Brew Like a Monk: Trappist, Abbey, and Strong Belgian Ales and How to Brew Them,   ISBN:9780937381878

Customer Rating: 

This book is filled with history and information on trappist beers and is a delightful look into brewing. So for the Belgian beer lover who wants to know more about the history and origin of their favorite beers, it's amazing.

Customer Rating: 

I'll admit this book is long on history, but it's very short on what most home brewers want-recipes. The book is more about techniques used at these breweries, a sprinkling of their history, and a description of what each tastes like. There was some recipes in the book, but not really clones of the major Trappest's ales, but a few of the more well know Abby Ales. Original gravity and attenuation was given for each, however. You would really have to know how to design a beer and use this book as a starting point, a concession the book makes in the first chapter. It is really designed, to use a cooking analogy that they did in the book, to give you an idea for a dish and it's up to you to come up with a recipe. To be honest, if all your wanting to do is clone your favorite Abby, be it Trappest or not, doing a Google search or checking out some of the better forums will do you far better. This is more for the advanced brewer, and a novelty at that; however, it was a decent read.

Customer Rating: 

Brew like a Monk is an excellent book that tells a great story about the history and state of Abbey-type beers in Belgium. It's an excellent source of information for beer enthusiasts or intermediate to advanced brewers. While it's certainly not the first book an aspiring brewer should buy, I would highly recommend it for any admirers of Trappist beer.

Customer Rating: 

Wouldn't you love to brew an Orval clone? Did you know there is actually more than one Orval beer brewed at the monastery (despite constant articles to the contrary)? There is actually enough information in this book - assuming you know what you are doing in the all-grain world - to pull it off. But you're going to have to introduce Brettanomyces into your brewery to do it ... and there's the awful temptation! As it is with virtually all Belgian beers, never mind the host of wild yeasts and bacteria that go along with them!

Add the wonderful, detailed brewing information to the history and stories and you get quite an unusual brewing book. It may be read for brewing purposes, as a casual read, for historical purposes, for cultural perspective, even for its religious content. Orval, of course, is just one of the Trappist breweries presented in the book.

Highly recommended. And I agree with another reviewer that this is the best book in this particular series.

Customer Rating: 

Imagine that you-an experienced homebrewer-got to gather around a fire with some folks who had years of experience brewing versions of your favorite beer style. It would be hard to have a bad time, harder still not to come away a better brewer for it.
This friendly, if somewhat disorderly book is just that conversation. I love the complexity and depth of belgian strong beers. Occasionally, by dumb luck, I've brewed one. Other times, my efforts have been dull, or over-concentrated or just odd.
In these conversations, we get some clarity about yeast, malt, fermenters, temperature control and bottling.
I think the odds in my favor just went up. This is a book to mine for insights.

Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine