Essential Reading

[Piscator]

What texts would you consider as essential reading to develop an better knowledge and understanding of the various aspects of all grain brewing and why

Cheers
Steve

[Seveneer]

Personally I like "A Guide to Craft Brewing" by John Alexander. I've seen people say it's a bit advanced for some but if you already brew AG I'd say it's pretty interesting reading.

/Phil.

[Aleman]

Noonan's New Brewing Lager Beer is pretty good, if getting a little dated.

John Alexanders book, while OK struck me as a little disorganised, and overcomplicated.

Lewis and Youngs Brewing is very thorough and not bad value at 36 quid

Kunze Technology Brewing and Malting is well wort a read if you are into the minutia of brewing as is Malting and brewing Science, but these are serious textbooks so expect to pay 85 quid or more each.

I have to say that I found George Fix's books Principles of Brewing and Analysis of Brewing Techniques to be useful . . . with care

Daniels Designing Great Beers is Good

[Aleman]

And of course there is Jean De clerks Textbook of Brewing (Vol I and II)

Pierre Rajotte First Steps in Yeast Culture is worth having too

[Piscator]

Thanks Chaps,

There are a lot of books about and it's difficult to know which ones are worth getting hold of.

What particular aspect of the George Fix book needs to be taken with care? (I'm intrigued now )

Cheers
Steve

[Aleman]

What particular aspect of the George Fix book needs to be taken with care? (I'm intrigued now )

It's American, George makes several assertions that may or may not be true, and a lot of it is biased to US ingredients/methods.

If you have a reasonable knowledge of brewing though it is possible to see through/around the fallacies. The biggest problem is the people that quote it as gospel with out being aware that things are not always as black and white as some/most authors would have us believe.

[Gurgeh]

I can't believe you guys - WHEELER!!! anything that our Graham writes is worth more than a glance - and when it comes to George Fix - well, he can shove HSA up his BS.

Dave Lines - good at the time, but it was before my time.

I've read Alexander. taught me nothing that Palmer's 'How to brew' hadn't. How to brew was a lot wider as well - an excellent book but DaaB would argue that it is too technical. this book will take you through extract brewing to all grain brewing and has a lot of 'answers' in it. It's still my first resort reference book - nothing in there has been contradicted on this forum yet (AFAIK)

and you can read it here whilst you wait for GW to finish his next edition...

Hey Graham - ETA???

[prodigal2]

As I have no Wheeler, I would recommend Dave line for getting down making beer. Then the classic beer styles series is good as it looks for at specific style in depth and look at the history and context of a style.

[Dennis King]

I can't believe you guys - WHEELER!!! anything that our Graham writes is worth more than a glance

With out a doubt. I have 17 different books Engish and American, I find Grahams by far the clearest to understand. Mayby I`m thick but some seem over complicated.

[Graham]

I can't believe you guys - WHEELER!!! anything that our Graham writes is worth more than a glance - and when it comes to George Fix - well, he can shove HSA up his BS.

Regretfully, if it cannot be purchased without paying silly prices for it, then Wheeler is out of the race.

Hey Graham - ETA???

Well I am six days behind deadline for the recipe book, so far, but officially it will be out by autumn.

The big book, the good one in my view, will be sometime next year if it goes ahead. There are decisions still to be made, both commercial and whether or not I really want to do it. The little recipe book is much harder than I remember, has taken much more time than I remember, and probably isn't as important now as it was when it first appeared.

The big book is going to be a ruddy sight harder, because it is a ruddy sight bigger (150,000 words at least), and now with the Internet I have to spend a good deal of useful space debunking myths, and explaining why. I am also considerably older, and I am not quite so prepared to put the research into it that I was in the past.

We will see.

[Graham]

With out a doubt. I have 17 different books Engish and American, I find Grahams by far the clearest to understand. Mayby I`m thick but some seem over complicated.

Thank you.

I am not into frameworks of red, green and yellow balls stuck on to the end of cocktail-sticks, nor can I see any reason to do illustrations of spider's-web patterns of chain-lengths, linkages and cleavages. If you do not need to know it to brew good beer, then there is no point in it being there. Brewing is, more or less, a mechanical process. If not today, in the past many thousands of women baked many thousands of perfect cakes and loaves every week without knowing the chemical reactions that take place during the process.

Of course, when things go wrong a certain amount of technical knowledge is useful to be able to identify what has actually caused the problem, but I do not think that coloured balls on cocktail-sticks is going to help very much.

[Dennis King]

Graham I hope you do complete the big book. the fact they go for silly money shows there is a need. Your books took my beers to a new level. I appreciate the strains etc. but pleassse Graham

[Graham]

Graham I hope you do complete the big book. the fact they go for silly money shows there is a need. Your books took my beers to a new level. I appreciate the strains etc. but pleassse Graham

Thank you.

If the big book does not get into print, it will go up on the Interweb for free. I have tons of material hanging around on disc drives and CD roms, some of it never before published. I am not going to let it all go to waste, no matter what happens - even if I have to hand it over to someone else and let them finish it.

[Dennis King]

Top man

[Aleman]

and when it comes to George Fix - well, he can shove HSA up his BS.

things are not always as black and white as some/most authors would have us believe.

I'll give you a good talking too later

I had left Graham off the list quite deliberately, His book (Even my first edition) was my brewing bible for 10 years, and does deserve to be there, but

What texts would you consider as essential reading to develop an better knowledge and understanding of the various aspects of all grain brewing

Those books I listed really go into the technicalities . . .you don't need to, keep it practical and go with Wheeler . . . many a mistake has been made by many an author fixing on one piece of information as being the most critical aspect of brewing. I'm fond of saying that what works for me on my system may very well not work on yours