Brewing books

[stru]

I'm thinking about picking up Farmhouse Ales, but would like to hear from someone who has read it first. I'll start by saying that I've read both Brew Like a Monk and Wild Ales, and was deeply disappointed in both of them. I was expecting in-depth insight into the brewing process, what each grain selection adds, the reason behind the selection, a history of the yeast, etc... What I got was a glorified Google search. I can find wild brewers in Belgian and learn what they brew with the click of a button... for free. I'm not trying to be harsh, but the reality is that both books basically had a small amount of info on each brewery and used quotes from other writers to fill the pages. How many times can you quote Michael Jackson in one book?

Rant aside, I'd like to know if Farmhouse Ales is the same sort of mess, and if so, can anyone point me in the right direction? I guess I'm more interested in the history, the science, and the reasoning, than I am in a detailed map of breweries.

 

[Oginme]

From what you have said, you would be better served by getting "How to Brew" by John Palmer for the mechanics/chemistry of the brewing process. For recipe formulation, I still prefer 'Designing Great Beers' by Ray Daniels. Though a bit outdated, the description of the basic ingredients and methodology of formulating still works. If you want to get more into the nitty gritty of the different materials, the Brewing Science series: Hops, Water, and (soon to be coming) Malt would serve you there.

The books you have so far, IMHO, are best utilized by people already brewing who want to improve their understanding of how these particular beer styles were constructed. I don't think any one of them was intended to be a step-by-step process book.

 

[stru]

I already brew. I've brewed several all grain batches of each style, excluding lagers. I've had great success with several Belgian style beers, including dubbels, quads, and saisons. I guess I just want a greater understanding of the science behind grain selection, adjuncts, etc... I'm not really looking for an instruction booklet, just better insight into what each thing brings to the table in the final product. I'd like to fine-tune some of my recipes.

 

[dbkdev]

Stru, cant speak to that book, but it might be hard to find one purely dedicated to that style. You might have better luck finding a really well composed book on recipe formulation, and it could cover farmhouse ales and their ingrediemt selection, with the bonus of other styles as well. Sometimes amazon kindle app lets you read a bunch of the book before buying too.

 

[markstache]

I haven't read the other two, but I have Farmhouse Ales. I'm luke warm on it. The book provided a very good history of the styles, but I felt that I didn't get as much to help me with recipe creation. A large portion of each book sketches out commercial recipes, but I felt there must be details missing. Perhaps commercial saison and bier de garde are simpler than I thought.

My favorite book thus far has been Mosher's *Radical Brewing*. It sounds like it might be a better fit to your interests, though not focusing on saisons and bier de garde specifically (both good and bad).

 

[ZombieBrew83]

I'll second Radical Brewing. That is an excellent resource. Another that I find myself reference quite often is Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil. Its a great light guide to the major beer styles and gives you a good place to start when calculating a recipe.

 

[stru]

Thank you guys for the info, much appreciated! I'll look into the books you have suggested.

 

[Oginme]

I already brew. I've brewed several all grain batches of each style, excluding lagers. I've had great success with several Belgian style beers, including dubbels, quads, and saisons. I guess I just want a greater understanding of the science behind grain selection, adjuncts, etc... I'm not really looking for an instruction booklet, just better insight into what each thing brings to the table in the final product. I'd like to fine-tune some of my recipes.

Wasn't sure based upon your original post.

I would definitely recommend 'Designing Great Beers' to get to the why different malts/hops/yeasts etc. As others have recommended, Randy Mosher's 'Radical Brewing' is another book that gets to the 'why' of the ingredients.

If you want to dig more into the chemistry: 'The Handbook of Beer' and 'The Chemistry of Beer' by Roger Barth will both give you insight into that aspect.

 

[stru]

Wasn't sure based upon your original post.

I would definitely recommend 'Designing Great Beers' to get to the why different malts/hops/yeasts etc. As others have recommended, Randy Mosher's 'Radical Brewing' is another book that gets to the 'why' of the ingredients.

If you want to dig more into the chemistry: 'The Handbook of Beer' and 'The Chemistry of Beer' by Roger Barth will both give you insight into that aspect.

Thank you very much! I'll check those out as well!