Homebrew Beyond the Basics: All-Grain Brewing & Other Next Steps

This book (in either the 1st or 2nd edition) is a gem. Its major strength is that the author tells you straight up what you need to worry about in all-grain brewing and what you don’t. That’s helpful, because most of us don’t need to worry about certain complicated (and mostly unnecessary) brewing process steps that other brewing literature suggest are essential. The book is under 200 pages total, with perhaps about half in pictures. So, it’s not a dense read, but it is still filled with essential and sometimes advanced information (more on that later). Another hallmark of this book is its clarity. For example, the author explains mashing for the uninitiated much better, than, say, Papazian in his “Complete Joy of Homebrewing” and “Homebrewer’s Companion,” but without Papazian’s tired, folksy tone.The book provides “beyond the basics” information more in terms of ingredients and experimentation than pure brewing technique or process. For example, it doesn’t cover electric brewing, BIAB, or specifics on using hardware like a wort pump. For that reason, I recommend reading this along with “Brew Like a Pro” by Dave Miller, which will acquaint you with a realistic, start-to-finish process.I like that you can read each chapter and have enough information to skip other books on the same topic, unless you want more theory or a deeper dive. For example, there’s no need to read Jamil’s “Yeast,” because this book explains the nuts and bolts of harvesting and reusing yeast sufficient for 99% of homebrewers. Same goes with Tonsmeire’s “American Sour Beers,” Palmer’s “Water,” Mallett’s “Malt,” etc.I credit this book with convincing me to start using a refractometer for monitoring the sparge (to ensure the gravity doesn’t go below about 1.008). This process can make or break a session beer. Even “Session Beers” by Jennifer Talley—an entire book supposedly devoted to brewing low abv beers—doesn’t mention the risk of oversparging, collection of tannins, and benefits of a refractometer or monitoring the sparge.This book is also an excellent introduction to kegging, though I have my doubts about the author’s claim that 30psi for 30 seconds can carbonate 5 gallons of beer.The author’s experiments are another standout. They address practical aspects of brewing (and challenge some oft-repeated wisdom) with actionable take-aways. In this way, the book not only compiles information, but adds to the homebrewing knowledge base.The hop chapter is comprehensive and details many hopping techniques, but some of the info is pretty basic and you’ll find it in every other homebrew book, even those geared toward extract brewers. Same goes for the yeast chapter.I found myself wishing this book received a full update. Some details were overlooked, such as omitting John Mallett’s “Malt” as a reference on p. 192 (that book was published in 2015, a year after the 1st edition of this book, which is why it was originally omitted) or Mike Tonsmeire’s new Sapwood Cellars brewery (also p. 192). Page references are provided throughout, though a few are incorrect (on page 56, the reference to “Why pH is Important” should be 58, not 66; on page 92, the reference to hop bursting should be 88, not 84).As a final critique, some of author’s advice is inconsistent with the experience he shares. For example, he mentions how he has successfully repitched yeast for 10 generations, but advises the reader not to go beyond 4 generations (p. 124). Same with his description of using flours in the mash; he mentions “no problems” with using flour for up to 50% of the mash, but then advises using no more than 40% (p. 162). Finally, he suggests fermenting high-gravity beers like Imperial Stout on the yeast cake of a low-gravity beer (p.110), but in his recipe for an Imperial Stout he suggests just 2 packs of dry yeast (p.65).

At first my thought was to rate this book at 4 stars because of omissions, but given a second thought this is a 5 star book. The author, reinforced by several reviewers, states clearly that this is not an intro to brewing, nor is it for advanced brewers. This book is to support brewers that have equipment, have brewed successfully, and want to move to all-grain as well as more advanced techniques.Recently I've looked over brewing publications that had perfunctory reviews by friends/fans of the author that didn't really seem to be written by brewers. It looked as if this could be one of those – there weren't a lot of reviews, and several reviewers seemed to be familiar if not acquainted with the author. Still, these reviews discussed the book objectively, and the target audience description fit me to a tee. I've made a bunch of decent extract beers, done a partial mash and a couple of all-grain batches with marginal success. My last half dozen batches have been kegged. The book is $12 so I tried it.I have some of the books recommended in the resources (Palmer, Jamil Z., Daniels, Mosher) - this one doesn't replace them. What it does is aggregate the essential information about equipment and techniques you'll need to step it up. It also updates some of the details. The book is succinct and to my tastes the editing is excellent. The clear photo illustrations are instructive images of current equipment and techniques. There are also representative recipes. They are bare bones – easy to troubleshoot and to modify.If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm really impressed with this book. The way it presents, the next level techniques that seemed involved are laid out to be very doable. This is a really well placed niche book. If you fit the target audience then this book will be worth the price to you many times over. Thanks to the other reviewers for convincing me to try it.

UPDATE (5 years later): This book is the holy grail. Most books just collect dust, but I keep digging this one out time and again, year-in year out. This is the one book in my library that I would never give away or leave behind. It's more important to me than the Holy Bible, and I mean this literally.I'm going to add another five-star review. This is the most concisely written how-to guide that I've yet come across. Since buying this book, I have read and re-read it, returning to it time and time again for a quick reference, often in the middle of a hectic brew day. True, Mike Karnowski doesn't cover EVERYTHING in this book, but he does cover 95% of the important fundamentals in an easy-to-read, annotated field manual that also includes some pretty pictures and nice recipes. Although the title suggests, "Beyond the Basics", this book would actually be an appropriate starting point for someone who intends to go all-in for a long-term, super-cereal [sic] commitment to their homebrewing adventures. Between this book and the wealth of information available in online forums, you should be well equipped to tackle the move into all-grain brewing, from grain to glass.Also recommended reading would be The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (4th ed.) by Charlie Papazian, although that book is much more long-winded and alleatory, which would leave a lot of hands-on types like myself impatiently Googling for the quick answer we need to get the job done before the sun goes down. I find that Karnowski's book travels around the house with me everywhere I go (causing me to misplace it periodically) while Papazian's tome sits on the bookshelf gathering dust.

Para os apaixonados por Cerveja Artesanal apresenta informações e técnicas para a sua produção caseira, com explicações claras e em linguagem leve e compreensível. O livro passa pelas origens e as curiosidades históricas da cerveja, esmiúçam os processos de produção, com kits prontos ou com métodos tradicionais, orientam sobre a importância da limpeza, da pureza da água e do armazenamento, listam os equipamentos necessários, e abordam em detalhes os ingredientes, malte, lúpulo e levedura, além dos adjuntos.

Muy buen libro, la teoría acompañada de fotografías que refuerzan el aprendizaje. Conceptos muy bien explicados, claros y sencillos. Definitivamente una buena elección.

これ読んで、YouTubeでAll Grainとか検索すると結構ノウハウが得られると思います。

Ótimo livro pra quem está começando.Uma noção mais aprofundada do processo é algumas experiências muito divertidas.Vale a compra

El libro da por sentado algunos conocimientos basico, sin embargo nada indispensable, las explicaciones son realmente claras y sobre temas muy especiales por ejemplo como tostar maltas, wild beers etc.. La presenteacion es otro gran punto el libro es precioso.