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Brew Better Beer

Learn (and Break) the Rules for Making IPAs, Sours, Pilsners, Stouts, and More

Author Emma Christensen

Hardcover

$23.00 US

Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed | Ten Speed Press

7.52"W x 9.28"H x 1.01"D | 29 oz | 12 per carton

On sale May 05, 2015 | 240 Pages | 978-1-60774-631-7

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Food & Drink > Beverages > Beer
Food & Drink > Beverages > More Beverages...
Food & Drink > Single-Subject Cooking

In this colorful homebrewing guide, The Kitchn’s Emma Christensen gives you the keys to the brewery. Start out by mastering the basic styles, like A Very Good IPA and A Very Good Porter, then move on to inspired variations such as Centennial Dry-Hopped Double IPA, Campari IPA, and Smokey Chipotle Porter to discover which flavors, infusions, hops, and yeasts work best with each ale and lager. Want to brew a signature beer with your own personal stamp? Go wild with the “Make It Yours” suggestions and try tossing anything from cherries to chai spices into your brew.

This handy manual also dives deep into the mechanics of brewing all-extract, partial-extract, and all-grain brews, and includes a big, beautiful photographic guide to brewing beer so you can see exactly how each step is done. You can brew small 1-gallon batches, perfect for apartment brewers and low-risk experimentation, or brew 5 gallons and have enough to share with all your friends. You’ll also be introduced to up-and-coming beer trends like rye malts, barrel-aging at home, sour beers, gluten-free beers, and Old World beer styles.

Filled with inspiring recipes like Riding Lawn Mower Pale Ale, Maple Cider Dubbel, Finnish Juniper Rye Sahti Ale, Figgy Pudding British Barleywine, and Farmers’ Market Gruit, Christensen’s accessible approach will have you brewing better beer in no time.

“Armed with Emma Christensen’s clear, concise, and thorough guide, cooking up a world-class IPA, summer-friendly saison, or salty-tart gose is as simple as strolling to the store to snag a six-pack.”
—Joshua M. Bernstein, author of Brewed Awakening and The Complete Beer Course

“From grain to glass, Emma has done a heroic job of demystifying and evangelizing the homebrewing process. To any and all aspiring brewers, I highly recommend this book!”
—Sam Calagione, president and founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewer

Emma Christensen is a food writer and editor with years of experience creating food and cooking content for online and print publication. She is the managing editor for Simply Recipes and a former editor for The Kitchn. She is also the author of three books on homebrewing, True Brews, Brew Better Beer, and Modern Cider, and she collaborated on the James Beard Award-winning The Kitchn Cookbook. Her work has appeared in Fine Cooking, Vegetarian Times, Cook's Illustrated, and Edible Columbus. Emma is a graduate of The Cambridge School for Culinary Arts and Bryn Mawr College. View titles by Emma Christensen

INTRODUCTION:

My relationship with homebrewing did not get off to the best of starts. I was plenty eager and I had a lot of shiny new equipment, but an hour after returning from my first trip to the homebrew store, I felt completely and utterly baffled. I was also not in the kitchen; I was sitting on the couch in my living room with three different, slightly contradictory sets of brewing instructions laid out on the coffee table before me. My husband was tackling this new hobby with me, and neither of us had any idea where to begin or which instructions to follow or even how to move off the couch.

Once we formed a plan of action, the situation (unfortunately) did not improve. The liquid malt extract we’d purchased was roughly the consistency of tar and wouldn’t come out of the container. Our beer juice (which some, though not all, instructions mysteriously referred to as “wort”) took forever to come to a boil. And once it did, it continued to boil right over the side of the pot, extinguishing the burner’s pilot light and making a gigantic mess. My husband and I argued about whether the batch was ruined or if we could just add some more water and carry on—the first of many such stressed-out and frustration-fueled fights to follow. To date, some of our most ferocious battles as a married couple have happened while brewing beer.

Sound familiar? Maybe your first brew day (and possibly many others) went along similar lines. Maybe you’ve never brewed before and are reading this in horror, wondering what possessed you to ever think homebrewing might be “fun to try.”

Don’t worry. I’ve got your back. What you’re holding in your hands right now is the result of many years of learning and tinkering with how to brew beer at home—without the tears or cursing. My number one goal is to guide you through those first few brews—the ones where everything is brand-new, you have no idea what’s going on, and the potential for frustration is high—and into a place where you feel confident stepping into the kitchen with nothing but a bag of grains and a desire for beer. The title for this book is also a promise: I want to help you brew better beer.
Why homebrew in the first place? Because it’s seriously fun. Because it tickles your inner science geek. Because your first batch is instant membership into a fellowship of homebrewers that stretches back for eons. Because there is no finer feeling than flicking the cap off a bottle of beer, hearing that hiss of carbonation, and taking the first sip of a beer you brewed yourself.

Introduction 1
chapter 1: Know Your Ingredients 5
Malts 6
Water 10
Hops 10
Yeast 14
Other Fun Ingredients 16
Say Hello to the Beer Family! 19
chapter 2: Assemble Your Beer Kit 23
General Equipment 24
Brewing Equipment 27
Fermenting Equipment 28
Bottling Equipment 29

What to Expect on Your First Visit
to a Homebrew Store 34
chapter 3: Brew Your First Beer 37
Bird’s-Eye View of How to Brew Beer 38
How to Brew an All-Extract Beer 40
All-Extract Amber Ale 49
How to Brew a Partial-Extract Beer 50
Partial-Extract Amber Ale 53
How to Brew an All-Grain Beer 54
All-Grain Amber Ale 62
A Photographic Guide to Brewing Beer 60
Should You Brew a 1-Gallon or
a 5-Gallon Batch? 64
Chapter 4: Pale Ales 69
A Very Good American Pale Ale 71
Bitter Brit English-Style Pale Ale 72
Bitter Monk Belgian-Style Pale Ale 73
Pine Woods Pale Ale 74
Amarillo SMASH Pale Ale 77

What to Worry About,
What Not to Worry About 78

Chapter 5: India Pale Ales (IPAs) 81
A Very Good IPA 83
Centennial Dry-Hopped Double IPA 84
Double-Take Black IPA 86
Two-Left-Feet American Barleywine 87
Campari IPA 89
How to Pour and Taste Beer 90
Chapter 6: Brown Ales 93
A Very Good American Brown Ale 95
Pecan Pie Brown Ale 96
Brown Bear Seeks Honey Braggot 98
The Great Pumpkin Ale 99
Chai-Spiced Winter Warmer 101

Get Geeky with the Mash 102
Chapter 7: Porters and Stouts 105
A Very Good Porter 107
A Very Good Stout 109
Smoky Chipotle Porter 111
All-Day Dry Irish Stout 112
Affogato Milk Stout 113
Boss-Level Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout 114
Play with Your Hops 116
Chapter 8: British Ales 119
A Very Good British Mild 121
Tea Time Extra-Special Bitter (ESB) 122
High Seas British IPA 124
Sugar and Spice Strong Ale 125
Figgy Pudding British Barleywine 127
Brewing in Warm Weather,
Brewing in Cold Weather 128

Chapter 9: Belgian Ales 131
A Very Good Abbey Ale 133
Maple Cider Dubbel 134
Tropical Island Tripel 136
Fuzzy Nose Sour Ale 137
Peach Melba Sour Lambic 139
Get Funky with Sour Beers 140
Chapter 10: Scottish and Irish Red Ales 143
A Very Good Scottish Ale 145
A Very Good Irish Red Ale 147
Day Hiker Irish Red 148
Caramel-Coconut Wee Heavy 151
Smoke & Scotch Ale 152
Ten Small Habits That Will Make
You a Better Brewer 154
Chapter 11: Wheat Beers 157
A Very Good Wheat Beer (Hefeweizen) 159
Sweet-Tart Berliner Weisse 160
Salty Dog Gose 161
American Summer Wheat Ale 162
Lavender-Orange Witbier 165
Adding Fruits, Spices, and Other
Fun Things to Beer 166
Chapter 12: Rye Ales 171
A Very Good Rye Pale Ale 173
Dark Pumpernickel Roggenbier 174
Finnish Juniper Rye Sahti Ale 177
No Apologies Imperial Rye Ale 178
Red Eye Chicory Rye Porter 179
Five Easy Ways to Level-Up
Your Brew Game 180

Chapter 13: Session Ales 183
A Very Good Session Ale 185
Riding Lawn Mower Pale Ale 186
Watermelon Saison 188
Lemonade Stand Shandy 189
Farmers’ Market Gruit 191
How to Design Your Own
Homebrew 192
Chapter 14: Gluten-Free Beers 197
A Very Good Gluten-Free Pale Ale 199
Gluten-Free Saison 200
Gluten-Free Chocolate Porter 202
Jasmine Honey Sparkler 203
Hoppy Hard Cider 205
The Real Deal with Lagers 206
Chapter 15: Lagers 209
A Very Good Pilsner 211
Spring Blossom Maibock 212
McNally’s Oktoberfest 214
Chocolate Doppelbock 215
Ode to San Francisco Steam Beer 217
Common Problems, Easy Solutions 218
Glossary: Homebrewer’s Lingo 222
Recommended Resources 226
Acknowledgments 227
About the Author 228
Index 229