Best British beer book

[MattHollingsworth]

Well, I remember long ago having a Roger Protz book that was pretty good. I am not talking about a book about brewing. But am looking for a book about British beers that will have information about those beers, such as which hops were used, IBUs, that type of thing.

Thought it would be an easy matter to find one looking under his name, but he's got a ton of books. Anybody know one that is specific to Britain that lists the kind of information I'm looking for?

 

[MattHollingsworth]

The Real Ale Almanac: Roger Protz: Amazon.co.uk: Books

This looks good, but I can't see inside to see if it lists IBUs, hops, grains etc. I want a good source of information to see what's going on under the hood.

 

[IanP]

Graham Wheeler recently brought out an updated version of his book Brew Your Own British Real Ale. It's available from Amazon UK, but not in the US yet. I guess from Croatia you could order it from the UK.

EDIT: Just realised you didn't want a brewing book, so much of this isn't helpful, but this book does provide a lot of the info you might be interested in.

It's pretty good but certainly not perfect. It includes sugar in many recipes which is often not popular among home brewers, although Bob on HBT helped me out by explaining that this ingredient is valuable for cask ales, and can be omitted for homebrewers. In a few recipes I've investigated, some of the details like hop types are not the same as those mentioned on the website or bottle label of the actual beer. Also, the book does not specify any yeast strains for the recipes, so you are left to guess that important dimension.

On the plus side, every recipe has the useful info like OG, FG, IBU, SRM (in metric EBC units), and expected taste profile, and it covers a great many excellent beers that you may not remember, or perhaps never heard about, so you can discover some great new beer. The book is probably best used as a starting place for your own clone recipes of the beers you choose.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Well, I remember long ago having a Roger Protz book that was pretty good. I am not talking about a book about brewing. But am looking for a book about British beers that will have information about those beers, such as which hops were used, IBUs, that type of thing.

Thought it would be an easy matter to find one looking under his name, but he's got a ton of books. Anybody know one that is specific to Britain that lists the kind of information I'm looking for?

I think that to get that kind of info you will have no choice but to get a book about brewing. General taste and tradition will be discussed in beer history books, but specifics like those will not be there would be my guess.

Bob will be along shortly. He will help you.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

Thanks guys.

I was looking at that brewing book too.

Thing is, I am likely going to the Great British Beer Festival (See other thread) and want to bring a companion book with info on the beers. I don't know if they have a program for the show or not. And I'd like a book to look up as many of the beers as possible at the show so I can take tasting notes for later homebrews. Like "This beer features hop X as its primary bittering hop. Smooth bittering blah blah."

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I'm probably stating the obvious, but have you taken a look at the CAMRA site? That is always a good place to start.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

I'm probably stating the obvious, but have you taken a look at the CAMRA site? That is always a good place to start.

Yeah. But again, I don't know if any of these have the info about the beer that I want.

I think that probably the Real Ale Almanac combined with that how to brew real ale book might be the way to go. The good beer guides look like they're too much about pubs.

 

[flyangler18]

I believe this is what you seek.

Superb book, I've been working my way through a substantial amount of the recipes.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

I believe this is what you seek.

Superb book, I've been working my way through a substantial amount of the recipes.

Thanks. Looks like a good read, but that is not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for information on currently available beers that I will be drinking at the Great British Beer Festival, not so much a historical book about old beers and such. Still, looks like a fun book!

 

[Seveneer]

The Real Ale Almanac: Roger Protz: Amazon.co.uk: Books

This looks good, but I can't see inside to see if it lists IBUs, hops, grains etc. I want a good source of information to see what's going on under the hood.

I have this book and it's exactly what you are looking for. Each brewery has submitted details about their recipes to a greater or lesser extent. Most include percentage breakdown of malts, hops used, IBU, colour and tasting notes. It doesn't contain anything about the brewing process.

I would also recommend the Durden Park Beer Circle's book if you are interested in pre-1914 recipes.

/Phil.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

I have this book and it's exactly what you are looking for. Each brewery has submitted details about their recipes to a greater or lesser extent. Most include percentage breakdown of malts, hops used, IBU, colour and tasting notes. It doesn't contain anything about the brewing process.

I would also recommend the Durden Park Beer Circle's book if you are interested in pre-1914 recipes.

/Phil.

Woo hoo! Thanks. Was hoping that was the one. Much appreciated.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

Ah. Looking at it closer, the Real Ale Almanac is from 1998 (and I can't seem to get it shipped here from either the US or UK). Anybody know something with newer information?

 

[rj0715]

found it at remarkable books for $3.69 you could try e-mailing them about shipping:
[email protected]

 

[MattHollingsworth]

found it at remarkable books for $3.69 you could try e-mailing them about shipping:
[email protected]

Tried these guys and their credit card processing simply wouldn't work for me with any browser. Dunno why. And they never answered my e-mail.

BUT, I found the Real Ale Almanac on beerbooks.com, ordered it, and it arrived today. Nice! This is exactly what I was looking for.

I ordered that How to Make Real Ale at Home also and read that, but it's not really very good IMHO. He has some strange opinions on some stuff and uses BLACK malt just for color adjustment. And he uses a fair amount of it in some recipes. He admits that the color is likely coming from dark sugars and that the recipes shouldn't contain black malt, but he puts it in the recipe anyway. It's an *okay* book, but not so great. At least to me.

Also ordered How to Brew Like A Monk, which is simply fantastic. Love it.

 

[silverbrewer]

Hi Matt,

What does the Almanac have to say about Fullers ESB?

 

[MattHollingsworth]

Hi Matt,

What does the Almanac have to say about Fullers ESB?

OG 1.054 ABV 5.5%
Alexis and Chariot Pale Malt-90%
Crystal-3%
Flaked maize-7%
Caramel (don't really understand this. Lists no percentage and lists 100% for other stuff)
31 units of color (dunno if that's EBC or SRM, guess it's EBC which is roughly twice SRM).
Challenger, Northdown and Target hops for bitterness.
Challenger, Northdown and Goldings for aroma.
Whole and pellet hops.
Dry hopped.

35 IBUs.

 

[mysterio]

Caramel refers to brewers caramel, which is a colouring.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

Caramel refers to brewers caramel, which is a colouring.

Yeah, figured that out after reading more of the book tonight. Thanks!