If you are interested, or even just mildly curious, about how to brew beer at home, you need to read this book. This book excels over many other revered texts on home brewing simply for how straight forward and beautifully presented the informations is.

Brewing beer is not easy but it isn’t difficult either. It is an involved process with a lot of independent variables that the brewer is in control of. Because of this, every other book on brewing is typically a lengthy read. Beer Craft, on the other hand, is neither too wordy or too simple. It can easily be read in one sitting. Despite this, Beer Craft is just as informational as other books on home brewing. It is very clear what steps need to be followed exactly, and what steps you have the freedom to explore on your own. In addition to this, there are plenty of charts breaking down different ingredients and how they can be used. Brewing beer is a science. The ratios of the ingredients used and even the different temperatures used can alter the end product. Beer Craft does an excellent job of teaching the science without being too overwhelming.

Most books will recommend beginners start by using malt extract to brew beer. Beer Craft doesn’t even suggest this as an option, giving only all grain brewing methods. Where others will caution against the involvement required to brew all grain, Beer Craft provides the reader with one gallon recipes that can be brewed on a standard kitchen stovetop with supplies that do not require a hefty financial expense. This allows beginners to brew beer like the pros do, right from the get go.

Lastly, few books properly instruct beginners how to begin formulating their own recipes. Descriptions of beer styles is usually done by describing the final product, not the ingredients used to create it. Within Beer Craft are various charts showing what malts are used, and to what percent of the total grain bill, for each style of beer. Within each recipe Beer Craft gives, there are suggestions on what to change or add to the recipe. For example, Beer Craft provides a recipe for a pale ale. It then gives substitution suggestions to change it into an IPA, imperial IPA or even a black IPA. In addition to the recipe suggestions, one of the most useful chapters is one on adding specialty ingredients. Not only does it suggest different fruits or spices to add, but how much should be added and at what point in the process it should be added. Taken together, you learn what ingredients make up 10 different styles of beer, and suggestions on what to change in order to create other styles, or what to add to create something entirely new. If you want to brew an IPA with oranges, you can create a recipe simply by using the pale ale recipe, following the guidance on how to make it an IPA, then following the suggestions for adding citrus fruits. No other book I’ve read has shown me how to do this so easily.

I’ve learned more about beer reading this book than I have from reading anything else. This was also the shortest of all the beer books I’ve read and the best looking!

For more information, and more photos of the pages, go to the Beer Craft Book website

ALC/VOL: 7ish%? The bottle has the gravity listed in Plato and I don’t feel like doing to the math to convert it into alcohol by volume.

Color: Dark amber brown.

Smell: For lack of a better term, it smells like every other brown ale. Just a bit nuttier.

Feel: A bit more carbonation than most brown ales.

Taste:  It tastes a bit nutty!

Strong hazelnut taste. Do not drink too cold or the hazelnut flavor will be a bit hidden. It has a very basic brown ale base to it but the hazelnut extract makes this a very unique tasting beer.

Overall: Very unique, great tasting beer. I have yet to taste a bad beer from Rogue. That being said, this beer has a very distinct taste and as such, it might be a bit much to have more than one.

Lastly, I don’t think I have ever been disappointed by the artwork on Rogue’s labels.

Thumbs up.

ALC/VOL:7%

Color: Rich Amber

Smell: Grapefruit citrusy hop aroma

Feel: Pillowy soft head, medium mouthfeel, medium to low carbonation.

Taste: Hop bitterness is very present but not overpowering. Same with the hop aroma. Low level malt sweetness.

Overall: This is a definitive, west coast American IPA. Very strong, very present hop character.

One of the better IPAs that I’ve had from a small San Diego based brewery. Sadly they do not distribute to Nevada. The brewery is worth making a stop at if you are ever in San Diego. They often have one-off/unique beers on tap. When I was there I had a habanero version of this IPA that had a very spicy finish!

ALC/VOL: 7%

Color: Reddish Auburn

Smell: Very hoppy aroma

Feel: Medium body/average carbonation and mouthfeel

Taste:  Strong hop taste. Light citrus finish.

Overall: This is a very good beer. It tastes very similar to Dogfish’s 60 Minute IPA. There’s not a strong apricot taste. It’s present more so in the finish but not in aroma or body. Just lightly citrusy. Despite how good this beer is, I feel like there is little uniqueness compared to 60 Minute IPA to justify the price increase. A four pack of Aprihop costs the same as a six pack of 60 Minute. I might need another to get a definitive opinion. Either way, saying this tastes like 60 Minute is not a bad thing. 60 Minute IPA is the gold standard of IPAs.

ALC/VOL: 10%

Color: Black

Smell: Dark chocolate, espresso, burnt toast

Feel: Big foamy head gives this beer a smooth feel. Little to no carbonation.

Taste: Tastes like it smells. The dark roasted malts give this beer a very coffee-like taste.

Overall: Sea Monster is a beer for people who love dark beer. This is a very dark beer. Darker beers are made with malted barley that is roasted longer than the barley used in lighter color beers. Much like the darker coffee roasts, Italian, French or espresso roasts, darker roast beer has a very defined smokey, bitter taste.

This beer is very similar to World Wide Stout that I reviewed earlier. The tastes are almost the same. The main difference being that this has almost half the alcohol content that World Wide Stout has. This gives the beer a less alcohol pungent taste, and a little bit more carbonation. All in all, this is a very good beer.

ALC/VOL: unknown

Color: hazy golden yellow

Smell: lemon/orange citrus, banana, clove

Feel: very light in body texture. Fluffy, foamy head. Very little carbonation.

Taste:  Light and refreshing. Very crisp, clean finish. Tastes like what a Hefeweizen should taste like. Even without a lemon wedge, this taste very lemony, in a good way.

Overall: I’ve never had a hefeweizen I didn’t like and this one is no exception. Definitely an American style hefeweizen. These are typically less carbonated and spiced than the more traditional German hefeweizen. This is very refreshing. I would probably go ahead and say that this is a better hefeweizen than both the popular Pyramid and Widmer hefeweizens!

ALC/VOL: unknown

Color: dark reddish amber. Very cloudy with a lot of sediment at the bottom of the bottle.

Smell: Honey, orange citrus

Feel: very bubbly, almost soda pop level of carbonation

Taste:  Floral, pale ale style hops. Clean after taste.

Overall: The name had me thinking it was going to be a hoppy beer. I’d say the hops were at a pale ale level. As mentioned above, this is a very floral or earthy tasting. Or as my wife says, “tastes like burnt hair.” To each his own.

This was a good beer. I’m running out of descriptive things to say that distinguish this beer from any other…I give up.

ALC/VOL: 5.4%

Color: pale yellow/orange

Smell: orange/lemon citrus, banana

Feel: bubbly, kinda champagne like carbonation

Taste:  lemon/lime citrus. Orange juice aftertaste

Overall: very good and very refreshing. I was a bit worried about this beer. I love white ales like Hoegaarden and New Belgium’s Mothership Wit. However, Blue Moon is also a white ale and I’m not too fond of that. I was sure, however, that this would more like Mothership or Hoegaarden just by seeing the name Witty. In Belgium, white ales are called “witbier.” Hence the name “Witty.” Blue Moon on the other hand, being as it’s just Coors in disguise, calls itself “Belgium style white ale.”

Witty is in between Mothership Wit and Blue Moon, leaning much more heavily towards Mothership. The color was darker and more orange than most witbiers. Honestly, it may rank the same as Mothership Wit being as I haven’t had it in almost a year so my memory may be off. Nonetheless, by the end of the glass, I was wanting more.

In the leaflet that came with my beers it states that Witty won the gold medal in the 2010 World Beer Championships. I can see why. Well done Chameleon Brewery!

Another brief review:
It’s decent. Very straight forward and simple taste. Reminds me a lot of Newcastle Brown Ale. But here’s the problem: the brewery calls it a pale ale. If that’s the mark Mendocino was looking for, then they completely missed it. This beer has a very mild hop flavor, as opposed to the hoppy bite that pale ales should have. Like I said, it’s a good beer, but between this and Blue Heron, there’s not enough hops in their beers to be personally satisfying.

Not in the mood to do a full review so I’ll keep it brief:
It’s good. Tastes like what an IPA should taste like. Nice hoppy finish and a smooth taste. Stegmaier brewery was definitely the better of the two breweries I received this month.