Brewing books recommendation?

[MPBeer]

My brewing friend and I want to get more serious about brewing, so we came up with ordering a brewing book from Amazon and study it together. He has been brewing for 3 years and read most of the conventional brewing books, I'm a newbie but read lots of articles or experiments on brewing. We want something new and a bit more proffessional than How to Brew. Is there any good brewing book that you can recommend to us? Or would it be a better choice to read brewing articles from magazines and other blogs?

 

[corax]

I recommend Gordon Strong's Brewing Better Beer.

https://www.brewerspublications.com...-beer-master-lessons-for-advanced-homebrewers

 

[Pappers_]

+1 for the suggestion above.

If you are looking for more technical brewing books, I think both Yeast (Chris White and Jamil Z) and Water (Palmer and someone whose name I can't remember) are great books. They are very science heavy, though, and full of information. Well worth the time and brain power spent on them.

If you're looking for less technical/science focused brewing-related books, I am a big fan of two of Randy Mosher's books - Tasting Beer and Radical Brewing. I also like Oliver Garrett's book The Brewmaster's Table which will help you learn about beer styles and pairings. Finally, the Oxford Companion to Beer is an excellent resource book.

Good luck!

 

[mongoose33]

Probably Palmer's "How to Brew." The new version is actually, IMO, not really geared toward new brewers, but perhaps that's OK as you have experience.

I have Strong's book, I didn't think much of it.

There there are the four horsemen: Water, Yeast, Hops, Malt. I listed them in order of importance, but they're all worth having, IMO.

If you're looking for more advanced books, other than HTB, the four horsemen are a great resource for that.

Here are some of the books I have; I've rated them one star to four stars in terms of my opinion of their value. YMMV.

Malt ****
Yeast ****
Hops ****
Water ****
Radical Brewing ** 1/2
Experimental Homebrewing ***
Palmer's new "How to Brew" *** 1/2 (IMO, not the place to start for newbies, but a tremendous reference)
the older "How to Brew" ***
Homebrew Recipe Bible ** 1/2
Brew like a Pro (worthless, IMO, no stars)
Homebrew All Stars ****
Mastering Homebrew *** 1/2
Homebrew, Beyond the Basics ***
Brewing Classic Styles **
Clone Brews **
Designing Great Beers**
Home Brewer's Answer Book *
Brewing Better Beer **

 

[corax]

Well, Strong is opinionated, so if you don't share his opinions I suppose that could be a drawback.

But even though I don't agree with him about everything, what I appreciate about Brewing Better Beer is that it's really about how to think about brewing, rather than a hard and fast set of rules. Specifically, it identifies the critical control points for each step in the brewing process, allowing you to focus your efforts on those instead of worrying about every little detail. So, even if you decide to solve a particular problem differently than he does, you're still focussing on what's important.

 

[mongoose33]

Well, Strong is opinionated, so if you don't share his opinions I suppose that could be a drawback.

But even though I don't agree with him about everything, what I appreciate about Brewing Better Beer is that it's really about how to think about brewing, rather than a hard and fast set of rules. Specifically, it identifies the critical control points for each step in the brewing process, allowing you to focus your efforts on those instead of worrying about every little detail. So, even if you decide to solve a particular problem differently than he does, you're still focussing on what's important.

What was funny was that when I got that book and saw that he took a sort of Zen approach to brewing, I was hooked. I studied Zen a bit when I was golfing regularly, and it helped me hugely in becoming a better golfer.

So I was predisposed to accept his approach. Didn't resonate with me, but that doesn't mean it won't with others.

If I've drawn anything from all this, it's that I'm trying to do homebrewing the same way I tried to golf; that is, "be the ball," or in the case of brewing, "be the beer." Or the process. Or something.

I am....the process.

 

[corax]

What was funny was that when I got that book and saw that he took a sort of Zen approach to brewing, I was hooked. I studied Zen a bit when I was golfing regularly, and it helped me hugely in becoming a better golfer.

So I was predisposed to accept his approach. Didn't resonate with me, but that doesn't mean it won't with others.

I had forgotten that he invokes Zen. Now, I find that odd, because I'm an absolute control freak, and the book definitely appeals to that aspect of me.

 

[mongoose33]

I had forgotten that he invokes Zen. Now, I find that odd, because I'm an absolute control freak, and the book definitely appeals to that aspect of me.

I'm trained as a scientist, so specificity in processes and assumptions and variables....well, I just have to do that.

And yet...over time, I've come to be a believer in the subconscious, in intuition, in "gut feelings" as another way to know, to make decisions. It works.

Truth be told, I brew that way a little bit. A dash of that, extend that time this much, go a little more here, balance that thing with this thing....my pièce de ré·sis·tance is a dark lager whose ingredient list was created from that kind of approach. Very much intuition and not so much the analytical side of me. Who on earth would do a lager with 5# of Maris Otter, 5# of Munich, a little Chocolate Wheat, a little Chocolate Malt, some crystal and cara 8...with Mexican Lager yeast? Well, me, I guess.

But...how much of that subconscious, that intuition, is fed by knowledge gained from experience, books, online, etc? Maybe a lot.

I think that's partly why this is interesting to me. It's a combination of analytical rigor coupled with intuitive understanding...sort of like golf, in a way.

 

[Mike_McBrew]

I'm trained as a scientist...
And yet...over time, I've come to be a believer in the subconscious, in intuition, in "gut feelings" as another way to know, to make decisions. It works.

There's a lot of "hard" science (peer reviewed studies) that points strongly to gut feeling/subconscious decision making as at least as relevant as what we think of as rational thinking which may in fact just be a filtered version of multiple (possibly many 100's or 1000's) subconscious/gut feeling voices competing inside our brains. Don't think the beer, groove it

 

[ancientmariner52]

During senior level leadership courses, we were told
that if something doesn't 'feel' right, it's the result of your experience, running in the background, as it were. They weren't saying to make snap decisions, but quite the contrary. If it don't feel right, slow down and think it through completely before you decide. More often than not, your first reaction will be correct.