Learn to brew the best possible beer with less work and the most fun! Simple Homebrewing reduces the complicated steps for making beer and returns brewing to the fundamentals. Explore easy techniques for directing water, malted barley, hops, and yeast (along with a few odd co-stars) become beer. Pick up tips and tricks for a range of brewing challenges like making water adjustments, working with adjunct ingredients, or making wild beers. Denny Conn and Drew Beechum will guide you from brewing extract to all-grain batches, discuss recipe design, small-batch brewing, and even share ideas on how to make technology work for you. Simple Homebrewing helps you develop a simple, thoughtful brewing process and makes homebrewing more accessible and enjoyable. Even experienced homebrewers can learn something from these two homebrew-famous brewers.

Table of Contents:
TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Recipes Acknowledgments Foreword Introduction Chapter 1 – What is Simplicity? The Inherent Simplicity of Beer The Importance of a Pragmatic Focus, or A Book's Manifesto in Three Lines The Efficiency of Simplicity A Word on Process But, That's Not How the Pros Do It What isn't Simplicity? Profiles in Simplicity: Doug King Chapter 2 – Simple Extract Brewing Modern Brewing Pioneers The Basics about Brewing and Extract Rescuing Extract from Its Reputation Why Extract Is Awesome Why Extract Is Terrible The Simplest Brew Day Ever The Oversimplified Explanation of Extract Brewing What to Expect When You're Expecting Beer Tricks for the Best Extract Beer Advanced Extract Brewing Late Extract Full-Volume Boil Use a Chiller Speed Brewing: Beer in 20 Minutes How to convert to/from Extract Other Extract Uses Yeast Starters Simplifying Your Brew Day Boosters Baking: The Final Frontier Pretzel Magic Extract Beer Recipes from Denny An Inspirational Message to All the Doubters Profiles in Simplicity: Jay Ankeney Jay's Tips for Extract Brewing Chapter 3 – Simple Small Batch In Defense of Small-Batch Brewing Less Physical Strength Needed Smaller Gear and Less Gear Less Room Needed More Variety and Experimentation Less Risk Less Time Needed Small Batch Shortcomings Brewing Small: The Total Picture A Small-Batch Brew What's In Your Kitchen? Brew-in-a-Bag Small Processes Profiles in Simplicity: Mary Izett and Chris Cuzme Chapter 4 – Simple All Grain The Strict Worlds of Fermentation It Wasn't Always So Making Malt Onto Brewing Mashing from Start to Finish The Super High Level Process of Mashing The Cheap 'n' Easy Mash Tun Mashing Working Out Your Mash Water Volume Batch Sparge Other Mashing Regimens Short Mash and Boil Overnight/Extended Mashing Brew in a Bag: One-Pot Brewing Profiles in Simplicity: Chip Walton Teaches Us about Brew-in-a-Bag Profiles in Simplicity: Jeremy Jalabert—Award-Winning, Busy Dad Brewer Chapter 5 – Technology Serving Simplicity Automated Systems PicoBrew Brewie+ All–in-One Manual Systems Grainfather Speidel Braumeister Recipe Interlude Simple Fermentation Systems BrewJacket Immersion Pro Vessi Fermentor Home Canning Some Assembly Required Bucket Heaters: A Cheap Electrical Assist Raspberry Pi and Arduino-Based Systems Looking into the Crystal Ball Profiles in Simplicity: Ronaldo Dutra Ferreira Chapter 6 – Simple Flavor Identification Simplifying Recipe Design Understanding Flavors and Ingredients Flavors in Beer Understanding Ingredients: Build Your Flavor Database Malt Evaluation Malt Evaluation at Home Hot-Steep Malt Evaluation Method Hop Evaluation The Language of Hops Evaluating Hops at Home Yeast Evaluation Clean Estery and Fruity Phenolic Sulfury Learning Through Drinking Simple Beer Chapter 7 – Simple Recipe Design Evolution of a Homebrewer Stage 1: Extract Recipe Kits Stage 2: All-Grain Recipe Kits Stage 3: Brewing Other People's Recipes Stage 4: Your Own Recipes The Philosophy of Recipe Design Bottom-Up Recipe Design Top-Down Recipe Design Every Beer Tells a Story Single Malt and Single Hop (SMASH) Choosing Hops Hop Balancing Recipe Templates How Do You Know It Worked? Triangle Test: The Only Way to Know Sample Triangle Test Procedure The Importance of Locality Profiles in Recipe Design: Randy Mosher Chapter 8 – Simple Water Simple Truths About Water Brewing Water Basics Treat Your Brewing Water What's in Your Water? Understanding Your Water Calcium Chloride Sulfate Magnesium Sodium Chlorine the Killer Distilled and Reverse Osmosis Water: The Level Playing Field Adjusting Your Water pH Alkalinity Function and Flavor Adjusting Your Water: An Example Is There A Simpler Way? Sulfate-to-Chloride Ratio It's Never Too Late Profiles in Simplicity: Martin Brungard Chapter 9 – Simple Adjuncts A Little Adjunct History How to Adjunct Adjuncting the Hard Way: Cook 'Em. Adjuncting the Easy Way One Final Tip: Hulls are Your Friend Major Players of the Adjunct World Wheat Rye Oats Corn Rice Potatoes Sugar And Now It Gets Weird Fruit Vegetables Not Weird Enough Yet? Processing the Mushrooms: Denny Experiments Profiles in Simplicity: Mike Williams of Candi Syrup, Inc. Chapter 10 – Simple Yeast and Fermentation Types of Yeast Ale and Lager Yeast “Wild” Yeast and Bacteria Top versus Bottom Fermenting Yeast Flavors Ale Yeast: Saccharomyces cerevisiae Lager Yeast: Saccharomyces pastorianus Wild Yeast: Brettanomyces Species Dry or Liquid? Getting the Yeast Ready to Work Rehydrating Dry Yeast Liquid Yeast Starter Starter by the Numbers Simplifying the Starter: The Vitality Starter High-Gravity Fermentations Fermentation Why Control Fermentation Temperature? Easy Methods for Controlling Temperature Temperature Manipulation When Is Fermentation Done? Profiles in Simplicity: Mark Van Ditta Chapter 11 – Simple Wild Wild Done Safely Wild Inoculation Getting Safer with Booze and Acid Even Safer with Wild Starters The Cultured Wild Kettle Souring: The Ultimate Safe Sour Blending and Flavoring Profiles in Simplicity: Garret Garfield Index