Simple Homebrewing: Great Beer, Less Work, More Fun

by Denny Conn, Drew Beechum

Overview

Have you ever found yourself doing less and less homebrewing, or being too intimidated to take up the brewing to begin with? Let Drew Beechum and Denny Conn help you brew the best possible beer with less work and more fun! Simple Homebrewing simplifies the complicated steps for making beer and returns brewing to its fundamentals. Explore easy techniques for harnessing water, malted barley, hops, and yeast (along with a few odd co-stars) to create beer. Pick up tips and tricks for a range of brewing challenges like adjusting your brewing liquor, working with adjunct ingredients, controlling fermentation, and brewing wild beers. The authors guide you from extract brewing to all-grain batches and explain the simple philosophy of recipe design and small-batch brewing. Learn how to evaluate different types of malt and hops by tasting, crushing, and steeping them, and use this to build your flavor vocabulary. Denny and Drew also share ideas on how to make technology work for you by taking a look at brewing gadgets, from fancy fermentation jackets and expensive (but convenient) all-in-one “robot” brewing systems, to bucket heaters, swamp coolers and do-it-yourself PID controllers made from inexpensive and commonly available microprocessors. Drew and Denny’s mantra is “Brew the best beer possible, with the least effort possible, while having the most fun possible.” Throughout, the focus is on helping you develop a simple, thoughtful process to make homebrewing more accessible and enjoyable. Wisdom is imparted in tones both reassuring and amusing, and the basics are broken down into easily remembered chunks. The authors also feature interviews with an eclectic group of brewers from the Americas, who add their own take on the brewing process and how they have made it work for them. Get a feel for recipe design by looking at a few handy templates for Pilsner, pale ale, IPA, double IPA, stout, tripel, and saison; or try your own bottom-up or top-down approach after reading Denny and Drew’s advice. Along the way you will find over 40 recipes, ranging from the simplest of pale ales, American lagers, tried and tested altbier recipes, and delicious rye IPAs, to Old and New World barleywine, quick tripels, Scotch ale mashed overnight, king cake ale, purple corn beer, and Catherina sour. Marvel at how mushrooms can be used in beer and tremble at the thought of a bourbon barrel–aged barleywine made with ghost pepper. Even experienced homebrewers can learn from this dynamic duo, as Simple Homebrewing features expert advice for brewers of all levels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938469596
Publisher:	Brewers Publications
Publication date:	06/07/2019
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Denny Conn brewed his first batch of homebrew in 1998 and has since brewed 500+ more. He is a nationally–ranked Beer Judge Certification Program judge and served on the American Homebrewers Association® Governing Committee for nine years. His homebrew recipes have been brewed by several commercial breweries in both the United States and Europe. Denny was a contributing author to Craft Beer for the Homebrewer and co-authored Experimental Homebrewing and HomeBrew All-Stars with Drew Beechum. He is the co-host of the Experimental Brewing Podcast. He lives in Noti, OR with his wife, five cats, and two dogs. Drew Beechum has been brewing and writing about brewing since he first picked up a kettle in 1999. He is the author of The Everything Homebrewing Book, The Everything Hard Cider Book, and co-authored Experimental Homebrewing and HomeBrew All-Stars with Denny Conn. Drew has also written for Zymurgy® and Beer Advocate magazines, and is co-host of the Experimental Brewing Podcast. He lives in Pasadena, CA, with his lovely wife and loyal army of dogs and cats, and has a dedicated brewery in his home.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Recipes Acknowledgments Foreword Introduction Chapter 1 – What is Simplicity? The Inherent Simplicity of Beer The Importance of a Pragmatic Focus, or A Book’s Manifesto in Three Lines The Efficiency of Simplicity A Word on Process But, That’s Not How the Pros Do It What isn’t Simplicity? Profiles in Simplicity: Doug King Chapter 2 – Simple Extract Brewing Modern Brewing Pioneers The Basics about Brewing and Extract Rescuing Extract from Its Reputation Why Extract Is Awesome Why Extract Is Terrible The Simplest Brew Day Ever The Oversimplified Explanation of Extract Brewing What to Expect When You’re Expecting Beer Tricks for the Best Extract Beer Advanced Extract Brewing Late Extract Full-Volume Boil Use a Chiller Speed Brewing: Beer in 20 Minutes How to convert to/from Extract Other Extract Uses Yeast Starters Simplifying Your Brew Day Boosters Baking: The Final Frontier Pretzel Magic Extract Beer Recipes from Denny An Inspirational Message to All the Doubters Profiles in Simplicity: Jay Ankeney Jay’s Tips for Extract Brewing Chapter 3 – Simple Small Batch In Defense of Small-Batch Brewing Less Physical Strength Needed Smaller Gear and Less Gear Less Room Needed More Variety and Experimentation Less Risk Less Time Needed Small Batch Shortcomings Brewing Small: The Total Picture A Small-Batch Brew What’s In Your Kitchen? Brew-in-a-Bag Small Processes Profiles in Simplicity: Mary Izett and Chris Cuzme Chapter 4 – Simple All Grain The Strict Worlds of Fermentation It Wasn’t Always So Making Malt Onto Brewing Mashing from Start to Finish The Super High Level Process of Mashing The Cheap ’n’ Easy Mash Tun Mashing Working Out Your Mash Water Volume Batch Sparge Other Mashing Regimens Short Mash and Boil Overnight/Extended Mashing Brew in a Bag: One-Pot Brewing Profiles in Simplicity: Chip Walton Teaches Us about Brew-in-a-Bag Profiles in Simplicity: Jeremy Jalabert—Award-Winning, Busy Dad Brewer Chapter 5 – Technology Serving Simplicity Automated Systems PicoBrew Brewie+ All–in-One Manual Systems Grainfather Speidel Braumeister Recipe Interlude Simple Fermentation Systems BrewJacket Immersion Pro Vessi Fermentor Home Canning Some Assembly Required Bucket Heaters: A Cheap Electrical Assist Raspberry Pi and Arduino-Based Systems Looking into the Crystal Ball Profiles in Simplicity: Ronaldo Dutra Ferreira Chapter 6 – Simple Flavor Identification Simplifying Recipe Design Understanding Flavors and Ingredients Flavors in Beer Understanding Ingredients: Build Your Flavor Database Malt Evaluation Malt Evaluation at Home Hot-Steep Malt Evaluation Method Hop Evaluation The Language of Hops Evaluating Hops at Home Yeast Evaluation Clean Estery and Fruity Phenolic Sulfury Learning Through Drinking Simple Beer Chapter 7 – Simple Recipe Design Evolution of a Homebrewer Stage 1: Extract Recipe Kits Stage 2: All-Grain Recipe Kits Stage 3: Brewing Other People’s Recipes Stage 4: Your Own Recipes The Philosophy of Recipe Design Bottom-Up Recipe Design Top-Down Recipe Design Every Beer Tells a Story Single Malt and Single Hop (SMASH) Choosing Hops Hop Balancing Recipe Templates How Do You Know It Worked? Triangle Test: The Only Way to Know Sample Triangle Test Procedure The Importance of Locality Profiles in Recipe Design: Randy Mosher Chapter 8 – Simple Water Simple Truths About Water Brewing Water Basics Treat Your Brewing Water What’s in Your Water? Understanding Your Water Calcium Chloride Sulfate Magnesium Sodium Chlorine the Killer Distilled and Reverse 'smosis Water: The Level Playing Field Adjusting Your Water pH Alkalinity Function and Flavor Adjusting Your Water: An Example Is There A Simpler Way? Sulfate-to-Chloride Ratio It’s Never Too Late Profiles in Simplicity: Martin Brungard Chapter 9 – Simple Adjuncts A Little Adjunct History How to Adjunct Adjuncting the Hard Way: Cook ’Em. Adjuncting the Easy Way One Final Tip: Hulls are Your Friend Major Players of the Adjunct World Wheat Rye Oats Corn Rice Potatoes Sugar And Now It Gets Weird Fruit Vegetables Not Weird Enough Yet? Processing the Mushrooms: Denny Experiments Profiles in Simplicity: Mike Williams of Candi Syrup, Inc. Chapter 10 – Simple Yeast and Fermentation Types of Yeast Ale and Lager Yeast “Wild” Yeast and Bacteria Top versus Bottom Fermenting Yeast Flavors Ale Yeast: Saccharomyces cerevisiae Lager Yeast: Saccharomyces pastorianus Wild Yeast: Brettanomyces Species Dry or Liquid? Getting the Yeast Ready to Work Rehydrating Dry Yeast Liquid Yeast Starter Starter by the Numbers Simplifying the Starter: The Vitality Starter High-Gravity Fermentations Fermentation Why Control Fermentation Temperature? Easy Methods for Controlling Temperature Temperature Manipulation When Is Fermentation Done? Profiles in Simplicity: Mark Van Ditta Chapter 11 – Simple Wild Wild Done Safely Wild Inoculation Getting Safer with Booze and Acid Even Safer with Wild Starters The Cultured Wild Kettle Souring: The Ultimate Safe Sour Blending and Flavoring Profiles in Simplicity: Garret Garfield Index