Reddit mentions: The best beverage & wine books

Greetings from Santa Cruz!

I think I may be the perfect person to help you here. My bar staff is about the same size as yours, and I've been doing exactly this and lending out books from my personal collection each month.
Everyone else has had some great answers, so I'll try and bring something new to the table:

How's Your Drink? by Eric Felten is my favorite easy introduction to cocktail culture. It's written by the cocktail columnist from the Wall Street Journal and reads in a very conversational way. Can be finished in one sitting. Quick read that I recommend you have anyone new start with.

The Cocktail Chronicles by Paul Clarke is a relatively comprehensive overview of the current state of cocktails. It is based around recipes, but I wouldn't call it a recipe book as each recipe has a lot of commentary that goes into context and history.

Meehan's Bartender Manual by Jim Meehan just came out and is incredible. His previous book, The PDT Cocktail Book, is an invaluable resource for recipes, and the Bartenders Manual is a complete guide dealing with all aspects of the job.

Distillled by Joel Harrison & Neil Ridley is a good introduction to different spirits and goes chapter by chapter from vodka to whiskey with an overview of production processes and other factors that influence the flavor of the drink.

Straight Up or On the Rocks by William Grimes is a history of cocktails in the U.S. starting with the first use of the word and going through the early '90s. The author is a food writer for the NY Times and the book is very well researched.

The Joy of Mixology by Gary Regan does a good job of explaining how cocktails are related to each other by putting them into families. His taxonomy may be a little odd, and in and of itself is not the last word in cocktails, but it offers a good perspective.

The Bar Book by Jeffrey Morgenthaler addresses technique. It's an opinionated book but he's usually right. Lots of great information. If I were starting off as a bartender and could only read one book, this is the one that would probably best set me up for success.

Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh is based around historic recipes, but each of them has a lot of history incorporated and you also get a good introduction to some of the more obscure ingredients that have come back into fashion recently.

I've reached eight, so I'll stop there. If you would like additional recommendations in the future, please feel free to reach out. I've been collecting bar books for the last six years and have amassed a fair few and even read one or two.

You sound like you're in an enviable position. It's great to have support for making learning a big part of working with food/beverage. Pretty sure I've read a couple of your owner's books and have loved them and found them very useful. It seems like a really great company to work for, as well.

I'd also like to quickly mention Imbibe Magazine, which comes out every two months and is a great way to keep up with what's going on in the beverage world. I keep the most recent couple issues available for my staff to look through.

If there's anything else you'd like insight on related to bringing bar staff into the fold I'd be very happy to help.

If there are red flags I'm doing in these pictures, please let me know.

edit:

1st batch: Craft-A-Brew APA Kit

2nd batch: Northern Brewer's 1 Gallon Bavarian Hefe Kit

3rd batch: DrinkinSurfer's Milk Oatmeal Stout Recipe @HBT

If I could start over I would go straight to the 3-gallon batches. I hovered around them but I think it's the perfect batch size for beginners -- 1) Most people have a stockpot lying around the kitchen big enough to hold three gallons, 2) The batches are small enough so you don't have to drink two cases of bad brew, but big enough so if you enjoy it [which I'm thoroughly enjoying my first APA], you'll have plenty to taste and rate the evolution of the flavors over various weeks of priming and give out to family friends who are interested to try out what you made, 3) I ordered 3 Gallon Better Bottles for several reasons including worrying about shattering a glass carboy as a newbie. They also qualify for free shipping on MoreBeer's website with purchases above a certain price. 4) Even though I brewed a 5 gallon batch, and since I'm brewing solo, I'm already not looking forward to bottling the whole batch at once so I plan on breaking up bottling between two days.

For resources, I lurk this sub like a crazy stalker. The Daily Q&A is full of information both crucial and minute. I listen to James Spencer's Basic Brewing Radio podcast and practically substituted it for all music recently. It's family friendly and entertaining [I heard the other podcasts aren't so much]. I read Charles Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing, 2nd ed. and For the Love of Hops by Stan Hieronymus to get a better understanding of the hops varieties and characteristics. I plan on reading John Palmer's How to Brew and Ray Daniels Designing Great Beers in the future, as well as Brew Like a Monk. Also, the HomeBrewTalk stickies in the forums provide good picture tutorials for several different styles of brewing.

I got into homebrewing so I can brew the, then, only beer style I liked: Imperial Stouts. But as I learned more about the balance and flavors of beer I surprised myself by branching out to enjoying other beers [even the odd IPA every so often]. My narrow scope of beer has broadened more vast that I ever would've imagined it. My brother got me this beer tasting tool kit used for blind taste tests so I try to keep good records and actively taste and appreciate craft beers. I even keep a couple in my wallet for tasting beers on draft.

I really wish I had an immersion wort chiller, a bigger boil kettle, a mash tun, and a propane burner. Those few equipment pieces hinder me from exploring more advanced style of homebrew. I intend to upgrade to all-grain but making the switch is really expensive. I'm still in the look-to-see-what-I-have-lying-around-the-house phase equipment-wise.

Which leads me to: don't be scared to spend money while DIY-ing. Many of you have probably seen my (and many others', most likely) shitty stir plate. DIY should be a balance of doing things on the cheap, but still making it work and function well. There's no point in DIYing if you're not going to be happy with it and just end up buying the commercial equivalent anyway. That's where I am right now.. I'm currently trying to salvage a cooler [no-spigot] I found in my garage and turn it into a mash tun instead of just buying a new cooler with a plastic, removable spigot. I'm certain it would make DIY easier but slightly more expensive.

But the suckiest thing for me about homebrewing is that I don't have a car so getting local, fresh ingredients and supporting my LHBSs is a piece of PITA bread.

I was like that about a year ago. I was really intimidated and had zero skills, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

Anyway, I hear How to Boil Water is a good cookbook for absolute beginners.

Also, there's a couple of terms that are the basic to a lot of recipes, and once you learn those, it makes everything easier.

One of those is sautee. It comes up often with onions at the beginning of recipes.

Here's a primer to cook many different types of vegetables: Put a little bit of oil on the pan (enough to coat the bottom). Any oil will do, but olive oil is better for many things (and healthier). Heat the oil. Add some garlic. Garlic is most flavourfull when the cell walls are broken, so chop it up finely, smash it down with the blunt side of the knife, or use a garlic press. Alternatively you can use garlic power, but it's not as good as fresh. Let the garlic turn golden brown. Now the oil is infused with delicous garlic-y flavour which you can add to whatever other vegetables you have on hand. Throw fresh chopped vegetables in or some pre-chopped frozen ones and add salt and pepper to taste. Every once in a while pick one up and see if it's the consistency you'd like by biting into it. The best thing about cooking vegetables is that if you undercook it, it's just extra crunchy.

Extra tips on specific types of vegetables for this process:
Onions - usually you can put them in with the garlic, and all subsequent vegetables will gain it's delicious flavour too. Usually you cook them until they're kind of translucent, or they're golden brown (for a milder, slightly sweet taste)
Bok choy - cook them till they're kind of mushy and soaked with oil (so good!)
Asparagus - break off the ends because they're tough to chew
Brocolli - It'll turn a brighter shade of green when done

You can also do this to cooked pasta, for when flavourless pasta is becoming old.


Also, chili is a good beginner recipe (and hard to screw up if you make it vegetarian). I recommend you use a recipe for the first couple of times, but after that, you'll know that you can just throw any chili type things you have. Sautee onions (with or without garlic). Throw in a bunch of cans of beans (whatever kind you prefer or a mixture), throw in cans of diced tomatoes (bonus points if you have fresh), any vegetables you want to get rid of, some cumin, some chili powder, some Italian seasoning (it's a mixture of oregano, basil, and rosemary and other herbs that go well with a lot of things), salt, pepper if you feel like it, and whatever spices you feel like. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat so it's simmering for a while. The longer you simmer, the more time the spices have to infuse, some people do it for hours, but sometimes there isn't time for that so you can do it for about half an hour.

Other easy recipes you can look up: eggs (omelets, hard boiled, stirred with rice and leftovers, fried eggs), stir fry, quesidillas, curry, crepes. Frozen salmon (throw it in the oven for however long the package says, with maybe a bit of salt, and it'll flavour itself).

Oh, and rice: I recommend a rice cooker. There's a couple of ways to make rice, and it's dependant on culture/type of rice you want to make. Easiest way: throw in some rice in the rice cooker, add 1 to 2 times the ratio of water, throw in some salt if you feel like it. Plug in the machine and it'll beep and turn itself off when you're done.
For less starchy rice, wash the rice first. (It's not that it's dirty, there's just starch around it). The number of times you throw in some water, swish it around, and throw it out during the cooking process is again, dependent on culture. Do it more for softer, fluffy rice, and more for firmer rice. For brazilian style rice, do the garlic thing in the rice cooker before you add the rice. For Japanese style rice (like sticky rice), buy short grained rice, wash it several times, and add more water (between 1:2 to 1:2.5 rice to water ratio). To make it sushi rice, add sushi vinegar (you can find it in asian grocery stores). With a little soy sauce and some smoked salmon on top, it makes really easy sushi.
(Sorry for such a long rice section. I'm brazilian and japanese. Rice is an institution at my house).

Also, big tip: never serve things until you've tasted it. I think one of the main skills of cooking is tasting what something needs (e.g. more spicy, more salty, more oregano, etc.). It takes some practice, but it means you can make things how you want to taste rather than the person who wrote the recipe likes it to taste.


Cooking websites:
www.supercook.com - tells you a list of possible recipes based on what ingredients you have
www.cookingforengineers.com

>what do I need to know before I start on my journey?

Aside from this forum and the FAQ, there are two books to choose from that are both fantastic but are from different points of view. For more engineering minded people I suggest How To Brew by John Palmer. For more art minded people Mastering Homebrew by Randy Mosher is fantastic. Either way you'll get a wonderful introduction introduction to brewing your own beer.

>What kit should I get?

There are many beer kits out there by you can also start with a simple cider instead. This will teach you about the basics of fermentation and help you find out if this type of activity is for you before you spend more than you need to on a kit. When you do go for a kit you will probably start with an extract kit. Just look for a style that you like to drink and go for it.

>What types of beer are best for learning?

To me a classic SMASH (Single Malt And Single Hop) is a perfect way to learn all grain brewing. For extract just any kit that you want to drink should be fine. Be sure to use a good online retailer if you don't have a local homebrew shop. MoreBeer is a popular, independently owned online retailer that I've had good experiences with.

>Anything else that you think may help.

RDWHAHB - Relax, Don't Worry, Have A Home Brew. This line from the great Charlie Papazian is probably the most often repeated line of advice in homebrewing. It's important to not freak out about anything. Brewing beer has some weirdness when you're new to it. There's a lot of vocabulary, acronyms, techniques, style guidelines, etc. Don't let it overwhelm you. Take it easy, follow basic good practices, and you will make beer.

Also, don't be afraid to look for local homebrew clubs. I didn't join one for many years and kinda regret that now. Some clubs are competition focused, some are social, some are event-centric. Look around for one that fits your interests and make some friends!

Finally, do not get tied down to styles or what beer is "supposed" to be. Brew what you want to drink and kick the haters to the curb.

Welcome to the obsession and cheers!

Hey there! I'm a beer-lover myself . . . and I've been enjoying homebrewing, which is very rewarding!

If you're interested in a more formal approach to beer tasting, you may want to add _Tasting Beer_ to your wishlist! I just finished reading it myself. It goes into much greater depth than I'll ever really experience, but it gives you a deep perspective on what the most serious beer-geeks and beer-snobs are doing when they take a sip, and it has seriously improved my own appreciation of the ancient beverage.

Also, if you're genuinely interested in homebrewing, in addition to the relatively affordable Mr. Beer (I haven't brewed with it, but I've tasted several people's results with it, and they've been consistently good) you may want to watch for the Groupon deal from Midwest Supplies. It's inactive now, but they do seem to keep bringing it back, and it's a very good deal for getting starting homebrew equipment.

Finally, I saw your discussion with AllOfTimeAndSpace about IPAs, and although I see it's not your favorite style, I thought I might recommend an IPA I tried recently that I thought was spectacularly good: Lawson's Double Sunshine IPA. I imagine it's hard to get outside of Vermont (though I'd be thrilled if I'm wrong, since I don't live there and just had it during a vacation), but it is one of the most delicious beers I've ever tried!

There's definitely more snobbery among wine lovers, but beer is easily as complex, varied, and interesting! Good beer goes great with all sorts of good food, and it's just as rewarding. Glad you're finding so much pleasure in it!

---

Haha! I see (having now actually looked at your wish list) that you have my two suggestions on it already. Good show!

This is going to be the opposite of what you want to hear. But, you asked for it and I respect that. I think that there's no substitute for going about this old school and traditionally. The good news is that you can mostly do this for yourself, by yourself.

If you're disinclined (due to time or for another reason) to enroll in a culinary program get yourself either The Professional Chef or Martha Stewart's Cooking School

I know what you're thinking, "Martha Stewart? What am I? A housewife from Iowa?" Fuck that. I've been fortunate to have met and worked with Martha Stewart she's smart enough to know what she doesn't know and that particular book was actually written by a CIA alum and very closely follows the first year or so that you'd get in a program like that. It starts with knife work and then moves on to stocks and sauces. This particular book has actually been criticized as being too advance for people who have no idea what they're doing so, despite appearances, it may be perfect for you. If you want to feel more pro and go a little deeper, get the CIA text but know that it's more or less the same info and frankly, the pictures in the MSO book are really great. Plus, it looks like Amazon has them used for $6 bucks.

These resources will show you HOW to do what you want and they follow a specific, traditional track for a reason. Each thing that you learn builds on the next. You learn how to use your knife. Then, you practice your knife work while you make stocks. Then, you start to learn sauces in which to use your stocks. Etc. Etc. Etc. Almost like building flavors... It's all part of the discipline and you'll take that attention to detail into the kitchen with you and THAT'S what makes great food.

Then, get either Culinary Artistry or The Flavor Bible (Both by Page and Dornenburg. Also consider Ruhlman's Ratio (a colleague of mine won "Chopped" because she memorized all the dessert ratios in that book) and Segnit's Flavor Thesaurus. These will give you the "where" on building flavors and help you to start to express yourself creatively as you start to get your mechanics and fundamentals down.

Now, I know you want the fancy science stuff so that you can throw around smarty pants things about pH and phase transitions and heat transfer. So...go get Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking THAT is the bible. When the people who run the Ferran Adria class at Harvard have a question, it's not Myhrvold that they call up, it's Harold McGee. While Modernist Cuisine always has a long, exciting complicated solution to a problem I didn't even know I had, when I really want to know what the fuck is going on, I consult McGee and you will too, once you dig in.

Another one to consider which does a great job is the America's Test Kitchen Science of Good Cooking this will give you the fundamental "why's" or what's happening in practical situations and provides useful examples to see it for yourself.

Honestly, if someone came to me and asked if they should get MC or McGee and The Science of Good Cooking and could only pick one and never have the other, I'd recommend the McGee / ATK combo everyday of the week and twice on Tuesdays.

Good luck, dude. Go tear it up!

Water has a huge effect on how beer tastes/smells/feels/etc. However, a company like Diageo can absolutely purify and treat the water at one location to be just like another.

In addition, all Guinness draught in the the UK and the US is made at the St. James Gate brewery in Ireland, though some other Guinness products may be made elsewhere.

A couple years ago, I was at the St. James Gate brewery the day before I flew home to the US. I bought a can of draught at both the brewery and then another at my local grocery store, and the day after I got home myself and about 20 other big nerds double-blind tasted them. The consensus was that they were different, though only just. Had I not had them side by side, I don't think I could have distinguished them. There was a slight preference among us for the one from Ireland, but it was not universal, as the beers were extremely similar.

We also all felt that what differences we could detect could be easily explained by the slightly different ages and markedly different shipping conditions experienced by the two cans.

I pretty firmly believe the differences between how we experience Guinness in the US vs. in Ireland are almost entirely due to psychological factors. We're excited to try it in Ireland, and we're relaxed and on vacation, priming us to enjoy the experience far more than we would having it at our local faux-Irish bar here in the states.

Whenever I think back to when I first discovered something I now love, I find that it was a time I was happy, relaxed and open to new experiences. Usually out with friends or family and having a good time well before I tried whatever thing I now love. I think drinking Guinness in Ireland has the same effect. It's not that the beer is different in Ireland, it's that we are different in Ireland!

Freshness, presentation, clean lines, correct gas pressures/mixtures, etc. certainly all play some role, but a good bar should have those pretty well dialed in in either country, minimizing the effect.

Ok, a few things that I hope can help:

1. What kind of recipes have you tried in the past? It might help to start with meals that are easy, individual things like: baked chicken, asparagus, and a salad. So, if you mess up the asparagus you still have chicken and a salad to be proud of. Also, they require really minimal skills. There are some really great beginner cookbooks and food blogs. How to Boil Water comes to mind. Also, if you feel comfortable, ask your boyfriend for pointers, or suggest that you cook a few meals a week together so that you can learn in a fun, low-pressure way. Don't get discouraged - everyone has to start somewhere!
   
   
2. Some basic cooking tips that may help: I've found that it really helps to set up a "mise en place" before I start to cook. That's basically a fancy French word for saying prep everything first. Anything that needs to be chopped: chop it. Anything that needs to be peeled: peel it. Measure all your spices out. Read the recipe through once twice before you do ANYTHING so that you can see what each step is and what sort of timing you'll be working with. That way you don't get to the end of the recipe like "Wait, why didn't I use these chopped onions yet? Oh shit, they were supposed to go in FIRST."
   
   
3. A lot of your foods are carb/sugar heavy. I don't believe in cutting out one category of food and I'm not a nutritionist, but you will feel fuller, longer if you focus on getting more protein. Pizza bagels are super yummy but pretty lacking in nutrition. Really focus on eating whole foods, like fruits, vegetables, lean protein, etc. I saw some of your posts that you snack on FiberOne bars and Nature Valley bars. That's totally fine if you're starving and in a jam with not much else to eat. If it's every day though, try and think about what you're aiming for with those snacks. They're both really full of sugar, and personally, the fiber in FiberOne bars gives me a stomach ache. A better option would be something like an apple with almond or real peanut butter (aka a natural brand with ground-up peanuts and salt, not Jiff). That gives you natural fiber, protein from the peanuts, a bit of sugar for your sweet tooth, and is about the same amount of calories. I think it might help to focus on nutrition first, and calorie count once you've got nutrition under control. So, for example, focus on getting a healthy amount of protein (~.8g protein per lb of your body weight), fiber, more vitamins, and less added sugar. Then once you feel like you're eating fairly healthy, shift your focus to getting the proper amount of calories. Just my two cents, but obviously, do what works for you and feels right!
   
   Edit: Whoops, just saw you said protein hurts your stomach. Do the hard boiled eggs and tuna hurt your stomach too? If not, maybe focus on getting protein via eggs and tuna, but increasing the quantity of those two things gradually. There's a great, easy recipe for eggs that's basically "Simmer tomato sauce in a large pan, crack eggs into it, cover pan with a lid, cook for ~8 mins until the eggs are firm." Super yummy and would give you protein.

I have to agree the BBS method isn't exactly the most traditional, but if it's all the equipment you have then go for it.

As for starting with all grain - I'm completely against that. It's pretty complicated (especially with trying to get sanitation and other skills right the first time) and most people aren't willing or able to drop $400 on equipment on a hobby they just started out with.

Now, to OP's questions:

>does anybody have any experience with the Brooklyn Brew Shop's kits?

Unfortunately, no. But they seem simple enough, and if you've read the book like you said, you should have no problem with their kit.

>Was the information in the B.B.S.'s book sufficient to get brewing with their kits?

Yes, should be. But keep in mind they're probably glossing over some details (I'm just guessing here since their method is a bit nontraditional and it's a one gallon kit)

>Is there something else I should read in addition to my book before I get brewing?

You don't have to read anything before brewing. It sounds like you've got a good handle on this kit, but if you're looking for more detailed books about brewing definitely check out The Complete Joy of Homebrewing - more than likely it will encourage you to switch to 5gal brewing. It'll be easier and more fun than your 1 gal batches.

>Is there anything else I should get to make the whole process easier or more efficient?

Honestly, I think you'll find the 1gal equipment kit is not going to be enough. It's a fantastic starter/learning system, but once you brew and read The Complete Joy of Homebrewing you'll probably want a lot more equipment. Come talk to us then :)

In the meantime, welcome to the hobby, and happy brewing!!

I don't think the truth of my claim and /u/Mutand1s post are not mutually exclusive. I wasn't referring to whether the beer had this mythic provenance so much as the taste of that beer you call IPA is one that will hold up to heat and I think there is a difference. The story about developing this special formula for the voyage sounds a little too clever by half considering that climate and other conditions were the reasoning behind every style of beer.

Brewing, like baking is science as much as art. Humidity, heat and altitude will effect your bread and your beer. This whole thing about inventing a beer is probably a bit overstating things because if your making beer that will go in the hull of a ship sailing for months through the tropics you know that heat will be a factor and you would choose a traditional style off the shelf to meet your needs. Since you are a brewer; you might even add your own twist but that's just it right, you start off with something that has been refined for years and years and you might tweak it a bit with more fermentable sugars but it's mostly still the style someone has been drinking for years.

If you think about it a little bit though this is a question that can seem more obvious as you drill down. The history of brewing, like baking is one of refinement and an effort to bring consistency. There is a reason we arrive at Wonder Bread and Budweiser in the 20th century. These are two very refined and difficult to realize pinnacles of their craft that reflect the eras obsession with science and industrialization to create millions of items that are exactly the same and transparent enough to reveal flaws, remember this is the era that brings us Six Sigma. Try and brew a Bud/Miller/Coors beer or bake a loaf of Wonder at home and you will see how incredibly hard it is. Make fun of them all you want but these two foods were the subject of thousands of years of intellectual evolution.

Which brings us to why an IPA is hoppy and a little stronger than its counterparts. Someone mentions in this conversation that the beer was simply adapted from an existing traditional style, which makes sense. You take into consideration what the characteristics of the voyage will be and you come to the conclusion that a beer that holds up to summer is your recipe.

If you look at German and English styles that are brewed to stand up to summer heat and they tend to be stronger and hoppier than the beers made for other seasons. This is because hops, in general, was added to do a few important things for beer, stabilize flavor and mask off flavors (go to the end of page 262 in the link). High heat is no friend to beer that is sitting in a barrel and higher alcohol and hops is there to help counter and mask the effects. As a historical matter this is what hops is introduced for, make beer taste better under various conditions, help the brewer to attain a level of consistent quality.

Certain yeasts can help too, ale is better for warmer temps than lager. So you pick a hoppy beer brewed to stand up to summer heat for an ocean voyage. Whether or not that was some intricate formula or just an off the shelf solution is an interesting debate, but not the whole story. As you can see from just about any book on brewing history and styles, From Michael Jackson's World Guide to Beer to Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Home Brewing you will see that styles came about as a result of the conditions for which they were brewed. Bud/Miller/Coors are brewed the way they are because of the technology that allows for strict and precise measurement throughout the manufacturing/brewing process. Ale is more forgiving and IPA is probably the most forgiving style for a new brewer to make because you can screw a lot of stuff up and still get it right. That's also the reason why that kind of beer is ideal to sit in the hull of a ship until you get to India.

My advice is to start simple.

I know it sounds like I'm being a buzzkill, but hear me out. A great beer isn't defined by the number of ingredients, but rather the harmony of those ingredients and the skill of the brewer. Look at Deschutes' homebrew recipes. Most of their non-specialty beers only have 3-4 items on their grain bill.

Also, if you only have a few ingredients (2-row, a specialty grain or two, carapils if necessary, and one hop variety) it will be easier for you to identify the character of those ingredients in the final beer. This is the first step in knowing your grains and hops. A malt/hop chart can only tell you so much. I agree that it's overwhelming at first, which is why my advice is to constrain your first few recipes to just a few ingredients.

Once you understand the character of the more common malts and hops, it will be much easier for you to start experimenting and adding more complexity to your recipes. You will also have more confidence that the recipe you put together will actually taste like what you want.

My method was to first start brewing recipes aimed at a very specific style. I picked up Designing Great Beers and brewed a few different styles out of that book. Since I knew what the styles were supposed to taste like and I only used a small set of ingredients, I learned how those ingredients contributed to the end result. Once I built up a baseline I felt much more comfortable experimenting. For example, I brewed a very good IPA and tweaked the recipe slightly to make a ginger pale ale that also turned out really great.

As for things like amount of malts and hops, boil time, etc. Get yourself some brewing software like beersmith. That will help you calculate IBUs and whatnot. Beersmith also comes with an inventory that has some info about the max percentage you should use for a particular grain in a batch.

To conclude, keep in mind that it won't all fall together right away. You'll research a ton and then you'll research some more. Just keep making recipes and keep brewing and eventually it will start to click.

/u/eightwebs is in the ballpark, but dropped the ball on a couple things. Let's start from the top.

Brewing your own beer is an amazing, fun, rewarding hobby. I've been doing it for 4 years. To start out, you'll need to get a beginners kit (like this one) which will give you all the specialty equipment you need to make 5 gallons of beer (about 2 cases). You'll also need ingredients which can be found on the same website.

Your first batch will be simple. You will more than likely be brewing extract (which is similar to making a cake from a boxed cake mix -- the finer details are taken care of for you, you just have to follow some easy directions). It will take about 4-5 weeks to be ready. It needs to spend 1-2 weeks fermenting, and then 2 weeks in the bottle.

It probably won't be the best beer you've ever had, but it will have alcohol, it will be carbonated, and I guarantee it will be satisfying. Then you can work on getting better and better.

Brewing is one of those hobbies where book knowledge is good, but you won't actually get good at it unless you do it a lot. Here's where you start: buy this book and read the sections about getting started, fermentation, ingredients, and the extract batch walkthrough. Read them twice. Read the whole book if you feel so inclined. That book is considered by many to be the brewers bible. There are some other good books out there, but none as comprehensive as Palmer's. Then buy the kit I linked above (or a similar one), some ingredients, and get started.

Also, come check out /r/homebrewing. I very active, very helpful place for all your brewing questions.

Feel free to ask any more specific questions you have.

You are doing fine. Here are some thoughts...

Keep your current job! Do not quit until you have your next opportunity lined up. Your work experience isn't bad and the employed look more attractive in both the dating and hiring pools.

Love the hobbies. Particularly working out and reading - Keep your commitment to these everyday. (Consider adding a social/networking aspect by joining/starting a business book club and looking into league sports/meetups/fitness classes)

Job Transition Idea 1: Beer/Beverage Industry

Look for analyst or operations positions with goal of getting into account management (sales-ish but sales isn't so bad when you love the product).

Standout from the crowd: Start writing Beverage Industry/Co research on LinkedIn (similar to the project you enjoyed)

Apply to this today: https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=bf45becfe9f077f3&

Job Transition Idea 2: Personal Trainer

You like working out so get certified and help others with their workouts.

Will be tough at first as you build a book of clients so you might need a good part time job - Starbucks would put you in coffee with okay part time pay and benefits.

Check this out for an idea of PT opportunities: https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=part+time+personal+trainer&l=los+angeles%2C+ca

Job Transition Idea 3: Officer in The Chair Force

Commitment and big change.

Physical fitness matters. Readers are leaders. They allow coffee in the morning and beers after work. Other branches if AF isn't for you.

https://www.airforce.com/careers/browse-careers/

..


Bonus! Book recommendation: https://www.amazon.com/History-World-6-Glasses/dp/0802715524


Choose one of these or another path and fucking go for it. All in. All about it. All the time. But keep fit and well read.

Good luck!

I like Lambic and if you make beer, any kind, you have to respect the effort it takes - no matter the style. Let them snicker, just enjoy your Lambic.

Since you are in So-Cal, there are many good places for unusual beer here are just two:

The Wine House
The Beverage Warehouse

Charlie Papazian is the godfather of homebrewing, his books and efforts helped create the current landscape. Michael Jackson was very influential in his own right as well. So, reading up on him is a very good idea. Compared to the previous two, John Palmer is relatively new to the scene but has done some excellent work to make homebrewing more easily understood. His book, How To Brew is really, really good. Read it online or grab it at Amazon for <$14. Worth having.

I have to compliment many of the posters here, they are offering a lot of good information. I had no idea there were so many brewers on Reddit! Read, read, read and the jump in. There's a lot to know and nothing substitutes for doing. PM me if I can help.

Making beer together can be a very fun and rewarding thing to do. I have progressed into making wine and champagne (ok, sparkling wine). I am just about to start to make vodka. But that's a different post.

Watch out for the strong ales! 8-9% ABV will get you ripped. They are twice the alcohol content of your average beer.

Edit:

Almost forgot, try Hoegaarden. It's a good beer and appeals to many. Another that is worth trying is La Chouffe. <drool>

I wouldn't start with a site, but rather a book, How to Brew by John Palmer. Go ahead and spend the 10 bucks on it right now, this isn't an option. You can't just skate by without this book and annoy everyone on /r/homebrewing, homebrewtalk, or IRC channels with questions answered beautifully and organically in this book.

This book answers the basics, from what beer is, what is fermenting, to the process, to the advanced, including building advanced all-grain setups. This will answer nearly all the questions you have, from now to three years of experience on down the road, and it's here in one handy book you can doodle and highlight all over. This is your first investment. Equipment is not your first investment. A gallon of cider and a pack of baker's yeast is not your first investment. A craigslist posting of someone giving away their old equipment is not your first investment. Paying the money right now for this book is your first investment.

While the book is in the mail, you can start reading the first edition online, which gives you an opportunity to reread it all over again in print when your copy arrives. Write stuff down. Highlight stuff. Go to google and bing something if you aren't fully clear. No questions yet, understand what the whole process is, and be committed to a few very important core rules: cleaning is the most important, timeliest part of brew day. Quality goes into the work you do, quality comes out as the finish product. And finally, it's necessary to have a beer while you make beer -- respect the craft you've taken up as a hobby by respecting those who have done so before you.

Finally you can begin to ask the question you are asking now. Where do I go before I brew? First, Midwest Supplies has a coupon about thrice a year that is a big savings and comes with mostly everything -- if you want to wait around for that, in the between time is a good time to invest in the other things, like a large pot, star-san, empty bottles, and so on. If not, do research and don't go buying the cheapest kit -- buy the kit that comes with everything that you want; don't feel short-handed or inundated with extras.

Lastly, that book is your new bible. It has all the answers. Now the bible is a historical recording, and new evidence disproves things in the bible. Some things you'll learn like quick tips and such you'll find just browsing the web, but what's in the bible makes for a correct and complete brewday. But the bibles of the world would be great if it came with the empirical evidence of video recordings. This episode of brewingTV is pretty good at showing what your first brewday should look like. But again, this religion will be lost on you if you don't buy and read the bible first.

And remember, "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew".

Sure, tons! In no particular order:

1. Pick up a book. The two best intros are How to Brew and The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. My girlfriend and I started with How to Brew. It can be a little science-y, but it was a great beginner's book that starts with the basics and gets more complicated as it goes. Basically the first chapter is enough to brew a beer, but the next few chapters help you learn how brewing works, and so on. I've never read The Joy of Homebrewing, but I've heard it's just as good, only a little less science based and more "fun and accessible." Really, either one is probably great.
   
   Also, How to Brew is based off a blog, and a lot of the book is on there. If you don't know which book you'd prefer start with A Crash Course in Brewing and decide if it's for you or if you'd like something a little more readable.
   
   
2. Google around and see if you have a local homebrew shop. Lots of them offer classes, and sometimes local breweries will have homebrew classes on groupon or living social. Often times the beer you drink is work the price of the class, and it's super helpful to see brewing done first hand. This is actually how I got into it: I used buy beer at my LHBS in Ft Lauterdale, and saw that classes were only $30 and came with beer and food. I signed up with my girlfriend - no intention to start brewing, just thought it'd be a fun Saturday - and wound up totally hooked.
   
   
3. Use the community, people love talking about brewing. If you're not sure how to make something work for you, someone's probably been there. Ask folks in your LHBS if you have one, post in /r/homebrewing, heck even just come back some time and reply to this post and I'll be more than happy to tell you what I know. I was worried because when I moved to DC I lost the outdoor space I used to brew in Florida, and couldn't get 5 gallons of beer boiling on a regular stove. I mentioned it casually to another brewer and he walked me through adapting recipes for smaller, more concentrated boils to be topped up to 5 gallons afterwards. Now I can brew on my electric apartment stove and haven't seen any loss of quality.
   
   Sorry if that's a total data dump, I just love chatting about and getting new people into brewing. If you ever give it a try, let me know how it goes!

It's a big topic, so I'd suggest starting small and easy. One route is to find a good brewpub (a bar/restaurant where they serve beer brewed on the premises) in your area, using this directory on Beeradvocate. If that's unclear, just say where you're from and I (or someone else around here) will help you figure it out. Brewpubs often serve sampler trays, where you get a small serving of all of their beers on tap. This will usually give you a quick baseline for some popular styles and hopefully introduce you to some good local beers.

Another tried and true route is to find a beer store or a grocery store with a good selection (again, use the Beeradvocate directory) and ask their beer buyer for help. If no one is around or he/she seems like an idiot, you can always just grab some random bottles - look for single bottles or mix-a-six deals (some stores let you buy 12 oz bottles that would normally be sold in six packs).

Beeradvocate and Ratebeer are the two biggest beer websites and both have good intro articles on beer - BA's Beer 101, RB's Beer Reference. That might seem a bit boring at this point, but some people prefer that kind of thing (me). If you're really into it, there's also a fantastic intro to beer book - link - that is both fun to read and chock full of information.

As for examples and recommendations, it depends on your location to a large extent. Beer distribution is very regional because there are costs and legal barriers associated with expanding into a new state. There are some good breweries that distribute to most/all of the country (North Coast, Anchor, Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, Rogue, etc.), but with >1600 breweries currently operating in the US, they're just a small portion and even some of the biggest breweries skip over a lot of states. If you want to give us your state (city would also help for more beer bar/brewpub recommendations), it would be much easier to recommend some beers for you.

Finally, you might want to try searching around /r/beer a bit, as there have been many past threads on this and similar topics.

Here's one more piece of advice: try new beers as much as possible. Be adventurous and open to new styles and unfamiliar flavors. You'll find lots of delicious beer even if you strike out a few times along the way.

Cheers and welcome to good beer.

Not sure what country you’re in, but I’ve used Northern Brewer and Brewer’s Best for most of my recipes. I started the same way you did with a 1 gal kit APA and was hooked instantly.

I upgraded by buying a kit for ~$100 that came with an IPA extract kit, a primary fermenter bucket, a bottling bucket, airlock, etc that I’m still using 9 batches later. I’ve expanded now to three separate 6 gallon fermenters (they’re only like $20 for the bucket, lid, and airlock!). You’ll definitely want a large kettle as well and I’d recommend getting a hydrometer to test OG and FG so you know the ABV of your beer. All said and done, $200 should get you a really really solid base set!!!!

The biggest thing I can recommend is buying a copy of [The complete Joy of Homebrewing] (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Joy-Homebrewing-Third/dp/0060531053) by Charlie Papazian, you won’t regret it!

There’s tons of great advice for starters, midrange, and advanced brewers with a lot of good basic recipes. Good luck, and enjoy!

A good profile for WLP 001 California Ale (Wyeast 1056 / Safale US-05) is to pitch around 67F-68F, then monitor the heat and keep the beer temperature (not just the ambient air) around 68F-69F for the first 80% of fermentation. It can help to bump a couple degrees to 70F-71F for that last 20% to ensure you finish fermentation completely and don't get stuck with a few extra gravity points to go.

General Fermentation Temperature tips:

There are some great shows by the Brewing Network on this (itunes podcast or get it from their website) - Jamil does a great breakdown of WLP-001 fermentation profile on the "Jamil Show" about Robust Porters (towards the end of the episode, maybe 3/4 of the way through). They also have a fantastic episode of "Brew Strong" all about fermentation temperature control and why it matters.

Enough about them... First off you want to keep in mind that during the first couple days of a fermentation the temperature will be elevated by a few degrees by the heat generated by the yeast themselves, so if you're fermenting a beer with ambient air at 64F, the beer may be around 67F or 68F. Problems can arise on day 3 or 4, once you're 75% done with the fermentation and that heat source begins to fade; the beer will drop back down to ambient temperature at that point and the yeast may decide to go to sleep early. This is a major cause of incomplete fermentations and can result in a beer that's too sweet at best or create bottle bombs at worst (as that extra sugar slowwwly ferments later)

On the other hand, if you go warmer than around 72F-73F (the temperature of the BEER, not the AIR) then you can start to generate unwanted esters and fusel alcohols. This is particularly impactful on stronger than normal beers (watch out when doing anything over 1.070)

The biggest impact investment i've made to increase my beer's quality and consistency (on par with going all grain) was without a doubt my fermentation fridge. I have a basic dorm fridge that fits a carboy, with a temperature controller hooked up to the fridge's power supply. It allows me to control fermentation at all steps to within about 1/2 a degree, keeping it cool during the initial activity and warming it up at the end to help it finish. There are plenty of resources around the internet if you're interested in doing something like this; i would HIGHLY recommend it.

Edit for some really good knowledge on yeast and fermentation, i'd highly recommend the book "Yeast" by Jamil Zainasheff and Chris White (White Labs)

No one has mentioned it yet, but I learned a lot from cook books.

These are not just lists or recipes, but instruction about techniques and methods and processes.

Some good ones are:

• How to Cook Everything: The Basics
  
• Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book
  
• Cook's Illustrated Cookbook
  
  Having an actual dead tree book can be more convenient in the kitchen than a laptop or mobile device with an ebook.
  
  If you can find episodes of Good Eats by Alton Brown he is really good at explaining things. Videos can be good, but a lot of times but really only when you know what it is you're looking for. With a book it is going to give you topics that you might never have thought of.
  
  But for reals now, you are going to get the best value learning how to cook the basics. Your Instant pot is AWESOME for cooking dry beans. Get pound of dry black beans and 3 pounds of water (obviously you need a good kitchen scale). I just put the inner pot of my Instantpot on the scale, dump in the beans, tare it, then pour water in with a big cup till I have 3 lbs. Put in 1/2-1 teaspoon of salt. I also add granulated garlic and powdered onion and some cumin but you don't have to. Set your instanpot to manual for 45 mins and wait. Let it naturally release, if you manually release the pressure the skin on the beans will break, to me it still tastes the same but you have far fewer whole beans. Now you have a weeks worth of delicious, healthy black beans. No need for overnight soak or anything.
  
  Small white beans (a.k.a navy beans) can be cooked the same and they taste different but just as good. Or you can add the extra ingredients and make pork and beans.
  
  You can cook pinto beans with the same basic recipe, and they taste great too. When you want to take the extra time, then with a slotted spoon dish the cooked beans into a large frying pan with some lard or shortening and make your own refried beans. You smash the beans with the back of the spoon or a spatula, and use the bean broth to add liquid till you like the texture.
  
  If you can't tell I like cooking beans in my Instantpot. I have a rice cooker but you can cook rice in the Instantpot too. Beans and rice is healthy and cheap!!! (cook them separately and mix them after cooking).
  
  

Starting resource: Bittman's How to Cook Everything: The Basics

Other tips:
Almost anything is great sautéed in olive oil with salt & pepper. You can get fancier from there, but once chopping & sautéing becomes no big deal, cooking gets a lot easier. You just have to level up!

If you are not yet readily chopping veggies into bits, there are lots of pre-packaged bags of salad greens & veggies. I have found veggie trays (carrot & celery sticks w/ ranch) are a quick & easy fix, and more fun to eat as it seems like you're at a party. Other quick finger foods like grapes, nuts, berries, turkey pepperoni or string cheese are handy to have around for a blood sugar boost for meal-making energy.

You can never go wrong with PB & J, grilled cheese, or scrambled eggs.

A slow cooker/rice cooker is your friend. Chili is easy to make and will keep a while. Delicious over brown rice, add cheese.

Good luck!

The piece of equipment that I decided wasn’t being used enough in my kitchen is my mandolin. I got it in a 4 blade set from Oxo. In order to really delve into it, I decided to make 3 dishes which featured the mandolin. First, I decided to make these mini-potatoes Anna. These were really easy and incredibly delicious. The paper-thin potato slices were melt in your mouth bites of deliciousness. I next wanted to make some kind of chip, but didn’t want to use potatoes again. Instead, I made these baked beet chips. I liked them because I didn’t have to fry anything. They took way longer than expected to crisp up (like 30 minutes or so) but ended up tasting a lot like potato chips with a slightly earthier flavor. Finally, for my main course, I wanted to make something with zucchini noodles. I have been trying to make more vegetable dishes and this seemed like a great opportunity to try this out. I went with this zucchini lasagna recipe. I did make a number of changes to the dish, as suggested by many of the commenters. To start, I added a couple cloves of garlic into the onions. Instead of a 28 ounce can of tomatoes, I went with a 15 ounce can, and then started adding things. I added a handful of minced sun-dried tomatoes, an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce, a squeeze of tomato paste, a squeeze of chili pepper paste, and a large splash of the pasta sauce I had in my fridge. I also added some parmesan and mozzarella to the ricotta layers and topped the thing with some mozzarella. This was delicious and I will definitely be making it again in the future.


For my MetaTheme, I wanted to finally use the Boston Shaker that I have had in my bar cabinet for a couple of years now. This also let me use another piece of underused equipment, my Hawthorne Strainer. Because I was going to use the shaker as my theme equipment, I needed a cocktail that really featured the shaker. In my mind, that means a cocktail with an egg white in it (which needs a dry shake). I decided to go with a Whiskey Sour because it is one of my favorite drinks, when done well, and I somehow haven’t done it in the 93 weeks I have been making cocktails to go with my theme dishes. I had to crack out two different books for this one. I used Liquid Intelligence for the recipe but needed my Bar Book to learn the technique behind using a Boston Shaker. This was a great recipe with the right balance of sweet, sour, and smokey.

Ohh sure thing! I've got a small collection but the one I always rec and lend out isn't a cookbook, but actually this really useful guide called: The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook. For baking, I really like watching Great British Bake off for recipes and have Mary Berry's Baking Bible, it's been a good guide. I also like Ricardo, and made his apple+pecan and raisin cake over the holidays and it was really good. But my true love is actually cheese making (despite my lactose intolerance lol) and so Nick Haddow's Milk Made is my baby, there's a recipe for saffron+honey cheesecake I'm planning on making for my brother when he finishes his midterms. Martha's good, you can actually find her recipes online but nothing off the top of my head I can recommend rn.

In this post, I'm going to link to examples. They are examples: I'm not necessarily recommending that specific item. (I'm pretty much doing a search on Amazon and linking to the first thing in the search results that is actually what you need.) It's just an example to let you know what you're looking for.

Yes, you will need a metal stockpot. Five gallons should be sufficient.

You will need some type of stirring apparatus. Some would recommend a large metal spoon, but I recommend using a plastic mash paddle.

I would recommend getting some type of thermometer to put on your stock pot. A candy thermometer is where I'd start, but, if this is a hobby that you'll stick with, it's probably worth investing in something better.

Also, I see that they put a hydrometer in your kit. If you want to take measurements with the hydrometer, you'll need either a turkey baster or a wine thief. I'd start with the baster.

If you need a book on homebrewing, Palmer's How to Brew is pretty much the standard, but Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing is well regarded. Palmer's book is in its third edition, but you can get the first edition of the book online for free.

Depending on the ingredients that you use, you may need common kitchen items like scissors or can openers.

You'll also need bottles. If you brew a five gallon batch (which is pretty typical… at least in the United States), you'll need about fifty-four twelve-ounce bottles. However, you can't use twist-off bottles; they're no good.

Lastly, you'll need ingredients. Different recipes call for different ingredients. My advice is to buy a kit from a local homebrew store (LHBS) or one online. Some kits make you buy the yeast separately. If so, make sure that you purchase the right strain of yeast.

Cool gift idea!

I'd say, first and foremost, that you aren't going to be able to kit out your boyfriend for homebrewing. There are too many styles for different types of equipment, and it gets very expensive... But a basic kit is good enough to brew just about anything, and it gives him the option to buy new items piece-by-piece as he outgrows the starter ones.

If you want to give him a good start in the hobby, get him 3 things:

1. A brewing starter kit
   
2. A good brewing book
   
3. A good beer kit
   
   For a starter kit, it looks something like one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Share-Enjoy-Homebrew-Brewing-Starter/dp/B0179ZH89Y/ref=sr_1_3
   
   You get a plastic bucket to ferment the beer, cleaning chemicals, hydrometer, bottles, bottle capper, siphon, etc. This should be perfectly adequate for him to brew beer dozens of times before he might want to start tweaking his equipment. The best part is you can replace individual parts of the kit any time you want - it makes it a very flexible upgrade path.
   
   
   For a starter book, it's How to Brew all the way. I'm pretty sure everyone in here owns a copy.
   
   
   For a starter kit, you can pick kits off Amazon. You should know there's 3 major types of beer recipe:
   
   
4. Pre-hopped extract kits. These are the beer kits you can buy in every grocery store. They're "fine", but my biggest complaint is that 90% of the work is already done for you, so brew day is almost boring.
   
   
5. Extract kits. (Get one of these). They include barley extract (usually in jars of thick syrup, but sometimes in dry powder form), hops to boil, and sometimes some extra things like specialty grains, spices, etc. Here's an example: https://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Blonde-Homebrew-Beer-Ingredient/dp/B00AC7Q4JW
   
   
6. All grain recipes. All grain brewing is the most hands-on you can get homebrewing, but it also requires some extra brewing equipment. The How to Brew book goes over it in great detail, and your boyfriend can decide if all grain brewing interests him.
   
   
   So, for all of these things, I gave Amazon links, but you don't have to buy them online at all. I'd strongly recommend looking up local homebrewing stores and just walking in. Most of my local shops are cheaper than shopping online, the staff are fun to talk to (because they really care about brewing), and it's nice to be able to examine some of the things before you buy them.
   
   Whether you shop locally of online, everything I listed above should come in at less than $150.

Since I see this topic is posted twice, I'm posting my thoughts here as well:

You're missing How to Brew, and Extreme Brewing (while it has a few decent recipes and has lovely photos) isn't that great a book IMO. Designing Great Beers is good, but a bit outdated and IMO is a lot better after you've gotten a few batches done. Haven't read Jamil's yeast book, so I can't comment on it. Brew Like a Monk is a great volume, but doesn't have the general information you want when you're starting out.

I recommend:

How to Brew - The best single reference on brewing I've seen

Radical Brewing - Great for creative recipes and information on different ingredients

Also, just go and brew something. I brewed my first batch without reading any books and it turned out fine. Brewing will help make the texts make more sense, and the texts will then make the brewing make more sense.

It all depends on what you're looking for. If I had to go for one general book to start out with it'd probably be The Essential Bartender's Guide - great intro with some history, as well as discussion on what different types of drinks are, etc. Good Jack-of-all-trades book. As you get a little deeper, the standouts for me are Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, Bitters, Imbibe!, and Punch. Vintage is a great resource to get an idea of what's been done (and lost) over the years, and is a great place to learn about what types of flavors work well together, plus there's a great blurb about the history of the drink with each recipe. Bitters is pretty self explanatory, but it has a nice intro to cocktail history, and s ton of great recipes, both new and old. Really interesting to see how slight tweaks in the bitters used (Fourth Regiment vs a Manhattan, for example) makes a huge difference in the ultimate product. Imbibe and Punch are simply brilliant history lessons, with a few recipes thrown in for good measure. Cheers!

They teach you the "easy way", and by easy way I mean using sour mix and taking shortcuts like that. There are plenty of good resources online and amazing cocktail books you can buy that have the original recipes for classic cocktails, as well as the proper way to do things behind the bar.

Learn from reputable sources and from good bartenders. If you're interested here's a couple good reads:

• [Jerry Thomas Bartender's Guide] (http://www.amazon.ca/Jerry-Thomas-Bartenders-Guide-Reprint/dp/1438241747/ref=pd_sim_b_13?ie=UTF8&refRID=0A8ZRNN8WZB4R6P9GVGN)
  
  
• [Dave Wondrich's Imbibe!] (http://www.amazon.ca/Imbibe-Professor-Featuringthe-Selection-Contributed/dp/0399532870)
  
  
• [Great book on Bitters] (http://www.amazon.ca/Bitters-Spirited-Cure-All-Cocktails-Formulas/dp/1580083595/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0A8ZRNN8WZB4R6P9GVGN)
  
  
• [Harry Craddock's Savory Cocktail Book] (http://www.amazon.ca/Savoy-Cocktail-Book-Harry-Craddock/dp/1862057729/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0A8ZRNN8WZB4R6P9GVGN)
  
  
• [Jeffrey Morgenthaler's Bar Book] (http://www.amazon.ca/The-Bar-Book-Elements-Technique/dp/145211384X/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0A8ZRNN8WZB4R6P9GVGN)
  
  
• [Craft of the Cocktail] (http://www.amazon.ca/The-Craft-Cocktail-Everything-Bartender/dp/0609608754/ref=pd_sim_b_7?ie=UTF8&refRID=0A8ZRNN8WZB4R6P9GVGN)
  
  
• [Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails] (http://www.amazon.ca/Vintage-Spirits-Forgotten-Cocktails-Alamagoozlum/dp/1592535615/ref=pd_sim_b_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=0A8ZRNN8WZB4R6P9GVGN)
  
  
• [Boozehound] (http://www.amazon.ca/Boozehound-Trail-Obscure-Overrated-Spirits/dp/1580082882/ref=pd_sim_b_9?ie=UTF8&refRID=0A8ZRNN8WZB4R6P9GVGN)
  
  
• [Liquid Intelligence] (http://www.amazon.ca/Liquid-Intelligence-Dave-Arnold/dp/0393089037/ref=pd_sim_b_17?ie=UTF8&refRID=0A8ZRNN8WZB4R6P9GVGN)
  
  As far as knowledge goes, you can learn a lot from reading and studying. For me personally, I love this kind of stuff and I'm constantly trying to learn as much as I can so I could hardly say it feels like actual studying. As for technical skills, learn from people better than you. No matter how good you get, there is always someone out there you can learn from. A lot of how I work I've picked up from watching great bartenders, everything from small stuff like the way I carry a bottle to the way I move behind the bar has come from watching, learning and implementing it into how I bartend.

I really like history books that don't at first seem to be history books, but are explorations of societies sometimes seen through the lens of a single important concept or product. For instance, Mark Kurlansky has several books such as Salt; A World History, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, The Basque History of the World, Nonviolence: 25 Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea that teach more history, and more important history than is usually taught in US public schools.

History need not be rote memorization of dates and figures. It can, and should be a fun exploration of ideas and how those ideas shaped civilizations. It can also be an exploration of what did not make it into the history books as Bart Ehrman's Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament or his Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why and Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels attest.

I don't wish to come across as too glib about this, but I feel like the average person might well retain more useful knowledge reading a book like A History of the World in 6 Glasses than if they sat through a semester of freshman history as taught by most boring, lame generic high schools. I feel like often the best way to understand history is to come at it tangentially. Want to understand the US Constitution? Study the Iroquois confederacy. Want to understand the French? Study cuisine and wine. Want to understand China? Study international trade. And so it goes. Sometimes the best history lessons come about from just following another interest such as astronomy or math or cooking. Follow the path until curiosity is sated. Knowledge will accumulate that way. ;-)

Coffee appeared in Europe around the late 16th century and early 17th century. Of course, like many liquids, there were all kinds of opinions about its purported health benefits.

However, the main benefit was the fact that it lead to a decline in the consumption of alcohol. Alcohol had previously been the best way to consume uncontaminated water, so it was common for much of the population of Europe to be mildly intoxicated for much of the day. Coffee offered a better way to consume uncontaminated water without getting drunk, and the mild amount of caffeine was purported to encourage clear thinking.

Coffee was hailed as part of the age of rationalism. Coffee shops became centers of intellectual engagement as part of an increase in interest in philosophy and sciences more generally in Western Europe. While coffee was later surpassed by tea in popularity in the UK, it continued to be popular in continental Europe.

One of the better written sources on the subject is http://www.amazon.com/A-History-World-6-Glasses/dp/0802715524

This is by no means a complete answer (I honestly think that one could write a book on this topic and still not come to a fully satisfying answer) but I hope that this will shed some insight into the history of the taboo and it's social causes.

The earliest academic reference I could find that tried to explain why speaking of money was a taboo was, unsurprisingly, Freud. And, even less surprisingly, he related it to anal eroticism. (As a quick aside, I'm really beginning to wonder if a cigar was just a cigar) 1. There is good reason to believe that the taboo persisted well before that, but it is the earliest reference I could personally find.

Without a definitive start date, some may be inclined to believe that we've always had this taboo-- or at least some type of it. Personally, that's the attitude I went into this question with. After all, money has been around for over 4,000 years 2 and our tribal psychology invites trepidation into situations where our social standing is on the line. Indeed, some have speculated that discussions of money fall under such situations 2 since we often tie worth to income and to financial price 3. This could reasonably lead people to conclude that it's simply inherent to human thought. Talking about money can dredge up a lot of social comparisons and expectations which could trigger that tribal instinct saying "let's not put ourselves in a lower position on the social strata so that we're not eventually ostracized 5."

There's only one problem with this: If it was universal, we would expect different cultures to have a similar reticence to income. But they don't 6. Even countries as geographically proximal as Japan and China have different attitudes about money as indicated by their folklore 7.

So we are left with the idea that this is a western construction. To be clear, I definitely think that the proclivity to tie social worth with the amount of stuff one has probably dates back quiet a while as it would be a handy hint throughout much of human history. But the actual taboo seems to be western in origin.

I don't think that we'll be able to find a specific date, time, or even location to pin this origination on. However, if allowed to venture an educated guess, I would posit that they came from our coffee shops.

It's well known that coffee and tea shops were instrumental to the formulation and actualization of many western uprisings 8. These institutions looked to turn the current social status quo on its head. Inside the shops, everyone was theoretically equal. A certain code of conversation developed, largely thanks to the propagation of two magazines: The Spectator and the Tatler 9. I cannot find any direct quotes from either publication that specifically dictates that one ought not to make note of the socioeconomic differences that exist outside of the shop-- however, there is decent evidence for tacit recommendations via the emphasis on maintaining a tempered and productive conversation 9. I contend that it's difficult to have a good chat when you're being actively singled out as an impecunious peon. Such an account would work fairly well with our theoretical understanding of taboo construction. As it goes, taboos are extremely strong norms and mores that deliver intense social (and possibly even official) sanctions 10. They can develop from social rules and evolve along with the society; hence why some taboo subjects are less taboo as they used to be and others are even more forbidden. I would venture that the taboo for discussing income developed on this track. It could have started off as an expression of politeness and proper etiquette and developed more bite as western society grew more infatuated with the idea of human equality. There aren't any studies that directly prove or disprove this theory (possibly due to a dearth of literature on the topic of money 2), so take it with a grain of salt.

I would also like to recommend the book that U/David_divaD did as well as The Psychology of Money by Furnham and Argyle.

They don't get a lot of love around here (though they don't get much hate either I suppose, lol) but I started with a Mr. Beer from the hobby shop. I quickly out grew it, but it was ~$60 and came with two batches worth of extract and yeast and allowed me to figure out that despite the beer not being as great as I'd hoped, I enjoyed the process. So it was definitely worth the money and effort even though I don't use the Mr. Beer anymore.

As far as DIY equipment, most individual parts of the process are relatively inexpensive. You can save money by using Aluminum instead of stainless steel for boiling your wort (unfermented beer), and you can do without things like immersion chillers to cool your wort and use ice-baths instead. But the beautiful thing is you can upgrade different pieces of equipment as you see necessary. You can start out cheap but decide it's worth the $60 to get an immersion chiller. Or if you are handy with metal and such you can make your own! Again, a lot of answers can be gained from books (and here of course!). Like I said earlier, this book is great. I too was afraid of the cost of the hobby and worried I wouldn't like homebrewing and be out a bunch of money. Turns out I enjoy it enough to warrant the cost!

I just got into real brewing (started with a Mr. Beer 4 years ago and it has taken me this many years to start up again after that nightmare).

The basic equipment is cheap. I spent $89 for a proper starter + add-on kit.

I made a wort chiller for $7 and bought an additional carboy so I can have multiple batches going.

I spent $20 on hops rhizomes (Cascades) and those went crazy this summer.

10 days ago I did a honey wheat (having a friend walk me through the process - and he did most of the work).

He set it up for a 2nd fermentation on Saturday ( since it was so nasty out I wasn't able to get to his place) and I'll bottle it next weekend.

This past Saturday I made a Stout and a Nut Brown Ale. And that is the problem with brewing. I like dark beers that usually take weeks before bottling (looking at 4 weeks to bottling for the last 2 and then another 2 weeks in the bottles).

I really need to start drinking Pilsners. That way I can drink them 7-10 days later.

The point I'm trying to make is that it's cheap and it really is easy but the waiting game sucks.

If you want someone to help you with your first batch just let me know and you can come over and we'll make a couple. I'm going to try to brew 5 gallons a week for a while so I can always have some homebrew ready to drink.

I'd recommend getting a copy of The Complete Joy of Home Brewing

It has everything in it that you need to know and has a bunch of recipes from beginner to advanced.

I also just picked up Clone Brews which has a lot of popular beers in it and how to make them yourself.

And as they say at Midwest Supplies , you really should do 5 or 10 batches from their brew kits to learn the full process and how different ingredients affect the flavor of your beer.

Just my two-cents.

I also started r/TCBrewers but no one has used it yet.

There was some talk of a Brew Party (As Midwest_Product pointed out) that was going to be Nov. 20th but I haven't heard anything about it in quite a while.

Anyhow, it seems there is a lot of interest in a Brew Party so if no one else steps up I could always have it at my place but it would probably have to be outside in turkey fryers. I have a nice bonfire pit so that would be our source of warmth.

I am 100% all for the pursuit of knowledge behind the bar. I believe it's a great way to show initiative to get behind a craft bar, elevate your cocktail game, and just to learn something cool. Feel free to message me if you have questions on where to get started, what to do after you've read some of these books, what to expect when you're working your way up, etc. I'd be more than happy to lend some helpful advice!

Here are some of the books I'd recommend:



"The Bar Book" by Jeffrey Morgenthaler

I'd start here if you're interested in and are brand new to craft cocktails. Morgenthaler's Bar Book is threaded with great insight on what and why certain techniques are used behind the bar and is riddled with beautiful photography.

"Imbibe!" by Dave Wondrich

Hands down, the first book you should read if you want to get into the lore behind craft drinks. It opens up with the story of our great forefather, Jeffrey Thomas, and then continues to discuss the various eras of bartending and what they represent, as well as the drinks within those eras.

"Craft Cocktails at Home" by Kevin Liu
If Bar Book is your high school Geometry, Liu's, "Craftcocktails at Home" is your college Linear Algebra class. Provides you with hard science on what exactly going on in the glass if we shake VS stir or the happenings in an egg-based drink. Awesome read.


"How's Your Drink" by Eric Felten

Felten runs through history and entertains with stories behind some of the biggest drinks in cocktails. Did you know the Vesper (a vodka/gin Martini hybrid of sorts) was created in a Jame's Bond book and was named after the sultry villain? That President Theodore Roosevelt loved himself a good mint julep and even had his own mint bed to supply himself plenty when he wanted one? Fun read.

"Drunken Botanist" by Amy Stewart

Alcohol is derived from things. This is the best book that talks about those things. Agave, Juniper, Barley, Cinchona Bark. Understand the drink from a Botanist's point of view.


"Bitters" by Brad Thomas Parsons

Bitters are an incredible way to add both aromatics and flavor into a cocktail. This book will help you not only understand what they are and what they do, but will kickstart your own bitter brewing process if desired. Homemade Orange Bitters kick ass.

Barsmarts

Last but not least, Barsmarts is a great online tool to help rundown the basis of what we with cocktails. It goes through the various spirits, a brief look at cocktail history, and even has a "drink builder". Definitely worth the $30.

Here's a list of some good General Books on beer.

I'm fond of Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher. It does a great job of introducing the history of beer, the different styles, and other great info. I recommend it to everybody who wants to learn about beer. http://www.amazon.com/Tasting-Beer-Insiders-Worlds-Greatest/dp/1603420894

If you're interested in the history of American beer, Ambitious Brew is a great read. It's limited in scope to just the history of American beer, but that proves to be a rich subject. http://www.amazon.com/Ambitious-Brew-Story-American-Beer/dp/0156033593

Beer is Proof That God Loves Us, It's not the greatest book, but for free on Kindle, it's worth checking out. The guy knows his beer, he just is a big time Macro brewing apologist, and his constant praise for the big brewers, and his disdain for hops make it not my favorite book. There are some good anecdotes, and history of beer. http://www.amazon.com/Beer-Is-Proof-God-Loves/dp/0137065078

And I've heard good things about the Oxford Companion to Beer, though I haven't read it myself. http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Companion-Beer-Garrett-Oliver/dp/0195367138/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z

Here's what I'd buy if getting a home bar set up quickly with good stuff but not spending a ton.

Beefeater gin, Tito's vodka, Angostura 7yr rum or Barbancourt 8yr, (I don't know tequila, sorry), (don't get TN whiskey) Old Grand Dad Bourbon (get the 100 proof if possible), Rittenhouse Rye, Johnny Walker black scotch (JW black is very middle of the road, but I'm assuming you are not an accomplished scotch drinker), (I wouldn't bother with Irish Whiskey unless you particularly like it, and definitely don't bother with Canadian).

You should also get: Angostura bitters, Orange bitters, sweet & dry vermouths (Nolly Prat is fine). You may want to consider some liqueurs that are common in cocktails, such as Contreau (needed for Margaritas), Campari (Negronis), Absinthe (Sazeracs), etc. I always have a bottle of green Chartreuse, but it's not cheap. You will also want limes, lemons and oranges for garnishes and juice. You will need sugar, you can usually use cubes or you can make a simple syrup. Keep the syrup and the vermouths in the fridge. If you don't have one, you may want a basic bar tools set.

I would recommend getting The Bar Book to learn techniques and some good recipies as well. Start with classic cocktails, learn them well, and go on from there: the Old Fashioned, the Manhattan, the Martini, the Daiquiri, etc.

Good luck!

We are short on dedicated homebrew supply shops by me as well. Major city but had none for about a month. Some of the larger liquor stores (Party Mart, Liquor Barn... I know they're chains but not sure if it's just local) have supplies and ingredients. Pretty good selection too. Just don't count on anyone there knowing anything about it. Not sure where you live but there's several in WV according to google.

In the past I've always had good luck with NorthernBrewer.com, but I haven't ordered from them since a LHBS opened near me. And I probably won't since the AB-InBev buyout. But if you don't care about the politics they do a good job.

Stick to extract with at least your first few batches. Do yourself a favor and read a book before you brew. This one was good for me. Opinions vary though. Welcome to the club. Happy brewing.

pretty much any kit from any online or local homebrew shop. Will do. Most of them come with a fermentation bucket, a bottling bucket, a capper, caps, a hydrometer, some hoses, a bottling wand, and your first recipe kit Some come with carboys or better bottles (plastic carboys) but that isn't necessary for the types of beer you posted. If you are purchasing for Christmas (IE you don't need it within a week) be on the look out for a Midwest starter kit Groupon. 127 dollar value for 64 bucks plus IIRC 25 dollars shipping.

If you purchase from your LHBS you could ask for an upgraded recipe usually for the difference of what you need (say it comes with a 25 dollar recipe and you want a 30 dollar recipe they will only charge you the kit plus 5 dollars.) at least that is what my LHBS did. Also they will be able to help you with what you need.

As for how to brew advice. on top of your kit get him John Palmer's How To Brew It is the best beginners book in my opinion.

Good places to shop for kits

• Midwest Supplies
  
  
• Northern Brewer
  
  
• Austin Homebrew
  
  As a bonus also try and learn the craft and help him brew. Brewing and bottling are much more fun if you have someone to work with.

IMO you can make pretty decent beer with bottled spring water. Depending on the chemistry of that spring water, it'll make some beers better than others, but spring water generally has a mixture of minerals that tastes pretty good and this often translates to good-tasting beer.

I'd say that the differences you get from water treatment are subtle but effective in making the difference between a pretty good beer and a very good beer.

This book is generally regarded as the classic source for water treatment in homebrewing.

You do not need a pH reader if you use a calculation like that in Bru 'n' Water. I don't have a pH reader, but I definitely want one now.

Wow you're really lucky, I wish I'd got that much to spend on brewing for a grant!

Feel free to ask this subreddit any question at any type of course, and I'm sure we'd also love it if you posted your findings as you study the chemistry too.

Are you completely new to brewing? Do you want to make beer or mead or what?

Some good sources:

Designing Great Beers - Great book full of hard data and numbers on tons of brew related topics. This would be good to use as a reference for experiments.

Brew Judge Certification Program website - This is the official certification site for beer judges and it outlines a large variety brew styles from various types of beer, to styles of mead, and explains what is used to make them, how it should taste, etc.

Id ask r/Homebrewing about mead and whatnot, i brew beers ciders and wines myself and one thing i can tell you is that there are inumerable ways to screw it up, super easy to ruin a batch, afaik mead takes months and months, ale idk but i can brew a decent batch of beer in 2 weeks. Best guess assuming 5e id start with a general intelligence check and a nature check for portions and whatnot then maybe a survival check on behalf of the yeast, it is possibke to give it so much sugar it just says fuck it and dies (not actually what happens but you get the gist) then either a history, insight or medicine check for proper storage, i doybt your going to have them bottle it but you still gotta rack it off/ditch the trub before you let it sit as that can drastically alter the flavor, as well as skunking beer with too much light, though some people (weird people) like it. That's just what i could think of off the top of my head though, theres plenty of ways to brew

Edit i can't personally vouch for the book as i'm still waiting for payday to buy it, but the reviews seem promising on not only numerous varieties of beer but also more ancient methods of brewing, so on reviews alone i'd recommend taking a look at this book
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0937381667/ref=ox_sc_act_image_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Editedit forgot to mention that while its super easy to screw up, if you don't screw up than it's super easy to make homebrew, sounds weird but that's how it is.

Edit^3* as for how much it can produce i'm not sure on portions for mead but when i do countrywines 3lbs of fruit/veggies/roots/whatever makes roughly one gallon of wine finished product

End ramble.

drmischief links below - but you REALLY ought to buy and read How to Brew by John Palmer.

It's pretty much indispensable for the noob brewer. It's a great blend of easy to understand process, as well as a good helping of science if you really want to understand what's going on.

Make it through that book, and complement it with Brewing Classic Styles and Brewing Better Beer.

You may not be a book learner, but those books have great references that you can look up mid-brew.

Other than that - find someone to mentor you through a local homebrew club if at all possible. I started with a mentor, and have since passed the torch to other all grain noobs.

I would always recommend people start with 'The Compleat Meadmaker, by Ken Schramm'. This has been the meadmaking bible for a very long time. You can find supplementary information about staggered nutrient additions, pH buffering compounds, new sanitizers, etc online in various articles and forum sites. Of course, understanding your ingredients can also be very good for any brewer, and water is a huge ingredient. So besides the other element series book 'Yeast' by Christ White and Jamil Zainasheff I highly recommend 'Water' by John Palmer and Colin Kaminski. For those of us making mead in Ferndale, our water is a very key ingredient which comes to us from an underground aquifer treated by the city of Ferndale, and is of very high quality (even compared with the high quality water from the City of Detroit). Understanding honey is a huge area of study. There are many classic textbooks on honey and honey-hunting by Eva Crane that are considered primary sources (but these can be prohibitively expensive for most mazers, and honestly, Ken's book does an awesome job of summarizing her contributions, as well as other historical information about meadmaking, honey, etc). I feel a basic understanding of beekeeping can be highly instructive for meadmakers, and so I recommend that you get your hands on some beginner beekeeping books, e.g. 'Beesentials' by L.J. Connor and Robert Muir and/or the 'Beekeeper's Handbook'. A solid background in wine or beer-making doesn't hurt, either, and there are multitudes of books I can recommend to you on the subject of beer specifically (this is my homebrewing background). My two absolute must-haves for beer brewing are 'Designing Great Beers' by Ray Daniels and 'Brewing Classic Styles' by John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff. Learning to brew beer can help you if you decide you want to try your hand at braggots.

Do you have a hydrometer? If not, get one and learn how to use it. It is the most important tool for troubleshooting fermenting beer. There is no other accurate way to tell if a beer is finished.

Most yeast strains have a documented alcohol level that they can handle. Google is your friend. With a precursory search, I'm finding 9% for English ale, but I've gotten higher. 9/10 times the beer finishes, unless you're pushing your sugar to some crazy heights.

I highly recommend picking up some books if you haven't yet. I cut my teeth on The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. It contains a huge amount of information for the beginner up to all grain. Simply laid out techniques, recipes to try, and the origin of RDWHAHB. Designing Great Beers is a great book to get guidelines on a lot of the major styles, it is the one I am using most often these days. Online forums like r/homebrewing and HomeBrewTalk are also great sources of information.

I would love this as well because I'm geeky like that. Books that I found interesting that you might as well:

-The Comic Book Story of Beer: A fun way to learn more about the history of beer as beverage. It goes into I'd say a medium amount of detail, enough that if you wanted to go deeper you'd have the right search terms. Plus it's a comic book...bonus! Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Comic-Book-Story-Beer-Revolution/dp/1607746352

-National Geographic Atlas of Beer: Another medium level detail book about beer all over the world for a more global perspective plus it's National Geographic so the photography is gorgeous. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Atlas-Beer-Globe-Trotting/dp/1426218338/

-Radical Brewing: Even if you don't homebrew I feel like this book is worth picking up, especially early on in your beer journey because it gives you an idea of what wide range of styles and ingredients can make up a "Beer" (with a capital B). Also, it's a good introduction to Randy Mosher who is a Beer Geek (with a capital B and a capital G). Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Brewing-Recipes-World-Altering-Meditations/dp/0937381837

If anyone has any other books along the same lines they enjoy, feel free to share them.

Cheers!

Little bit of a different issue, but I would also suggest having a homebrew session with the staff before you open one day. Nothing will teach you about the process of making beer better than doing it yourself, and it really isn't hard. If you still want to accompany that lesson with literature, two great books on brewing are How to Brew by John Palmer (aka the home brewer's bible, full text is also available for free online) and The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian

As far as general history and beer tasting knowledge, I'll back up those who have recommended Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher, and pretty much anything written by Michael Jackson. Many of Jackson's books are separated by regions, so it would be helpful to find which one applies to the area your pub/the beers your serve are from

It's up to you. I used to brew with my brother-in-law. He never read a book or had much knowledge in the why's and hows and we didn't have any issues brewing together. If you only get 1 book, How to brew is it.

See my other list of essentials/optionals in this thread. Any kit is going to contain most everything you need except for a pot. I'd also pick up an autosiphon if the kit doesn't include one.

Lagers definitely need specific temperatures. Well, ales do too, but they are more forgiving. See the guide to fermentation temperature control in the sidebar. I'd suggest starting out with temperature control right away even something simple/cheap like a swamp cooler can do wonders for the quality of your beer. Yeast health (pitching rate, O2, sufficient nutrients, and temperature control) is easily the #1 most important part of brewing great beer once you have the basics down. You're really going to need a fermentation chamber before you can make lagers effectively unless your climate is ideally suited.

IPA/APA/Amber/Brown/Dry stout/Porter are all fairly forgiving styles to start out with.

You said that you do not want a paid bartending gig, and that's good, because very few places will hire a person from bartending school, ANY bartending school. Those schools are a rip off.

But, you said that you just wanted to learn some bartending skills. You're in luck because that's easy . Pick up some good books on bartending and read them, make drinks, and share those drinks with your friends.

Jeffrey Morganthaler just put out a really good book on the craft of bartending, and I highly recommend it ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/145211384X?pc_redir=1405569504&robot_redir=1). Read this first.

Look at how much money and time I just saved you! Plus, you'll learn a lot more useful information.

Good luck!

A reply you've made makes it sound like they don't yet have a lab. So you are setting up a lab? Fun times!

First, micro is a fraction (large time consuming fraction) of what you'll need to know. Chemical/analytical testing will make up another, say, 1/4. Someone has linked the ASBC methods. This is a great place to start. Brush up on GLP if it's been a while since you've practiced other science streams.


Specifically regarding lab start up, ASBC also has a guide for what you should be testing at different production volumes: http://www.asbcnet.org/membership/getstarted/Pages/growyourown.aspx

Take this as a minimum. More is better, but depending if they are kegging/bottling/whatever not all of it will be relevant.

Expect paperwork review and filing. Shouldn't be too much of a shock coming from a lab. It's not glamorous but it is what it is.

Are they also looking at QA? This will include things like verification, validation, calibration, preventative maintenance, FDA/other food authorities, food safety, cleaning review, auditing, SOP generation and update, training, labelling, acrobatics etc.

Sensory! Can you taste beer? Can you detect faults? Check you ego; you probably don't. But that's okay. Get a sensory training program up and running. This should include training and review of their beers as well as basic defect training using flavour standards. If you haven't accepted you know nothing; these at 1x threshold will get you there. There's also great resources on setting up blind/triangular/etc training on their site: http://www.aroxa.com/beer


Speaking of egos; you mentioned home brewing. We have all met home Brewers that like to tell us about how they know more than us about our jobs. Don't be that guy/gal. Yes it is helpful that you understand the basics and we know you like beer, but that's about as useful as it gets. It's unlikely you'll be writing recipes or making beer.


Some good reading;

https://www.amazon.com/Quality-Management-Essential-Planning-Breweries/dp/1938469151

https://www.amazon.com/Yeast-Practical-Fermentation-Brewing-Elements/dp/0937381969

I got started using this book Complete Joy Of Homebrewing I felt this book was super friendly as introductory material.

There is also this book How To Brew I think most people will tell you John Palmer's book is better but honestly both will contain all the information you need to get started. I am sure someone more resourceful than me will be able to direct you to some great (and free) internet resources to take a look at as well.

Edit: A quick Google search yielded This Have fun and welcome!

I'm not sure my approach to recipe formulation is really going to help here, but one of the things you can do to start learning is to taste a commercial beer and try to devise a recipe that you think would clone it. Then, look up clone recipes online and see how close you came. It really helps you understand some of the different flavors that go into beer.

Anyway, I think I can most contribute by sharing some resources I consult when making a brand new recipe. Firstly, I cannot speak highly enough about [Designing Great Beers](http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Great-Beers-Ultimate-Brewing/dp/0937381500 "Not a referral link, so click away"). It gives you a good understanding of the ingredients found most in styles, and a nice history of why they're brewed the way they are.

Next, I spend a lot of time looking at the Homebrew Wiki Malts Chart. It gives you a really good idea of what flavors and properties different malts iwll bring your beers.

Lastly, I experiment. Try stuff out. Re-brew the same recipe with minor tweaks to improve it.

Sounds good!

In terms of learning more about beer styles, I'd recommend buying and tasting a bunch of different beers - when you find something you like, make a note of it and do some searching to get a general sense of why it tastes the way it does (usually you'll want to look into the basic types of malts, yeast, and hops used, along with any other ingredients that may be of interest). Sites like Beer Advocate are great resources for learning about new styles and figuring out what you might want to try next, and there are tons of local microbreweries with employees/brewers that are happy to talk with you about what goes into making their beers.

Once you actually take the leap into homebrewing, I'd recommend going to a local homebrew store (like Stomp Them Grapes), chatting with the employees, and picking up equipment and ingredients to do a basic extract-based recipe with steeped grains. My personal preference at that point would just be to jump right in - it's not really that difficult, and you'll learn a lot as you progress. From there, you might check into some local homebrew clubs, get some books like The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, How to Brew, or Designing Great Beers, and start creating your own recipes by tweaking existing ones.

Really, the biggest thing is just to have fun. Beer is surprisingly hard to screw up as long as you follow the basic steps and sanitize everything well enough.

If you have any other questions, or want to chat at some point, feel free to send me a PM. I'm in Boulder, but would be happy to help out if possible!

I posted this a week or so ago when somebody asked the same thing. There's the link, I only copied my reply.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IWantToLearn/comments/eef8y/iwtl_how_to_brew_beer/

"also, http://www.howtobrew.com/ by John Palmer is a pretty good starting point. He has a book, but here's the free online version. Also, Charlie Papazian released a book in the early 80's called The Joy of Homebrewing, which should also be checked out. http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Homebrewing-Third-Harperresource-Book/dp/0060531053, only $10.

To probably figure out if you want to go balls-out and if this is a hobby you will enjoy, probably starting with extract is a good start. The beers might not be quite as good as all-grain, but you'll get an idea of what the hell you're doing and if you'll like it.

You could also look and see if there are any local homebrew clubs, as more are popping up as craft beer gets bigger and bigger.

fredman has a good point, as a lot of homebrew shops have kits and whatnot to help "clone" some of the more popular craft beers.

Also, as a side note and a cheap as hell way to brew, there is always Mr. Beer--but it's pretty meh."

As for books on yeast, the first one I read was First Steps in Yeast Culture by Pierre Rajotte and Chris White's Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation

Rajotte's book is a quick read and will give you a great overview of the process of propagating yeast for brewing. Chris White's book (of White Labs) is, IMHO, way more in depth into yeast selection, management and testing. But both offer something that the other does not, so I highly recommend the both of them.

As for books on brewing, I started off with what is basically the bible of homebrewing which is The Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian. But don't stop there. There are plenty of great books on brewing. Papazian's book will cover the foundations of brewing, but other books that deal with specific styles of brewing will give you a lot more information about how intricate the brewing process is. A lot of this information you can also get from perusing online how-to's and articles about specific practices. There are so many you will continuously learn about ways of making bear you never thought were "standard" or possible.

I read Sibel Institute's Technology Brewing and Malting by Wolfgang Kunze cover to cover. It's really informative, but I would focus on the books above and online resources before tackling Kunze's book.

As far as getting a setup like mine, if what you want is to be able to propagate yeast, you don't need most of what I have. Just start picking up pieces when you can. Start out with getting good at managing and making starters for your brews. That's basically what I do, but I'm starting on a much smaller scale. One vial or package of yeast in 1 litre of wort fermenting for 24 hours will give you great yeast growth (as long as you pay attention to temperature). Get acquainted with that process and you'll be able to jump into more advanced yeast management principles much easier.

Heya, I'm two secondaries away from this stage myself. I bought a book that goes into pretty good detail about where to start and the different styles. Personally, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for so I'll save you what I learned:

I started off making an excel sheet that calculates pretty much everything but SRM (or color). While this is great for me (I have it tell me what each grain/hop/yeast contributes) there's better options. I use qBrew for now. Why these softwares are nice is because they allow you to figure out your style. This leads to OG, color, IBU, etc.

You've certainly got some OG ready in there (qBrew claims around 1.085). And you've definitely got some hops. IMO, I would put some more into the boil. I've only done DH once and haven't tasted it yet, but it seems like you're headed for a very aromatic beer with a mild bitterness. That's a lot of grain (around doppelbock levels IIRC) so you might want to consider upping your boils to match and then overcome that maltiness. Not smart enough to comment on your yeast yet. I'm sure its fine :D

If your hops are providing some earthy tones, I could see some orange bitters being a really cool addition.

Edit: if you get a brewing software: http://www.2shared.com/document/0wxR6IAU/soulfrequencies.html

Your options vary from 40 - 95% ABV (vodka, Everclear/NGS and other spirits as well). Your choice will depend on several factors:

• Availability. Some only have access to a max 75.5% (151 proof) spirits.
  
• What you're extracting. Generally, the higher the ABV, the faster and more complete the extraction. Certain components, like black tea or coffee, may overextract and be too tannic for your liking @ higher ABVs.
  
• Do you want to macerate for one week or six? Timeliness sometimes matters. Also, certain components will give up some aromatics completely in a longer infusion, while leaving unwanted characteristics behind.
  
• Desired final ABV, if this matters to you.
  
  I generally tincture with a base of 80% 151 proof spirit and 20% lower proof spirit(s). This yields me a base @ 60 - 68%. Given a base in this range, when tincturing is complete, I can usually expect a batch of bitters around 50% ABV. Just where I like 'em. I tend to extract components individually and blend a final bitters. For fresher components (read: with higher water content), like fresh citrus peels and herbs, lean closer to a 68% base. For dried components, like spices, lean closer to a 60% base. With a 60-68% base range, I can normally control the extraction process entirely with time. I can overextract if I want to, or be more controlling with less time.
  
  I hope this makes sense.
  
  I highly recommend Mark Bitterman's Bitterman's Field Guide to Bitters & Amari. At <$9 for the epub version, it may be the best resource currently available. I also recommend Brad Thomas Parson's Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas.
  
  ~Good luck!

A great book that would answer all your questions is:http://www.amazon.com/Yeast-Practical-Fermentation-Brewing-Elements/dp/0937381969/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462387187&sr=8-1&keywords=Yeast+book

But I'll give a couple quick responses that hit some highlights:

What is the difference between yeasts? Each yeast strain is a different organism. Each one is going to impart its own flavor profile. Some yeasts leave a lot of flavor behind in the form of esters, phenols, etc (like a saison or belgian yeast). Others will leave little behind and allow the hops or malt to shine (cal ale, us-05). Along with the flavor profile they add, some are more voracious eaters than others so certain strains will give you a lower finishing gravity (san diego). Others may end up more sweet (some english yeasts). Some like to ferment warmer and others cooler. Many times, the yeast determines your beer style more than the grain bill. You LHBS or the yeast manufacturer has literature telling you the yeast profile. Like what temperatures it likes, gravities it may ferment to, flocculation characteristics, and more.

difference between dry yeasts (Safale US-05, Nottingham, etc) and liquid yeasts: Dry yeasts are cheaper to manufacture, ship, and store. They are not recommended for propogating/reusing but they are cheap enough and easy enough to handle that it doesn't matter. Liquid yeasts are better fresh. They can be propogated. THere are more liquid yeasts available than dry. I suggest you go with the yeast that best suits the style you are brewing and not worry about the form it comes in (unless the reasons above impact you).


is low flocculation ever a good thing? Sure. Think about what kind of flavor and appearance you are going for. If you are looking for a beer like a heff, low flocculation may be desired because you want the yeast flavor to be perceived in a beer and it is not supposed to be a clear beer. High flocculating yeasts may also drop out to quickly resulting in incomplete fermentation. For example: if you don't have a fermenation chamber and your house gets cooler at night a high flocculator may drop out and you could end up with a stalled ferment. You could also end up with more diacetyl in the finished beer since it didn't finish up.

In my opinion I think that as a beginner, looking online for recipes can be so overwhelming and it's hard to find what's good and what's garbage without an established sense of taste/cooking. Sure, you can look at the comments, but it takes a lot of time and without knowing how to cook it's hard to know what you're even looking for.

I would highly recommend trying out a beginner's cookbook (Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything: The Basics or How to Cook Everything Vegetarian are great ones). Look through it, read up on techniques/skills, and pick something you think you'll like and cook it.

Also, you can probably check out cookbooks from your library if you want to try them out before investing money on them.

Remember that we all started somewhere. Nobody is born a good cook, it's a learned skill that you have to practice. Same with taste - if you're used to tasting the same types of foods, you're going to have to adjust to trying new foods. I didn't eat any vegetables at all growing up and now I love them! I just realized you need to put salt and cheese on them, lol. But really I also just needed to get used to the taste, which took some time.

Honestly the worst thing about the hobby is that the initial setup (equipment) is really your largest cost factor. After that it's simply a matter of buying the elements of beer (malted barley, hops, vials of yeast, etc). I'm not saying you have to drop a ton of money on stainless steel mash/lauter tuns, HLT, infusion chillers, fermentation vessels, etc or start doing all grain mash brewing (versus simpler brewing techniques such as extract brewing or partial mash) -- although you certainly can -- but it is a hobby that does require some special preparation on the front end before starting.

My best advice to you is to find a local brewing club and attend a meeting. Join them during a buddy brew session and they can help you get started.

As a primer for brewing I recommend reading The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian.

Also, great reading (online) is John Palmer's How To Brew

This Tetris Coffee Mug is pretty amazing, and as for the beer, how about a How to Order Beer Around the World Poster? or maybe a book about brewing beer?

And to soup up his vest and tie combo, a pack of bow ties might make him feel refreshed! <3 Hope you can cheer up your buddy! You're a wonderful friend!

I'd like this wireless camera remote if I win! Thanks for the contest!

Good luck! Just a heads up, there is a more active community for beer and wine making over at /r/homebrewing, but n2deep gave a pretty perfect list of items. I started out with Charlie Papazian's book "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing," and I've heard people recommend John Palmer's "How to Brew." It made my life easier, but is by no means a requirement.

Have fun with it!

Stick with your Mr. Beer kit for a few more sessions. Refills are $20 for two gallons which seems reasonable. Just stick with ales and don't brew lagers. The more flavorful the beer is supposed to be the easier flaws are turned into tasty features. I'd go with this porter: https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Beer-Churchills-Homebrewing-Sanitizer/dp/B01D5J7ZIW/ref=bdl_pop_ttl_B01D5J7ZIW

The amber ale and stout would be on my list too. If you like IPA's try that.

If you want a piece of equipment I'd buy a hydrometer or a bottle capper. https://www.amazon.com/Homebrew-Guys-Hydrometer-Specific-Potential/dp/B012YLS62G/ref=sr_1_21?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1524334825&sr=1-21&keywords=brewing+hydrometer

Make sure you do a good job sanitizing everything and you'll be 90% there. Star-san is an excellent sanitizer. I don't know what Mr. Beer uses. Bleach or iodine can also be used if done correctly.

If I were to suggest one thing to buy, it would be a good book. The John Palmer How to Brew is an excellent choice. What you learn will apply to Mr. Beer kits and as advanced as you want to go. https://www.amazon.com/How-Brew-Everything-Great-Every/dp/1938469356/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1524335575&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=palmer+how+to+brew

Lastly, I'll double down on my advice to stick with flavorful ales and stay away from lagers and pilsner. Best of luck.

Awesome! Welcome to the greatest hobby there is. If you are really interested in creating your own recipes, Designing Great Beers and Radical Brewing are two of my favorite resources. The former is very technical and contains detailed information on ingredients and how the play with other ingredients to affect the flavor of your beer. The latter is a great, well-rounded brewing book that focuses a lot on brewing with non-conventional ingredients, and how to use them in your recipes.

Okay, I'm gonna give you the "you don't need lessons to home brew" lesson.

First, it's easy. It's easy as hell. All you're doing is boiling sugar, hops, and water, cooling it down, and adding yeast. You can buy the sugar (known as malt extract) in cans, so you don't even have to mess with grains. Later, you can get into creating your own extract (and recipes) with grains and a mashtun, but malt extract is step one.

Second, go buy "How To Brew" by John Palmer. It's the bible of home brewing books. You might see others, like "The Joy of Home Brewing" by Charlie Papazian, but start with Palmer's book. It's more recent, and I feel like it's written to grow with you. Once you get past the extract batch and go to steeping with grains, he's got a chapter on that. Once you go from steeping with grains to "mini-mash" (where you make half a batch of extract and make up the rest with malt extract) he's got a chapter for that. When you've been brewing for 5 years and you go "man, I want to figure out what's up with my water and how I can make it better," he's got a chapter on that.

Third, listen to brewing podcasts. I would highly recommend the Brewing Network. John Palmer (the guy I just talked about) and Jamil Zainasheff (he wrote another prominent brewing guide called Brewing Classic Styles) both appear on there, and in fact have a show together called "Brew Strong." The early episodes of the Session are also great, they've gotten away from home brew in later years, but are making a return to it currently. Doctor Homebrew is great when you're ready to start competing, and Lunch Meet is fun as hell and has nothing to do with beer. Seriously, I've learned more from the BN than I have from reading How To Brew cover to cover. They've got a way of talking about things that makes it fairly easy to understand.

Fourth, some equipment advice. When you buy a kettle, you'll be tempted to save a few bucks and buy a 5 gallon kettle. Spend the extra 20-30 bucks and buy a 7 to 10 gallon aluminum kettle. The biggest problem you're going to have in the beginning is sanitation. If you're boiling your beer in a concentrated boil, where you boil 3 gallons and add 2 once the boil is over, you're gonna have a bad time. Just do a "full wort" boil, where you boil everything, transfer it to your fermenter, and add your yeast. There are so many things that can go wrong in fermentation, and they're all caused by bacteria and wild yeast. Boiling the whole shebang at once decreases those chances greatly.

I would recommend finding someone who might be into brewing beer, selling them real hard on it, and at least having a buddy on brew day, if not someone you share equipment and costs with. Cleanup is easily the biggest killer for most people in the hobby, and having two people to mop, sanitize bottles, and scrub the kettle when it's all said and done can really make the difference.

Also, the homebrewing subreddit here is fantastically helpful. I'd start with /r/homebrewing and Palmer's book, and work your way up.

I started with the Williams kit and it's been great over the last year. It's for extract, but could be upgraded to all-grain pretty easily.

There are cheaper kits out there somewhere, but this was the only one I could find (at the time) that came with a pot (pre-drilled) and wort chiller.

For your first brew, I would advise to follow a kit, and then make the same kit again for your 2nd brew. It will familiarize yourself with the process, and back-to-back beers are a great way to see how process improvement affects the taste and quality of your beer. It might sound boring, but once you got the basics down, then you can really go buck wild with your own recipes. Makes for a lot less hard lessons.

Use the search bar first, but don't be afraid to post questions, this sub is pretty helpful to new guys.

Other helpful tidbits

Brulosophy

Mad Fermentationist


BrewUnited

The Bible

The other Bible

Edit: Many edits...

For learning to cook, I highly recommend How to Boil Water. It got me going on the basics, has uncomplicated (and delicious) recipes--and now I love cooking. Plus, making my own food made me open up my tastes more, and I eat a lot more foods now than I did prior.

And I echo everyone else saying that along with yoga and biking (which are both great, for flexibility and endurance respectively) you should definitely get advice from your boyfriend on how to start an exercise program. Having someone knowledgable to help you get started is invaluable and will give you the confidence and knowledge base to do it on your own. At the very least, he can teach you bodyweight exercises and weight training lifts (squats, rows, presses, deadlifts) to add muscle and strength, and the proper form with which to do them. Good luck!

First I will say brewing extract isn't necessarily "cheating". Brewing with extract is the same thing as baking a cake with one of those mixes from the supermarket - at the end of the day you still have cake, you just didn't have to measure out all the ingredients.

That said, if you want to jump into all-grain first that's fine but I think you might have read way too much into it! It's not nearly as difficult as it sounds like you might have convinced yourself. You don't need to worry about water chemistry, washing yeast, or quantum physics to brew beer. Your best bet to start would be the online version of How To Brew. It is the 1st edition of the popular How To Brew. I would recommend picking up the book, however, since the print edition is the 3rd edition, and there have been some updates. You can also check out The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.

For your first batch you can do something simple, you don't need to worry about water chemistry or getting crazy with your yeast. If you have any more specific questions, there is a daily Q&A on this sub as well.

I feel the best way to go about this is to gain a general sense of the outline of history, which isn't nearly so difficult as it may seem as first once you realize that the "history" that mainly gets talked about is only about 3000 years. Learn some sign posts for that span, and then from there you can fit anything new you learn into the general outline you've gained. A couple good books for gaining those signposts are:

A History of the World in 6 Glasses. A phenomenal starting book. Gives very, very broad strokes on the entirety of human development, from pre-history when we first made beer inside hollowed tree trunks (it predates pottery), all the way to the dawn of the global economy with the perpetual success of Coca-Cola.

Roots of the Western Tradition An incredibly short (265 pages!) overview of Ancient Mesopotamia up to the decline of the Roman Empire written in very accessible language. Phenomenal text.

The Story of Philosophy. A bit more dense than the other's, but a tour de force breakdown of the history of Western thought.

Obviously the above is very Western centric, I wish I could recommend similar books that cover Asian history, but sadly I can't think of any (though hopefully others will point some out in the comments). Still though, once you gain the signposts I talked about, learning Asian history will still be easier as you can slot things into the apporpriate time period. Like "Oh, the first Chinese Empire (Qin Dynasty) rose up in the same era as Rome was rising as a power and fighting it's wars against Carthage". Or, "Oh, the Mongols took power in Asia just about right after the Crusades."

As a little bonus, they may not be accurate but historical movies can still help pin down those first signposts of your history outline. Here's a little list.

I'm guessing you want some info on brewing not my quest for this redditor's kegs. There are some really good books to pick up that will help you out a ton, learn you some basics real quick and the science behind it. I picked up this one, which is also sort of the standard 101 book. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381888/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_caAWub1JT7F56
There is also the sub reddit where you can get some great tips, ideas, and also jelly of other peoples set ups.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing

Locally there is Austin Home Brew Supply up off metric and 183. Everyone there is pretty knowledgable and are really welcoming to newbies and vets alike so if you're starting off they can hook you up and get you on your way to a solid first brew.

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/

As for tips, really it comes down to sanitation, that shit is no joke. Keep it clean, take your time, and always have a beer in hand while brewing. You'll need a shit ton of ice to cool down your brew because water here doesn't come cold out of the tap so to chill your wort, you'll probably need more than you expect. Be adventurous when your doing it, try dumb shit, keep a journal/log on how and what you do so you will be able to avoid or repeat things depending on what you want. In general its a great way to have quality brew, that you would pay 10$ a sixer for like 1$ and some change cost to you per beer. Oh, also don't buy bottles, just stock up on empties that are non-screw off tops. Hopefully that spurred your interest to brew battle it out with your friend and pick up a great hobby/drinking habit.

Hey, welcome to reddit, I haven't read the complete joy of home brewing yet but one book I do recommend as something every one should read is "How to Brew" by John Palmer.
He starts off with the absolute basics like sanitation then has a really well structured progression from extract brewing through nutrients, how all your temps and proteins work, water chemistry, all grain brewing even how to fabricate your own equipment! Definitely cant praise it enough, I know it certainly made me step my game up lol.

the first edition is free online http://www.howtobrew.com/
But I highly recommend getting the hard copy 3rd edition and for $5 secondhand you really cant say no lol http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0937381888/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=

Since he has never brewed before I would recommend a basic kit. I'm not saying that you have to get this from NB, but this is an example what comes in a starter kit. I strongly recommend purchasing, How to Brew by John Palmer. This book will clear up a lot of brewing mysteries.

I'd also recommend going to your local homebrew store (LHBS) and ask them for help. If you have one close by, and they are any good, they can be an invaluable source of knowledge for a new brewer. Good luck, this can become a life long hobby if he chooses to pursue it.

As your husband grows into the hobby he will

Je te conseil ste livre la : https://www.amazon.ca/How-Brew-Everything-Right-First/dp/0937381888 sinon, son site web gratuit : http://www.howtobrew.com/ Je sais pas si il est a jour comparer au livre. Ya eu plusieurs découverte de brassage depuis quelques années. C'est un super de bon livre avec la grande majorité des choses que t'as besoin de savoir concernant le brassage de la bière et c'est super bien expliqué.

r/homebrewing peux t'aider aussi. Super belle communauté consacrer au brassage de biere et plein de gens qui veulent t'aider. Incluant John Palmer lui même (auteur de How to Brew).

Ya aussi ste gars la qui fais des cherches sur des bieres historique anglaise : http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/ Super de bon stock qui t'apprend les ancien type biere avant la révolution industriel et les guerres qui a eux qui a tout changer.

Je recommande aussi http://brulosophy.com/. Super de bon blog qui teste des mythes de brassage de façon scientifique et les prouve correcte ou non.

Tout ca c'est le brassage de biere de type Anglais. Si tu veux du stuff de biere belge (ce qu'on a beaucoup au Quebec) je te recommande la serie - Brewing Farmhouse Ales, Brew like a Monk et Brewing with Wheat. https://www.amazon.ca/Farmhouse-Ales-Craftsmanship-European-Tradition/dp/0937381845/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519234800&sr=1-1&keywords=brewing+farmhouse+ale&dpID=51oI7VkdTwL&preST=_SY264_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

Si tu cherche du stuff des biere Allemande/Czech je te conseil ste livre la : Brewing Lager Beer : https://www.amazon.ca/New-Brewing-Lager-Beer-Comprehensive/dp/0937381829/ref=pd_sim_14_18?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YJKTZ5QSPD8KH7MZQ48Z

ET Si tu cherche plus des recettes qui fonctionne que son selon les styles BJCP, je te conseil ste livre la : https://www.amazon.ca/Designing-Great-Beers-Ultimate-Brewing/dp/0937381500/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=S5CFF5PGSYQN6YW5HNZH

Si tu cherche du stuff concernant les biere surrette (Lambic, Brett, Lacto etc) regarde ste livre la : https://www.amazon.ca/American-Sour-Beer-Michael-Tonsmeire/dp/1938469119/ref=pd_sim_14_9?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=DF5N9XVQ8FWQCNK6NKS3

Je connais malheureusement pas de literature en francais.


Sur ce bonne chance et lache pas! C'est super interessant!

I'm going to actively try to avoid recipe books here in my links (that said, that means you're missing out on Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails, Death & Co, Potions of the Caribbean, and The Joy of Mixology so.... YMMV)

Liquid Intelligence - IMHO must have guide on the technical aspects of bartending. This book is amazing and is the first thing I share with my coworkers that want to broaden their knowledge

The Drunken Botanist - In depth examination of the plants that go into making our favorite drinks, beers, booze, and sundry

Bitters - Has history of bitters, along with instructional on how to make your own.

Shrubs Kind of recipes but also talks about how to make shrubs and good proportions for them, which isn't super common.

Wine Folly Do you want a good intro-to-wine with good, clear reference sheets about styles and pairings? Here's your book

The Wine Bible Want to know way more than you ever thought you wanted to know about wine? This is what you want to be reading.

The Beer Bible - Same as above, but for beer instead of wine.

Holy Smoke! Its Mezcal Mezcal can be hard to pin down and I've found this one to be decent. Includes a table of things that were available in the US at time of publishing and the author's opinions on quality.

Vermouth - pretty in depth history on vermouth, focusing on its place in American cocktail Culture

Imbibe! In depth history of early cocktail culture, focusing on Jerry Thomas and the Bon Vivant's Companion

...I'm sure I could think of more, given the time. I'm trying to just delve into things currently on my shelf, and not in my wishlist.

Ah, this is always tough when starting out. It's a matter of association. You just need to be able to express what you are tasting, smelling, feeling etc. The tough part is that everyone smells things a bit differently and has different sensitivities. When I started out I would get a beer and as I drank it I would read beeradvocate or ratebeer reviews and see if I agreed with any or if any gave me an Ah HA! moment in looking for a descriptor. You can also use the Beer Flavor Wheel to help you narrow down descriptors.

Another thing to do is start reading up on how beer is made and where certain flavors come from, it can help with your associations and understanding of WHY the beer tastes the way it does.

You can also get Tasting Beer, a fantastic book by Randy Mosher. It's a well informed, well written book on how to make associations, how to describe what you are tasting, how beer is made and where the various aromas and flavors come from. I had the pleasure of judging at a table with Randy this week and he is an awesome guy, extremely knowledgeable and very nice.

Can you force carb/keg? If so, your options are pretty wide open.

If not, you're going to have to do something pretty quick, like an American wheat. According to Designing Great Beers, many 2nd round winners for the AHA's NHBC have been all-extract wheat beers. Go with a two cans of Briess wheat LME and 2 pounds wheat DME (or just 8 pounds DME), some noble (Hallertau/Liberty/Mt.Hood) hops at 60 and 10 and Wyeast 1010. This yeast is pretty forgiving on fermentation temps as well. You could go with 8 - 12 ounces of crystal 10 or 20 or carahell for steeping grains to add a little more character. Make a big starter so it ferments quickly and you get a healthy fermentation.

Don't overlook The Joy of Homebrewing. A lot can be learned. It may not be as in depth as Designing Great Beers, but it probably has all the information you need to make a good first shot.

Also, to design a beer that you love, you need to understand what are the characteristics in your favorite beers. So starting with a clone recipe of a favorite beer and tinkering with it is a great thing to do too.

Ok, this is from the book 6 Glasses that Changed the World. It's been a while since I read it, so take it with a grain of salt.

IIRC, it was more like they added wine to water in order to make it taste better (since, as you mention, they had shitty sources of water). In addition, the wine of the time wasn't as subtle, I guess. Their yeast wasn't as specialized, so it left more sugars, and it was sweeter and more cloying. So wine improved the taste of water and water improved the taste of wine. Finally, part of it was to avoid getting drunk. As Romans, they considered themselves the height of civilization and took pride in being cultured.

Of course they got drunk- they're human! They had parties, like everyone else. I'm sure you've heard of Bacchanals - literally a festival to the god of wine. At their parties, they had a guy who was in charge of maintaining the ratio of wine:water as the night went on, I'm guessing he made it stronger.

BTW, I'd recommend the book. It's a quick read and very entertaining,

Good luck! I'm still a beginner but a great book that I've been using to help me is The Joy of Homebrewing. Hope that helps.

Well before you begin, start saving your pry top brown beer bottles. You'll need them.

First, buy How to Brew and read Section I.

Next, buy one of these kits and a semi-easy recipe kit...like the Autumn Amber Ale.

Finally, have fun with it. Start small with the equipment, ingredients, and procedure until you get a feel for it. /r/Homebrewing is great resource and pretty friendly to beginners. It's a fun hobby and I always brew if I have a free weekend. Enjoy!

Beer and science you say! I have a few recommendations for you then.
The essential book to beginning homebrewing is John Palmer's How to Brew. This dives right into the science and explains things clearly for a beginner.

And what is science without some equipment! For the scientist there is a nice refractometer that can be used to measure the gravity of your beer and use that to calculate the ABV%.
Also, ever beer scientist needs to keep track of what they are working on. How about picking up a brewer's journal.

Maybe you want a more DIY project to get into it. How about a home made mash paddle? They are easy to make and it's something that you two can design and make together.

Since he most likely doesn't have a kit, stop on over to Northern Brewer and check out some of the starter kits.

There are also options for wine, mead and cider so no matter what your taste you can get something that you two can enjoy together. I love brewing and my wife helps out. We get to spend time together and create tasty drinks.

These may not be the most original choices but the clues you've given us really lend to a hobby I'm very passionate about. Hope this helps and if either of you have any questions about gear or brewing etc... feel free to drop me a line.

This is my full list of books from /r/homebrewing but it includes pro level books:

New Brewers:

• How to Brew - John Palmer
  
• Brewing classic styles- Jamil Zainasheff
  
• Designing Great Beers - Ray Daniels
  
• The Complete Joy of Homebrewing - Charlie Papazian
  
  Continued Learning:
  
  
• Water - Palmer and Kaminsky
  
• Yeast - Zainicheff and White
  
• Malt - Mallet
  
• Hops - Hieronymous
  
• Experimental Brewing - Drew Beechum and Denny Conn
  
• Radical Brewing - Randy Mosher
  
• Brewing Better Beer - Gordon Strong
  
  Specialty/Advanced/Other:
  
  
• American Sour Beers - Michael Tonsmeire (/u/oldsock)
  
• Brewing with Wheat - Stan Hieronymus
  
• IPA: Brewing Techniques - Mitch Steele
  
• Farmhouse Ales - Phil Markowski
  
• Brew Like a Monk - Stan Hieronymus
  
• New Brewing Lager Beers - Gregory J. Noonan
  
• Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers- Stephen Harrod Buhner
  
• Drink: a cultural history of alcohol - Iain gately
  
• Principals of Brewing Science - George Fix
  
  Business Books:
  
  
• Brewing Up a Business - Sam Calagione
  
• Brewers association Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery - Cantwell, among others
  
• SO you want to start a brewery - Tony magee
  
• Beyond the Pale: The Story of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co - Ken Grossman
  
• Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery Paperback –Steve Hindy & Tom Potter
  
  Technical Readings (Textbooks might be expensive):
  
  
• Brewery Operations Manual - Tom Hennessy
  
• Beer Packaging - Master Brewers Association
  
• Technology Brewing and Malting - W. Kunze, 5th Edition
  
• Malting and Brewing Science, Volume 1 - Many Authors
  
• Malting and Brewing Science, Volume 2 - Many Authors
  
• Brewing yeast and fermentation - Boulton and Quain

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything the Basics is really good for beginner stuff. Thug Kitchen's new book is also a great starting place for learning how to cook cheap and healthy.

My all time favorite cookbook is Mastering the Art of French Cooking which is a great intro to French techniques. The recipes themselves are not always cheap and healthy, but the skills you learn are super super useful for any type of cooking. It is by far the cookbook I have learned the most from.

How to Boil Water I think is perfect for what you're looking for. It covers a lot of basic stuff that really helps when it comes to approaching new recipes and being comfortable.

I'm not a pro by any stretch, but my parents never taught me how to cook growing up (as well as other common household things) I've made an effort to learn well enough to teach my daughters.

Make all my Thanksgiving from scratch on Thursday, wish me luck!

EDIT: Personal tip, stock up on seasonings when you can, they tend to go a long way. And make sure to taste them and smell them individually from time to time. It helps get a feel for what it contributes to what you're cooking, and what flavor you want.

It's all about taste and palettes. If you don't like sours, that's fine. A lot of folks don't. I gather the recent shift isn't far different than the lupulin threshold shift. It's my perception that sour fan-boi's are a bit more strong in their opinions and beliefs due to the amount of time and effort that goes into creating proper, delicious sour beers. An excellent IPA can be cranked out in less than a month, while sour beers require many months, even years to make, and require some advanced techniques such as blending in order to achieve a desired flavor or for consistency. Some may come off as elitists, or beer snobs because of this extra effort required, which isn't going to help them bring more to their cause.

It also may have something to do with the recent release of /u/oldsock's book back in June, which is one of the only really well written books on sour beers. Even if you don't like them, it's a great book to read through, as it really does open your eyes to just how complex they can be, and why their is such an appreciation for them among their loyal tasters.

I'd take a look at The Brewmaster's Table by Garrett Oliver. He's the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery and world renowned for his beer/food pairings and experience.

One caveat: he loves his superlatives. I remember one passage where he discusses how cheap and widely available Schneider Weiss is and how it's surprisingly a "tour de force," or something like that. Not sure why it's a surprise that one of the most highly respected/awarded breweries in the world turns out a good beer. Still, for beginners who are serious about learning beer it's a good read.

I've also really enjoyed Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher. If you have any interest in brewing it's highly informative and a great historical look at all kinds of different beer. Michael Jackson (the wine critic, not that other guy) wrote the forward, which is about as much endorsement as I needed.

Good on you for deciding to make a healthy change! Definitely check out the /r/EatCheapAndHealthy/ sub. It's a kind and helpful group that routinely gives great tips and recipes.

If you're just starting out, investing in a basic cookbook is an excellent way to learn cooking skills at your own pace. I'd get one that starts with boiling eggs and such basics, then progresses to simple recipes. How to Cook Everything: The Basics and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian are good ones, both by Mark Bittman. Another good resource is BudgetBytes.com.

Also, you might do some reading up on meal planning. IMO, it's just as important as the cooking and eating.

If you want to learn a whole lot about the subject of brewing water I found this book to be really useful (if a little dry to read).

https://www.amazon.com/Water-Comprehensive-Brewers-Brewing-Elements/dp/0937381993

I think it is actually easier on some level to start with RO (for brewing purposes RO water is very close to distilled and generally way cheaper) and then just "build" your water from scratch at least for some styles. Pilsners are a good example because Plzen, Czech Republic has famously low mineral water and very few other places have such water. So the best option for an "authentic" Czech Pils is to start with water with essentially no minerals and add back tiny amounts.

Other styles of beer became what they are in order to make the best possible beer with the water the brewer historically had to deal with. So Irish stouts are obviously well suited to Dublin's water profile and English IPAs well suited to Burton water, etc. And with RO water, a good scale, and a few powdered minerals you can pretty straightforwardly replicate the water from anywhere in the world.

If you don't use RO water it gets a little bit trickier in that you have to know what you are starting with regarding minerals in your tap water. That's harder for some than others. Where I live, my municipal water is pulled from three different sources, they all have slightly different mineral profiles, and it's not as though the city tells you when they switch from one source to another. On top of that, because they are all sourced from surface water, their mineral content will change depending on time of year (winter water vs. spring runoff water for example). So unless you pretty routinely have your water tested (expensive to do often) you don't necessarily know what your starting mineral levels are... which makes getting your mineral additions right tricky. Luckily I have pretty good water for brewing IPAs and that's what I brew most often. But when I brew a pils I start with RO (and add very little), when I brew a stout I try to get a little closer to Dublin water by using filtered tap, baking soda, and chalk, and like I mentioned when I do American IPAs I only have to add a little gypsum. I don't try to replicate water from around the world exactly, but I do try to get my water closer to the recommended ranges.

You can get as deep into water profiles as you like, from trying to completely replicate the water where a style originated to just adding a couple of minerals to get somewhat closer to those "ideal" ranges. It's one of those subjects we can nerd out on as much as we like.

Yeast. Highly recommended.

Brewing With Wheat. Great book, but you'll get the most out of it if you feel comfortable taking some basic parameters and building a recipe yourself.

Radical Brewing. Lots of weird stuff, but I thought it was surprisingly strong on the basics, too.

Brewing Classic Styles. Good resource for tried and true recipes. One or two recipes for each BJCP style might be either a strength or a weakness, depending on how varied your brewing interests are.

Like most water reports, that one lacks most of the brewing-specific pertinent info. Call or email your provider and they'll give you the complete report.

Taste is FAR more important than content, IMO. Make sure you enjoy drinking the water out of the tap before you brew with it. I personally HATE my local water, so I get the filtered dispenser water at my grocery store. For hoppy beers, I add 2-4g of gypsum(/5gal), for non-hoppy beers I add the same amount of CaCl. Either way, the yeast need Calcium. I like to keep it simple, unless I know I want a specific mineral profile for a beer style.

Generally on water:

Palmer does a great job setting the foundation. http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter4.html
If you really have not read anything yet, this is an excellent place to start (you will likely be told a lot of conflicting info on this topic, which would be confusing even IF most people used a common vocabulary, which is of course not the case).

The "Water" addition to the Brewing Elements series is pretty new, so the stuff discussed in there won't be common knowledge most likely. http://www.amazon.com/Water-Comprehensive-Brewers-Brewing-Elements/dp/0937381993/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383162459&sr=8-1&keywords=water+book
That one is next on my list, "Yeast" was the best brewing book I've read since "Brewing Better Beer."

Cheers!

The only cookbook I've used multiple times has been How to Boil Water. It has a lot of basic recipes, but the best part about it is that it also gives you lots of great instructions on how to prepare and store different foods. It's a great book that I refer back to often. :)

On my bookshelf:

• How to Brew : Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time by John Palmer
  
  
• Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew by Jamil Zainasheff
  
  
• Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation by Zainasheff and White
  
  
• Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales and World-Altering Meditations in a Glass by Randy Mosher
  
  
• The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charles Papazian
  
  
• Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles by Ray Daniels
  
  
• Great Beer Guide: 500 Classic Brews by Michael Jackson
  
  
• The Brewmasters Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food by Garrett Oliver
  
  
• Beer is Proof God Loves Us: Reaching for the Soul of Beer and Brewing by Charles Bamforth
  
  
• Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World by Christopher Mark O'Brien
  
  
• A Year of Beer: 260 Seasonal Homebrew Recipes by Amahl Turczyn
  
  
• Clone Brews: Homebrew Recipes for 150 Commercial Beers by Tess and Mark Szamatulski (outdated version)
  

Congrats! I would recommend doing some reading before you dive in. The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition is a good read as well as How to Brew which is available online and free.

Edit: I read The Complete Joy of Homebrewing cover to cover before I bought any equipment. I started with extract brews bought as a recipe kit, my first few were strictly extract then I got into using specialty grains. I did around 12 batches this way before I put together a DIY mash tun and stepped into all-grain. There's a good learning curve involved, be patient and don't get too far ahead of yourself. I've had buddies try to do that and their equipment ended up on Craig's List.

Prohibition didn't happen until 1920. The drink probably dates to circa-1860s. The original 1:1 ratio (and similar ratios) was very popular with high-quality, sweeter gin (think Old Tom gin) by the 1880s, and similar ratio drinks with true dry gins were popular by the 1890s. The Wikipedia entry is incomplete and unsourced, making claims about things that are poorly documented and repeating common-knowledge ideas about the drink that aren't necessarily correct. Also, there wasn't good vermouth during Prohibition, either.

Most people with experience with good vermouths vastly prefer higher vermouth content ratios for the Martini even today when great gin is super common. I've never met someone with even a moderate interest in cocktails that prefers the virtually-no-vermouth version of a Martini. In short, your explanation for the phenomenon doesn't really make sense. Prohibition may have had an impact, but it was probably predominantly a cultural one or perhaps the reduced availability of good vermouth combined with complicated cultural factors. For a decent history of cocktails, I recommend David Wondrich's Imbibe!, which is a very interesting read.

Find your local cheap grocery store...Sav-A-Lot, Aldi, etc. I think it depends on where you are...but...a discount place will help you b/c they usually have smaller packaging, and cheaper ingredients.

Find a basics book like this. You can get books from your library, I also use Overdrive app to borrow ebooks (I use it through my local library, but you can sign up with an email). These kinds of books will explain the steps and process, more than just give you directions on putting ingredients together.

When using a recipe: read through the whole recipe and ingredients first. If you don't recognize everything...look it up, but consider that if you have to look up a bunch of stuff, it might be beyond your scope for the time being and attempt something else.

On supplies: You really don't need a lot, utilize thrift stores, craigslist, FB marketplace - a lot of people give these things away when they get new. For basics:

• Wood spoon, pancake turner, rubber/silicone spatula, whisk, slotted spoon, measuring cups (even dollar store cups are fine), teaspoons. For the pancake turner, I have two - a metal one for my heavy metal pans, and a plastic one for my non-stick stuff...but my non-stick is on it's last legs and I will probably toss them soon and when I do - the plastic turner goes with them. Maybe one or two large bowls (I started with dollar store plastic bowls...they were AWFUL, but they worked and I got them for cheap).
  
  
• Pots/pans: if you're cooking alone, don't worry about getting a bunch of stuff. Maybe one medium pot with a lid (about 2 quarts), one skillet (about 14-16 inches), one 8x8ish dish, one 9x13, and maybe a baking sheet (though in a pinch, if you can't get this/don't want to get this - bake in your 8x8 or 9x13 dishes).
  
  
• Other things...a decent knife (even though I have a knife set, I really just use the one large knife for everything most of the time). Maybe a tiny food processor...you can get these for like $9.99 sometimes, they're really small, but helpful when you don't have all the skills down. Easy to chop, mince, and puree with one small machine. Cutting board.
  
  A lot of this stuff might be sitting in relative's kitchens unused...and they might even give you a few things if you let them know you're looking for some supplies.
  
  In the future, also look into a crock pot. You can use it with minimal effort and make enough to save food for later (large pot of soup - split it up into quart freezer bags and thaw for meals later).
  
  Meal planning for beginners...Find 3 or 4 dishes you can learn how to make and keep making them until you know how to do them without messing up at all. Basic dishes. A rice dish, a pasta dish, a soup, a casserole (like chicken pot pie). Don't worry about trying to make everything from scratch...You can buy minute rice, and pre-made pie crusts, canned and frozen vegetables are cheaper than fresh and don't go bad in the fridge if you can't use them quickly. But frozen tends to be better for most varieties...and you can even buy frozen diced onions...and since many recipes start with cooking onion...using frozen saves you time and effort. You can also buy minced garlic in the jar...which I prefer to powdered, and lasts longer than fresh.

If you can tell the difference between extract and all grain it's not necessarily the ingredients but the brewers level of skill. Ray Daniels lays out reasons why you can make great beer with extract.

As zebbielm12 pointed out, you'll get better tasting beer with Ferm Temp control than you will doing AG. But AG is cheaper to get into and provides another level of fun to brew day. I'd recommend using equipment you probably already have to do a partial mash. I just picked up a 2 gal cooler and some paint stainer bags for <$15.

Finally, to answer your question, I have. Sounds like we have the same beginnings. I didn't want to waste money transitioning to AG and went straight too it. I found it was annoying to have all of that equipment in a small apartment so I went to extract with steeping grains. I'm able to brew more and enjoy having less things to worry about.

If you're nervous about getting him a beer he might not like, you can always spring for something like glasswear or an experience. For example:


Glasswear - very few beer drinkers have a good set of tasting glasses or a nice Teku glass. They tend to spend their money more on the beer than the proper glasswear. Here are some to consider:


Teku Glasses
Tasting Glasses

Experience - This is completely scalable based on budget. Need to do something cheaper? Check out Yelp reviews and Beer Advocate reviews to find the best local brewery near you and take him there, followed by dinner at a great tap room or gastropub. Have more budget? Take him on a beer roadtrip or brewery tour around some of the local breweries in your area.


Beer books and merch - There are a lot of great books about the history of beer, tasting beer, etc. Here are a few to check out:


Tasting Beer
Oxford Companion

You can also get merch from his favorite brewery's online store or taproom. They'll have shirts, branded glasses, etc. All of those things should score points with any beer drinker.

The book How to Brew it's a great place to start doing some research. It's like the home brewer's Bible. There are also a lot of free resources online like discussion boards and how-to guides.

When you're ready to purchase a kit, [Northern Brewer] (http://www.northernbrewer.com/) and Midwest Supplies are both great retailers. I would recommend signing up for their mailing lists as they will often have starter kits on sale.

I would recommend staying away from the cheaper Mr. Beer kits. It can be a cheaper, easier option but it's like the easy-bake oven version of homebrewing. You'll make beer, sure, but you won't learn as much using these kits and there's little room for customization/upgrading if you decide to get more into it.

On Black Friday, both retailers that I mentioned always have starter kits on sale. I've gotten brewing equipment and 2 recipe kits for less than $100. That's enough to make roughly 100 bottles of beer for less than $1/bottle. You don't have to buy bottles, just save used ones, (no screw-offs) rinse them out, and you'll be able to fill and re-cap them.

Finally, when brewing, sanitize everything. The quickest way to ruin a batch of beer is improper sanitation.

Cheers.

Hey guys, I've been brewing Gruit for a couple of months now. Got turned onto it by my neighbor who has been doing it for years. Here is a video of his process Brewing Beer Over A Fire Pit, and we will try to upload more as we go.

The brew bible we are working from is Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, by Stephen Harrod Buhner. I've been doing research trying to find more information and recipes for gruits, and this book seems to be a major resource for almost everyone. It's also a great read, exploring the history of brewing around the world.

The main reason I love gruit, is that without the hops you don't feel tired or full when drinking it. And with the yarrow and wormwood you get a mild psychotropic effect so you feel pleasant and alert. My friend drinks it every night during the winter because these herbs are used for skin care and drinking a bottle or two a night keeps his skin from cracking when he's working outside the next day.

I'm starting to experiment with new recipes, just tried a sage ale and a ginger beer. Bottling tonight, if there is interest I will post info/pictures.

I recommend picking up Randy Mosher's 'Tasting Beer'. Here is an excerpt regarding pouring for a creamier head:

"To get the best head on a beer, pour boldly down the center of an absolutely clean glass. It will foam up, but this is good. Really. Allow it to settle and then repeat until you have a full glass. By delaying gratification and allowing a large amount of foam to build up and then shrink, you have created a dense, creamy foam, filled with tiny, long-lasting bubbles. As a side benefit, you have knocked some of the excess gas out of the beer, and the result will be more like the smooth creaminess of draft beer."

How to Brew is what I learned a lot from. Pretty cheap but teaches you a lot about how to actually brew beer.

I read A LOT of the style guidelines on BeerAdvocate to understand glassware and styles, also terminology.

I also got lucky and had an amazing beer monger at my local wine/cheese/beer shop. He taught me a ton, as did the guy I was dating. I'd try literally every beer I could get my hands on and would go from there.

Now I know exactly what styles I like, how to pick beers I'm likely to like, what glassware it should generally go in, etc.

I have also helped homebrew multiple times. It gives you a good understanding of the whole beer making process.

How to Brew is pretty widely excepted as the must have piece of reading material. There is an online version, but it is pretty outdated. Definitely spend a few bucks and buy the most recent edition. It is totally worth it. Other than that I think Brewing Classic Styles is great to have around as well regardless of skill level.

I think one issue here is that the terms "lagering" and "cold conditioning" have become synonyms which isn't exactly right to my understanding.

Traditional lagering is the process of cooling down the wort slowly in a way that doesn't shock the yeast into dormancy, which can cause more flavor compounds (mainly esters) to express and allows lager yeast to continue to uptake compounds in the beer down to the conditioning temperature.

Cold conditioning is the same for both lager yeast and ale yeast insofar as causing some compounds to drop out. Ale yeasts by and large don't do well at cold condition temperatures so instead of doing all the extra meddling with temperatures, we just usually crash to the condition temperature. From that point on they're essentially the same.

I've played with lagering ale yeast before and it did seem to reduce esters and produce a very clean beer compared to regular crashing, but I didn't do a triangle or anything so confirmation bias is in play. If you have the ability to lager, I would strongly suggest playing with it to see what the process does for ya. Might also be a great brulosophy experiment to compare lager to crashing, hmmmm....

There's more detailed info on page 114 in Yeast by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff. A great book but not a casual read =)

You are asking an excellent question.

Extract is good starting point; most of us started with that and made very drinkable beer. It is nice as all of the variables are taken care of for you - all you need to do is boil the extract, add the yeast, and make sure kept everything sanitary. If you follow the directions, you will have a beer at the end of it.
It is my belief that most people will encourage that route as it is a nice way to ease into homebrewing.

The downside of extract kits, especially in Canada, is that they can be pretty darn pricey. My LHBS (local home brew store) sells the Brewer's Best 5 gallon extract kits for between $80-90 a pop (probably cheaper other places - don't get me started on my LHBS...) whereas I can throw together a similar 5 gallon all-grain brew for around $20-40 depending on what I am making.

Most brewers will transition from a few extract brews to all-grain, or at least to the BIAB (Brew in a Bag style) all-grain brewing. And, most people will then need to purchase a larger kettle, somewhere in the realm of 8-10 gallons is often suggested.

I would have no qualms about someone jumping straight into all-grain brewing right away. Most of us get there anyways, and really it is not all that difficult after you get the hang of it.
Pick up a copy of John Palmer's How to Brew and Brewing Classic Styles and you will be set with a good resource on brewing and quality, tested recipes. A bit reading, this sub, and YouTube will make a good homebrewer out of you. Also, Homebrew Talk is a great resource for all things beer making.

Others want to just dabble in some beer making before spending that kind of cash on a set-up to discover that they actually don't like doing it or don't have the time/space/patience for brewing.

So, my personal recommendation is, if you are up to the task of taking on all-grain brewing sooner than later but want to do a few extract brews first, is to buy a kit that doesn't have a kettle and instead purchase an 8-10 gallon kettle separately. It will handle extract brews and all-grain. Everything else that comes with the basic kit you will use whether you are an extract brewer or an all-grain brewer so you don't lose anything, and are actually ahead if you do go all-grain.

Are you just bartending casually at home or are you looking to do it as a job in the future?

Jefferey Morgenthaler's book is great:https://www.amazon.com/Bar-Book-Elements-Cocktail-Technique/dp/145211384X

You'll want to get a jigger, I recommend oxo's graduated jigger, a barspoon, a mixing glass, a strainer, a set of shaker tins (get a small and a large, and seriously splurge for koriko not the other bullshit)

Those are all of the essentials, beyond that everything is fairly unnecessary but there are tons of other things you can buy. I guess a vegetable peeler could be handy for peels but you can just use a sharp paring knife for zest garnishes.

For glassware you can spend as much or as little as you want, depending on how much you care about appearance. When I first starting making drinks at home I had glasses for every variety of drink. I still have those glasses, but basically use these for everything, regardless if it's shaken stirred or whatever. Gimlets taste delicious out of them, manhattans taste delicious out of them.

One little handy thing I've found is these seagram's bottles. Buy a 6 pk of the little glass club soda bottles. Once you use the soda, rinse them out and they're perfect for storing syrups, juices, etc. Plastic caps won't deteriorate like metal will in other styles of bottlees. They're short so they fit in weird parts of your fridge, hold enough syrup for plenty of drinks, etc etc.

> Roasted malts will lower the pH of the mash more than pale malts

The gold star answer right there! ::cheers::

You have to tailor the water to the specific grain bill of each recipe, so that you end up with both the correct mash pH as well as an appropriate mineral balance for the desired flavor.

(As an aside, this is a key factor in how different regions adopted certain beer styles way back when... they didn't understand the chemistry going on in the mash, but they learned through experience that certain types of beers came out better or worse than others, because of the water available to them.)

I cannot recommend Bru'n Water highly enough... I've been using it for years, and the quality of my beers -- which were pretty good to begin with -- skyrocketed. Some beers were substantially improved, others had an "intangible cohesiveness" that they never had before.

I also went for the paid version, more to give Martin some compensation for all of his hard work than the added features (although the added features are nice).

I will also mention that once I got a pH meter, the measured results were nearly spot-on to the calculated results in Bru'n Water.

IMO Bru'n Water is far far far far far better than the water chemistry module in any of the major brewing software.

I also recommend the Water book, although it's not for the timid. I have no chemistry background (I'm a designer and audio engineer/musician, much more right-brain than left-brain!) and it's taken me a while and multiple re-reads to wrap my head around some of it... but IMO it was well-worth the effort.

I just got in a home brewing kit for me and my gf to play with. We both are crazy about craft beer and we've been wanting to do it forever. Spent a good amount on the best one I could find, as well as some add-ons and kits. I took live five hours last night reading an awesome [book] (http://www.amazon.com/How-Brew-Everything-Right-First/dp/0937381888) on home brewing. I'm loving the chemistry and the mixture of precision and creativity. I think we are going to really fall in love with it. It was an anniversary gift, one year coming up in a couple weeks. So weird.

I don't really have any specific rules, per say, other than drink what you like. If you read enough around here, you'll notice that vodka doesn't exactly get put up on a pedestal by many. I personally find I use gin in almost any situation that calls for vodka so I don't really sweat which brand I have in the house (currently Tito's).

As for tequila, it's not so much about avoiding gold tequila (my house tequila is the lunazul reposado which is a gold tequila), it's making sure that you're using a quality 100% de agave tequila. Most brands that produce tequila this way will let you know somewhere on the label, but brands like espolon, lunazul, milagro are all safe bets. Otherwise, they're making the tequila from some percentage neutral grain spirit (typically distilled beet sugar) and adding tequila flavoring.

Read around here and on specific spirit subreddits to get further recommendations. I also recommend picking up a beginners cocktail book to give you an idea of which elements of your bar to stock first and prioritize what to buy later. 12 Bottle Bar focuses on what bottles to buy to make an array of classics. Bar Book is more focused on helping shape your technique and palate.

Since most of your people are new to the craft brew scene you dont want to scare them with really powerful beers and a great introduction is with some smooth, sweet, and creamy dessert beers. One of my favorite beer pairings right now is to match-up porters and stouts with dessert items. I just did one for my boyfriend for his birthday. I paired a cherry/chili pepper dark chocolate with a tanilla porter, and a ginger infused dark chocolate with a double-chocolate stout. Here is a great book I like to reference for ideas: http://www.amazon.com/Brewmasters-Table-Discovering-Pleasures-Real/dp/0060005718

A lot of people are saying sanitation here but not saying how to go about it. Use StarSan (can get from any brewing supply store, Northern Brewer for me). For extract kits, it is unnecessary to take gravity readings, but still fun! I recommend this book if you haven't read it already. Take your time, relax, and have a beer. Good luck!

Edit: Someone did say StarSan, my apologies.

"Laws" as in the legality of it or like actually homebrewing procedures and principles? The former, your state probably has some info online. The latter, How to Brew is a good start. AHA is another good stop (which may also have links to your state ABC info as well if that's what you meant) - they have a tutorial section. There are a plethora of books as well; The Complete Joy of Hombrewing is one that people recommend (haven't read it myself) and on the more advanced side the Brewing Elements series are great for brewing in general.

I'd highly suggest picking up a book. It also wouldn't hurt to head on down to your local homebrew shop and ask for advice/starter kit recommendations. Most shops are very friendly. If you have any friends or co-workers that brew try and shadow them for a brew or two. Just being there to observe the process helps a ton. Also, welcome to the club! It's a great hobby that can be very rewarding. :D

Okay so not really a cookbook but a great thing to keep around when you’re not sure what to pair with what you have on hand. The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook it’s kinda fun to flip through and see all the different flavor pairings. They categorize by flavors. So if one day you’re feeling something earthy, they have a section for it.

Probably the best way to start is with a starter kit. Most all brewing supply stores have these kits available at various levels. As an example, here's a basic kit:

https://www.morebeer.com/products/home-brewing-kit.html

Most people start with malt extract kits and brew a few to become familiar with the basic process. This kit, along with a 5 gallon kettle and about 2 cases of 12 oz. bottles will suffice. You'll also need an ingredient kit.

This kit includes a kettle, ingredient kit and a few other handy goodies. All you need with this are the bottles. https://www.morebeer.com/products/deluxe-home-brewing-kit.html

If you drink craft beer the bottles shouldn't be a problem. They come free with the beer. Twist tops don't work well and you want brown glass. You can also purchase new bottles:

https://www.morebeer.com/products/beer-bottles-12-oz-case-24-1.html

Last, but not least, I highly recommend How to Brew by John Palmer. It starts at the beginning, with instructions for your first brew and continues on to move you into the more advanced techniques.

https://smile.amazon.com/How-Brew-Everything-Great-Every/dp/1938469356/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1GIVLHG1JENP4&keywords=how+to+brew+john+palmer&qid=1562623249&s=books&sprefix=how+to+brew%2Caps%2C488&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1

If you enjoy the hobby and move on to more advanced methods, you'll find a place for most everything in these kits.

Happy brewing.

I'm selling all my home brew equipment and books asking 300, its an all or nothing deal sorry. I will provide pictures for any one interested.

1-glass carboy and hauler

1-bottling bucket with spout

1-fermenting bucket with lid

1-1 gallon glass carboy

1-2 gallon bucket

1-Hydrometer

3-Air locks

1-Thermometer

1-wood stirring paddle

1-40 quart stock pot

1-turkey fryer with the timer removed

1-20lb empty propane tank

1-capper and about 50 -60 beer bottle caps

1-corker for wine bottles and some corks

Auto siphon, tubing, racking cane,some PBW cleaner and Star Sanitizer left over, I have I think 12 empty wine bottles and probably have about an empty case worth of beer bottles.....I mean pretty much everything you need to brew or make wine.

Books are listed below and are in great shape.

How to Brew Beer

Designing Great Beer

For The Love of Hops

Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation

Hop Variety hand book

The Homebrewer's Garden

Interestingly enough, I just started picked up Radical Brewing, which was published in 2004. The first chapter on beer history points out loud and clear how American craft brewers unencumbered by centuries of tradition are experimenting and innovating into quite a vital and amazing beer culture. As I read that I was thinking that, since American craft brewing market is getting saturated in some (many?) areas of the country, maybe it'd be interesting to start a craft brewery some place in Europe. It's good to see someone--Stone--giving it a shot.

BTW, I haven't been to Europe since the late nineties. So, I don't have any first-hand experience with beer culture there. If the original premise is inaccurate, I'd be really interested to hear about it.

(Based on the little that I've read of the book so far, Randy Mosher--the author--is probably a Stone fan.)

It's usually cheaper to buy everything you need separately than buy a kit. Or check out craigslist; lots of homebrewers will sell their equipment if they are moving or if their wife is nagging them :)

Lots of restaurants and bakeries throw out perfectly good food-grade plastic buckets, and will save one for you if you ask.

An airlock, a bottle of Star-San, crown caps, and a bottle capper from the local homebrew store will run you about $35, plus another $35 for all the ingredients necessary for a batch of beer. You'll also need a large stock pot and maybe a racking cane.

Recipes and advice are free on the internet, or you can buy a book. I suggest The Joy of Home Brewing.

The moral of the story is that for about the same cost as a Mr. Beer kit and ingredient pack, you can make twice as much beer, and at a better quality.

My top suggestion would be "How to brew" By John Palmer or "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" By Charlie Papazian and read before buying anything. You will get a strong understanding of the process and be able to make sure it's something you will want to do before dropping $100 dollars on getting started.

If you want to jump in with smaller batches (1 Gallons) I would suggest buying one of Brooklyn Brew Shops kits or another small batch kit. The process is pretty much the same just in smaller portions. If you decide from there you want to go bigger you always can and then you have a better grasp on the process and what will be needed to make better beer.

David Wondrich's Imbibe! is one of my favorites. Not only does it go into a lot of detail about the cocktails but there is also a really nice chunk of history, legend, and anecdotes. Definitely an entertaining read and some great recipes.

Designing Great Beers has a lot of good advice on what goes into a recipe. Books like How To Brew and Complete Joy of Homebrewing spend of lot of time on the "how", Designing Great Beers does a good job with the "why" of recipes.

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing is on the front page right now, it is an excellent book and a must read. One that really helped me out as well is Designing Great Beers. YouTube also has a lot of great videos of people showing you the basics.

I would also second brendanmc6 comment to jump to Brew-in-a-Bag. Get some extract batches under your belt so you can understand the entire process but purchase equipment geared towards Brew-in-a-Bag, brewing will become so much more enjoyable!

Cheers!

Both kits will get you started. I started eight years ago with something like the $90. kit. The second bucket is not necessary but if you stick with brewing for some time you likely will purchase a second fermenter, this mostly allows for you to clear your beer of some of the sediment. I recommend going with $100.00 kit as you can brew more often as you will have a primary fermenter open on a faster basis if you move beers to the secondary after a week. I also recommend purchasing a book you can keep with you when you brew, like "The complete joy of homebrewing." http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Homebrewing-Third-Edition/dp/0060531053

Nobody measures the actual amounts of any brewing ion in solution in your water.

You either:

• send a sample of your tap water to a lab and have them measure the amounts of several brewing ions in your water
  
• are lucky (like me) and your water supplier periodically measures and reports those things and makes that available to the public
  
• start from distilled water (which is pure water, with no (actually very little) ions in it)
  
  Using one of the above you determine the base amounts of brewing ions in your water. Then you use something like bru'n water, brewersfriend, any of the other tools out there to determine a water profile and which salts to add to achieve that profile.
  
  After adding the salts, you just assume the desired amounts will be achieved, no need (or possibility, really) to actually measure those as a homebrewer.
  
  The tools I mentioned above also calculate mash pH and other important brewing water measures.
  
  Water is a very interesting topic to dive into, and if you really want to research this thoroughly I highly recommend Palmers "Water" book. Only part of that book is applicable to homebrewers, but it very clearly explains what water chemistry entails and what is important. It was only after reading this book that I fully understood how "residual alkalinity" works in brewing water, for example.
  
  Also, in my experience, getting the mash and boil pH right is way more important to the final product than the amounts of ions in your wort (as long as they are not exceedingly low, or high). When I brew with tap water without adjustments, my mash pH will be too high (especially for pale beers) which in turn means my boil pH will be to high. Invariably, those beers will take way longer to become clear, and the bitterness will be "weird". When I adjust my water to a (calculated) mash pH of ~5.4, the beer is already clear when I move it from the fermenter into bottles, and the bitterness is way more pleasant.

Brewing a sour can be only slightly more difficult (if kettle sour) or painfully tedious (if cold side sour) from a normal beer.

Assuming you know the standard process, kettle souring is throwing a bug into the sweet wort after you collect from the mash but before you boil (and depending on the bug, you might need to chill this first). You then get to sit on your pot and wait overnight to 2 days for the bacteria to get a foot hold and drop your pH to a respectable low 3 or high 2. Then you boil it and continue like normal.

Cold side sours are just like making a normal beer. The only major difference is you can't put a lot of hops in the boil since most sour cultures don't like them. Where it becomes tedious is after everything is done you need to super clean all of your gear or every beer you make from now on will be a sour.

Some great reading on how to make sour beer in your own home is the book American Sour Beers by u/oldsock

Try some fresher styles.
For red you might enjoy Brachetto D'Aqui and I concur a white you might enjoy includes Moscato D'Asti.

If you want to try fortified wines, that are excellent for winter, seek out a Rutherglen liqueur Topaque or liqueur Muscat.

Find a local fine wine merchant and talk to them. They should be able to guide you to the transitional wines that you're seeking.

If you want to increase your knowledge of wine, two books I can recommend are Jancis Robinson's "24 Hour Wine Expert" and Tom Standage's excellent book "History of the World in 6 Glasses." both shed light on different aspects of this beguiling drink.

I sent you a message separately since I don't want to be spammy and link to my own site here. But I'd like to address your general concerns of where and how to begin.

If you want to make some honey BBQ or apricot chicken, that's great. However, starting at that level may actually be a disservice to you, especially as most recipes are structured to assume some base level of knowledge that you don't have. The result can be frustrating as you try to piece together bits of knowledge from wherever you can scrounge them.

The worst part is not understanding why certain things are happening. The Alton Brown recipe that /u/MercuryCrest shared will be unusually good because he's teaching you why you're doing certain things. That will make recipes repeatable and your skills generalizable.

If you can get access to all of Good Eats, that's typically what people recommend. But I'd also like to recommend just a good book, like Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything The Basics which will walk you through a bunch of beginner recipes.

Learn about brewing. Even if you can't pick up the hobby right now, nothing will help you to improve your understanding of beer more than learning how the product and the flavors you end up with are created. Even on a homebrewing scale, the science is the same, so as an introduction, "How to Brew" by John Palmer is a good star for this, and "New Brewing Lager Beer" by Gregory Noonan is an appropriate next step. This kind of background knowledge is a critical foundation to understanding what you are tasting.

It is important to try to cultivate your palate as well. "Evaluating Beer" by Brewers Publications is a great starting point for understanding the basic philosophy and techniques of judging. I'd also recommend looking at the BJCP website and going through their resources, particularly the study guide. And of course, taste lots of beer! A good way to work through this terrible burden is to look at the BJCP Style Guidelines and see what is listed as classic examples. Pick out the styles that you are not as familiar with and try to find some of them. Grab a few examples of one of your weak styles all at once and organize a flight, using a score sheet (warning: PDF) to organize your thoughts on each. If you can find other judges or people interested in judging to do this with you and discuss, even better.

Everything said so far is a solid backbone.

One thing I might suggest is to stick with the classics for a while, sip as many as you can. Negroni, Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Improved Whiskey, Last Word, Aviation. Once you master the form you can play within the form. Like Jazz.

Also, I'm surprised no one has mentioned David Wondrich. Go buy Imbibe! and steep yourself in the rich tradition and classics.

EDIT: Whoops! Someone did mention Wondrich's column in Esquire. Might I recommend an Esquire subscription? Beyond Wondrich writing on cocktails and drinking each week, it is the quintessential gentlemen's mag. The greatest writers of every generation have been found in its pages.

Thanks! Well, it would be easier to answer specific questions (and I am no means a master), but making beer is pretty easy and not terribly expensive (but more expensive than just buying beer, sadly). The most important thing to remember if you do decide to head down this path is to properly sanitize your equipment to prevent stray bacteria or yeast from ruining your brew.

This book is amazing but also goes into a lot of detail, so be prepared: http://www.amazon.com/How-Brew-Everything-Right-First/dp/0937381888/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310938085&sr=8-1

My first bit of advice would be to check out the side bar to the right for an extensive collection of links with excellent advice.

If you're interested in extract brewing then I'd recommend you start with these bare minimum items:

• A ~5 gallon kettle (bigger can definitely help and is more accommodating)
  
  
• A reliable temperature probe
  
  
• A big plastic or metal stir stick
  
  
• Strong cleaner (e.g. [powdered brewery wash]
  (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/powdered-brewery-wash.html))
  
  
• No-rinse sanitiser (e.g. star san)
  
  
• 6.5 gallon fermenting bucket with hole in lid
  
  
• Bung and airlock to fit in lid hole
  
  
• Auto-siphon & siphon tubing
  
  
• Hydrometer
  
  
• Nylon bag (or similar) for steeping grains
  
  
• How to Brew: Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time
  
  If you're doing all-grain then things change up quite a bit and equipment costs jump a bit.

I personally have not used this cookbook, but I had a friend once that loved it. May be worth a look for your husband - the description (as well as several reviews) state that it does a great job at explaining things in detail

There is also this book by the same author that is apparently more basic and focused on learning proper cooking techniques.

/r/homebrewing and a forum called homebrew talk are great places to start. The brewing community is incredibly nice and helpful.

After you do a batch of mead and see if you like it, try some beers. Extract brewing is also incredibly easy and can have very fine results. Recommend reading How to Brew for beer.