Friday 25 March 2011
Review of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition
At first I thought this book has to be the one to add to the collection, because the author Charles Papazian is the founding president of the American Home brewers association, so anything worthy to know about home brewing, this guy would be the one to tell you.
The book is made enjoyable because of the funny cartoons you find in the book related to brewing. the one I like is the guy coming out of the TV set telling the TV Viewer to "Relax. Have a brew!"
The book starts off giving you a history of American beer and the all important question :
Is it legal?
My favourite chapter is the one on some world classic styles of beer featuring ales of British origin and styles of lager beers.
The book follows the same format as most home brewing guides as a quick overview followed by more detailed information, the information is very easy to read and understand.
The complete joy of home brewing is a good book if your interested about finding out about beer in general
Its a useful resource, although most of the information found in the book can be found on the Internet, this book is still a good buy as it has all the useful insights in one handy book you can get just as much great free advice from the American home brewers association.
As expected good solid advice,as a basic but lacks more up to date information which you can find elsewhere in this blog.
I found this book easier to read than the book How to brew: Everything you need to know
Kindle review
Quite difficult to view the tables of the book on the kindle, as some of the descriptions have a lot of diagram formats, but this book is.definitely worth a space in your book shelf.
Top Tips
The guide to growing your own hops is a welcome bonus
A trouble-shooting section on if you get into difficulty.
It has interesting sections on how to create wine so not strictly on soley creating the best home brew beer.
The complete joy of home brewing expands on how it helps you troubleshoot just in case some of your projects go wrong
Who should read it ?
The style and format comes off as a beginners book but it is really for intermediate, the first 40 pages gives you an outline into setting up and what to expect from a brewing kit.
I would not not recommend this book for the advanced brewer, it is for a medium to beginner range. It can be a bit heavy on terms, you really need to know a few before you understand how to go about about applying the techniques.
If you haven't brewed for a while a good book to sparking up your interest in home brewing again.
Recommended for someone at the intermediate stage
Good gift idea for the home brewing enthusiast.
Its more about understanding the process, so it can help you find ways to improve your beer making.
Visit the website of the American Homebrewers Association
European Buyers
Some ingredients in particular some types of hops are hard to get a hold of in the UK , it has to be sourced from America, but any good home brewing shop in the UK would surely be able to help you out.
To have a look inside this book Complete home brewing
How to Brew: Everything You Need to Know to Brew Beer Right for the First Time
This is a review about the book: How to brew: Everything you need to know to brew beer right for the first time.
This is a great book for beginners, if your into home brewing malt beer.
It is for someone who is about to start brewing or you have just started brewing, it will give you an insight to the art of brewing as a hobby, right from the equipment and ingredients you need to buy as a starter to the hobby.
The book structure works as a guide, it gives you simple summaries and an overview of the process, then it allows you to dip into more detailed sections of the book to find out more about each step in the brewing process.
If your new to brewing , it is great to get this book before you spend money buying all your equipment, because it details the basics of what equipment to get, once you get the hang of it you can start investing in more equipment.
much like this blog, I have some great articles on home brewing which you will find interesting and helpful.
The first sections of the book are the most helpful, because it guides you through the important parts needed for home brewing.
What is not so good about this book is that you can get a bit bogged down in information if you read it from cover to cover right through, it is best read as something to refer to.
It can be a bit much because there are quite a lot of scientific explanations.
Things i like especially, It not only tells you how to make a good brew, it also tells you how to enjoy it, which is a big bonus.
Kindle review
Very well laid out book, it has a good helpful tips that make the book easy top understand. In the book the author refers to you to go back to certain pages in the book, which is hard to do reading it on the kindle so a hard back copy would be easier.
Its a good read on the kindle but the best way to use this book is to have it in print form so you can refer back to different pages.
Experienced Brewers
If you've been out of the brewing game for a while this book is a great refresher because it gives the information in plain english, its very easy to understand.
A great way to pick up some tips if your already a seasoned brewer.
If your an advanced brewer there is not much in there for you in terms of techniques , but it is an enjoyable read.
Top Tip
If your new to brewing , it is great to get this book before you spend money buying all your equipment, because it details the basics of what equipment to get, once you get the hang of it you can start investing in more equipment.
Have a look inside this book
For European buyers
It quite good for the recipes, although they are all in American measurements, techniques to brew American style beer but you will find some European recipes.
Monday 21 March 2011
What ingredients to use for brewing?
Main physical ingredients you need for any home brewing alternate depending on what you intend to make.
Here is a list of the various Ingredients usually used in brewing
Hops for Beer Brewing
These will have different alpha acid contents.
A low alpha acid content will be around 3-4 % which will give you a softer flavour with scents with a more floral scent.
A high alpha acid content 6-10% will produce a stronger flavour of beer
similar to dark ales which have a slightly more bitter tatse than a softer beer.
Hops usually come in vacuum packaging as seen in the photo.
Yeasts
The type of yeast you buy will determine what sort of taste you will get,
typically the kind of yeasts you can buy are for
red wine
white wine
Beer yeast
Ale yeast
Fruit wines
The grade of grade of yeast you use heavily determines your end product.
Fruit wines and red wines usually require a quick fermenting yeast at lower tempratures mainly because the grapes naturally contain yeast and lots of suger which helps during fermentation.
Beer yeast produces different results depending on whether you use a top cropping yeast for lighter beers as apposed to bottom cropping yeats which have a slower fermentation rate to produce lagers(less sugar remains).
Grains and Malts
Liquid malt extracts are used as the starting product for most beers,asles and lagers.
Grains and crushed malt usually come in half kilo bag mixed with all the other necessary ingredients will give you about 5 gallons.
Larger malt extracts of 1.5kg are available but thats for more than one batch at a time, if your planning to use this then your gonna need a bigger bucket!
Nutrients
These are used to jump start your yeasting, yeast food basically.
Chemicals
Stearilising your equipment before home made brewing is an importannt step, chemicals can be used if you don't wanna use a hot water and a scrubbing brush.
Finings are used at the end of the brewing process, they work by preventing protein coagulation to remove any organic matter.
There are naturfal alternatives, but more modern examples are available.
Finings are especially important if your using non- alcoholivce beverages.
Additives
These are for additing to your beverage afterwards, things that come under additives include:
colouring- to change the look of beer
as metion before yeast food
flowers, to improve the notes of wine
sloes for sloe gin or vodka. sloes are a variety of plum.
european varietys of sloe (dark plums) are used to make šljivain the Baltic nations such as Serbia and Croatia.
Elderberries are used as are Elderflowers when they are in season , make very fragrant wines.
I'll be covering the additives and how to use them at a later date.
 |
| Photo credit:Venn Diagram Flickr.com |
Main physical ingredients you need for any home brewing alternate depending on what you intend to make.
Here is a list of the various Ingredients usually used in brewing
Hops for Beer Brewing
These will have different alpha acid contents.
A low alpha acid content will be around 3-4 % which will give you a softer flavour with scents with a more floral scent.
A high alpha acid content 6-10% will produce a stronger flavour of beer
similar to dark ales which have a slightly more bitter tatse than a softer beer.
Hops usually come in vacuum packaging as seen in the photo.
Yeasts
The type of yeast you buy will determine what sort of taste you will get,
typically the kind of yeasts you can buy are for
red wine
white wine
Beer yeast
Ale yeast
Fruit wines
The grade of grade of yeast you use heavily determines your end product.
Fruit wines and red wines usually require a quick fermenting yeast at lower tempratures mainly because the grapes naturally contain yeast and lots of suger which helps during fermentation.
Beer yeast produces different results depending on whether you use a top cropping yeast for lighter beers as apposed to bottom cropping yeats which have a slower fermentation rate to produce lagers(less sugar remains).
Grains and Malts
Liquid malt extracts are used as the starting product for most beers,asles and lagers.
Grains and crushed malt usually come in half kilo bag mixed with all the other necessary ingredients will give you about 5 gallons.
Larger malt extracts of 1.5kg are available but thats for more than one batch at a time, if your planning to use this then your gonna need a bigger bucket!
Nutrients
These are used to jump start your yeasting, yeast food basically.
Chemicals
Stearilising your equipment before home made brewing is an importannt step, chemicals can be used if you don't wanna use a hot water and a scrubbing brush.
Finings are used at the end of the brewing process, they work by preventing protein coagulation to remove any organic matter.
There are naturfal alternatives, but more modern examples are available.
Finings are especially important if your using non- alcoholivce beverages.
Additives
These are for additing to your beverage afterwards, things that come under additives include:
colouring- to change the look of beer
as metion before yeast food
flowers, to improve the notes of wine
sloes for sloe gin or vodka. sloes are a variety of plum.
european varietys of sloe (dark plums) are used to make šljivain the Baltic nations such as Serbia and Croatia.
Elderberries are used as are Elderflowers when they are in season , make very fragrant wines.
I'll be covering the additives and how to use them at a later date.
Thursday 17 March 2011
Home brewing Tips and Tricks
I thought this would be easier to read as a list of tips, if you wanna comment on this list please do. I will be going into details on some of these handy hints but for now, here are some to be aware of just to get you going.
TOP TIP
Make sure you get good quality hops, if something doesn't smell great its probably not gonna taste too great either.
HANDY TIP
Make sure you mash your grain, this will give your brew a more even taste. If your using fruit try to get an even consistency with your pulp.
DON'T FORGET
to add your yeast, it will shorten the time you have to brew for and will promote a better flavour.
IT'S EASIER
if you let the ingredients do their work, checking it every 5 minutes is not gonna help, brewing takes time and patience
MAKE SURE
You sterilse your equipment, as you only want to brew your new project and not anything left at the bottom from last time.
I always make sure I give all the equipment a good clean before I use them
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
If your making beer , make sure you drink it cold!
Warm beer is for when you find that last bottle at the back of the cupboard, not for something fine crafted by your own hands.
ONE MORE TIP
Make sure you have somewhere to store your liquid gold after fermentation, be sure to have enough bottles.
TOP TIP
Make sure you get good quality hops, if something doesn't smell great its probably not gonna taste too great either.
HANDY TIP
Make sure you mash your grain, this will give your brew a more even taste. If your using fruit try to get an even consistency with your pulp.
DON'T FORGET
to add your yeast, it will shorten the time you have to brew for and will promote a better flavour.
IT'S EASIER
if you let the ingredients do their work, checking it every 5 minutes is not gonna help, brewing takes time and patience
MAKE SURE
You sterilse your equipment, as you only want to brew your new project and not anything left at the bottom from last time.
I always make sure I give all the equipment a good clean before I use them
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
If your making beer , make sure you drink it cold!
Warm beer is for when you find that last bottle at the back of the cupboard, not for something fine crafted by your own hands.
ONE MORE TIP
Make sure you have somewhere to store your liquid gold after fermentation, be sure to have enough bottles.
The Art of brewing at home
The art of home brewing has been cultivated for centurys, brewing techniques have been passed down from family to family.
Home brewing normally refers to the brewing of beer, wine , cider and similar beverages.
But did you know you can also home brew non-alcoholic recipes?
Home brewing has become a great hobby and pastime.
It has been growing in popularity since the sixties when legislation changed to enable people to home brewing by individuals.
Although mass production of brewing occured in the 18th century with the industrial revoultion, home brewing has occured for thousands of years, some estimated records have seen evidence of home brewing as far back as 7000 years ago in Mesoptamia and more famously in Egypt and China.
The reasons for home bewing gaining in popularity is maily the increase cost of buying alcohol . Home brewing also gives you the delight of creating a flavour to your own tastes.
Home brewing normally refers to the brewing of beer, wine , cider and similar beverages.
But did you know you can also home brew non-alcoholic recipes?
Home brewing has become a great hobby and pastime.
It has been growing in popularity since the sixties when legislation changed to enable people to home brewing by individuals.
Although mass production of brewing occured in the 18th century with the industrial revoultion, home brewing has occured for thousands of years, some estimated records have seen evidence of home brewing as far back as 7000 years ago in Mesoptamia and more famously in Egypt and China.
The reasons for home bewing gaining in popularity is maily the increase cost of buying alcohol . Home brewing also gives you the delight of creating a flavour to your own tastes.
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