Overview

Want to become your own brewmeister? Homebrewing For Dummies, 2nd Edition, gives you easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for everything from making your first “kit” beer to brewing an entire batch from scratch. Before you know it, you’ll be boiling, bottling, storing, pouring, and kegging your own frothy, delicious suds. This friendly, hands-on guide walks you through each step in the brewing process at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels. It fills you in on all the homebrewing basics with a comprehensive equipment list; instructions on keeping your hardware clean and sanitized; and loving descriptions of the essential beer ingredients, their roles in the brewing process, and how to select the best ingredients for you beer. You’ll also find out about additional ingredients and additives you can use to give your homebrew distinctive flavors, textures, and aromas. Discover how to: Set up your home brewery Select the best ingredients and flavorings Create your own lager, ale, and specialty beers Try your hand at cider, and even meade Brew gluten-free beer Package your beer in bottles and kegs Evaluate your beer and troubleshoot problems Take part in homebrewing competitions Become an eco-friendly brewer Homebrewing For Dummies, 2nd Edition is fully updated with the latest brewing techniques and technologies and features more than 100 winning recipes that will have your friends and neighbors singing your praises and coming back for more.

Full Product Details

Author:   M Nachel
Publisher:   John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Imprint:   John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Edition:   2nd Edition
Dimensions:   Width: 18.80cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 23.90cm
Weight:   0.608kg
ISBN:  

9780470230626

ISBN 10:   0470230622
Pages:   432
Publication Date:   01 April 2008
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Replaced By:   9781119891277
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Conventions Used in This Book 3 What You’re Not to Read 3 Foolish Assumptions 4 How This Book Is Organized 4 Part I: First Things First 4 Part II: It’s in There: The Nuts and Bolts of Beer 5 Part III: Ready, Set, Brew! 5 Part IV: Homebrew Recipes 5 Part V: Alternative Brewing 5 Part VI: Putting Your Brew to the Test 5 Part VII: The Part of Tens 6 Icons Used in This Book 6 Where to Go from Here 7 Part I: First Things First 9 Chapter 1: Welcome to the Wonderful World of Wort 11 Homebrewers Abound! 11 All the Right Stuff 12 Gathering the equipment you need 12 Tracing the homebrewing timeline 13 Adding ingredients galore! 14 Preparing wisely 15 All done — now what? 16 Chapter 2: Setting up your Beeraphernalia 17 Sniffing Out Sources 18 Square One: Equipment for the Beginning Brewer 19 So much equipment, so little time 19 What do I do with all these gadgets? 20 Square Two: Equipment for the Intermediate Brewer 25 Now what do I need? 25 What do these gizmos even do? 27 Square Three: Equipment for the Advanced Brewer 28 I need even more stuff? 29 What else could I possibly need another doodad for? 30 Chapter 3: Creating your own Department of Sanitation 33 No Dirty Words: Sanitation Lingo 33 Battling Bacteria (and Fungi) 34 Soaps for Suds: Cleansers and Sanitizers 35 Cleaning Up Your Act: Equipment Cleaning Practices 37 Bottle Cleanliness Is a Virtue 38 Part II: It’s in There: The Nuts and Bolts of Beer 41 Chapter 4: Malt: A Tale of Two Sources (Grain and Extract) 43 Going with Grain 43 Malting 44 Mashing 45 Mixing it up with other grains 45 Manipulating grain: Kilning and milling 46 Enjoying the Ease of Extracts 47 Graduating to other malty methods 49 Comparing liquid versus dry malt extract 50 Chapter 5: Hop Heaven 51 Seeing the Hop Flower up Close 52 Hopping with Variety 55 Selecting the Best Hops 57 Freshness is fundamental 57 Bittering potential is important too 58 Taking Note of Top Hops 60 Chapter 6: Yeast and Fermentation 63 There’s a Fungus among Us 63 The Magic of Fermentation 65 It’s cyclical 65 Factoring in fermentation variables 65 Liquid yeast versus dry yeast: A foamenting debate 67 Propagating yeast 69 Yeast energizers and nutrients 71 Considering Alcohol Content 71 ABV versus ABW 71 N/A (nonalcoholic) beer is n/a (not achievable) 72 Chapter 7: On the Water Front 73 H2OH: Understanding How Water Chemistry Affects Your Homebrew 74 Something Is in the Water 74 pHundamentals of pH balance 75 Antibacterial agents 75 Hard facts, fluid concepts 76 Mineral ions 77 Trace metals 78 Buying Brew-Friendly Bottled Water 78 Chapter 8: Adjuncts and Flavorings 81 Adjuncts: Sugar, Sugar Aw, Honey, Honey 82 Flavoring Your Brew with Flavorings 84 Funky flavorings: The exotic and the esoteric 85 Herbs and spice and everything nice 87 Chapter 9: Making Your Brew Bionic: Additives, Preservatives, Finings, and Clarifiers 91 To Add and Preserve 92 A Little Clarification, Please 93 The Acid Test 96 Part III: Ready, Set, Brew! 97 Chapter 10: Beginner Brewing Directions 99 Gathering the Tools You Need 100 Brewing Your First Batch 101 Taking Hydrometer Readings 104 Brewing day reading 104 Prebottling reading 104 Chapter 11: Intermediate Brewing Directions 107 Taking Control of Your Beer 107 Fooling Around with Ingredients 108 Grain and strain 108 Hop to it 109 Yeasty beasties 110 Conditioning for Better Beer 111 Secondary fermentation 111 Tertiary fermentation 115 Chapter 12: Homebrewing Directions for the Serious Beer Geek 117 Yes, We Have No Potatoes: Mashing Procedures 118 Three important variables 118 Gimme some water: Simplified water treatment for mashing 119 And then there were three: Mashing types 120 The aftermash or mash-out 122 Easing into Mashing with a Partial Mash 124 Going All Out with All-Grain Brewing 128 Increasing Your Batch Size 131 Harvest Time: Reusing Your Yeast 133 Chapter 13: Bottling your Brew 135 Picking Out Bottles 135 Ready, Set, Bottle! 136 Tanks a Lot! Bottling Kegged Beer 142 Carbon-aid: Sharing kegged beer in plastic bottles 142 Counterintelligence: Flowing from keg to bottle for competition 143 A Primer on Priming 144 Getting ready to prime 144 Deciding which and how much primer to use 145 Exploring alternative primers 146 Crowning Achievements 147 Chapter 14: Kegging: Bottling’s Big Brother 149 Roll Out the Barrel: Buying Your Kegging Equipment 149 Getting Your Keg Up and Flowing 151 Clean ’em out and fill ’em up: Sanitizing and racking procedures 151 Making bubbles: Carbonating procedures 154 Enjoying Your Brew: Tapping and Lapping Procedures 156 Part IV: Homebrew Recipes 157 Chapter 15: Ale Recipes 159 Extra Special/Strong Bitter (E.S.B.) (8-c) 160 Irish Red Ale (9-d) 162 Strong Scotch Ale (9-e) 164 American Pale Ale (10-a) 166 American Amber Ale (10-b) 168 American Brown Ale (10-c) 170 Northern English Brown Ale (11-c) 172 Brown Porter (12-a) 174 Robust Porter (12-b) 176 Baltic Porter (12-c) 178 Dry Stout (13-a) 180 Sweet Stout (13-b) 182 Foreign-Style Stout (13-d) 184 Imperial Stout (13-f) 186 English India Pale Ale (IPA) (14-a) 188 American India Pale Ale (IPA) (14-b) 190 Imperial India Pale Ale (IPA) (14-c) 192 White (Wit) (16-a) 194 Belgian Pale Ale (16-b) 196 Dubbel (18-b) 198 Tripel (18-c) 200 Belgian Golden Strong Ale (18-d) 202 Belgian Dark Strong Ale (18-e) 204 Old Ale (19-a) 206 English-Style Barley Wine (19-b) 208 Fun Label Ideas 210 Chapter 16: Lager Recipes 211 American Premium Lager (1-c) 212 Münchner-Style Helles (1-d) 214 Dortmunder/European-Style Export (1-e) 216 Bohemian-Style Pilsener (2-b) 218 Märzen/Oktoberfest (3-b) 220 American Dark Lager (4-a) 222 Munich Dunkel (4-b) 224 German-Style Helles Bock/Maibock (5-a) 226 Traditional Bock (5-b) 228 Doppelbock (5-c) 230 Fun Label Ideas 232 Chapter 17: Mixed-Style Recipes 233 Cream Ale (6-a) 234 Blonde Ale (6-b) 236 American Wheat (6-d) 238 California Common Beer (7-b) 240 Düsseldorfer-Style Altbier (7-c) 242 Weizen/Weissbier (15-a) 244 Dunkelweizen (15-b) 246 Weizenbock (15-c) 248 Fruit Beer (20) 250 Herb, Spice, and Vegetable Beer (21-a) 252 Christmas/Winter/Specialty Spiced Beer (21-b) 254 Smoked Beer (22-b) 256 Wood-Aged Beer (22-c) 258 Specialty Beer (23) 260 Fun Label Ideas 262 Part V: Alternative Brewing 263 Chapter 18: In-Cider Information 265 Exploring the Cider Option 265 Comparing apples to apples 266 Sorting cider styles 267 Making Cider 269 Cider Considerations: Recipes 270 Common Cider (27-a) 270 New England-Style Cider (28-a) 271 Specialty Cider (28-d) 272 Chapter 19: A Meading of the Minds 273 Mulling Over the Mead Option 273 The honey bunch: Appreciating honey 273 The honey-brew list: Mead styles 275 Sweet Success: Making Magnificent Mead 277 Choosing your honey 278 Mead-iocre? Not! Fermenting your Mead 278 I Mead a Drink: Mead Recipes 280 Traditional Mead (24-a) 280 Open Category Mead (26-c) 281 Pyment (grape melomel) (25-b) 282 Chapter 20: Going Green: Being an Eco-Friendly Homebrewer 283 Brewing Green Beer: It’s Not Just for St. Patrick’s Day Anymore 283 Reduce 284 Reuse 285 Recycle 286 Organically Speaking 286 Why use organic ingredients? 287 Tracking the trend 288 Certifiably nuts: Determining what’s really organic 289 Chapter 21: Gluten-Free Brewing 293 Getting to Know Gluten 293 From Intolerant to Tolerable: Brewing Gluten-Free Beer at Home 294 Readying your equipment 294 Substituting safe ingredients 294 Brewing gluten-free beers from all grain 296 Last, but not yeast 297 Part VI: Putting your Brew to the Test 299 Chapter 22: Storing and Pouring 301 Storing Your Suds 301 How do I store it? 302 Where do I store it? 302 How long do I store it? 303 Pouring Procedures 303 Out of the bottle. 303 . . . and into the glass 304 Dirty Deeds: Cleaning Beer Glassware 307 Storing Your Steins 308 Chapter 23: You can’t Judge a Bock by its Cover: Evaluating Beer 309 Tuning In to Your Beer 309 Evaluating One Sense at a Time 310 The nose knows 311 Seeing is beer-lieving 313 In good taste 314 From Observations to Reflections 317 Relaying the Results: Homebrew Lingo, Jargon, and Vernacular 317 Chapter 24: Troubleshooting 319 Fermentation Lamentations 319 No fermentation 320 Stuck fermentation 321 Never-ending fermentation 321 In Bad Taste: Off Flavors and Aromas 322 Butter/butterscotch flavors 322 Sour/tart flavors 323 Medicinal/plastic/smoky flavors 323 Papery/cardboard/sherry-like flavors (oxidation) 324 Dry/puckering mouthfeel (astringency) 324 Harshness/hotness 325 Metallic flavor 325 Skunk aroma 325 Sulfury odors 326 Vegetal flavors and aromas 326 Flavor and Aroma Therapy Quick References 326 Conditioning and Appearance Problems 329 Flat out of gas 330 Thar she blows! Overcarbonated beers 330 In a haze: Cloudy beers 331 Poor head, bad body 331 Chapter 25: Homebrew Competitions 333 What’s Involved in Homebrewing Competitions? 334 How are the entries judged? 334 How do I enter a homebrew competition, and what are the rules? 336 How do I send my beer? 337 Becoming a Barrister of Beer 337 What it takes to become a beer judge 337 Advancing to supreme quart justice 339 Part VII: The Part of Tens 341 Chapter 26: Ten (or so) Ways to D.I.G.I.B.I.Y. (Do It, Grow It, Build It Yourself) 343 Banking Yeast 343 Preparing to open your own bank 344 Creating yeast 344 Handling Grain 345 Roast-a-rama 345 Smoke ’em if you got ’em 346 Di-vine Intervention: Growing Hops 346 Here we grow! 347 Pick a hop, any hop 347 Drying and storing your hops 348 Building Brewing Equipment 348 Chillin’ out: Immersion wort chillers 348 Tuns of fun: Lauter tun 349 Pot o’ plenty: Large-volume brewpot 351 Cold feat: Lagering cellar 351 Chapter 27: Ten Gizmos That Can Make Your Brewing Easier 353 Digital Thermometer and pH Meter 353 Wort Aeration System 354 Auto Siphon 354 Counterpressure Bottle Filler 354 Beer Filter 354 Germicidal Lamp 355 Wort Transfer Pump 355 Refractometer 355 Mashing Sparge Arm 355 Counterflow Wort Chiller 356 Chapter 28: Just the FAQs: Ten (or so) Frequently Asked Questions 357 How Much Is Taking Up Homebrewing Going to Cost? 357 How Much Does the Average Batch of Beer Cost? 358 Where Can I Buy Homebrewing Supplies? 358 How Long Does Making a Batch of Homebrew Take? 358 Is Homebrewed Beer Better Than Commercially Made Beer? 359 How Do You Carbonate Homebrew? 359 How Do I Add Alcohol to Homebrew? 359 Can I Distill Homebrew into Whiskey? 359 Can I Sell Homebrew? 360 Why Shouldn’t I Age Beer in the Plastic Primary Fermenter? 360 Do I Have to Worry About Things Blowing Up in My House? 360 Appendix: Ingredients: The Building Blocks of Beer 361 Malt: Grainy Names and Extract Excerpts 361 Producers of grains 362 Types of grains 363 Malt extract brands 369 Top Hops: Hop Varieties and Descriptions 370 Yeast: Dry and Liquid 379 Liquid top-fermenting yeast (Ales) 380 Liquid bottom-fermenting yeast (Lagers) 382 Advanced liquid yeast (Ales) 384 Liquid top-fermenting yeast (Ales) 386 Specialty/Belgian yeast 388 Bottom-fermenting yeast (Lagers) 390 Suggested strains for specific beer styles 391 Mead and cider yeast 393 Index 395 

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Marty Nachel is an award-winning homebrewer, an AHA/BJCP Certified Beer Judge, and was a beer evaluator at Beverage Testing Institute and the Great American Beer Festival.

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