John Palmer, the author of the book How to Brew joins me this week to discuss beer recipe design
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[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/beersmith/BSHB-188-Palmer.mp3]Topics in This Week’s Episode (51:14)
- Today my guest is John Palmer. John is the author of the top selling home brew book in the world How to Brew as well as Water and Brewing Classic Styles (Amazon affiliate links for books). He has an extensive web site on brewing at HowToBrew.com
- John tells us his starting point when he is designing a new beer recipe.
- He shares how to determine the right mix of grains for a recipe and also how to avoid overdoing it with specialty grains.
- We talk about some of the flavor characteristics of different grains.
- John explains the harsh zone malts and why they must be used sparingly.
- We talk about malt balance and how you achieve a beer that is greater than the sum of its parts.
- John discusses the bitterness ratio and why it is important to achieve the right hop-malt balance for a given style.
- We also talk about why every beer should not be brewed as an IPA.
- John shares his thoughts on a variety of hop groups and the types of flavors those groups share.
- We discuss the extensive use of whirlpool and dry hopping in beer to preserve hop aroma and also how this can affect the balance of the finished beer.
- John tells us about some considerations that come into play when working with water including overall mineral content, mash pH and the sulfite/chloride ratio.
- John shares thoughts on yeast and how to choose the appropriate yeast for a given style.
- We briefly discuss carbonation and packaging, and John provides his closing thoughts.
- We also talk briefly about the upcoming BYO bootcamp in Asheville NC where John and I will both be presenting all day seminars. There are still a few slots left if you would like to attend in March.
Sponsors
- Thank you to our sponsor Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine for sponsoring this episode. I encourage you to subscribe to their great magazine!
- And also Anvil Brewing Equipment. Anvil is a new line of kettles, burners and accessories from John Blichmann at Blichmann Engineering. They make top quality brewing equipment built to last a lifetime.
- Also check out BeerSmith, BeerSmith Mobile software and the new DVDs John Palmer and I filmed – How to Brew with Malt Extract and How to Brew All Grain are available now. You can subscribe to the BeerSmith newsletter for free to get some great articles on home brewing.
Thanks to John Palmer for appearing on the show and also to you for listening!
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