Recommended Reading For Newbies

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bluenose
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Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by bluenose » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:30 pm

just wondering what everyone's most recommended brewing books were
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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by jeffsmith » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:36 pm

I'm a big fan of Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. John Palmer's How to Brew is also great, and it's available (mostly) for free online.

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by vgoreham » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:38 pm

That's a good read by Papazian.

I learned from How to Brew by Palmer - http://www.howtobrew.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and then after those two I found this one interesting (a bit more technical - something to read after you have a bit of a base).
Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles - by Ray Daniels

Edit: Either I didn't see the bit about How to Brew or it got edited. In any case it's seconded now.

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by jeffsmith » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:44 pm

vgoreham wrote:Either I didn't see the bit about How to Brew or it got edited.
Edited, thought of it as soon as I clicked submit. :pow:

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by amartin » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:52 pm

The internet's full of stuff, like John Palmer's How to Brew, as well as articles from BYO, All About Beer, and Brewing Techniques. I learned a lot at the beginning from Charlie Papazian's book and Dave Miller's Complete Handbook of Homebrewing. I'd have to recommend Charlie Papazian's book. Dave Miller's book was great if you want the technical details of enzyme activity in the mash tun (and maybe you do), but it's somewhat dated. I'm sure that it was very practical in 1988, but things have changed since then as far as ingredient and equipment availability goes.

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by mr x » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:56 pm

Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles has been great for me.
At Alexander Keith's we follow the recipes first developed by the great brewmaster to the absolute letter. :wtf:

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by CorneliusAlphonse » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:09 pm

vgoreham wrote: Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles - by Ray Daniels
if anyone has a copy of this book, I'd love to borrow it for a week sometime.
planning: beer for my cousin's wedding
Fermenting: black ipa
Conditioning:
Kegged: barrel barleywine from 2014 - i think i still have this somewhere

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by mr x » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:16 pm

I've got a copy you can borrow.
At Alexander Keith's we follow the recipes first developed by the great brewmaster to the absolute letter. :wtf:

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by vgoreham » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:25 pm

CorneliusAlphonse wrote: if anyone has a copy of this book, I'd love to borrow it for a week sometime.
I've got a copy - if you want it you can swing by my office tomorrow (D240). PM me to let me know when you can come by.
Last edited by vgoreham on Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by bluenose » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:27 pm

mr x wrote:I've got a copy you can borrow.
Would you happen to have a copy of Brewing Classic Styles you could lend to a fellow Pictou Countian?
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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by KMcK » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:52 pm

Homebrewing for Dummies is an awesome early read, even if you're not a dummy. It has plenty of detail, but is easy to read with lots of humour and is well organized with lots of headers and step by step instructions. Start with this one if you want to learn how to brew, then go to other sources if you want to understand why you're doing the things you're doing.
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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by mr x » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:54 pm

bluenose wrote:
mr x wrote:I've got a copy you can borrow.
Would you happen to have a copy of Brewing Classic Styles you could lend to a fellow Pictou Countian?
I can lend you that one in a couple months, after I'm done using it. I've got a few lager recipes that I want to get done while the weather is cool.
At Alexander Keith's we follow the recipes first developed by the great brewmaster to the absolute letter. :wtf:

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by KMcK » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:59 pm

mr x wrote:I've got a few lager recipes that I want to get done while the weather is cool.
The way the climate is going we'll be doing more California commons than lagers soon. Hmm... another form of climate change adaptation!
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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by LiverDance » Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:24 pm

KMcK wrote:
mr x wrote:I've got a few lager recipes that I want to get done while the weather is cool.
The way the climate is going we'll be doing more California commons than lagers soon. Hmm... another form of climate change adaptation!
Maybe it's all the C02 from our brewing causing this climate change :pow:
"Twenty years ago — a time, by the way, that hops such as Simcoe and Citra were already being developed, but weren’t about to find immediate popularity — there wasn’t a brewer on earth who would have gone to the annual Hop Growers of American convention and said, “I’m going to have a beer that we make 4,000 barrels of, one time a year. It flies off the shelf at damn near $20 a six-pack, and you know what it smells like? It smells like your cat ate your weed and then pissed in the Christmas tree.” - Bell’s Brewery Director of Operations John Mallet on the scent of their popular Hopslam.

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by KMcK » Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:32 pm

LiverDance wrote:Maybe it's all the C02 from our brewing causing this climate change :pow:
Yes guys, keep brewing and drinking. We'll show Harper he's an idiot when it comes to climate change.
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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by mr x » Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:37 pm

No it's the fools who forget the gasket on their CO2 tank, they'll kill us all. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
At Alexander Keith's we follow the recipes first developed by the great brewmaster to the absolute letter. :wtf:

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by bluenose » Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:50 pm

mr x wrote:No it's the fools who forget the gasket on their CO2 tank, they'll kill us all. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
guilty :oops:
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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by TimG » Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:16 pm

mr x wrote:No it's the fools who forget the gasket on their CO2 tank, they'll kill us all. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
:pow: :finger: Haha..

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by wortly » Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:36 pm

A lot of the recipes from Jamil's BCS are here: http://beerdujour.com/JamilsRecipes.htm, but I would recommend buying the book as John Palmer's co-authorship adds a lot. I also learned a lot from his podcast on thebrewingnetwork.com .

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by Jimmy » Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:01 pm

wortly wrote:A lot of the recipes from Jamil's BCS are here: http://beerdujour.com/JamilsRecipes.htm, but I would recommend buying the book as John Palmer's co-authorship adds a lot. I also learned a lot from his podcast on thebrewingnetwork.com .
I've been listening to these during work over the past week or two, very good information!

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by bluenose » Tue Mar 26, 2013 6:54 pm

So I finally got Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles and they're all extract recipes... Is that what everyone else has or did I just get the extract version? If not, then what do you all grain guys do with the extract recipes?
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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by Jimmy » Tue Mar 26, 2013 6:56 pm

The all grain version is at the very end of each recipe in its own paragraph

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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by bluenose » Tue Mar 26, 2013 7:01 pm

So it is :-|... Thanks Jimmy :rockin:
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Re: Recommended Reading For Newbies

Post by Jimmy » Tue Mar 26, 2013 7:10 pm

If the recipe calls for steeping grains, don't forget to add those.

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