Extreme Brewing may be the first homebrewing book compiled by Mike Calagione. the founding father of the Dogfish Mind Brewery. It attempts to jump very first time brewers directly into making &"extreme&" beers bypassing the same recipes that many other books recommend. Extreme beers includes using sugars, fruits, wood, high gravity, bacteria/Brett, along with other ideas the Dogfish Mind has pioneered using.
Content: Like most of the homebrewing books I've reviewed that one is split into two sections, using the first covering ingredients and process, and also the second recipes.
The very first chapter covers the fundamental things that get into making beer. It simply discusses malt, hops, water and yeast, providing them with a great general overview for somebody who has never made before. The jewel of the chapter is really a two page inset from Vinnie at Russian River on dry hopping that's really worth a read for just about any hophead .
The 2nd chapter covers the gear the new homebrewer will have to buy. Mike will a good job covering the majority of the essentials and provides just a little blurb about why the items is essential. My major complaint here's that he's most dependable prepared to do full 5 gallon boils, but doesn't bother to say wort chillers. Not too a wort chiller is mandatory with full boils, however it could have been nice to determine it discussed being an option.
The 3rd chapter experiences a 26 step (A-Z) process to make the first batch of beer. I've found it a little odd that the 1.072 brown ale with nearly 3 lbs of sugar was selected for any first recipe. The particular process outlined appears fine, but the concept that you need to encourage anyone to brew this kind of &"extreme&" beer on their own try (before they master yeast starters, fermentation temperature control, and fundamental process) appears just like a recipe for rocket fuel ( fusels ).
The 4th chapter covers most of the oddball things that DFH is renowned for using. It appears at spices, herbs, fruit, wood, and it has a short paragraph about using wild yeast/bacteria. There are several pretty interesting ingredients covered including St. John's Wort, Arctic Cloud Berries, and Chicory. The suggestion for almost all of the fruit would be to add them in the finish from the boil for any pasteurizing steep. I am inclined to like adding fruit in secondary, but adding it towards the boil is definitely an safer method.
The ultimate chapter prior to the recipes covers a short summary of a number of beer styles, and beer tasting tips. The styles checked out are a mixture of BJCP and general beer slang (like Strong Ales). The tasting tips are very good, since the ways 5 various senses may be used when looking for a beer.
Following the beer recipes you will find is really a final chapter with suggestions for food pairings and recipes for implementing beer to create some other type of food. There are several interesting ideas, pears poached in beer, a stout/chocolate reduction for frozen treats. I've not attempted these yet, but it's a pleasant accessory for it.
Recipes: The Mo’ Betta Bretta clone may be the only recipe I've made using this book, and my version was transformed into all-grain and tweaked. There's a great section about using Brett by Tomme Arthur at Lost Abbey incorporated using the recipe too. I've also sampled a couple of recipes that others have made out of this book and haven’t been particularly impressed to date, however i often hear others report great results.
You will find four chapters of recipes covering ales, lagers, unique, and commercial beers. Most of the recipes derive from classic styles, however with a fascinating twist (Molasses Marzen. Bloodstream Orange Hefeweizen. or Peppercorn Rye Bock), while some are simply greater gravity versions of existing styles (Imperial Pale Ale, Imperial Pilsner. and "14% ABV " Barleywine ).
The commercial recipes cover a couple of Dogfish Mind classics (one hour, Midas Touch, Raison D'etre. and India Brown Ale), plus some contributions from Mike’s maker buddies ( Hopfather from Russian River, a Wit from Allagash. as well as an Imperial Stout from Avery). How precisely these recipes are scaled/converted using their commercial counterparts expires in mid-air. As an example the Mo’ Betta Bretta Clone neglects to say the lactobacillus which was accustomed to sour part of the wort.
The recipes in Extreme Brewing are nearly solely extract with steeped grain with a couple of partial mash recipes. I must have experienced an exciting-grain equivalent incorporated for every recipe. The recipes happen to be formulated for those who can perform 5 gallon boils. That being stated the majority of the novel ideas and recipes could pretty be easily converted to any or all-grain by anybody with brewing software and/or perhaps a good general understanding of recipe construction.
Because this book targets beginners each recipe includes a pretty full walk regarded each part of the brewing process. This can be great for people just beginning out, however it makes trying to find the procedure details a little more time intensive for that experienced maker.
Precision: I've difficulties with a number of from the book's recommendations, for instance: steeping oatmeal, rye and base malts (they require starch conversion), using obvious candi sugar (same factor as ordinary sugar, but a lot more costly), aging a beer with ¼ pound of yankee oak for three or four several weeks (wow that’s lots of oak character), and taking advantage of dark extracts (light extract and grains usually gives better results and much more control). Also, he adds 2 teaspoon of gypsum to just about every recipe no matter style and without telling individuals to check their water (a vintage Papazian - esque maneuver). Additionally he states things that are downright false, for example lambics should have 30% unmalted barley. There's also some editorial errors, just like a large portion of the directions missing in the Sour Cherry Ale recipe.
His math can also be screwy inside a couple places. For instance his Dema Goddess Ale starts from an OG of just one.100 and winds up at 14-16% ABV with the help of just 11 oz of sugar during incremental feedings. 11 oz of sugar would add about .006 towards the OG. meaning the beer will have to get lower below 1.000 to get at the low finish from the ABV scale.
Readability: It's a super easy book to see with lots of great pictures. The word what really is easy, with very couple of advanced concepts. It does cover a multitude of topics, so it might be a fairly interesting read for somebody just stepping into the hobby (sadly you'd want to get another book for more info if the topics really struck a chord along with you). Should you aren ’t careful you are able to polish from the entire book (such as the recipes) within two hrs.
There are several charts and insets that are nice, but frequently they're located a couple of pages removed from where they must be. For instance a blurb about dried yeast seems a few pages following the yeast section. In a number of cases there's a chart alongside a photograph on a single subject (e.g brewing herbs/spices), however the chart and movie do not have most of the same products in keeping. It almost appears like the development of the photos and charts weren't coordinated like they ought to happen to be.
Overall: I’d say get Extreme Brewing should you love DFH. or desire a table book with lots of pretty beer pictures to check out. I simply don’t think it accomplishes the aim it sets from making extreme brewing available to the extract maker. Within the finish it reads like someone required Complete Pleasure of Brewing Beer At Home and Radical Brewing . ripped out 90% from the information and stuck in certain photos. Radical Brewing covers all the same topics but adopts much better detail and it has numerous stuff that this book lacks.
