[kylekohlmorgen]

I LOVE to read about and research brewing. Techniques, history, styles, brewing science; anything that will either make me a better brewer or give me more of an appreciation for the craft.

I would like to concentrate these efforts into a tool that will help other brewers accomplish the same goal. Whether it be a book, a series of magazine articles, or another form of published material, I believe there is still a lot of knowledge out there that can be collected, distilled, and presented in a way that will help the homebrewing community to make better beer.

What specific brewing topics do you wish you knew more about? Have you read any Zymurgy/BYO articles that could be researched in more detail?

Please share your thoughts!

Here are a few ideas I have:

- Brewing science topics presented in a no-nonsense, applicable manner: water chemistry (with simplified salt addition tools), multi-step mash (tied to techniques with various mash setups), wild yeast fermentation and sanitation.

- Revitalizing historical styles (an expansion of some of Randy Mosher’s publications)


- Historical/unusual brewing techniques and their application to homebrewing: partigyle, “capping”, sparging with 1st runnings,  decoction, turbid mash, mashing unusual ingredients, long/short/no boils, hopping (Mash, FWH, in-between KO and dryhops), krausening, creating cask ale

- Misc. stuff: Creating your own style, making recipes your own,  creating beer for friends/parties/non-beer drinkers, utilizing techniques from the wine/spirits industry, homebrewing to go pro, using new ingredients, improving homebrew by drinking craft beer.

[morticaixavier]

how about growing and malting barley?

[davidgzach]

how about growing and malting barley?

+1. 

Also, my neighbor is gluten intolerent.  I can't find any sorghum malt, only extract.  We were thinking about trying to grow some and malting it ourselves.  That would be a great topic for me as well as how to buy sorghum.

Dave

[Jimmy K]

Also, my neighbor is gluten intolerent.  I can't find any sorghum malt, only extract.  We were thinking about trying to grow some and malting it ourselves.  That would be a great topic for me as well as how to buy sorghum.

Dave

Sorghum is a cane (like sugarcane), not a grain. It is pressed to extract juice and then the juice is boiled to to make syrup, so you can't do 'all-grain' sorghum beer.

[morticaixavier]

Also, my neighbor is gluten intolerent.  I can't find any sorghum malt, only extract.  We were thinking about trying to grow some and malting it ourselves.  That would be a great topic for me as well as how to buy sorghum.

Dave

Sorghum is a cane (like sugarcane), not a grain. It is pressed to extract juice and then the juice is boiled to to make syrup, so you can't do 'all-grain' sorghum beer.

sorghum is both a cane and a grain. the sap from the cane is boiled to make sorghum molasses but the seed of the sorghum can also be malted, mashed and fermented into a beer. Much lighter flavour and can be used as 100% of the grist whereas sorghum molasses is too strong a flavour for that.

as can quinoa, amaranth (although those tiny little seeds are a PITA to deal with) and several other grains. Really any seed or grain can, in principal be malted and mashed. You can malt and mash peas or beans even. Not sure what that would taste like.

[theoman]

sorghum is both a cane and a grain. the sap from the cane is boiled to make sorghum molasses but the seed of the sorghum can also be malted, mashed and fermented into a beer. Much lighter flavour and can be used as 100% of the grist whereas sorghum molasses is too strong a flavour for that.

as can quinoa, amaranth (although those tiny little seeds are a PITA to deal with) and several other grains. Really any seed or grain can, in principal be malted and mashed. You can malt and mash peas or beans even. Not sure what that would taste like.

Fascinating. Now there's a topic I'd read about.

[tomsawyer]

I'd like to see some decent research on fermentor geometry.  You get such dramatic differences between the time and temp optima of microbreweries vs homebrewers that there has to be something going on there.  It could include some discussion of fermentor head space in a hombrewing context as well.  You'd have to do the research first though.

And for the record, Strong brought this up in his recent book and I know its been discussed casually on forums in the past.  I don't think theres anything definitive in terms of experiments though unless its dealing with commercial scale operations.

Another topic I think would be fun to broach would be blending beer.  Its something I do occasionally at home to produce additional variety or correct a slight flaw in a brew.  I've even used wine before, and I'm sure there are those who spike with spirits like bourbon to simulate bourbon barrel aging.  I think you could come up with enough permutations of the numerous styles to fill a small text.

[euge]

Blending beer. +1!

I've been working on this myself, and it seems that there is little out there on the subject.

[dimik]

I'm pretty sure my LHBS carries sorghum malt.

I'd like something on water chemistry, beer blending, and yeast culturing. All in scientific style and in depth without fluffy swirls and basic brewing intro taking up half the book. I realize, however, that such books would have about 5-10 people reading audience and thus would never get printed.
Another thing I'd be interested in are traditional/historic/dead beers. Again, no brewing intros for novices. I want info on brewing practices, ingredients, fermentation procedures etc. Such book sounds plausible so maybe someday I can get my hands on decent information about Norwegian smoked malts and gruits made with them.

[tomsawyer]

Just got to a section in Strong's book and saw there is some info on blending beer, haven't read it but like all good original ideas its been thought of before.

[Gribble]

I definitely agree about getting in to some of the more advanced stuff without the nonsense.  Blending beer, yeast culturing, different equipment setups and techniques

[james]

I'd like something on water chemistry, beer blending, and yeast culturing. All in scientific style and in depth without fluffy swirls and basic brewing intro taking up half the book. I realize, however, that such books would have about 5-10 people reading audience and thus would never get printed.

Have you seen Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation by Jamil Zainasheff and Chris White? It covers yeast culturing and a whole lot more on yeast.

I'm pretty certain I read that John Palmer is working on a book all about water chemistry

[denny]

I'm pretty certain I read that John Palmer is working on a book all about water chemistry

Actually, John and Colin Kaminski.  Technical editing by Martin Brungard and A.J. deLange.  Should be a killer!

[james]

I'm pretty certain I read that John Palmer is working on a book all about water chemistry

Actually, John and Colin Kaminski.  Technical editing by Martin Brungard and A.J. deLange.  Should be a killer!

Awesome, can't wait. 

[ukolowiczd]

Have you seen Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation by Jamil Zainasheff and Chris White? It covers yeast culturing and a whole lot more on yeast.

Has anyone read this book? I've been wanting to buy it but worried about how much "intro to brewing" stuff would be in it.