American Sour Beers Book

Not up yet as far as I know. Chip recorded several, so I'm sure it'll be up eventually (as will the audio and slides on AHA's site).

 

Audio, and almost all the slides are up on the AHA site now. Some slides are attached to the wrong ones though (Bootleg Biology slide was the Malt Nerds PDF when I opened it this morning).

 

just got it, way thicker than i thought it was going to be, excited!

 

Duncan (AHA IT guy) did a great job getting those up FAST. Mini correction to fix that. There are also a couple he has to get delivered yet.

 

Do you have to be an AHA to view? Mind throwing me a link?

 

Got my copy at NHC this last week and made it through 3 chapters before deciding to jump right in. This Saturday I'll be brewing the Zed's Dead Red recipe from the book, pitching Roeselare on 5 gallons then sending WLP002 after the other half before souring it with some dregs and brett brux.

Cheers @oldstock , great talk also!

 

How much of the book is based on what's already up on the blog? Is there a lot of redundancy?

 

If like the last few years, yes. Haven't looked yet.

 

You could probably get a large chunk of material if you read most (all?) of the blog posts, but the book is much more coherent than a bunch of disparate blog posts. In addition, there is a big chapter in the middle that details what a number of breweries (Jolly Pumpkin, New Belgium, Captain Lawerence,...) do to make their sours, that alone is probably worth the price just to have it all in one place. If you have any interest is sour beers, the ~$15 is well worth it, you won't read this once and then leave on the shelf.

 

Yes, you have to be an AHA member in order to get that resource. I had to join since I won a BOS and get to brew a beer with a brewery here in town that wants to enter it in the ProAm at GABF. Glad I did, free Zymurgy (spend almost that much on it each year anyways), access to all the NHC talks, back logs of Zymurgy online (and on my phone through the app), discount on this book... it's great.

 

The link is fixed now on the Bootleg Biology PDF

 

@OldSock so how do i get mine signed?

 

Agree with WillQC4Beer...couldn't believe how much content you got in there oldsock! Have only scanned it thus far.
Not only a great presentation at NHC, but was great to meet you in person as well. Cheers!

 

If you've read the entire blog and all my BYO/Zymurgy articles, then I'd guess you've read maybe 1/3-1/2 of the info in the book. In addition to talking to brewers, digging into the science a bit deeper, and putting it all together in a cohesive form, the big advantage of the book is the level of review it underwent. Reading through the blog now it'd be tricky knowing how in line a post from a few years ago is with my current thinking. I went crazy with the citations too, so plenty of extra reading if you are interested in looking at the sources.

The one big exception is recipes. Pretty much all of those are retreads (granted cleaned up). I didn’t want to push for commercial recipes from the brewers, I just don’t think they are that important compared to times, temperature, microbes, and general process etc. I worried that loading up on clone recipes would just set brewers up for disappointment.

 

Probably doing book events in a bunch of cities before the end of the year. Breweries or stores in DC, Baltimore, Boston, San Diego, New York, Philadelphia, etc. have already contacted me.

 

Don't forget the pub discount program, AHA rallies, GABF member session, and so on. It pays to be a member.

AHA rally info for those that don't know. They plan to do 30 around the country this year.
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/aha-events/rallies/

 

hopefully you'll post dates! i bet we could arrange one in vermont....hmmm

 

I definitely agree with this sentiment. As is often said, recipes are a dime a dozen. If you do research and know what you are doing, youll be able to formulate a successful recipe.

My copy of the book should be arriving in a couple of days - very excited to read it!

 

Need to figure out how to work Eugene into that schedule, not Portland, not Seattle, Eugene.

 

Maybe at your house, that would be pretty convenient.