Beer Education

Hey guys and gals,

I am wondering what are some websites or even books you might have come across that are great sources of Beer Education?

I love learning new things about beer and am looking for a site that breaks it down really well. So far all I can find for sites are beeradocate, the wiki on this site, and AHA site. Are there any others?

When it comes to books, sadly my area is not big on beer, people here tend to focus on wine and coffee. So the bookstores are limited and I feel that my LHBS is over priced when it comes to this stuff.

How To Brew by John Palmer.

I think the best book for general info about beer is Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher.

How to brew is a great tool for learning to brew. Brewing Classic styles is my favorite recipe book. Designing Great Beers is next on my list to read.

+1,000,000 to Designing Great Beers. It is one of the best I've read so far. When I first got into recipe formulation, I would take my recipe list into my LHBS and he would always ask why I was using a particular ingredient. I wanted to know what grains were used traditionally for particular styles. Not only does DGB do an excellent job with this, but the first part tells exactly how each component of the brewing process will affect the end result.

I'm still waiting for DGB 2 - A Continued Styles Guide (note: this is a wish, not an actuality... yet)

I think most of the stuff in the books has been discussed on this website. Not that books are bad - but maybe you can zero in on what you want to read about before you go shopping. "Good beer books" is about equivalent to "teach me math" or "teach me history". The Siebel beer books are filled with all sorts of science others are filled with lots of stories and or history. So you probably need to dial in your requirements a little more.

-OCD

Fracturedman said:

I feel that my LHBS is over priced when it comes to this stuff.

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Over-priced eduacation? ****, why am I in college again?

I think any of the books mentioned would be good. I am currently reading "How To Brew" by John Palmer.

I believe that yeast handling is as important as anything else you do with your beer.

www.mrmalty.com is a great reference for info on that. Also, www.wyeastlabs.com provides the best pitch rate calcuator as well as more invaluable information.

Taerom said:

Over-priced eduacation? ****, why am I in college again?

I think any of the books mentioned would be good. I am currently reading "How To Brew" by John Palmer.

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I just ordered that book amongst a few others. I honestly find college to be a joke these days. Almost anything you want to learn about is online. Sadly, its the little piece of paper that makes the difference. But, hey what do I know. I was dumb enough to pay for a small business, marketing degree with a minor in merchandising. I could have spent that money starting a brewery. If only I had known about craft beer and home brewing before I went.

passedpawn said:

I believe that yeast handling is as important as anything else you do with your beer.

www.mrmalty.com is a great reference for info on that. Also, www.wyeastlabs.com provides the best pitch rate calcuator as well as more invaluable information.

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Just so everyone knows, Jamil wrote the pitching calculator for wyeast and it uses the same formulas as the one he has on mrmalty.

This one is worth a read.
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
There are also some books you can read. I found a PDF of Brewing Science and Practice somewhere on here. I've read a lot of it on google books but it's pricey.

enderwig said:

Just so everyone knows, Jamil wrote the pitching calculator for wyeast and it uses the same formulas as the one he has on mrmalty.

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Really? That's new to me. Not surprising, though. Jamil's the man!

I like the Wyeast one better simply because it allows me to play games with "stepping up" the starter. This is really important if you are using a small, frozen sample of yeast to seed your starter.

I was introduced to the elements of brewing by reading the online version of Palmer's How to Brew. I have also read someone else's copy of Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing, which would also be a good choice. I was given a book on clone brews for Christmas, which is just a recipe book. For someone starting out, I would recommend Palmer. It's elementary & secondary school. Designing Great Beers is college, or maybe even graduate school. I was given that one, too, but decided that it was going to be some time before I was ready for it, and so I gave it to my son- for now.

How about beer history? Anyone know of some good sources. I am a history and beer nut. Put the two together and you have a happy man.

Tasting Beer is one of the best all around beer history books I've read. Mosher talks a lot about the evolution of brewing styles and beer styles all over the world. He also gives brief historic briefs about almost every BJCP style.

I've heard Ambitious Brew is good too, but have never read it. It focuses on beer history in the US.

Wild Brews is great for history of lambics, Flanders Red, Old Bruin and other sour beer.

I've never read it, but I'm sure Brew Like a Monk has a ton of historic info also.

Fracturedman said:

How about beer history? Anyone know of some good sources. I am a history and beer nut. Put the two together and you have a happy man.

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You need to read "Radical Brewing" by Randy Mosher. Great read - a bathroom reader.

I bought "Farmhouse Ales" a while back (same people as "Brew Like a Monk"). I'm looking forward to it.