Brewing Literature

[Owenbräu]

I know this is a german brewing forum, but do you use any other resources to increase your malting and brewing knowledge?

We hear talk about De Clerk, Narzis and Kunze, but what about Briggs, Bamforth and/or Hough? Texts such as Malting and Brewing Science I & II, Malts and Malting, Malting and Brewing and Brewing: Science and Practice sport heftier price tags than Kunze, but I rarely hear them mentioned. Are they worth adding to the library?

What other tomes do you highly recommend for your collection?

[Techbrau]

My take on technical brewing books is that generally speaking, most of the information is going to be the same across all of them, but filtered through the author's personal biases. Of course each book will also have a bit of unique insight specific to its author's expertise as well.

The bias held by each author is reflected in the beer produced by the people who learned from them. So if you want to make American beer, you should read the American books, and if you want to make German beer, you should read the German books.

[MaineBrewer]

Has anyone read; New Brewing Lager Beer - Gregory J Noonan?
http://www.amazon.com/New-Brewing-Lager ... wing+lager

I have some money left on my Amazon gift card and was considering a book; didn't know if this one would be helpful in the brewing of lagers. I don't know if it gets into technical details, or just a "have a happy time brewing lager" feel-good read (which is not what I'm looking for).

[Roachbrau]

[lhommedieu]

A while back I got rid of a lot of my home brewing books. I kept the stuff that described the history of beers and brewing. I kept Noonan's NBLB and got Kunze. Noonan writes well and is easy to follow.

[Bryan R]

[lhommedieu]

The whole volume? No - lol. It would be more accurate to say that I'm dipping into it. Seibel also sells the de Clerk two-volume set. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has it and how it compares to Narzis, Briggs, etc. I think that I read somewhere that de Clerk advised the Belgium Trappist Ale breweries after WW II.

[Bryan R]

Any tidbits you picked up?

[lhommedieu]

It's at my house out on the Island and so I won't attempt to quote from it until I return. I've found that the sections of interest to the home brewer are relatively short compared to the rest of a massive book that is geared towards the commercial brewer; I don't need to know how to set up an automation process for sanitizing and filling bottles on an industrial scale!

I am not sure whether picking up 'tidbits' is fair to Kunze: the writing is quite technical and I have found it beneficial to look for passages that confirm what I've learned from Noonan. When Noonan makes statements about the relationship between optimal pH levels and optimal mashing temperatures for enzymes at various stages of the decoction process, for example, I can find corroboration in Kunze - but not necessarily in his somewhat short section on decoction method.

You have to work harder in Kunze than in Noonan: the information is there but it's presented in a pared-down, rigorous, academic style. I've found that after spending a lot of time trying to understand a concept, a single line from Kunze often clarifies the issue - but you don't really see it until after you've done the mental work. I am hoping that de Clerk can complement Kunze in some manner or perhaps make the learning curve a little easier; perhaps you think that Narzis, Briggs, et. al. are better choices for this?

[lhommedieu]

A propos Ancient Abbey's question on a different thread:

"In reading Kai's work, he states the boil kettle pH should be adjusted before the boil, as this reduces harshness from hops. In Bryan's video, he claims his method is to adjust pH as he transfers from the mash tun to the boil kettle. However, other folks claim the proper German method is to adjust pH after the boil so that you do not negatively affect isomerization.

I am curious how the Germans would have corrected for pH after the mash, since lacto is not Reinheitsgebot approved. This suggests to me that they made adjustments before the boil, maybe by adding more acid malt very late in the mash."

From Kunze (240):

Addition of Lactic Acid
The addition of the acid occurs as early as possible, as it is possible to activate the work of the enzymes to a large extent and to stop the effect of the acid [on] senstitive lipoxygenases, which would otherwise immediately begin with the enzymic breakdown of the reactive unsaturatated fatty acids. The adic can of course be added to the mashing in water so as to obtain the earliest possible admixture but for this a special vessel is required. Furthermore, such an admixture is forbidden according to the German Reinheitsgebot.
It is both possible and makes sense, howerver, to apportion the acid during mashing in a wet grist mill (Sect. 3.2.3.3).
Addition of the acid during wort boiling is usually performed shortly before the end of the boiling. This makes it possible for the hop resins to be better isomerised previously in the more alkaline range and consequently utilized.
Furthermore, the half reaction time in the splitting of the DMS-P into DMS is shortened because of a higher pH.

With respect to the use of acid malt, Kunze states that "(t)hrough the addition of acid malt of up to 10% of the grist, the pH value in the mash is somewhat reduced and the buffering increased. However nowadays this acidification is "better and more conveniently achieved by biological acidification in the brewhouse" (191). Kunze is describing brewing on a large, industiral scale; his use of "nowadays" suggests that acid malt is an appropriate, albeit older, method for the home brewer working on a smaller scale