Reddit reviews Brewing Better Beer: Master Lessons for Advanced Homebrewers
We found 15 Reddit comments about Brewing Better Beer: Master Lessons for Advanced Homebrewers. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Master Lessons for Advanced HomebrewersPaperbackby Gordon Strong
I got the Water book, Modern Homebrew Recipes, Brewing Better Beer, and a new copy of How To Brew...my dog chewed up my last copy.
http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/03/17/the-first-wort-hop-beer-brewing-techniques/
> Sources vary, but most testing indicates that first wort hopping will increase the number of International Bitterness Units (IBUs) by as much as 10%. Given the hop shortage I wrote about earlier, increased utilization is an added bonus. However, taste perception is different. In blind taste testing across a number of articles, the overall flavor of first wort hops is perceived as smoother, less sharp, and had a more pleasing aroma. Hop bitterness was perceived as harmonic and uniformly bitter. In blind taste tests, the FWH were preferred by 11 of 12 test subjects.
Which then links to http://www.brewery.org/library/1stwort.html
>Tasting panel results: the FWH beers were overwhelmingly preferred over the reference beers in triangular taste tests (i.e., each taster was given three beers, two of either the reference beer or the FWH beer, and one of the other, and had to correctly identify which two were alike before their preference results were incorporated in the database). 11 of 12 tasters of each beer preferred the FWH beer. The main reasons given for the preference: "a fine, unobtrusive hop aroma; a more harmonic beer; a more uniform bitterness."
> Analytical results -- bitterness: The FWH beers had more IBUs than did the reference beers. Brew A: Ref beer was 37.9 IBU, FWH beer was 39.6 IBU. Brew B: Ref beer was 27.2 IBU, FWH beer was 32.8 IBU. This should come as no surprise, since more hops were in the kettle for the boil in the FWH beers than in the Reference beers. Prior to fermentation, the worts from both breweries showed the following features: the FWH wort had substantially more isomerized alpha acids, but less non-isomerized alphas. This was particularly true of Brew B, which had a higher proportion of first-wort hops. Nevertheless, the bitterness of the FWH beers was described as more pleasing than the (slightly weaker) bitterness of the reference beers.
> Analytical results -- aroma: For the aroma compounds, very distinct differences were measured (gas chromatography) in both the identities and concentrations of the various aromatic compounds between the FWH beers and the reference beers. Because the precise nature of the effects of aromatic compounds on beer flavor are very complicated, it cannot be said with certainty just why the various measurements resulted in the overwhelming tasting preference, but clearly something is going on here. Even though the reference beers had higher absolute amounts of most of the aroma compounds, again the FWH beers got higher ratings for overall pleasure.
And I believe Gordon Strong covers it in Brewing Better Beer. I haven't read it, but he came to a LHBC meeting and spoke about it.
Best to read a bunch.
Learn from the best:
Brewing Better Beer
Tasting Beer
Spending copius amounts of time on the BJCP website
Specifically I would look at how to complete a score sheet, and read the "how to study" portion of the website, as well as volunteer to steward or judge a local competition! If you do that please ask EVERY question you can think of.
There might be more technical readings but those work to start.
For anyone looking to up their brewing game, I always recommend Brewing Better Beer. It's all about fine tuning your process and simplifying your recipes to only include what you need. It's a sort of zen approach that seems applicable to abbey ales.
Although it's getting a bit out into the weeds, if you're more interested in the farmhouse/wild side of brewing, you might want to have a look at The Drunken Botanist and Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers. It gets into using things that aren't hops in your fermentations. Even though Belgian brewing only grazes herbs and spices, you might find some value there.
I can't recommend Radical Brewing enough. This was the book that really kickstarted me into not only designing my own recipes but getting adventurous with them as well.
Brewing Better Beer is also awesome.
drmischief links below - but you REALLY ought to buy and read How to Brew by John Palmer.
It's pretty much indispensable for the noob brewer. It's a great blend of easy to understand process, as well as a good helping of science if you really want to understand what's going on.
Make it through that book, and complement it with Brewing Classic Styles and Brewing Better Beer.
You may not be a book learner, but those books have great references that you can look up mid-brew.
Other than that - find someone to mentor you through a local homebrew club if at all possible. I started with a mentor, and have since passed the torch to other all grain noobs.
This is my full list of books from /r/homebrewing but it includes pro level books:
New Brewers:
Continued Learning:
Specialty/Advanced/Other:
Business Books:
Technical Readings (Textbooks might be expensive):
A bunch of guys in my homebrew club swear by Brewing Better Beer by Gordon Strong. I haven't read it myself though. http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Better-Beer-Advanced-Homebrewers/dp/0937381985
Yeah, this is a Gordon Strong technique. (http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Better-Beer-Advanced-Homebrewers/dp/0937381985). Basically, his rationale is that since there is little diastatic power in dark grains, there is little point in mashing them since all you're trying to get from them is flavor and color.
Why let that sit at heat like a pot of coffee for an hour or 90 mins when it's probably going to be close to the flavor you want as soon as you get it wet, or like when you were just steeping grains in your extract days.
Same thought goes into hopping (or not hopping in this case.) Why boil a flower for an hour when you're trying to avoid vegetal flavors and you can get the same effects with more hop (or herb) by first wort hopping and additions with only 20 minutes left in the total boil? And it's a more rounded, delicate bitterness.
I've had fairly good results this way so far.
Agreed. How To Brew, as mentioned above, and then when you've got all that down and have done a half-dozen batches or so, check out Brewing Better Beer.
I'm brewing a Pride of Warwick Strong Bitter. The recipe was taken from Gordon Strongs book on Brewing Better Beer
I'm trying to find a recipe online, but worst case I'll export my recipe from Beer Alchemy and share that.
Right now I'm dealing with squirrels trying to get close to my brewing equipment. Jerks :/
Edit: Added link to recipe
Might want to check out Brewing Better Beer by Gordon Strong.
http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Better-Beer-Advanced-Homebrewers/dp/0937381985
It's been a big help to me. Won't teach you how to brew, but goes into evaluating and improving.
Gordon Strong's book helped me a lot with improving beer, especially my English styles. I (for the most part) used his Pride of Warwick recipe and then won the English Bitter category of a brewing competition. The key was doing a no-sparge mash, I think.
I definitely recommend 1 and 2. I haven't read Yeast yet.
My buddy picked up http://www.amazon.ca/Brewing-Better-Beer-Advanced-Homebrewers/dp/0937381985 and he highly recommends it.
Brewing Better Beer, by Gordon Strong. It's a GREAT book.
http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Better-Beer-Advanced-Homebrewers/dp/0937381985/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317938269&sr=8-1