Drink up and pay homage to your favorite hobbycraft brewing beer, ciders, and meadsalongside the legends, innovators, and rising stars of the beer world!In" The Brewers Apprentice," you get incomparable behind-the-scenes access to the craft brewing world, along with tutorials on everything from mastering the perfect pour to designing a world-class IPA. This illustrated handbook escorts you through the steps of the brewing process and offers a unique curriculum that supports and enhances your knowledge of brewing basics.Inside, you'll find: - 18 world-class brewers, including Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River), Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head) and Ken Grossman (Sierra Nevada) as they share their expertise in vivid, engaging interviews- Advice on sourcing the best hops, barley, wheat, and more; farm-to-table and seasonal brewing- Strategies for setting up your homebrewing workshop to master brewing chemistry 101- Methods for tinkering with nontraditional ingredients and extreme brews- Techniques for brewing mead, sour ales, and cider
A nice guide to the world of craft beer for budding brewers. It's not an encompassing explanation of the overall process, but it does try to cover a lot of ground.
I would have liked it to go a little deeper into most topics, but it was still a very interesting read. Every chapter ends with an interview with an expert in that field, adding a nice touch.
It also made me move "Make our first mead" higher on the task list, as if I needed another hobby ;)
An excellent guide to some of the unique craft beers with details from the brewers themselves about what makes them special. Also has an excellent list of references.
All in all, not bad but it has some issues. Poor editing in a few too many instances; usually understandable but perhaps/probably not to people with less knowledge.
Also, why choose BrewDog to talk about high gravity brewing. All of their "world records" come from freeze distillation which is highly illegal for homebrewers, who are the target audience.
There were also at least 2 instances of "WTF?!, that is completely wrong." ::sigh::
Anyway, not bad but I don't like having to be smarter/more knowledgable than the source I am trying to learn from. Is a waste of time and clutters the mind with bullshit.
I also love the caption for a picture of Mitch Steele, then of Stone [one of the authors is a cofounder of Stone] that states, "Before finding his true home at Stone Brewing, ...." Ha ha. Joke's on you, Greg.
This book is a great read for anybody interested in craft beer, mead, and cider. This isn't a step by step tutorial. The book does a wonderful job of breaking down and simplifying the ingredients and some of the processes of brewing, and yet balances that simplistic style with lots of useful information. It reads more fluidly than a text book, but it's well organized chapters and information make it a great reference.
Very intriguing and informative read. Later third was not as useful to me personally but still interesting! A few ideas I will be incorporating into my current and future batches. Loved to read about the various components of brewing and the hearing perspectives of experts in the field!
Nothing too in depth, but the interview with Vinnie Cilurzo is nice and the idea of poking holes in a milk jug for sparging is something I hadn't heard before.