Guildencrantz's Full Review: Stan Hieronymus - Brew Like a Monk: Trappist, Abbe...
Reading John Palmer's How to Brew I caught an interesting tidbit: although most Americans brew Belgian ales using rock candy traditional "Belgian candi sugar" is a syrup. Being the geeky wonder that I am I set out to research this little detail—I'll go pretty far to increase the flavor of my beer the smallest amounts—and found way more than I was expecting. Brew Like a Monk isn't a recipe book and barely even qualifies as a cook book, it's more of a history book and an homage to a lifestyle as well as the beer that it has nurtured.
When most people think of Belgian Abbey ales they think of the Trappists and dubbel or tripel so Hieronymus starts Brew Like a Monk off with a discussion of the Trappist brand and the six (at the time of this books writing La Trappe was not allowed to use the Authentic Trappist logo) Trappist abbey's currently brewing beer. This history covers both the foundation of the Trappist order and the brewing histories of each abbey.
One of the extremely intriguing details that comes out of these pages is the history of some of the styles of beer. The fact that the rise of pilsners created a demand for golden beers and the monks responded with tripel is absolutely fascinating. Of course other bits and pieces about how the water at specific abbeys effected individual recipes just fills in bunches of information about the traditional Trappist ales that the truly geeky Belgian beer fan can become absolutely engrossed in. Linked to this discussion, based on the differences in each abbey's product, is also a discussion of how "Trappist" and "abbey" aren't really descriptions of beer styles.
Hieronymus does recognize that the Trappists aren't the only monks brewing in Belgium and follows his Trappist tour with a discussion about "abbey" ales. One of the things he goes into are the requirements for being designated an "abbey" brewery and how some commercial breweries take advantage of this. Again he covers the types of beers as well as the breweries, further showing how "abbey" is a simple designation rather than a definitive style.
This discussion of Belgian breweries doesn't end with those that have a divine association; there's a short discussion of a few secular breweries which brew styles similar to those available from the Trappists and other abbey breweries. The end of this discussion brings the reader to part two: "Brewing in America".
This second part opens with a bit about breweries in The States which put out Belgian "style" ales before moving into the actual bits about creating these ales in American homes. As mentioned before this isn't a recipe book, and this section about the brewing methods is an excellent example of just that fact. Rather than presenting specific recipes the reader is greeted with a discussion about open versus closed fermenters, proper fermenter ratios, and temperature control. That being said this section contains what I was originally researching: a discussion of, and recipe for, caramelized syrup.
Probably the most specific detail that readers will pull from this section is in the discussion of yeast. Hieronymous managed to get quite a bit of information out of both Wyeast and White Labs in regard not only to the flavor profile and attenuation rates of their Belgian yeasts, but also which brewery their specific strains originated from—it's stressed pretty heavily that these strains were acquired from the breweries quite a while ago and so the profiles have undoubtedly diverged quite a bit from what the particular brewery uses today.
Brew Like a Monk does end with a chapter titled "Recipes: What Works". While putting together this book Hieronymus collected recipes from hundreds of homebrewers, analyzed them, and he puts the collected data together in this chapter. Presenting the different styles which are covered under the Trappist and "abbey" labels the reader is provided specific recipes (given in grist percentages) and overall averages of specific grains occurring in the recipes Hieronymus collected. This chapter keeps with the ideas that have been developed through all the preceding chapters: the monks developed their recipes around an idea of what they want and then put it together using what they had.
This is not a book an inexperienced brewer can pickup and learn the trade from. Hieronymous does briefly mention using extract to recreate Belgian ales, but it's very briefly, and there's no discussion about basic brewing techniques. If you're looking to get into brewing read through John Palmer's How to Brew and try a few recipes—all-grain if you can—and then come back to the recipes and suggestions in this book.
Brew Like a Monk is a greatly entertaining book. As both a history fan and homebrewer I found lots of little tidbits about both lodged in these pages. While I'm most likely to recommend this to homebrewers interested in Belgian ales you shouldn't need to be a brewer, just interested in history and beer, to really appreciate Hieronymus's work.
Brew Like a Monk delves into monastic brewing, detailing this rich-flavored region of the beer world. It also examines methods for brewing these uniqu...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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