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Author Topic: Looking for a good AG recipe book  (Read 8110 times)

Offline imperialstout

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Re: Looking for a good AG recipe book
« Reply #30 on: February 09, 2013, 04:25:40 pm »
I borrowed 80 Classic Brews and discovered most, if not all recipes are written for extract. Some negative reviews said the same things, the AG conversion recipe was not accurate and neither were the hops and yeast selection for the style. I don't know. It makes me wonder if several people say the same thing. On the other hand the overall rating is positive and two guys from a brew club I just joined  recommended it so bought it. Also bought the Scotch Ale, Barley Wine and IPA books from the Classic Beer Style series. Didn't buy the Stout book as it got bad reviews, too technical and chemistry formula driven. I have read "How To Brew" by Palmer and "Designing Great Beers" by Daniels so figure with all these resources, and this web site, a bad beer can only be attributed to operator error.

Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: Looking for a good AG recipe book
« Reply #31 on: February 09, 2013, 05:40:05 pm »
I borrowed 80 Classic Brews and discovered most, if not all recipes are written for extract. Some negative reviews said the same things, the AG conversion recipe was not accurate and neither were the hops and yeast selection for the style. I don't know. It makes me wonder if several people say the same thing. On the other hand the overall rating is positive and two guys from a brew club I just joined  recommended it so bought it. Also bought the Scotch Ale, Barley Wine and IPA books from the Classic Beer Style series. Didn't buy the Stout book as it got bad reviews, too technical and chemistry formula driven. I have read "How To Brew" by Palmer and "Designing Great Beers" by Daniels so figure with all these resources, and this web site, a bad beer can only be attributed to operator error.
I liked the Stout book. What do you expect from a prof at UC Davis?
Jeff Rankert
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Ann Arbor Brewers Guild
Home-brewing, not just a hobby, it is a lifestyle!

Offline bboy9000

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Re: Looking for a good AG recipe book
« Reply #32 on: February 09, 2013, 06:43:02 pm »
Scotch Ale was the first style book I bought and I loved it immediately.  I really enjoyed learning a little bit of history of Scottish brewing.  I also have Brewing Classic Styles and have used the all-grain recipes.  I have always hit the expected preboil gravitates nearly dead-on.  The all-grain conversions JZ lists hit the exact OG when entered into the brewing software I use. 
Brian
mobrewer

Offline bazowie

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Re: Looking for a good AG recipe book
« Reply #33 on: February 10, 2013, 12:33:39 pm »
There are more recipes on line than you can shake a stick (or stir Paddle at), look, take, tweek and make your own, then refine it this works for me. Also most of the books are good if you dont take them to heart and do the same read, tweek and make your own.
In dog beers I've had 1

Offline hubie

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Re: Looking for a good AG recipe book
« Reply #34 on: February 11, 2013, 11:25:34 am »
I borrowed 80 Classic Brews and discovered most, if not all recipes are written for extract.

If you're talking about Brewing Classic Styles, the evolution of the book is that Palmer wanted to write a book for extract brewers and Zainasheff said he could give him a bunch of recipes, which is why the book is split into the (Zainasheff) recipe part and the (Palmer) technical part.  The recipes are all-grain recipes converted to extract versions and every recipe is given with the all-grain part at the end.  It really is an all-grain book because the all-grain recipes are given.  You have to make sure you take the reviews with a grain of salt.  Because of the way recipes convert between the two, I remember an Amazon reviewer was complaining that the recipes called for odd amounts of extract, such as needing 2.7 pounds of LME and he was complaining that he could only get LME in set amounts like cans of 3.3 pounds.  The reviewer was complaining that it is unreasonable for him to measure out less than 3.3 pounds (which is funny because when I make bread, I don't ding my recipe book because my recipe isn't broken down into using only 5 lb sacks of flour).  I'd have to see what some of the negative complaints you saw, but if we're talking about the same book then I would say the bad review missed the mark entirely.

Offline BrewQwest

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Re: Looking for a good AG recipe book
« Reply #35 on: February 17, 2013, 06:55:50 pm »
I borrowed 80 Classic Brews and discovered most, if not all recipes are written for extract.

If you're talking about Brewing Classic Styles, the evolution of the book is that Palmer wanted to write a book for extract brewers and Zainasheff said he could give him a bunch of recipes, which is why the book is split into the (Zainasheff) recipe part and the (Palmer) technical part.  The recipes are all-grain recipes converted to extract versions and every recipe is given with the all-grain part at the end.  It really is an all-grain book because the all-grain recipes are given.  You have to make sure you take the reviews with a grain of salt.  Because of the way recipes convert between the two, I remember an Amazon reviewer was complaining that the recipes called for odd amounts of extract, such as needing 2.7 pounds of LME and he was complaining that he could only get LME in set amounts like cans of 3.3 pounds.  The reviewer was complaining that it is unreasonable for him to measure out less than 3.3 pounds (which is funny because when I make bread, I don't ding my recipe book because my recipe isn't broken down into using only 5 lb sacks of flour).  I'd have to see what some of the negative complaints you saw, but if we're talking about the same book then I would say the bad review missed the mark entirely.

Yup!!! BCS rocks!!! the very first recipe I made from this book tasted so good I entered it into competition and took a silver medal...what more can you ask for from a recipe book?? cheers!!
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