All Grain Recipe and Instructional Books?

Hey Everyone,

Brand new to the forums, but I've seen some good advice on here!

I want to start getting into all-grain brewing (in the next month or two), and I'm looking for a good book of recipes. Or is it just easier to find them online?

Also, a good book of instructions would be nice too. I have a pretty good idea of the equipment and process, but I'm always looking to learn as much as I can about homebrewing.

Honestly, it's easier to find them online...but for every 10 recipes you find...one of them will be good. Everyones tastes are different. What one person conciders a great recipe is the worst beer ever to another.

The fun part about all-grain is creating your own recipes. For that, I'd recommend Designing Great Beers. It's an excellent book that outlines what needs to go into almost every major style of beer.

As for instructions on going all-grain...check out www.howtobrew.com

I wouldn't buy a book. Only because the first time you do it, you'll realize it's not as complicated as it seems and you'll regret spending money on a book. It's free at How to Brew and it has great info.

Brewing Classic Styles.
Of all the books I have I use this one the most.
$10-$15 I think. Its worth it.

How to Brew by Palmer and Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Papazian are the usual intro books. You can find plenty online but if you like unplugging and reading with a real book I think they're good starters.

Another option for recipes is to order a kit. Austin Homebrew Store (AHS) has a lot of clone beer recipes you can order in case you'd like to try and make something similar to a commercial offering. Other places like Northern Brewer has some clones but also has their own recipes for most styles. You get the recipe with the kit so if you like it you can make it again yourself or start tweaking it.

Good advice!

I started brewing with a good friend of mine, and we are just looking to research more about all-grain.

I own and have read How to Brew, but I'll look into the others as well.

Thanks!

Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels my favorite. Gives guidelines to create recipes. Jamil used it to write Brewing Classic Styles.

bnut said:

Brewing Classic Styles.
Of all the books I have I use this one the most.
$10-$15 I think. Its worth it.

Click to expand...

+1 +1 +1 +1 +1. Between the frayed, dog-eared pages and the various wort and sanitizer spills that book has endured on brew day, I may have to replace mine soon. He gives an extract and an all grain recipe for every beer in the BJCP style guide

pretzelb said:

Another option for recipes is to order a kit. Austin Homebrew Store (AHS) has a lot of clone beer recipes you can order in case you'd like to try and make something similar to a commercial offering. Other places like Northern Brewer has some clones but also has their own recipes for most styles. You get the recipe with the kit so if you like it you can make it again yourself or start tweaking it.

Click to expand...

Same with morebeer.com. I ordered their all grain PTE clone kit. They package a grain and hop bill with it, complete with weights. I've used that a couple of times to tweak the recipe a bit and buy it "a la cart" since.

+1 for Brewing Classic Styles. A recipe or two for each style, and in both extract and all-grain versions.

Designing Great Beers too, but there are no actual recipes in there - however it has a wealth of info on the history of each style and a rundown of ingredients for the styles used by commercial breweries and homebrewers.

+1 for Brewing Classic Styles. I got it recently and the few recipes I've tried were great. I do like the tips he gives for the style.

You might also look at software. It doesn't teach you a recipe but it can provide calculations based on ingredients and let you know if you are still in the parameters of a style. I have yet to try this myself but I think you can do it with BeerSmith for example.

One word of caution on the books and reading online. I found it very hard to get all the information I needed prior to brewing. Just a few weeks ago I found a post where someone jotted the steps for a batch sparge in bullet form that honestly did a better job of explaining the process than everything I had been reading for over a year.

I'm not trying to say the books or forums are bad, it's just you never know when you'll find the details YOU need to make it sink in. So just be prepared to be confused about something even after you read up on it all and don't let it get you down. Then again, it could just be me.

Most of Jamils recipes are online if you know where to look. For the few bucks, it's worth donating to John and Jamils 80 recipe book
Beer Captured & Clone Brews by Tess & Mark Szamatulski at 150 recipes in each book are good for beginners

A lot of the Northern Brewers recipes/ kits came from Kristen England AKA MashWeasel. All good sound recipes online at their store under kit inventory.