Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles

by Ray Daniels

Author Ray Daniels provides the brewing formulas, tables, and information to take your brewing to the next level in this detailed technical manual.

Genres: Brewing, Beer, Nonfiction, Reference, Cooking, Cookbooks, Food and Drink

404 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 1998

Reviews

[Ramon van Dam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably a must-read for all homebrewers. I've read lots of similar books and they often become quite dry by simply giving you lots of data and lists, but Ray Daniels has cleverly split this up into two big sections which are both very interesting. Not only did I make a lot of notes about many styles that I'm sure will help me when I design such recipes in the future, I also learned a lot and simply enjoyed reading this.

[James Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels is a (very) through guide to the components of beer, current and historical styles of beer, and in-depth investigations of how those styles are made both commercially and at home. If you want to create beers in a few particular styles, this is the reference you need.

However, this is not a “how to”. There is excellent information on how to figure out how much malt you need, or how much yeast, or how to “fix” your water. But the instructions use beer-making jargon that the beginner (and perhaps even the intermediate) brewer will not understand. For example, it may be interesting to know that one style used a “triple decoction” in the mid 1800’s. But if you don’t know what a decoction mash is, as opposed to an infusion mash, that doesn’t help.

One thing I would love to see in a book like this is an “I screwed up” section. There is a passage on things you can do if your final specific gravity misses your target (if you don’t know what that means, this is not the book for you). But I’d love something like “what will my beer taste like if I use too little yeast, or boil at too high a temperature, ...”. I just finished a batch of classic British Ale using an all grain mash bill, the first I’ve tried. But I did the mash at much too high a temperature, and had far too small a final gravity. The beer had a sour taste that I wouldn’t have expected, and it was thin. But it wasn’t bad! That’s the sort of “what if” information that I’d love to have. I’m not sure that sort of thing would be what the author was trying to get at with this book. But it surely would be nice.

The best use of this book is as a reference for home brewers who want to try making beers “like” particular styles, that is for those who want to experiment. This is also a great book for home brewers who get into competitive beer making (yes, that’s a thing). For beginners, though, I’d stick with “The Complete Joy of Home Brewing” by Papazian, and probably buy some of the excellent kits that are available from various sources.

In short, this is an excellent book for what it does. But don’t expect it to teach you how to make beer. Just how to design it!

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fine book for beginning to intermediate brewers who want a reference for the characteristics of traditional styles. Part I covers ingredients and Part II tours the styles, including history, characteristics, suggested ingredients, and some words on technique. There are no recipes: this is for those who wish to formulate their own with some guidance. What is covered, is covered very well; the limitations come in the form of some odd omissions. Part I provides 120 pages of background on ingredients, measurements, and the like; another ten pages of technique would round things out. In particular, more on methods of water treatment and on mashing technique would complete the volume, particularly since several styles require particular mashes and/or water. It's a little odd to have to go elsewhere when so much else is covered. Part II could benefit from a little more Belgium. Lambics in particular are mentioned only in passing (in the fruit beers chapter!); this popular but difficult style deserves full treatment. Finally, this is now 12-16 years out of date; beer may not have changed much in that time, but the variety of ingredients available to the homebrewer has exploded. It is a shame that Randy Mosher's Brewer's Companion is twenty years old and very hard to find now, as it seems there is no modern replacement. If you're building a brewing bookshelf, I'd start with Designing Great Beers, then add Mosher's Radical Brewing and supplement with Brewer's Companion if you can find it. But you'll probably still be yearning for more information.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every since I first read this book I have referred to it as "The Bible" - so has every other brewer I have ever worked with. Not at all a book of recipes, this advanced brewing tome is more of a reference. My only complaint is the binding. I'm pretty sure I am on my 5th copy because the binding falls apart and the pages scatter. Perhaps that's because it gets used most of the time in a humid environment. Invaluable for recipe development, this book has it all - most every recipe formulae and tables you will ever need, commercial and winning homebrew ingredient ratios, and historical and modern information for most common beer styles. I use this book almost every time I test batch and require my brewers to use it too. I firmly believe in constructing beer from numbers; if you don't future test batches will be just shots in the dark. If there were 6 stars I would give it that.

[Jon Lefor · Rating 5 out of 5]

For somebody who wants to really understand brewing science and how to brew classic styles this is an excellent read. It may be easier for me to read since I'm an engineer but I found every page of this book useful. The section on styles is also very great as it gives you a history of the style and then as an added bonus it gives you, albeit from 1994 or 1995, the general makeup of NHC second round beers for those styles which can help you to come up with your own version of classic styles of beer. I felt like a kid in a candy store throughout the whole reading of this book!

[Geoff Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-researched, thorough discussion of various beer styles, including histories and cultural context, as well as ingredient considerations based on traditional and contemporary recipes, with a bias toward tried and true vs. hip and trendy. The book was published 20 years ago, so there is no mention of recent crazes such as hazy IPA.

There is also, inexplicably, no mention of Belgian styles. This and the poor presentation of tabular material are my only complaints. Still, there is much wisdom in these pages. The author knows his stuff and takes a longer view that is less malleable than BJCP classifications, which change often to accommodate current interpretations. These truly are classic styles.

Before discussion of individual styles, there is a detailed explanation of recipe formulation theory. Using this I was able to develop a hefeweizen recipe from scratch, scribbling copious notes on scraps of paper and doing longhand calculations. Rather amusingly I ended up with something that bore strong resemblance to Jamil Zainasheff's recipe in Brewing Classic Styles.

On the one hand, I was somewhat annoyed at having spent the better part of an afternoon reinventing the proverbial wheel. On the other, my goal was not increased expediency but rather increased understanding. The fact that I reached the same destination as Zainasheff—a justifiably well-respected brewer—using independent means validates the work in his book and in the current volume.

Through the process of deriving a similar recipe using established methods, I came to appreciate why Zainasheff made the decisions he did in formulating his. This increases my confidence in those methods and in my ability to create new recipes or tweak existing ones to suit my taste.

I haven't yet brewed the hefeweizen recipe I created, but I know that when I do, it will be a good example of the style. If it isn't, the fault lies not in the recipe but in its execution. I should start practicing.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was great. Lots of thorough discussion of the history behind the styles and the ranges of each one. I have great plans for using this book later on, including a possibly historically inspired wheat.
The only problem is: some styles are mentioned in the discussion of a different one, and then never brought up again. For example, lambics are used as a comparison of Berliner Weisse, but they don't have a discussion for them. It's also 20 years old, so some of the modern styles are missing as they haven't become common yet.
My copy has some messed up formatting, but that's because it's an ebook.

[C Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, without a doubt, my most treasured book on beer and homebrewing. From the science behind the craft to the history behind numerous popular styles, Daniels reveals the necessary knowledge and basic framework for creating recipes that are uniquely your own. I've been brewing for six years now, and I still reference this book before creating a recipe, even if the style I'm brewing isn't discussed.

I highly recommend this book to brewers of any level, especially so for anyone looking to make the leap from extract to all grain or for the adventurous types who would rather make their own mark rather than brew someone else's recipe.

Cheers!

[Colin Whiteside · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniels covers a wide variety of popular beers (given the era this was published) with a particular eye on historic context and methods, as well as covering the brewing of contemporary homebrew competition winners. It's a truly essential book; being able to benchmark, say, a California Common against both the historic style and the most popular modern homebrew versions is a boon.

Better metric conversations, and a modern rewrite to cover emerging styles, would make this a 5*.

[Martin Smrek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely summarised history of classic beer styles and how their brewing changed during the last couple of centuries. Additionally the analysis of the best beers from homebrewing competitions and commercial beers gives you a lot of insight thanks to which you'll know what is crucial for each of them and even how to prepare their historical versions. Essentially it will help you formulate your own recipes and to feel like you know what you are doing.

[Jeremy Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of great info in here but it's also VERY due for an update. There's so many online resources and tools to help you with this process now and the book was written at a time that German and Belgian beers were all the rage as opposed to IPAs, sours and pale Ales that most craft breweries are doing these days. I don't know that I'd recommend this book but I'd also not stop you from getting it because I definitely learnt a few things

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm marking this as read after-the-fact, calling it last year. Then weeding it.

This is a pretty good book but it is extremely dated regarding techniques and is especially limited in recipe formulation as the availability of grains and other ingredients is far larger today.

[Uroš · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find it a bit outdated not covering current possibilities for a brewer and also book is not covering a lot of styles. But of course get this book if you are interested in historic aspect of styles. Not that much on how you should brew something but how it was done when styles were invented.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has gotta be the most useful, interesting and helpful book I’ve read about brewing beer. Any time I’m in the recipe creation stage of brewing, first thing I do is check this book. Learn about style history and guidelines. Really great!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well researched book. However, it is a bit outdated, some of the hops mentioned in this book are not available. And hops that are quite popular now, are not mentioned. As well as yeast.

It is still worth reading, and a very good book about brewing.

[John Hubbard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this continually for several years and tried many recipes and techniques.

[Caspar Bøtchiær · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a textbook. Kinda old, but great for reference when making recipes.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must have.

[Fabio Anselmo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livro técnico e bem fundamentado. É um "must have" se a sua paixão for cerveja artesanal.

[Steven A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great starting point for recipe generation.

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of two (combined) halves. There is a very good description of what each ingredient does for a beer and how to combine these ingredients in order to target different types of beer. For each style there are statistics on the ingredients used by commercial brewers so you can get an idea of the normal range of ingredient use for each style. All of these aspects are excellent and worth the purchase price of the book alone.

However, as well as the ingredient statistics for commercial brewers, the author also includes ingredient statistics for the winners in each style category in American Homebrewer's Association competitions. While there is nothing wrong with doing this, it is not made clear that home brewers, by nature, tend to be an experimental bunch and tend to try new things and ingredients all the time. So there is a risk that if you use the home brewer's data to inform your decision you may actually end up significantly different from your intended style. This may not be important to you, but I've deducted a star because of this. If it was me, I would have handled this by separating the home brewers' data out into appendices so the data was available if it is of interest to you, but doesn't detract from the more relevant commercial data in the main body of the text.

[Wes Devauld · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent overview of the different styles of beer and what it takes to make them.

The book is separated into two halves, with the first being an overview of brewing ingredients and how changing different parts of the process will change the flavour of your beer. This is not an introduction to the process of brewing, for that read Palmer's book (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15...). The detail of the first section is amazing, and is delivered using an easy to consume style.

The second half goes over each of the major styles of beer, the history of how it evolved, the characteristic tastes you should be striving for and the ingredients and brewing process that the entries to the second round of the National Homebrewing Championship used to make their entries. Each chapter in the second part is self contained, and it is very easy to jump to your target style and just read that chapter so you can get on with your brewing.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ray Daniels presents an analysis of the first and second place winning National Homebrew Contest recipes in over a dozen major beer styles. I use this book as a core reference when designing new beers; it allowed me to make the leap from brewing from other people's recipes to creating my own recipes in order to present my own interpretation of a particular beer style. I now brew almost exclusively from my own recipes, thanks in a large part to this book, and get a larger sense of satisfaction from a good homebrew knowing that I was responsible for the design as well as the implementation of the beer. This book is a necessity for any serious homebrewer who wishes to expand their understanding of this hobby.

[Dan Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best homebrewing book I've ever read - this book does a great job of discussing ingredients and techniques for producing great beers. It also describes many of the major styles attempted by homebrewers, with valuable information on how to make them.

My only criticism of the book is that, in his analytical, scientific way, he presents the factual information on how the style recipes rather than great recipes. He reports what percentage of award-winning recipes use which kinds of malt and yeast, and in what percentages, rather than assembling what he thinks of as a great recipe. This is a book driven by data rather than advice - and it's an unrivaled source of information for homebrewers.

[Ethan Yankura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a master class in beer styles and technique. The non-brewer will benefit from a definitive guide to some of the most classic profiles in zymurgy. The brewer will finally understand the building blocks of making beer. It can get overwhelming at times, reading like a chemistry textbook, but the science it reveals will make you a better brewer (and better equip you to understand what you are drinking). It does not contain recipes, rather formulas that will let you better understand the formulation of recipes. It is heavy on statistics and technique. Read it in small doses, come back often and absorb what you can when you can. Daniels deserves recognition for his work.

[Al Culbertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book for home brewers who want to take it to the next level. The usual timeline is first brewers buy kits that have its own recipe and provide you with the ingredients in a compact convenient box. Next home brewers find recipient and buy the ingredients themselves. The last step I when brewers start making their own recipe. Designing Great Beers show how a brewer can reach that last step.

The only issue I had is when he compared recipes from finalist at home brew competition, he only used the recipient from one year. This resulted in a small sample size and maybe more room for error. I would have been awesome if he would had done this for multiple years.

Awesome book

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book to read for both brewers and non-brewers. For the brewers, it is a good overview of all the styles of beer and gives the reader an insight on what characteristics you need to achieve in your beer to label it a particular style. For the non-brewers, it is a good guide to what you should expect from a beer claiming to be of a particular style. After reading, you should be able to go to one of those bars that has 100 odd beers on the menu identify beers that you are likely to enjoy.

[Andrei · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are into brewing beer, this book is for you. However, it's probably best to read some other introductory text first. It can be a rough read at times, full of charts, figures, numbers, and statistics. The first part of the book covers understanding, calculating, and controlling beer gravity, color, hop usage, malt selection, etc. The second part is dedicated to a range of beer styles, their history and development, and formulations based on commercial and NHC examples. I enjoyed reading the historical parts a lot. Curiously, the book does not mention Belgian styles at all.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've finally read most of this book. You can't read it cover to cover, though there are portions that are good to read that way. It's definitely a reference book, and it's definitely not for new brewers. It took me a long time to come to appreciate what it offers-- a detailed analysis of modern and historical takes on all the major styles of beer, and a discussion of the roles of various ingredients in accomplishing various representations of those styles.

[Jonathan Pistorino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely not a beginners book. This book discusses most common styles of beer and helps break down their flavor/aroma profiles so that you can recreate the style with various ingredients.

I really appreciate their statistics of what ingredients were used and which combination of ingredients tend to win competitions.

(Ex. Surprisingly, California Lager yeast does not always produce the best steam style beers.)