Modern Homebrew Recipes: Exploring Styles and Contemporary Techniques

by Gordon Strong

Overview

Three-time Ninkasi Award winner, Gordon Strong has been a towering presence in the homebrewing community for many years. Now this Grandmaster Beer Judge invites you on a guided tour through over 100 of his own as-brewed recipes. While discussing the fundamentals of homebrewing, the author also invites you to develop your own style, with tips on recipe formulation and ingredients substitutions. In the initial chapters, Strong cover the basics of brewing, summarizing a variety of processes relating to water adjustment, mashing, and hopping. The author concisely and clearly lays out techniques like infusion mashing, step infusion, decoction, cereal mashes, and hybrid mash schedules. Get the rundown on adding hops in the boil, first wort hopping, hop bursting, whirlpool and steeping, hopbacks, and dry hopping. Learn the basics of recipe design and how to think about style recipe profiles; know the intensity of your ingredients and what contributes to a balanced recipe and how that might differ between styles—do you know what makes a balanced IPA versus a lambic? Make intelligent substitutions with ingredients you have and become comfortable scaling recipes, accounting for volume losses, mash efficiencies, and differences in hop utilization. The recipes themselves are tried and tested, provided by the author as he has brewed them, including specific advice and sensory profiles, plus insights into the creative process behind each recipe. There are myriad IPAs and everyday styles for easy drinking, such as pale ale, blonde ale, wheat beer, altbier, Kolsch, and brown and amber ales. Classic and modern lager recipes include Vienna, dunkel, Maibock, Oktoberfest, bock, and schwarzbier. Dark beers are plentiful, with dark milds, porters, and stouts, making a nod to both American and classic English versions. Stronger fare is on offer with barleywine, strong ales, and winter warmers; lovers of Belgian beer will also find an eclectic selection of traditional recipes, as well as some saisons and biere de garde. For when the creative juices are really flowing, the author includes a collection of experimental and historical recipes that may not find a place in any set style—pale mild or dubbel American brown ale, anyone?—but are delicious nonetheless.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938469145
Publisher:	Brewers Publications
Publication date:	06/15/2015
Pages:	350
Sales rank:	956,075
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Gordon Strong is the only three-time winner of the coveted National Homebrew Competition Ninkasi Award. He is president and the highest ranking judge in the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), and principal author of the BJCP Style Guidelines. Strong is a technical editor and commercial calibration panelist for Zymurgy magazine and is a frequent contributor to other brewing and beer publications. Strong is also author of Brewing Better Beer: Master Lessons for Advanced Homebrewers and resides in Beavercreek, Ohio.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Foreword xv

Introduction xix

Section I Fundamentals

1 Brewing Techniques 3

Developing Your Style 4

The Brewing Process 5

Summary of Techniques 10

My Process 22

2 Working with Recipes 31

Interpreting Recipes 31

Recipe Formulation Fundamentals 38

Adapting Recipes 43

Ingredient Substitution 45

Section II Recipes

About the Recipes 53

3 IPA Recipes 59

Four Seas IPA 61

Tomahawk Chop IPA 64

English IPA 66

East Coast IPA 67

New World IPA 69

Sinamarian IPA 71

Belgian IPA 73

Spring IPA 75

Session IPL 77

Halloween IPA 79

Mosaic Double IPA 81

West Coast Double IPA 83

4 Everyday Beer Recipes 85

Columbus Pale Ale 87

Galaxy Pale Ale 89

Classic Blonde Ale 91

West Coast Blonde 92

New World Blonde 94

Ordinary Bitter 96

Pride of Warwick Bitter 98

English Pale Ale 99

Landlord Tribute (SMaSH) 101

Export Irish Red Ale 103

Scottish Heavy 104

Killer Kolsch 106

American Wheat Beer 108

Nut Brown Ale 110

Honey Brown Ale 111

American Amber Ale 113

Atypical Altbier 115

Classic Altbier 117

5 Strong Ale Recipes 121

Old School Barleywine 124

Belgian Barleywine 125

English Dark Barleywine 127

English Gold Barleywine 129

Golden Promise Barleywine 131

Nightstalker Barleywine 132

Wheatwine 134

Old Ale 136

WinterWarmer 138

English Strong Ale 140

Malt Liquor 141

Sara Bonnyman's Ale 143

5 Dark Beer Recipes 145

Irish Stout 147

Simplicity Mild 148

Complexity Mild 150

NHC Mild 151

GABF Mild 153

Cask Mild 154

Throwback Mild 156

Modern London Porter 157

Robust English Porter 159

Robust Porter 160

American Porter 162

American Brown Ale 164

Dunkelweizen 166

Weizenbock 168

Danzig 169

Jamaican Eclipse 171

Katherine Strong Imperial Stout 173

Ferret and Trouser Ley Imperial Stout 174

The Dirty Dozen 176

7 Lager Recipes 179

Dark American Lager 183

Nothing but Vienna 185

Mexican Vienna 187

Czech Dark Lager 188

Here's Looking at U 190

Dunkel 192

Helles 194

Maibock 196

Traditional Oktoberfest 198

Modern Oktoberfest 200

Rauchbock 201

Schwarzbier 203

Traditional Bock 205

Blonde Doppelbock 206

8 Favorite Belgian Recipes 209

Heather 211

The Big O 213

Belgian Dark Strong 216

Am I Blue? 217

The Forbidden Beer 219

The Gnome 221

Biere de Garde 223

Odds and Ends Saison 225

Traditional Homebrew Dubbel 227

Modern Homebrew Dubbel 229

Flanders Red 231

Alison 233

9 Spiced Beer Recipes 237

Christmas Beer 239

Pumpkin Ale 241

Llamarada Stout 243

Kokonut Stout 245

Spiced Belgian Strong Ale 247

Christmas Saison 249

Belgian Christmas Beer 251

Silent Night 253

Winter in Antwerp 254

Spiced Bière de Garde 256

10 Experimental Beer Recipes 259

Summer Rye 261

American Dubbel Brown 262

Classic American Porter 264

Tom Fitzpatrick's Last Saison 265

Vienna Hefeweizen 268

Robust Cream Ale 270

Gordian Strong Ale 271

Dark Saison 273

Light Mild 274

Sterling Bitter 276

Australian Sparkling Ale 278

Grodziskie 280

Appendix A Basic Beer Math 283

Appendix B Working with Recipe Software 295

Appendix C Working with Extract Recipes 301