This was a great starting point for delving into the historical processes and style lineages of various beers. Really an inspirational book for home brewers. You come away with so many new ideas for subsequent batches and the confidence to be able to take them all on. I particularly liked the emphasis on mini-mash recipes to accompany the all grain and extract directions. ( )

This was a great starting point for delving into the historical processes and style lineages of various beers. Really an inspirational book for home brewers. You come away with so many new ideas for subsequent batches and the confidence to be able to take them all on. I particularly liked the emphasis on mini-mash recipes to accompany the all grain and extract directions. ( )

I tracked this book after having a beer that was inspired by a Thomas Jefferson recipe. I found a blog post that cited this book as a source of the recipe, so... I admit I don't care much about the recipes. Sacrilege for the home Brewer, but it will never be more than an infrequent hobby for me. I read this, rather, for the history. For instance, we have the Germans to "thank" for first discovering the bottom fermenting yeasts that are used in the nasty species of beer called "lagers", and then as immigrants, being responsible for polluting the brewing US with it in the 1840s-1860s (Anheuser and Busch, of course, hailed from Germany.

And for the science. (I thought IBUs were arbitrary like pepper ratings, and not spectrophotometrically determined, though there is a calculation that predicts the IBUs and I suspect most Brewers use it, if they aren't just guessing.)

And for the many nuggets of trivia... I learned what the "wee" in a Scottish Wee Heavy means. This was quite an enlightening book.

Couple of bits to share, of the many... On serving and enjoying beer:

It takes effort to brew your own beer, so you might as well make sure you serve it in the best possible manner. A well-crafted beer, when served at the proper temperature, in the proper glass, with a proper head, can be a thing of wonder.

Spot on.

And this:

The Laws of Aroma in Beer
1. You want some.
2. Use more than you think. It will go away.
3. Complexity is good.
4. Complicated is bad

Life's too short for bad beer. Prost.
( )

Have not brewed any of the recipes yet (just started homebrewing) but a very entertaining and informative read. Also sparked quite a few ideas for "radical brews". ( )