Reddit mentions of Brew Like a Monk: Trappist, Abbey, and Strong Belgian Ales and How to Brew Them

My Favorites:

How to Brew by John Palmer

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Charlie Papazian

Brewmasters Bible By Stephen Snyder

Extreme Brewing by Sam Calagione

Brew Like A Monk By Stan Hieronymus

Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher

How to Brew - John Palmer

Designing Great Beers - Ray Daniels

Brewing Classic Styles - Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer

Brew Like a Monk - Stan Hieronymus

Clone Brews - Tess and Mark Szamatulski

Yeast - Jamil Zainasheff and Chris White

Beer Captured - Tess and Mark Szamatulski

Radical Brewing - Randy Mosher

Brewer's Association Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery - Randy Mosher

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.

The standard ones: The Brewmaster's Bible by Stephen Snyder

How to brew by John Palmer

Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels

Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff & John Palmer

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian

Brew Like a Monk by Stan Hieronymus

Yeast by Jamil Zainasheff & Chris White

(= I own this book)

Noonan's Lager Book http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0937381829

Wild Brews http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0937381861

Farmhouse Ales http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0937381845

Brew Like A Monk http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/093738187X

The classic go to's are How to brew and brewing classic styles, in my opinion.

I like brew like a monk because I'm a belgian freak.

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

The 6,8, 10 refers an old belgian convention of original gravity readings. 6 is roughly 1.060, 8 is 1.080 and 10 would be 1.100. The actual og numbers aren't exactly the 6,8 and 10 any longer but the belgian number scheme has stayed in place.
The information can be found in Brew like a monk.

All Hail the Lobster!!

But for realsies, you are super cool

Thanks for the contest!


This book on brewing would be awesome.

What style are you going for? There aren't a lot of belgian styles that should have a musty character.

Really only Biere de Darde and maybe Oud Bruin (thought not described in the style), or a specialty. Mostly, I'm guessing that flavor will come from a barrel, so you'll likely have to use some wood.

I'd start with Brew Like a Monk and see what you can find about those.

I'm going to guess that you have $80.22 in your MTURK account. (I actually just created my own MTURK account, and have about $1.25 in there as of this weekend. LOL

Here is the item from my wishlist (15% of 80.22 is $12.03). It's a book about brewing Belgian specific beers! It's also used on there for much cheaper, and I have no problems getting a used copy if I somehow win!

Thanks for the contest.

MTURK!

Essentially, there's not really a single standard definition. As far as I'm aware, La Trappe is one of the only breweries that actually refers to its own beer as a quadrupel; other terms for similar styles include Grand Cru or Belgian strong dark.

With that said, probably the best resource for learning about brewing these types of beers is Brew Like a Monk by Stan Hieronymus, which provides tons of information about recipe creation, yeast selection, fermentation temperatures (which are pretty critical for many Belgian styles), and great information about what goes in to producing Trappist beers like Rochefort, Westvleteren, or La Trappe.

Hope that helps!

While not exactly a homebrewing book, Micheal Jackson's Great Beers of Belgium is an excellent book all around. I picked up some great process info from there that made my Belgians so much better. That one and Brew Like a Monk.