Description
One of the most exciting and dynamic segments of today’s craft brewing scene, American-brewed sour beers are designed intentionally to be tart and may be inoculated with souring bacteria, fermented with wild yeast or fruit, aged in barrels or blended with younger beer.
Craft brewers and homebrewers have adapted traditional European techniques to create some of the world’s most distinctive and experimental styles. This book details the wide array of processes and ingredients in American sour beer production, with actionable advice for each stage of the brewing process.
Michael Tonsmeire provides inspiration, education and practical applications for brewers of all levels with the help of some of the country’s best known sour beer brewers.
About the author:
Michael Tonsmeire, author of American Sour Beers (Brewers Publications, 2014), is an award-winning homebrewer and certified beer judge, and has written on sour beers for various magazines. He most recently developed the recipes and grew the microbes for the sour beer program at San Diego’s Modern Times brewery.
Book Reviews
For those of you who are just starting to get “funky”…use this book to help guide you through this fun and often unpredictable journey….This book will also be very useful for those who are already producing sour beers; I’m certain this will be a great reference book to add to your library. I found good nuggets, both artistic and technical, and I am definitely inspired to brew some new sour beers at our brewery.
Michael Tonsmeire has created an incredibly comprehensive account of American sour beer making today. As John Palmer’s How to Brew is to beer making in general, American Sour Beers is the defining work for homebrewers and professional brewers seeking everything from a rudimentary understanding of sour beer to guidance on advanced techniques and philosophy.
Read this book. It will prove essential in helping you get where you want to get with your sour beers. Making great sours requires patience, conversing with other brewers, tasting, dumping from time to time, doing it again…yet sour beer is not a mystery. Our forefathers have done it for a few thousand years, and with this exploration of contemporary and innovative American souring techniques at your side, you can do it, too.
