For my birthday, my wife got me "The Homebrewer's Garden." As far as books on homebrewing goes, this is one of the most usable books that I have in my library. The authors, Joe Fisher and Dennis Fisher, Add just the right amount of description to make the information clear, but they leave it concise enough that you don't have to go digging to find what you are looking for. This book brought to mind things I wanted to try with every page I turned.
There are forty pages of information on growing hops in this book. It's all the information that I will likely need all rolled into one convenient spot. I'm really looking forward to ordering some Risomes March. Here in Malden it gets rather cold, and there are quite a few trees, so it looks like I'll be ordering Nugget and Ultra.
The reason I wanted this book was for the section on growing hops, but the following sections are equally intriguing. There are full page profiles of every herb I have though about brewing with and then some. The section on homemade malts is something I am looking forward to as well. By making you're own specialty grains you are essentially getting them at the cost of base malt, and they are much more fresh that you could possibly buy!
The recipes in the back look very adventurous showing use of juniper berries and elder flowers and over a dozen other spices I have never used in beer.
If you have even a moderately green thumb, and have a little space for a garden, then I highly recommend this book. It also serves as a reference on how to use some unusual ingredients in beer making.
No comments:
Post a Comment