The Big Book of Brewing

£7.95

This book, first published in 1985, brings to beginners and experts alike a simple method of ‘mashing’ for producing the finest flavoured beers, real ales, stouts and lagers from all-grain ingredients. It is the most advanced and comprehensive guide to mashing and brewing.

ISBN: 978 185486 235 8
Category:
Author: Dave Line

Description

This classic book is for any really enthusiastic and ambitious home brewer – the person who wants to brew high quality “true” beers that were long thought beyond the ability of the amateur. It brings to beginners and experts alike a simple method of “mashing” for producing the finest flavoured beers, real ales, stouts and lagers from all-grain ingredients. It is the most advanced and comprehensive guide to mashing and brewing.

Contents: Recipes in This Book; Language of the Brewer; Brewing Your Quality Beer; Brewing Quality Beer; Commercial Brewing Process; Equipment; Your First Brew; Easy Recipes; Mashing; Brewing Ingredients; Malt; Coloured Malts; Malt Adjuncts; Sugar; Hops; Water; Yeast; Brewing Process; Cleaning; Malting; Crushing the Malt; Mashing; Sparging; Hydrometer; Degrees of Extract; Boiling; Cooling; Fermentation; Finings; Bottles Beer; Draught Beer; Beer From the Wood; Maturing Your Beer; Serving and Drinking; Problems; Advanced Recipes; Pale Ale; Light Ale; Bitter; Lager; Mild Ale; Brown Ale; Sweet Stouts; Irish Stout; Barley Wine; Conversion Tables; Useful Data Index.

Dave Line was a British beer authority. An electrical engineer by profession, he is regarded as a pioneer in home brewing during the 1970s because at the time home brewing as a hobby was in its infancy. At the time of his death in 1979 he was 37, living in Southampton, was married and had a son.

In 1963 it had become free to homebrew in the UK, previously requiring an annual 5 shilling licence, but would not yet become legal in the U.S. until President Jimmy Carter signed a bill into law in 1978 legalizing it. People wanted to brew beer that matched the quality of shop-bought beer. In this, his first book The Big Book of Brewing, Dave Line helped people to begin to reach the quality they were looking for, by using ingredients and processes that were used in breweries, with simple homebrewing equipment.

At the time people were not getting satisfactory results, because they were using substandard ingredients, low quality syrups or beer kits, baker’s yeast, and were not technically informed in the processes of brewing. He advocated the use of proper brewer’s yeast, whole-grain barley malts, whole hops, and even went into simple analysis and comparison of the chemistry of water used for brewing different beers, and rudimentary water treatment. He also encouraged sterilisation and proper cleaning of equipment. He was a regular contributor to The Amateur Winemaker magazine, and in a decade, probably had more recipes published than anyone else.

Originally published in 1976 by Amateur Winemaker Publications
Revised edition published in 1985 by Argus Books Ltd
Special Interest Model Books edition published in 2004

Specification:
210 x 148 mm; 254 pages
24 black and white line drawings
20 graphs and tables of technical data
Paperback