This book teaches the reader how to brew beer at home, assuming no prior knowledge of brewing. It goes on to teach more advanced techniques, troubleshoot problems, answer frequently asked questions and includes a chapter on formulating original recipes for a multitude of styles. Appendices provide information on every modern beer style, hundreds of yeast strains and how to select between them, and detailed information on over 100 hop varieties.
* The most detailed homebrewing book ever written
* 547 pages covering everything from your very first batch to recipe formulation
* 34 original recipes
* 57 pages on troubleshooting
* 37 pages answering frequently asked questions
* Fully referenced
* Individual chapters describing each ingredient
* Tables for imitating famous water sources, calculating bitterness, dissolved oxygen, priming rates, and more
* Information gathered from dozens of professional texts and brewing research papers
* Appendices describing: 99 beer styles, 119 hop varieties (aroma, flavor, substitutions), 245 dry and liquid yeasts (attenuation, flocculation, preferred temperature, aroma, flavor, and more)
* Award-winning recipe formulation techniques
* Teaches beer tasting and palate training
Al Korzonas has been critically tasting and researching beer since 1979, after his first trip to Britain, Belgium and Germany. He holds Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Electrical Engineering and supports his homebrewing habit by working as a software developer at Lucent Technologies - Bell Labs Innovations. Al has worked as a technical editor for Zymurgy magazine and is currently a technical consultant. He is a frequent contributor to the Homebrew Digest, Brewer's Forum, Lambic Digest, JudgeNet, and Advanced Topics in Brewing electronic "newsletters," and has written several articles for Zymurgy and Brewing Techniques. Al is an active member of the Chicago Beer Society (1996 AHA Homebrew Club of the Year), Brewers of South Suburbia, Urban Knaves of Grain, and Headhunters homebrew clubs, has achieved the rank of Master Judge in the Beer Judge Certification Program, and is a member of the BJCP scoresheet and style guideline subcommittees. A serious homebrewer since 1987, Al's beers have earned him over one hundred ribbons at homebrew competitions throughout the US including several in the American Homebrewers Association National Competition. His 7-Grain E.S.B. was selected Champion Beer at the 1995 CBS Midwest Invitational Brew-Off both by popular vote and by Michael Jackson. Al lives in Palos Hills, Illinois with his wife Karen and is owner of Sheaf & Vine, which publishes books and sells specialty brewing supplies.