Home brewer's database recipe database - Les Howarth

dennisking · Feb 9, 2012

First things you notice about this book is it's size, over 600 pages, and it's price, Â£31, but I bought it a lot cheaper from Amazon. This is not a brewing guide or a recipe book. It's what it says on the tin, a database of the grain and hop bills for over two thousand of UK and European brewed beers at time of publishing 2002. The thing it doesn't do is scale down the ingredients for the home brewer, some are just a straight list i.e. Adnams bitter just states Maris Otter, Invert sugar, Fuggles, Goldings and Challenger. O.G 1036 IBU 33. and leaves you to do the proportions. Some of the others it states percentages which make it a lot easier. Overall I've found it good if I've sampled a commercial beer I like, look it up, find the basics then work my own recipe around that.

unclepumble · Feb 9, 2012

It is an excellent book, think I paid Â£12 on amazon. This book gives you very basic but also very sound information, if you want to get good at cloning beers this is the one to read, better than the wheeler books if you have a few years experience. Les Howarth is also a thoroughly nice bloke I met him at an event a few years back.

However if you are not good at working out recipes from basic info, stick to the GW Brew your Own British Real Ale bible.

UP

dennisking · Feb 9, 2012

Exactly what I meant Shane. A good book but you have to do the work. I've used it not so much to clone a beer but to devise beers in the style of ones I've enjoyed.

oz11 · Jun 2, 2012

Just borrowed this (the second edition) from local library.

It claims over 2700 recipes and I'm not going to argue. Immediately looked up a few old favourites to see if they were listed e.g. Bishops Brewery, a short lived micro on the edge of Borough Market, SE1 and just around the corner from my work at the time (mid-late 1990's). Delighted to find its beers listed.

There's an awful lot of information here, admittedly mostly available elsewhere but nice to have it collated in one place, which will keep me quiet for ages and already it's given me more ideas than I'll be able to brew in the forseeable future.

When it has to be returned to the library I'm pretty sure I'll be buying my own copy.

Next up from the library should be "Clone Brews" - Tess & Mark Szamatulski

dennisking · Jun 2, 2012

oz11 said:
Just borrowed this (the second edition) from local library.

It claims over 2700 recipes and I'm not going to argue. Immediately looked up a few old favourites to see if they were listed e.g. Bishops Brewery, a short lived micro on the edge of Borough Market, SE1 and just around the corner from my work at the time (mid-late 1990's). Delighted to find its beers listed.

There's an awful lot of information here, admittedly mostly available elsewhere but nice to have it collated in one place, which will keep me quiet for ages and already it's given me more ideas than I'll be able to brew in the forseeable future.

When it has to be returned to the library I'm pretty sure I'll be buying my own copy.

Next up from the library should be "Clone Brews" - Tess & Mark Szamatulski

Personally I found the recipe database a lot better than clone brews.