has the book. When a hop addition is listed as 0 minutes, is that for dry hopping? I know how to dry hop but I've never seen hop additions listed as 0 mins before.
Another thing I wonder about is the boil size. They often list 7 gallons. Is this due to expectations that after loss with evaporations and the yeast cake, you'll end up with 5 gallons? They explained it at the start of the book but I wasn't clear afterwards.
thanks
SHAL

NordeastBrewer77 said:

Another vote for Brewing Classic Styles. It has ~80 extract recipes, one for every style of beer.

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+1

It also has all-grain equivalents with each recipe

Generally 0 minute hop additions mean at flame out so right after your boil is done

Sir-Hops-A-Lot said:

When a hop addition is listed as 0 minutes, is that for dry hopping? I know how to dry hop but I've never seen hop additions listed as 0 mins before.
Another thing I wonder about is the boil size. They often list 7 gallons. Is this due to expectations that after loss with evaporations and the yeast cake, you'll end up with 5 gallons? They explained it at the start of the book but I wasn't clear afterwards.
thanks
SHAL

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0 minute additions are done at flame out. Once your boil is complete, you add the hops before chilling.

You are correct about the reasons for a 7 gal boil

Another vote for Palmers "How To Brew"
Also I would recommend "The Homebrewers Companion"

I'd recommend Brewing Classic Styles ( yes on extract ) and Ray Daniel's Designing Great Beers. The latter was a book I picked up and didn't read until recently, and only now do I realize how well he describes many of the beer styles.

Get this for free if you have a kindle, iphone, or droid.

Just stumbled across the thread a couple hours ago. seems this book is free for today.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/free-amazon-today-300-homebrew-tips-384728/

Iunno what's in it, but would make for good reading when bored.

In "Classic Styles" when they say Munich LME is this basically the same as Amber?
I am also wondering about the importance of Pilsener LME in the recipes. I don't have access to that extract but I can get extra light LME.

Incidentally I am looking for a recipe to use my Wyeast Belgian Abbey II liquid yeast. I hesitate to go for the recipes in Classic Styles for Belgian beers because they ask for Pilsener extract. Any thoughts? They also call for several packets of liquid yeast which gets expensive fast!

Sir-Hops-A-Lot said:

In "Classic Styles" when they say Munich LME is this basically the same as Amber?

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No, it's not. Don't substitute amber for munich. Munich LME is a specialty extract made from Munich malt. Amber LME is typically made from some pale base malt (2-row) and some amount of crystal malt. It has a completely different color and flavor.

I am also wondering about the importance of Pilsener LME in the recipes. I don't have access to that extract but I can get extra light LME.

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It's not a deal-breaker, but if you can find some it's probably worth the extra effort. Pilsner malt has a different flavor from domestic 2-row, which is what your typical extra light LME is made from. That said, it's really only worth the effort (IMO) if you're not going to be using a bunch of specialty malts with it that will overpower the base malt's flavor. So, if you're making a Pilsner, or maybe a Belgian Blonde.

Incidentally I am looking for a recipe to use my Wyeast Belgian Abbey II liquid yeast. I hesitate to go for the recipes in Classic Styles for Belgian beers because they ask for Pilsener extract. Any thoughts? They also call for several packets of liquid yeast which gets expensive fast!

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You need fewer vials/yeast packs if you're making starters of sufficient size, and even better is to use a stir plate. A vial/yeast pack has about 100 billion cells in it on the day it's made, and as the days creep on, some of those yeast cells die off, even if you're storing it properly in a fridge. So, your best bet for pitching appropriately is to use very fresh yeast, and make a starter with it. The most basic starter you can make is putting some 1.035-1.040 wort (don't fill it completely--maybe 1/2 to 2/3) into a 2L bottle and pitching your vial/smack pack into that, and then just shake the hell out of it whenever you walk by and see it sitting there. That is called "intermittent shaking" and works fairly well at growing the yeast. Don't keep the cap screwed on tight! The CO2 needs to vent or you will blow up your bottle.

http://www.yeastcalc.com/


For Belgian beers in particular, it might not be *as* necessary to pitch the right amounts, as the extra esters and phenols you develop as a consequence of underpitching might be construed as appropriate for the style, but you can still run into issues with your beer not attenuating as much as it ought to or even stalled fermentation, and with other potential off-flavors developing that aren't to style. You can get away with it, but if you're just starting out you're better off learning how to make appropriately-sized starters and pitching healthy quantities of yeast. And, if necessary, that extra $6 can mean the difference between a batch that turns out "ok" and a batch that turns out great, assuming you are also controlling fermentation temperatures adequately.

I recommend not worrying about extract and get a good book. So much of good brewing pertains to both. And most books will have sections for AG for later when you feel the urge to go a little bit deeper into the hobby.

How to Brew is a godo book and great reference, as is Designing Great Beers. I love Mosher's books Tastin Beer and Radical Brewing, not just because I think Mosher is a great writer.

I got the book "Yeast" from White and Zainasheff and love it. Anyone with a couple of batches under their belt can get a lot of useful information about the most important aspect of brewing, the yeast.

Brewing Classic Styles is a great recipe book with a bit of brewing how-to. I too was thrown off by the batch size, but the author kindly replied with the explanation when I emailed him.

Very helpful
thanks fellas
SHAL