Ray daniels book

[dirtybasementbrew]

Does the book explain recipes and all the numbers and percentages you see in a recipe? I am reading John palmers book now he seems to explain it but I am just having a hard time understanding it all. Maybe a different perspective may help. I am new at this and do understand it takes a long time to grasp it all so I am trying to get ad much literature under my belt as possible. What other books would be helpful, thanks for the help

 

[Bensiff]

I think it really is a cross between reading and doing, much of what is hard to understand becomes apparent when you do and you quickly realize it is actually easy to do, just hard to explain. I would say every brewer should highly consider having Palmer's How to Brew and Daniels Designing Great Beers on their shelf. Mosher's Radical Brewing is a good read. Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing is well respected and on the 4th edition (make sure its the 4th if you buy it)...but, I have never read it myself.

 

[MI_Troll]

The Daniels book is more about beer styles, ingredients, and proportions. He presents some history and then analyzes recipes that did well at the national homebrew competition. There is a short section on technique, but that is not its focus. For more info I would actually recommend combing the forums here. There isn't a question you have that hasn't been answered here before (although finding it can be difficult sometimes).

I prefer this approach over books because in many brewing related questions there is more than one correct answer. The techniques are constantly evolving and the knowledge base here is constantly growing. I prefer to hear multiple viewpoints and determine what best suits me and my brewing process.

 

[dirtybasementbrew]

Thanks