Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers Author: John Palmer Colin Kaminski | Language: English | ISBN:
B00H90L7NI | Format: EPUB
Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers Description
Water is arguably the most critical and least understood of the foundation elements in brewing beer. Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers, third in Brewers Publications’ Brewing Elements series, takes the mystery out of water’s role in the brewing process. The book leads brewers through the chemistry and treatment of brewing water, from an overview of water sources, to adjusting water for different beer styles, and different brewery processes, to wastewater treatment. The discussions include how to read water reports, understanding flavor contributions, residual alkalinity, malt acidity, and mash pH.
- File Size: 7845 KB
- Print Length: 318 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0937381993
- Publisher: Brewers Publications (September 16, 2013)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00H90L7NI
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,883 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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A much awaited book on water chemistry and treatment for brewers is finally here. Was it worth the wait?
First of all a criticism - the authors, reviewers and forward note editor imply that there has never been a (single) book of its kind covering the vast topic of water chemistry for brewers - at least not in recent times, in English or with the requisite technical depth for professional brewers. Well they all missed a big fish here (I add the same levity they do in using water terms in a humorous way to open up their topics). I refer to the title: Water in Brewing in the European Brewery Convention Manual of Good Practice Series. 2001 Fachverlag Hans Carl ISBN 3-418-00778-3. With no mention of this book in Palmer and Kaminski's work it's a huge oversight on their part. (Furthermore there are other treatises on brewing water treatment as published conference proceedings out there also not referenced by Palmer and Kaminski. So they missed a lot of crucial literature along the way). That being said and, while there is a lot of overlap in coverage of topics in the two volumes discussed here, the new work has brought together a stellar amount of material and reduced it to a level that will - after some effort (it ain't that easy folks to understand this topic - muddy waters always for all of us here) be amenable to novice chemists and will help more brewers understand the calculations that may help them make better beer.
The book covers the usual waves of information - how to read a water report and the importance of the presence or absence of each mineral ion and many organic components (the latter well covered in the EBC manual also).
I'm only into Chapter 4 and I have already got my money's worth from the book in regards to information. While it is a very dry read (pun sort of intended), the information in it is fairly easy to understand. There are obvious topics in here that are geared more towards the professional brewer, with topics about brewery wastewater treatment and high end filtration; but the first seven chapters out of 10 will benefit the homebrewer. Many homebrewers are looking for the "how do I" when it comes to water adjustments, but I come from the camp that wants to know why. Without an understanding of why you are doing something, you don't really understand the changes you are making. I have found a lot of resources online tell you how to adjust your water to met specific numbers, but don't really explain the correlation between the changes you are making.
Be warned though, if you are not really looking for a deeper understanding of water and it's influence on brewing. You may be disappointed in the book. The actual "how to" is chapter 7, which in my opinion, from flipping through the chapter, would be worth the money for the book alone. But again, I think you are missing out on the point of the book because there is plenty of "how to" information on the web.
One person on here so far has said this book is not geared towards the homebrewer, and I think that statement is incorrect. This book is just way more than they were probably looking for in regards to information. Only the last 3 chapters are not geared towards the homebrewer. Well, some of chapter 8 may apply but mostly just the first 7 chapters benefit the homebrewer.
With that said, the whole "Brewing Elements Series" from brewer's publications has been very technical so I don't expect anything less.
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