What is the best way to learn about brewing? I’ve read a couple books like How to brew and The complete joy of home brewing which were both great books but I’d like to know more of the why and science behind brewing processes. Any recommendations?
Check out the Brewing Elements series (Search “brewing elements” on amazon)
I haven’t read the Water book yet but it’s next up after I finish Mitch Steele’s IPA. I also hear that New Brewing Lager Beer by Greg Noonan is supposed to be very good but I have yet to check this one out yet as well.
[quote=“mattnaik”]Check out the Brewing Elements series (Search “brewing elements” on amazon)
I haven’t read the Water book yet but it’s next up after I finish Mitch Steele’s IPA. I also hear that New Brewing Lager Beer by Greg Noonan is supposed to be very good but I have yet to check this one out yet as well.[/quote]
I’d save your money on NBLB unless it’s just out of curiosity. Not only is much of the info out of date, it’s really written from a commercial brewers perspective and I didn’t find a whole lot is use in it for homebrewers.
Spend WAY too much time on this, and other Forums. :lol:
Both of the books you’ve listed are great starters. Next step up is the ‘Yeast’ book and ‘Water’ book. I haven’t read the ‘Hops’ book yet and am eagerly awaiting ‘Malts’.
Look to your local library or inter-library loan program offered throughout most states library systems.
I don’t want to overwhelm you with the hundreds of books to look for outside of the basics you have found.
But here is a short list for anyone looking for the best text I have found.
Many of the texts shown are very advanced in nature though, so you must understand the How to Brew book, others etc… front to back before many of these advanced concepts will make any sense. At any rate it never hurts to read the material for free and at your leisure as years down the line some of the advanced topics will be helpful as your understanding of the entire process develops.
1. George & Laurie Fix: Principles of Brewing Science.
2. George & Laurie Fix: An Analysis of Brewing Techniques.
3. Michael Lewis & Charles Bamforth: Essays in Brewing Science.
(This is a very good short and sweet text as it has flow charts to help pinpoint and understand were to identify faults/ mistakes and identify correct procedure/s.)
4. Fergus Priest & Graham Stewart: Handbook of Brewing
5. Dennis Briggs, Chris Boulton, Peter Brookes and Roger Stevens: Brewing Science and Practice.
(I consider #5 the best all around - go-to brewing science text. I continue to learn more every time I reread any chapter/s and it covers every base you will ever need to know. Many of the topics covered are touched on briefly by the prior authors listed and many including the multitudes of home-brewing authors you will find are using info found in this book.)
Another good set of texts to read or build out a home library would be:
6. Dennis Briggs, James Hough, Roger Stevens and Tom Young: Malting and Brewing Science/ Malt and Sweet Wort/ Volume one.
7. Dennis Briggs, James Hough, Roger Stevens and Tom Young: Malting and Brewing Science/ Hopped Wort and Beer/ Volume two.
These two sets are key to any well rounded brewers education, as Jean DeClerck was an instrumental brewing scientist of the twentieth century and is another base of knowledge worth reading for sure.
8. Jean DeClerck: A Textbook of Brewing/ Volume one.
9. Jean DeClerck: A textbook of Brewing/ Volume two.
Any book authored by Stan H is well worth your time also in understanding more diverse brewing styles and the concepts of recipe building.
10. Stan Hieronymus: Brew like a Monk.
11. Stan Hieronymus: For the love of Hops.
12. Stan Hieronymus: Brewing with Wheat.
13: http://appellationbeer.com/blog/
Back in the 1990’s there was a really good magazine called Brewing Techniques and people like John Palmer and G. Fix amongst others like Dave Miller and Chris Colby were authors of many good articles and many of these homebrewing specific articles may be easier for the newer brewer to understand and it seems this resource is very rarely referenced today and many newer brewers would really do well to read these articles. Even though they are 10-20 years old I find these articles often surpass and are gold standard reading over newly penned Zymurgy and BYO articles. Should be easy to navigate, but simply click on any issue and most issues have a few links to topics. So each issue has something good to read.
http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/l ... ssues.htmlFWIW, I disagree on 1-9 for any reason other than curiosity. On a homebrew level, they’re interesting but not too helpful. At least that’s been my experience. Stan’s books, OTOH, should be required reading. As good as Brewing Techniques was (it was published here in Eugene and I knew several people who wrote for it and ran it), the info is way out of date. You have to know enough to understand what to ignore.
Thanks for the info guys! I will have to check these out.
Best way to learn is to do. You’ll learn more researching problems and mistakes than in any one book.
+1 That’s the way I do it. but I have learned a lot from some of these people on the forums.
