Brewing Classic Styles - Zainasheff and Palmer

[Aleman]

This was a book that I have put of buying for quite some time. Having bought Jamils yeast book I was that impressed that I bought this one as well.

This book really expands on the Brewing Network podcasts, plus adds John Palmers experience in brewing with extract. So there is the first major point, all 80 of the recipes are extract. The all grain alternatives then follow on from the extract version.

The second point is that there are a large variety of extracts available in the US that we are not able to get here in the UK (Munich Extract for example), so although the recipes are aimed towards the extract brewer outside of the US it may well be difficult to brew a lot of them. Of course with the all grain version there is no issue as we have access to most of the grains listed.

There is a basic description of the brewing process, which most extract and all grain brewers should be familiar with. The preponderance of US units is an annoyance, but easily dealt with in brewing software.

All In all a good book written well in an easy to read style. One factor that I hadn't really considered is that this book also makes a good companion for anyone studying for the BJCP Judge exam, as Jamil really expands on the BJCP style guidelines, and actually describes the tastes and expectations of each style very well.

 

[artiums_enteri]

I agree; this book is fantastic! I keep hearing a lot of people say that they winning more and more competitions with recipes brewed from this book.


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[Vossy1]

I bought this book primarily for the recipes, I've brewed 2 and both were great beers. The book is a good read, I like the brief introductions, the basic overviews at the beginning, and Aleman has covered the other aspects of the book. Worth buying just for the recipes alone I'd say.

 

[zgoda]

One factor that I hadn't really considered is that this book also makes a good companion for anyone studying for the BJCP Judge exam, as Jamil really expands on the BJCP style guidelines, and actually describes the tastes and expectations of each style very well.

This is the only thing i find useful in this book, extremely useful i'd say. The recipes are fairly standard, nothing enlightening, and can be easily found elsewhere, but detailed style descriptions is what makes this book unique. It's nice to have this book on the shelf.

 

[shearclass]

I am planning on making some extract beers shortly. Would this be about the ideal book for extract recipes?

What sort of proportion of the recipes contain extracts other than pale malt extract?


Edit - ordered!

 

[Vossy1]

Great book you've ordered All the recipes are extract first with AG options below.
John Palmers opening line in the book is "I have been wanting to write a book called How to Brew With Extract for many years" :thumb: