Where to learn about grains?

[Protos]

EKG was the premiere hop and saved for late additions and dry hops and Fuggles were used for bittering

That's a great example of the clash between the so called "common wisdom" and the real-life practice. Yes, theoretically we know from forums and books that EKG is superior to Fuggle and must be used later in the boil. However, those real English brewers knew their hops not only by the variety, but also by terroir and vintage and also by many other qualities. No doubt, the Fuggle in the case documented here was preferred to EKG not without a reason. Why? We'll never know. Freshness? Vintage? Anything else? Thery didn't explain that in their brewing records.

Ron's recipes don't always make the most exciting beers, but the knowledge gained on the history of how beers were brewed (including German beers) is invaluable.

A good point. It well illustrates the topic of motivations and priorities. Recreating my traditional brews to a tee I well underdstand that I might brew a myriad of probably tastier and smoother modern recipes. Hazy Imperial Pumpkin Oyster Vanilla Citra Pastry Sour Kveik Pale Stout, yummm!
If my hobby was just about beer, I might simply go and buy crates of tasty fancy beers with no added hassle. But my motivation is to surround myself with tangible articafts of the better epoque that's gone (and also to add a bit of European nostalgic flair to the Land of Infidels where I mostly reside); and beer is just a small part of that. Noone produces such beers anymore, there's nowhere to buy most of them for any money. And here my Hobby comes to resque... It well might be that my 1865 XXXK is probably tasting not as marvelous as the said Sour Stout, but hey my motivation is to pretend for a while I'm a gentleman, not a hipster