Principles of Brewing Science--George Fix

Has anyone read this?

I just got a copy in teh mail today. I am looking forward to reading it.

Another cool part--I bought it off of E-bay, and I noticed the guy sending it was from Virginia Beach. Well, when I got the book today, I opened it up and thumbed through it, and a business card fell out. It was from the head brewer at Gordon Biersch here in Norfolk! He wrote a note on there to come down for a sampler of beers on him! SWEET!!!!!!

Haven't read the book. Pretty coole about the free beer samples though.

I read that about a month ago. I have no science background (okay, maybe some high school chemistry about 15 years ago) and most of it was a bit over my head and I was struggling to make the information relevant to me.

But I could see myself getting into the chemistry, so I'm going to keep it around as a reference.

I just got Brew Chem 101, which I'm hoping will be a simpler introduction into the nitty gritty chemical reactions of brewing. We'll see.

Good book. Lot of science. Look past the all the chemistry jargon, equations, etc... and you essentially have Beer Chem 101.

I have read it at least 3 times and undestand maybe a third of it.

I have it and it is a pretty good book -- very technical (overly so at times), but probably the most relevant 'science book' to homebrewing. Fix wasn't the best writer, but you can feel his passion for the science of brewing in every page. The first time I read the book, I was a little let-down, particularly because he seems to jump from topic to topic, and then stuff as many facts in between as he can. So it was hard to get through the first time. But I find myself going back to it more often, and now it has become a very valuable resource to me.

I have a copy it's a great book.
I found that reading the appendix before jumping into the book really helped.
One of the most technical publications I have ever read.

shmevinator said:

I just got Brew Chem 101

Click to expand...

I have that book as well (got it for $10 new) and think it is a really bad brewing book. The advice given seems outdated and he has some ideas/theories that I don’t agree with.

But G. Fix’s book is good and a nice introduction to brewing science. It can get boring at times though and some sections may need multiple passes. I’m envious about the “meet the brewer” deal that came with your’s

Kai

It's a really good book if you have some chemistry background---the organic chem can be a little rough and does well as a bedside table book. But it's good info.

I don't mean to bump the thread, but this book has changed my brewing leaps and bounds in the month and a half I've owned it.

The wort boiling chapter is where I'm at now. The first chapter deals with malting and mashing, and contains topics that I don't think ever have been discussed at my local homebrew club. I haven't met anyone in person, not even the owner of the local homebrew store, who claims to be some sort of beer guru/nostradmus, who has even begun to touch the stuff that I've learned in this book.

I can understand the chem, but also I'm 26, only 8 years out of high school, and I was a year a head, and honors everything, so I don't know if that means I have more retention of knowledge or what. I found the chem to be pretty straightforward as far as what I remember from high school. Thank you NY state regents standards.

Anyway, I'm bumping the **** out of this thread, the book is amazing. Maybe I'm just not that knowledgeable or experienced of a brewer and that's why I think so, but I know a lot of people who haven't even heard of the stuff he goes over in this publication.

I just requested this book from my local library. Hoping it is beneficial. I've read his An analysis of brewing techniques and thought it was quite helpful. Being 37 years removed from college Chemistry I didn't even begin to worry about the chemistry. At this point getting them for a month at a time from the library allows me to spend my $$ on supplies instead of books.

I got through about 25% of it. Basically the same thing with Brew Chem. Although Brew Chem is written a little more for the layman. Anything written by Noonan is kind of on the technical side as well. If you want to know all of the chemistry behind brewing, its there. I just got to the point where I felt like it knowing all of the compounds and precursors, etc wasn't going to increase my enjoyment of my brewing hobby.

That's cool about the business card.