Book: Designing Great Beers

[alwilson]

Hi Guys,

This book (by ray daniels) seems to get good reviews on Amazon. I'm wondering what your thoughts are of it.

I am looking for a book (or information generally) so I can understand how different malts/hops/yeast alter the flavour - rather than just constantly use other peoples clone recipes, I'd like to know why it works. And to be able to answer such questions as What makes a ruby red ale that colour, why do some beers have oats included in the grain bill, and so forth?

IS this book any good, if not, can you recommend anything else.


Cheers All,

Alex

[Whorst]

Great book, go for it. Lotsa recipe information as well.

[mysterio]

Yeah it's a good effort if you like brewing lots of different styles. Some of the opinions are a bit odd and there is a little over emphasis on recipe design, as if it makes all the difference in competition if you have a pinch of this and a pinch of that. Still a good addition to your library though. It won't really teach you what different ingredients bring to the table, best way to do that is to start designing your own recipes, and if this book gives you the confidence to do that, go for it.

[Eadweard]

I thought it was a great read, it's packed full of information.

[HighHops]

Hey Alex, I think this book is great. It's definately got the level of detail your looking for. There are three separate chapters on hops; bittering, aroma and hop varieties. The second half of the book looks at different beer styles and what defines them.

[alwilson]

Brilliant, Cheers All for the help!
Ordered.


Alex

[steve_flack]

It's an odd book IMO. It's essentially an analysis of the recipes of beers that won/competed in American homebrew competitions. As it's not a new book these stats are a bit out of date and some of the ingredients are what American homebrewers thought should be in their interpretations of the various styles (I think there's a better understanding of some of the styles now). If you're looking for a recipe book this ain't it. It's not a crap book but TBH it wouldn't be the first book I'd reorder if I lost my brewing library.

[awalker]

**** nothing to see here move along *****

Edited

[Jolum]

It's an odd book IMO. It's essentially an analysis of the recipes of beers that won/competed in American homebrew competitions. As it's not a new book these stats are a bit out of date and some of the ingredients are what American homebrewers thought should be in their interpretations of the various styles (I think there's a better understanding of some of the styles now). If you're looking for a recipe book this ain't it. It's not a crap book but TBH it wouldn't be the first book I'd reorder if I lost my brewing library.

I have to go with Steve on this one. It's a book of two halves. The good half is where he takes a style and breaks it down for you so you can get a good idea as to how to formulate you own recipes for that style. The crap half is where he keeps referring back to the bloody American homebrewers competitions about what the top xxx of them used to make a certain style. WHY? Who the f*ck cares what they did.

If you want a recipe book for British ales, get Graham's book. If you want a book packed with all sorts of recipe and ingredient ideas get Randy Mosher's book. Of course this is all just my opinion you can disregard at your leisure

[steve_flack]

I agree Mosher's "Radical Brewing" is a much better book.

[boingy]

I didn't particularly like the book either. The seemingly endless analysis of competition winners was tedious and not very helpful unless you want to brew an "average" of all the winners in a particular category. I wanted more details on how different ingredients balance each other and how to tweak existing recipes to boost a particular aspect. Like Steve, I would not be replacing my copy if it went missing.

[Tony01]

Have to agree with the newest comments. I hated the book .. couldn't wait to unwrap it when it arrived from Amazon, as soon as I saw the stuff about US competitions (I think this is the one which starts relating crap about the Chicago brewers, I'm at work at the moment so can't check), I knew it would be all downhill. I thought he'd taken a wonderful topic and sucked all the life and passion out of it.

Maybe if it had been UK competitions/groups I wouldn't have reacted as such, I always feel the distance too much when reading anything based in the States.

[alwilson]

Wow, thats really interesting, thanks guys.
Now its ordered, im torn... though amazon are good with returns.

A bit dissappointed to hear about the American competitions, I'm not even that much of a fan of American Ale, the Anchor Steamboat stuff is nice when im in the mood to blow my head off with hops but outside of that, they're pretty much the same, too much hop and no finesse. (No offence, anyone!)

Am I better off installing Beer Smith and just playing with that rather than reading? I want to be able to understand such things as why a ruby red is that colour? What gives waggledance that flavour? and so forth - I dont have many specific questions right now, but I do enjoy a bit of theory.

Cheers
Alex

[beer today]

liking this thread guys, i have GrahamW's book, and want to add to it, is Randys book predominantly AG, will there be enough in it. I am trying to understand the components of a brew rather than just follow a recipe- brew by number scenario.
cheers
fraz

[Tony01]

Hmmm .. reread this thread... and more specifically, my own comment. I have to add, that I have a rather large library of brewing books and I haven't read a single one without learning something. I think my disappointment with this one has somewhat clouded my opinion/recall/memory. There are many good things to say about it, it is rather good at cross-referencing and there is a huge wealth of information in there - but nothing that spending time in here could not beat.

Al .. read it, it most certainly won't do you any harm and you'll pick up some great stuff. However (and I hate to say this because I know her lurks in here), GWs book is extremely difficult to beat, is deliciously British and makes you feel like you can brew anything.

I think I read (in here) that he 'came out' so he couldn't be accused of lurking....