Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales etc By Randy Mosher

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Muddydisco

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Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales and World-Altering Meditations in a Glass by Randy Mosher

Sorry couldn't fit full title in Subject line :lol:
 
This is meant to be a really good book about beer, and was highly recommended so I bought it.

I haven't read hardly any of it yet, It jumps around a lot, and doesn't flow as a book to read.

I may give it another go as I'm sure it's full of good information, but I haven't had success getting through it yet.
 
I got this book for Christmas and I was a bit disappointed. I know some people rave about it but I don't think I learnt anything from it. Like Steve I will look ay parts of it again and see if I'm missing something.
 
To be honest with the advice available on the forums here I think that this is the one I'd recommend as a starting point if you have any interest in brewing something other than English styles.

Don't be put off by the title it isn't all pumpkin ales and hop monsters. I find it gives me a brief overview of most styles and I tend to use it as a starting point and research further from there if I want to be near to authentic. I like the (rather american) informal style and the fact that he gives you lots of starting points and ideas for brewing. There is quite a lot of information (e.g. stepped mashes and cereal mashing) in there but it isn't always well organised. I probably use it more than any other brewing book I have (although tbh I probably rely on forums more than any of them). lancssteve borrowed mine for an age before he finally bought his own copy. I like to flick through for inspiration as well.

There are errata on his website which you should look at if you do buy it. I annotated my copy using these.

If you want an in depth look at a single style isn't the book for you.
If you don't like a fairly "American" style of writing it isn't the book for you.
If you want a starting book for British Ale go for GW
 
My copy jst arrived in the pst this morning along with Brewing Classic Styles.
I seem to have a bit of on obsession with buying brewing books and not actually reading them.
I do the same with BBQ cookbooks :)
 
This book comes out everytime I brew and everytime i'm given things to think about and put it down feeling inspired. As others have said the layout is slightly erratic but worth bearing with and you get used to it.

The best thing about the book though is that it serves as a yardstick or that intial stab in the dark for an adventurous style or recipe so that you don't go far wrong. Good old Randy will have commentary that mixes the history, logic and reasoning as to how the style came about then will follow it with an example of a personal recipe for that style so you can see what goes in it to what ratio's, a rough original gravity and mashing and fermenting temperatures aswell as hop schedule. I usually use this book alongside Clone Brews to help me build up a general feel for the style before doing something in the same vein of my own.

Another good thing about it is it serves, as the title "Radical Brewing" suggests to aid that side of me where i'll get an idea along the lines of "I think a wheat beer with thyme could be good" but don't have any idea if it is REALLY is a good idea, on the quantity needed or method of acheiving it if it is. It has good clear tables for adjunct grains, different sugars, honeys, fruits, vegetables, spices and seasonings and what character each has and how to utilise it.

The annoying thing (as with a lot of brewing books it seems) is that because its American you have to convert there liquid measures into proper british gallons, and some of the ingredients are hard to get hold of over here or have different names. But this is a small hinderance and after only having this book about 10 months I couldn't imagine brewing without it. It feels like a printed version of a good tutor at university that will pull you back and make you think properly about what you're doing, and give you that crucial bit of information so you can actually go and make a good job of it.
 

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