Hi Justin
"the book focuses mostly on Extract brewing with only footnotes for AllGrain brewers. Usually, recipe books will give the actual ingredients as the main recipe with Extract substitutes as the footnotes. ""
... I've seen that review on Amazon before, and always felt it was a bit unfair
Each of their recipes are described in Extract versions, first ... with a "typical" recipe of theirs described in the form;
- Steep this weight of these (specialty) grains in so much water at whatever temp.
- Strain and sparge with so much more water, bring total vol up to whatever, then add this much of this type of malt extract(s) and so much of these (bittering) hops, bring to boil and boil for X mins.
- Then add this much of these (flavour) hops and boil for so long.
- Then add this much (aroma) hops and boil for this much longer.
- Cool, strain and dilute to whatever volume.
... but then the all-grain (and mini-mash) versions are written more as "variations", I'd say, rather than "footnotes" ... with the AG versions saying something like ... mash the specialty grains with so much of that base malt for this long at that temp. , then add x% less bittering hops than the extract recipe and boil for so long, add the flavour hops with this long left and the aroma hops with that long left.
Meanwhile, they've given all the vital statistics of the beer (OG, colour (SRM) and bitterness (IBU)), so most AG brewers will be taking that info and reformulating using their preferred software anyway, and adjusting for AA% of the hops they have and the efficiency they usually achieve
... so I really don't think AG and mini-mash brewers have reason to complain at not being given the information they need
... it's just that brewers using those techniques are "expected" to be able to read/interpret a recipe more, which seems fair enough IMHO
Cheers, PhilB