Firstly, nothing to do with the book but ordered it late Friday night on amazon and got it on sunday. Prime works.
General impression of the book is that he wrote it reluctantly as he was fed up of reading things he disagreed with. Quite a few "I don't believe it" comments. Some interesting things in there that if you're experimental like me make you want to try things. For instance he says that British ale yeast needs rousing twice a day and possibly aerating unless close to FG. He advises that you should only brew in the cold months as there is a greater risk of infection when it is warm. This is probably because he also advises fermenting with an open FV. He also reckons it is sacrilege to bottle straight from the FV, saying you should condition in a secondary vessel first. Food for thought. He also decries priming, the bottles should carbonate slowly with residual sugars.
There is some repetiveness which I think is because some sections have been edited out. For instance the section on hop utilisation opens with "finally we come to the complicated and rather poorly defined subject of hop utilisation...". The second paragraph starts with "this brings us neatly to the complicated and rather poorly defined subject of hop utilisation.". Which makes me think there was originally something between the two. There's also a formatting error in the hop weight calculation where an 'over 5.7' has crept to the wrong side of the equals.
He is not a fan of packaged yeast of any kind - dried or liquid, and reckons we should take a flask to a local brewery and ask for a fill.
So quite a few negatives so far. But, he does simplify a lot of things and effectively tell you not to worry about being too exact or over think. And there is a lot of useful background info and advice. He's upfront about the recipes being not absolute clones but close enough and when you think that we would all brew them differently that's absolutely right.
Talking of recipes he makes no recommendations for yeast (well, he's not a fan) leaves it to your judgement. I'm preparing my short-list of recipes to try.
Recommended ? Yes, lots of recipes and you can make up your own mind on his thoughts.
General impression of the book is that he wrote it reluctantly as he was fed up of reading things he disagreed with. Quite a few "I don't believe it" comments. Some interesting things in there that if you're experimental like me make you want to try things. For instance he says that British ale yeast needs rousing twice a day and possibly aerating unless close to FG. He advises that you should only brew in the cold months as there is a greater risk of infection when it is warm. This is probably because he also advises fermenting with an open FV. He also reckons it is sacrilege to bottle straight from the FV, saying you should condition in a secondary vessel first. Food for thought. He also decries priming, the bottles should carbonate slowly with residual sugars.
There is some repetiveness which I think is because some sections have been edited out. For instance the section on hop utilisation opens with "finally we come to the complicated and rather poorly defined subject of hop utilisation...". The second paragraph starts with "this brings us neatly to the complicated and rather poorly defined subject of hop utilisation.". Which makes me think there was originally something between the two. There's also a formatting error in the hop weight calculation where an 'over 5.7' has crept to the wrong side of the equals.
He is not a fan of packaged yeast of any kind - dried or liquid, and reckons we should take a flask to a local brewery and ask for a fill.
So quite a few negatives so far. But, he does simplify a lot of things and effectively tell you not to worry about being too exact or over think. And there is a lot of useful background info and advice. He's upfront about the recipes being not absolute clones but close enough and when you think that we would all brew them differently that's absolutely right.
Talking of recipes he makes no recommendations for yeast (well, he's not a fan) leaves it to your judgement. I'm preparing my short-list of recipes to try.
Recommended ? Yes, lots of recipes and you can make up your own mind on his thoughts.