Gordon Strong's New Book

[JJL]

I've read through most of this book. Actually, I've read through as much of it as I have interest in, which is about the first 3/4ths of the book. A lot of the competition and tasting stuff isn't really of great interest to me at this point. I will say that buried in Kev's rant, there is a nugget of truth. Reading the book you definitely get the feel that Strong is stroking his own ego. He makes comments like "Sometime's judges in competition will mistake flavor X for flaw Y in my beer." Basically, implying that he is the pre-eminent beer judge and all others are inferior. And I agree with some others that it reads a bit dry and disorganized. Although, he says that the book isn't meant to be a straight through read in the intro.

That said, there is a good bit of useful info in the book. He does present options and gives explanations why he does what he does. Does that mean you have to do it that way? Absolutely not. I'm definitely not going to start skimming hot break out of my boil kettle. And I'm not going to start decocting all of my mashes. And yes, you can find all of the info elsewhere. Most of the info that isn't directly from his experience comes from the writings of people like Noonan, Fix, Palmer, AJ deLange, etc. He freely admits this in the book. However, the book conveniently places a lot of scattered info into one place. All in all, I would say it's worth the nominal price to have it as a reference. Just don't go into it assuming you are going to have a brewing epiphany. And don't expect this to be a how-to book on brewing.

 

[ktblunden]

I had no intentions of buying that book, but because of that rant, I think I will now!

I wasn't even aware of the book. People usually only talk about How to Brew, Brewing Classic Styles, Yeast, and Designing Great Beers. Because that guy bumped this thread from the dead with his diatribe I think I might actually pick this one up. Need to get Yeast, too.

EDIT: Done and done. Got both books on the way from Amazon.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I agree with the comments that the book is definitely about stroking his ego and really more of an intermediate than advanced skills book. There are some things in the book I found interesting I didn't know a lot about and/or had never tried. The thing that annoyed me the most is how lazily it's written. He excuses it all away in the intro but his lazy style does readers a disservice. There's several subjects that he touches on that aren't well discussed in other homebrew books but he glances over them with a brief mention and an example but misses an in depth discussion of how to do it. So it's not very useful. I also found it really annoying that there's no references to all this stuff he talks about. Again, he excuses it away in the intro but give me a break. At one point (or possibly several points) he throws out that he was the technical editor on Radical Brewing, so it's not like he doesn't understand the need for references. He's just too lazy to do it so people could go learn more. It's not just lazy, it's arrogant.

I think it's worth reading through but not necessarily worth the money to buy and leave on the shelf.

 

[jfowler1]

I started this thread ages ago, and I kind of like that it reappeared.

To address the ego portion of the discussion, I agree that Gordon can come off a bit abrasive both in writing and in interviews...but I wouldn't write-off his suggestions for that reason alone.

A couple things I really like about the book and still refer back to....

I know the idea of top mashing or cold steeping roasted grains existed, but I really like how Gordon laid out their practical uses. More and more home brewers (myself included) have gotten into the pH and water chemistry side of brewing, and handling dark grains in the mash had been a difficult issue to over come. As suggested, I began grinding my roasted grains in the coffee grinder and added them during the recirculated mash-out with good results. It eliminates the need for CaCO4 to raise pH, which was like 1 step forward and 2 steps back for someone building their water.

I also refer back to his section on step mashes. There aren't too many sources that lay out the dirrerent options for step mashes as well as Gordon does in his book. Between what I read from GS and what I heard from Matt B's interviews on CYBI, I started using upward step mashes with rests at 145 and 158.

Finally, I like that he included a modern take on recipes. Jamil's book is a great learning tool for a baseline to any style, but I think Gordon took those recipes to the next level. Hop bursting, hot whirlpools, step mashes, etc., are not typical to Designing Great Beers or Brewing Classic Styles. I also like the inclusion of his preferences for modern yeast strains and up-to-date hops that were not available at the time DGB was published. I think it is nice to revisit the state of recipes and preferences every few years to capture trends. The hot whirlpool is something I have really embraced, and it completely changed how I build recipes and hopping schedules.

Overall, if you are up to speed on information given out on podcasts, forums, etc., nothing in the book will seem ground breaking. However, as said earlier, it is kind of nice to have everything in one spot.

I summary, I still vote "buy it".

 

[neko]

My library has a few copies. Requested a copy when it comes in so I'm looking forward to checking this out.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

A couple things I really like about the book and still refer back to....

I know the idea of top mashing or cold steeping roasted grains existed, but I really like how Gordon laid out their practical uses. More and more home brewers (myself included) have gotten into the pH and water chemistry side of brewing, and handling dark grains in the mash had been a difficult issue to over come. As suggested, I began grinding my roasted grains in the coffee grinder and added them during the recirculated mash-out with good results. It eliminates the need for CaCO4 to raise pH, which was like 1 step forward and 2 steps back for someone building their water.

I also refer back to his section on step mashes. There aren't too many sources that lay out the dirrerent options for step mashes as well as Gordon does in his book. Between what I read from GS and what I heard from Matt B's interviews on CYBI, I started using upward step mashes with rests at 145 and 158.

Finally, I like that he included a modern take on recipes. Jamil's book is a great learning tool for a baseline to any style, but I think Gordon took those recipes to the next level. Hop bursting, hot whirlpools, step mashes, etc., are not typical to Designing Great Beers or Brewing Classic Styles. I also like the inclusion of his preferences for modern yeast strains and up-to-date hops that were not available at the time DGB was published. I think it is nice to revisit the state of recipes and preferences every few years to capture trends. The hot whirlpool is something I have really embraced, and it completely changed how I build recipes and hopping schedules.

I thought these were the gems in the book as well. I didn't think he did a great job with the recipe formulation section but I thought his discussion of more contemporary techniques was a welcome addition to supplement some of the older books like How to Brew and Joy of Homebrewing.

 

[Irrenarzt]

Gordon Stronger