Book Review: Brewing Classic Styles

I had heard about Brewing Classic Styles, by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer, on the Brewing Network's Sunday Session podcast. Last month, I received it as a birthday gift. Now that I've read the book, here is a review.

Like most books, I started at the beginning: the introduction. This gave some insights as to its origins. According to the introduction, the book was originally conceived as a book to cover brewing from extract. John Palmer had been throwing the idea around when he mentioned it to Jamil Zainasheff. Somehow, by talking to him, the book evolved into a recipe book that covers all the BJCP styles, providing an award winning recipe for each one, though the first part of the book, the part by John Palmer, still included a section on extract brewing techniques.

I then thumbed thought the first chapters, John Palmer's portion of the book. There I noticed that it included the chapters Brewing with Style, Choosing your Ingredients, and Brewing Great Beer with Extract. In those chapters, John detailed how to choose malt and hops, yeast pitching rates, water adjustments, partial boils and its effects on wort creation and hop utilization, and much more.

After John's portion of the book lied Jamil Zainasheff's portion of the book, the chapters with the recipes. Most recipes were given as extract recipes with all-grain options given at the end. However, some styles required a mini mash, or all-grain to be executed properly.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the book was that each recipe included a story about the recipe's origin, written in first person, which gave the book a very personal feel. For instance, the section on altbier detailed Jamil's travels to Düsseldorf, Germany, and his discovery of true altbier served from wooden kegs, in German pubs. He told the story of taking a picture of the beer when one of the locals exclaimed, "Hey Cowboy, are you taking a picture of me?" They became quite excited when they found out that he loved the beer so much as to take its picture. As a result of the story, Jamil named his own altbier "Coyboy Alt."

Though all the recipes I read through were all award winning, not all of them were Jamil's recipes. For instance, the recipe called Janet's Brown Ale came from Jamil's good friend, Mike McDole, named for Mike's late wife. It was her favorite beer. The recipe was included as a tribute to her.

Because this beer covers so many styles, when I read it, I personally thought that the book would make a good companion to Designing Great Beers, by Ray Daniels. Designing Great Beers looks at statistics over a swath of award winning beers for specific styles while Brewing Classic Styles gives a single award winning recipe, with notes on brewing that style. Between the two, one can really get the feel for a specific style.

In the end, I highly recommend the book. It should make a good addition to any brewing library. I'm happy to have it as part of mine.

This Oatmeal Stout

Well the oatmeal stout that I put into the fermenter on Saturday is already done with primary fermentation. That was fast: three days. I had not even posted my recipe yet.

Speaking of which, for those interested, here is the recipe:

5.0 lbs Munich Malt
2.0 lbs Pale Malt, 6-row
1.25 lbs Flaked Oats
1.0 lbs Roasted Barley
0.25 lbs Black Patent Malt
1.0 lbs Crystal Malt, 80 L
0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
2.5 oz Styrian Goldings Hops, 3.5 AA, 60 min, 38.4 IBU
White Labs, English Ale (WLP002)

1.054 OG, 1.018 FG, 11 lbs, 38.4 IBUs, 49.0 SRM, 83% Extract Efficiency, 5.5 gallons

My actual OG was almost dead on at 1.053, and my actual FG was a little high, but not out of the ballpark for this yeast at 1.020, an apparent attenuation of 61%. It might still drop a point or two, but I doubt it. Besides, with all the dark malts, I imagine it was a pretty dextrinous wort. I always end high when I use really dark malts.

Upon tasting the beer, the Styrian Goldings hops do not seem out of place, like I feared. In fact, it is quite tasty.

For those who are observant, you will notice Munich malt is the majority of my base malt. This gives my stout something special that most stouts don't have, a malty bock-like backbone. I use a couple of pounds of six-row pale malt to pump up the amylase enzymes, so it will convert well.

That is pretty much it for the stout. It will make a nice beer for the up and coming Estrella War.

Pictures of the Oatmeal Stout Brew Day

Ron and I, next to the equipment.

Me, pouring grain into the mash tun.

Ron, stirring the mash.

Vorlaufing.

Sparging.

New Years Picture

Okay, this is a couple of weeks late, but anyway, here is a picture of Julie and I on New Years, 2008.

BBC News: Perceived Quality of Wine Relating to Price

BBC News had an article this week about the price of wine and perceived quality, entitled "Raising a glass to pricey wine." The article describes an California Institute of Technology experiment where they had a panel that blindly tasted wine. The only information they were given is the price of the wine. Some prices, however, were not listed correctly. As it turns out, the panel members almost always rated the wine labeled more expensive as better, even if it was not.

I wonder if the experiment would work with wine enthusiasts that are often looking for great tasting wine that is well priced. These wine enthusiasts often have a trained palate to look for greatness in wine.

Anyway, check out the article. I found it interesting.

Hop Shortage: Making a Substitution for Fuggle Hops

I'm brewing my first beer since the hop shortage started -- an oatmeal stout -- and, lo and behold, my hop variety of choice was not available at the brew shop. They suggested that I use Styrian Golding hops instead of the Fuggle hops I normally use. I did not know anything about Styrian Golding hops, so I looked them up. As it turns out, genetically, they are the same as Fuggle hops except that they are grown in Slovenia rather than England.

That got me wondering what the differences are. Do hops have a sense of terrior like wine grapes? Terrior, for those new to the term, is a French term meaning sense of place. The same grape variety grown in different soil and climate conditions will exhibit different characteristics. This gives wine from a particular region the unique taste of that region. It is what makes champagne champagne, rather than just sparkling wine. If Styrian Golding hops are indeed genetically the same as Fuggle hops, but have a different flavor, it would seem as though hops do have a sense of terrior.

Brew day is next week, and I will have to report what differences I detect in the beer I brew. Hopefully, it will not be vastly different, as I was quite happy with my oatmeal stout recipe the way it was.

California Common