WATER book by Palmer ?

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Anyone have an opinion on the Water book by Palmer and Kaminski ?
Has it cleared up your questions or has it more complicated the processes ?
Nev

 

[manticle]

I'm going from memory - read it cover to cover when I first bought it but that was a while ago.

Around half the book is devoted to the usual - why water is important, what it means to various styles, residual alkalinity, treating water and manipulating mash pH, etc. I think it does a reasonable job of explaining but it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know so to really understand how good a job it does, you'd need to check with someone who knew little/nothing beforehand.

Other half deals with various uses of water in commercial brewing setting and was interesting but less relevant to me.

For me, it's just good to have an extra reference and some more in depth explanations of simplifications that exist in articles, etc.

 

[Mardoo]

I know a hell of a lot less about water than Manticle so I'll have a go. Basically take on what you can and leave the rest for later, when you feel capable. I took it like I took the Yeast book. I learned a lot from it and made a conscious choice how complicated I wanted to get. If you read either Water or Yeast as, "I have to do everything this book says," anyone would go nuts unless they were a very technically oriented brewer.

I'm interested in understanding more about Yeast and Water and how they influence brewing. However I only take the changes to processes as far as I feel capable of handling. I'm actually about to read Yeast again as I feel capable of the next step. I will do the same with Water.

 

[Spiesy]

By far the hardest (and least enjoyable) book out of the series so far, for me personally.

Sadly I am the only person I can speak on behalf of.

 

[Mardoo]

Sadly I am the only person I can speak on behalf of.

You'll never have a career in politics Spiesy

 

[dblunn]

I'm re-reading the important chapters at the moment (ch 4 to ch 7 inclusive) having read the entire book, I feel the need to have a second go at the guts of it to get a reasonable understanding of the subject. I wish I had paid more attention during chemistry classes as it does go into a bit of detail but not as much as a proper textbook would. Definitely worth a read.
Dave

 

[MartinOC]

Actually, I found it a bit of a "dry" read.... h34r: .

Seriously, 'though, most of it went over my head ('never was much of a fan of chemistry & calculations). I concluded that it's far easier to find-out your local/base water profile, then plug it & your target water profiles into any of the available calculators & let that do it all for me.

Hops book I found lacking in any real substance & information (mostly historical/geographical/commercial info.).

Yeast book is by far the best read ( read it 3 times & keep dipping back into it for reference).

Yet to read the Malt book......

 

[Mardoo]

Oh, the hops book...don't get me started...

I just listened to the Brewstrong podcast on the Water book. Turns out Colin Kaminski has gone from being a hardcore water geek to having a general profile he uses which he only alters for specialty beers.

Even Jamil says these books are guides for our own experience. Not THE WRITTEN WORD of God.

 

[warra48]

I have it, read it, but the really technical details of water chemistry went over my head. Still an interesting read as far as my limited understanding went.

Now I just use the BS2 Water Tool to get close to where I want to be for the style I'm brewing, and leave it all to providence from there on.

 

[MartinOC]

Oh, the hops book...don't get me started...

You mean "My Tax-deductable European holiday thinly-disguised as 'research' for a book I'm writing"??

 

[Mardoo]

Seriously. It literally put me off ever looking at another book he has done. I'm all for a good summation of known research, but not passed off as an original text.

Sorry, I'm out of (topic) line.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Actually, I found it a bit of a "dry" read.... h34r: .

Seriously, 'though, most of it went over my head ('never was much of a fan of chemistry & calculations). I concluded that it's far easier to find-out your local/base water profile, then plug it & your target water profiles into any of the available calculators & let that do it all for me.

Hops book I found lacking in any real substance & information (mostly historical/geographical/commercial info.).

Yeast book is by far the best read ( read it 3 times & keep dipping back into it for reference).

Yet to read the Malt book......

Yes the yeast book is great and was hoping the Water one to be the same.
I like tech brewing as its how I was trained but got to admit my involved water chem let me down a bit.,hoping to hone it up a bit.
Nev

 

[Blind Dog]

I find water the most difficult to read fo the 3 so far. Its not the technical stuff, I just find the writing style tedious and unengaging. Still a good resource though