Great BA Beer Recipes

I have a book with recipes, but it's more fun to either try stuff out that you invent yourself, or to develop a recipe via conversations here. I mean unless you just get plain silly, any reasonable combinations of grains and hops will at least make beer.

 

With all the SMaSH beers you brew, would that "book" be the Northern Brewer catalog?

 

Perhaps this is what you should look into:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/recipe-kits/pro-series

 

To follow up on Vikeman's post about the Can You Brew It shows, there is a Homebrew Talk Data base of many or all of the recipes from the show:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/can-you-brew-database-178064/

 

Nope. I don't think I've ever ordered from them, actually (not that they are bad tho, not at all, just coincidence). I get my stuff from Homebrewparty.com (my local homebrew store). It's about five minutes from the house, and between my house and my bro's house (where the mancave/brewhaus is located), so it's poifect!

I actually have beer captured, tho I'm not quite sure why since I haven't actually brewed anything out of it. Well, the very very first beer I participated on was an all-grain version of SN celebration, which "Old Guy" got from this book. So now I have the book, monkey see, monkey doo. But the fact I haven't used it much doesn't mean it's a bad book, just that I haven't used it much. I have read the whole thing, so in that sense I did get value from it, learning at least one possible interpretation of various commercial brews (most of which I have had, BTW, so that also gives me some at least rough idea of possible recipes for certain beers).

I really don't have a specific opinion of whether it's a great book, a poor book, or a medium book (I would guess medium). Other than this book, I've only read (the entirety of) how to brew and joy of homebrewing*. Thus I don't really have an experience or knowledge base for beer recipe literature, so any commentary by me should be taken in that context.

My guess is that beer books relate somewhat to gambling/poker books: when you are able to recognize the bad advice given in a how to / strategy book, you have probably reached a certain notable, significant level of competency in that discipline. Let's just say that despite my fast typing speed and general long-windedness , I'm probably far more proficient at poker than brewing.

But you don't have to be an expert when half the beers you make are smashes, you just have to be competent in the key areas that most affect final beer quality.

*but I did sign up for the beer chemistry course at OU in the spring. I actually have all the prerequisites and could, in theory, register to take the course for actual credit. But why would I want to do that when I'm already signed up for more courses than I want to be taking already? I mainly just want the downloadable materials so I can study at my own leisure, because to me beer is a leisure activity, whilst taking courses for credit (especially upper division science or math classes) is work.

 

An AHS rep admitted they charge a 2-3 USD premium over and above the cost of ingredients for their recipes. If they've since changed their bidness practice then so much the more better.

Now...if they would only do something about selling moldy grain I might do bidness with them again.

 

They sell quite a bit of grain, seems pretty impressive they could get it to be moldy in humid humid Austin Texas lol. If those are the reasons you don't buy from them it's probably safe again. I've always had good experiences with them and their customer service is excellent. If you get something and it's not right they will usually replace it. My only complaint for them is that I don't like paying for shipping and they stopped offering free shipping for big orders. Flat rate is still pretty good though.

 

I got a kettle from them...the size of which I did not order. AHS expected me to ship it back to them at my expense. If that's excellent customer service then excellent doesn't mean what it used to mean.