Brewing Master

Question:

I have "Stout".  It’s not that great.  Kind of wanders.  Also, he gets lost in a series of comparitive tasting of various stouts.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I am soliciting comments on the Classic Beer style series books.. What are the favorites?  I have enough beer books that I’ve never looked at after the first read, I was wondering, which ones are the best, the ones that are enjoyable to read AND have dead-on style recipes and suggestions?

Response:

I have "Stout".  It’s not that great.  Kind of wanders.  Also, he gets lost in a series of comparitive tasting of various stouts.

He also had someone else do the recipes.  It is not one of my favorites either… Cheers, Mike

Response:

Brown Ale, Mild Ale and German Wheat Beer are my favorites. The Oktoberfest and Pilsner books were worth the $1 that I paid for them at the Discount bookstore. The older books of the series are quite outdated on malts and yeast selections. I had email exchanges with the late George Fix about the malt selections in his Oktoberfest book and that is what was available to the general brewing public when he wrote that book.  He was hoping to update that book someday…… Wayne Botanist Brewer Big Fun Brewing RIMS Site http://hometown.aol.com/bfbrewing/BigFunBrewing.htm Note: Spamguard used in email address…..

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I also the Pale Ale and Brown Ale Classic Beer Series books.  Terry Foster, who wrote Pale Ale also did one on Porter that is very good. Bill – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I thought the Pale Ale and Brown ALe books were both good. ——-Denny The Bock book by Richman taught me the most on lagers in general and of course, decoction. The Scotch Ale book by Noonan was a difficult read.  The history was good but the recipe section wasn’t up to standards. The rest that I have read (Wheat, Alt, Pilsner, Barkeywine, Vienna/Octoberfest) are in between. Burp, -Dan I am soliciting comments on the Classic Beer style series books.. What are the favorites?  I have enough beer books that I’ve never looked at after the first read, I was wondering, which ones are the best, the ones that are enjoyable to read AND have dead-on style recipes and suggestions?

Response:

I thought the Pale Ale and Brown ALe books were both good.         ——-Denny – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – The Bock book by Richman taught me the most on lagers in general and of course, decoction. The Scotch Ale book by Noonan was a difficult read.  The history was good but the recipe section wasn’t up to standards. The rest that I have read (Wheat, Alt, Pilsner, Barkeywine, Vienna/Octoberfest) are in between. Burp, -Dan I am soliciting comments on the Classic Beer style series books.. What are the favorites?  I have enough beer books that I’ve never looked at after the first read, I was wondering, which ones are the best, the ones that are enjoyable to read AND have dead-on style recipes and suggestions?

Response:

I am soliciting comments on the Classic Beer style series books.. What are the favorites?  I have enough beer books that I’ve never looked at after the first read, I was wondering, which ones are the best, the ones that are enjoyable to read AND have dead-on style recipes and suggestions?

I have read them all.  With that in mind, my favorites were: Alt Kolsch Mild Smoked Pale Ale (old and new) Porter Cheers, Mike

Response:

I am soliciting comments on the Classic Beer style series books.. What are the favorites?  I have enough beer books that I’ve never looked at after the first read, I was wondering, which ones are the best, the ones that are enjoyable to read AND have dead-on style recipes and suggestions?

Response:

The Bock book by Richman taught me the most on lagers in general and of course, decoction. The Scotch Ale book by Noonan was a difficult read.  The history was good but the recipe section wasn’t up to standards. The rest that I have read (Wheat, Alt, Pilsner, Barkeywine, Vienna/Octoberfest) are in between. Burp, -Dan

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I am soliciting comments on the Classic Beer style series books.. What are the favorites?  I have enough beer books that I’ve never looked at after the first read, I was wondering, which ones are the best, the ones that are enjoyable to read AND have dead-on style recipes and suggestions?

Response:

Greetings: I have a couple of books in the the Classic Beer Style series: Altbier and Kolsch.  I’ve given Altbier a thorough reading, but haven’t spent more than about ten minutes with Kolsch yet.  I flipped through Brown Ales in my LHBS, and it also looks quite good. My impression of the series is that there may be some variation from author to author, but all the books look like they offer in-depth coverage into the particular style’s origins, history, and brewing techniques.  With Albier, if you’re just after the recipes, you can jump straight to chapter six and be brewing in an hour.  If you don’t want to be spared the details you can read the book cover-to-cover. There is some material that an experienced all-grain homebrewer would already be acquainted with.  The Albier Equipment for the Homebrewer chapter is the major example of this.  There is some quite basic material contained in book, but I think this is fine as it makes the book a self-contained reference for the style.  With very few exceptions this book has all the information you need to brew Altbier. One feature that I really liked was the way that the recipes are given.  It makes them easy to tailor to the particular ingredients you have.  Rather than just giving the mass of bittering hops you should be using, you’re given a simple formula to determine how much you need based on the hop %AA.  The appendices give further formulas to take into account your boil time, etc. when determining your hop bill. Similar formulas are given for the grain bill.  I wish all beer recipes were given in this way. Anyways, I’m certainly happy with Altbier.  I’ll be able to comment on at least one of the recipes in a couple of months.                                       Mark A. Fox

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