BEER SAFETY AND WHOLESOMENESS
BEER SAFETY AND WHOLESOMENESS is the sixth and final book in the “Practical Guides for Beer Quality” series.
People have consumed beer for more than 8,000 years—and for many, beer has served as a food as much as a drink. Beer found its place on the dining table because it was realized to be safer than water and to provide nutrients. Certainly, beer has more nutritional value than any other alcoholic beverage and is better suited to a balanced diet.
In the sixth and final installment in the ASBC series Practical Guides for Beer Quality, Charles W. Bamforth offers a comprehensive and authoritative description of the factors that underlie beer safety and wholesomeness. He highlights the food safety issues associated with producing beer, the current understanding of beer consumption, the basis for making health claims about beer consumption, and the potential negative and positive health effects of drinking beer.
Bamforth also identifies how brewers can ensure that their products are as safe and wholesome as possible by guiding them through risk factors and recommending preventive and corrective measures. He helps brewers understand how to avoid chemical and microbiological contamination and describes the relationship between raw materials and related processes and the levels of beneficial and adverse components in beer.
With more than 40 years in the brewing industry, Bamforth is skilled at presenting complex scientific issues in a readily understood and applicable manner. He takes a straightforward approach to discussing science and focuses on the practicalities of health and wholesomeness as they relate to brewing. Beer Safety and Wholesomeness will be a valuable resource not only to professionals in the brewing industry but also to people who love their beer!
QUALITY SYSTEMS
QUALITY SYSTEMS is the fifth book in the “Practical Guides for Beer Quality” series.
Chocolatier Milton S. Hershey once said, “Give them quality. That’s the best kind of advertising.”
What is quality? According to Charles W. Bamforth, quality is a product that meets consumer expectations every time. He has covered specific aspects of achieving consistent quality in the previous four books in the ASBC series Practical Guides for Beer Quality. In the fifth installment, Quality Systems, he takes a more overarching view of the topic.
Standard procedures are not only crucial to quality, but they must also be clearly outlined and understood by everyone involved in the brewing process. To this end, quality systems—methods in which a manufacturer establishes and follows a system to ensure the product consistently meets applicable requirements and specifications—are necessary for successful brewing.
In this accessible yet informative guide, Bamforth explains the processes behind the development of standard methods, how they are evaluated, and why they are important for accuracy and precision. He also discusses the difference between quality control (reactive) and quality assurance (proactive) and introduces Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls (HARPC). After arming the reader with the basics, Bamforth pulls it all together with practical advice for setting up a quality program. And woven throughout the narrative are colorful anecdotes and informed insights based on Bamforth’s more than 40 years in the brewing industry.
Like the other books in this series, Quality Systems is a necessary guide for anyone who works in the beer business—from commercial brewers and suppliers to wholesalers and retailers. Full of helpful figures and tables, the book is also a user-friendly resource for those who study beer scientifically and those who brew it and drink it recreationally!
COLOR AND CLARITY
COLOR AND CLARITY is the fourth book in the “Practical Guides for Beer Quality” series.
What do beer drinkers look for in the clarity of their brew? If brightness is best, as traditionalists will argue, then what explains the current popularity of profoundly turbid beer? And what about color? In one experiment, individuals described the flavor of beer based on its color. Color matters—but how and why?
Many factors affect color and clarity, and understanding them is key to producing beer that has the desired appearance every time. Color and Clarity, the fourth installment in the ASBC series Practical Guides for Beer Quality, is the first comprehensive yet easy-to-read book to describe all of those factors.
Author Charles W. Bamforth, who has been part of the brewing industry for more than 40 years, presents the science behind beer in a clear, fun manner. In his signature chatty, informal style, Bamforth takes readers through the complex nature of color and turbidity. He explains how raw materials, processing, and packaging can impact color and clarity, enabling readers to think systematically and knowledgeably about ways to achieve the qualities they desire in their beer. He also offers straightforward guidelines on how to measure and interpret color and clarity, helping readers improve quality performance. Finally, he provides a wealth of useful references and links, directing readers to informative sources about methods and equipment. And of course, woven throughout the book are the author’s insightful and authoritative anecdotes.
Like the other books in this series, Color and Clarity is a necessary guide for anyone who works in the beer business—from commercial brewers and suppliers to wholesalers and retailers. The book is also a user-friendly resource for those who study beer scientifically and those who brew it and drink it recreationally!
FRESHNESS
FRESHNESS is the third book in the “Practical Guides for Beer Quality” series. Beer consumers these days are much less forgiving with flavor inconsistencies. Their increasingly sophisticated tastes and heightened expectations are constantly challenging breweries to raise the bar on beer quality.
Flavor instability is currently one of the most critical quality issues faced by the brewing industry, and this third book in veteran author Charlie Bamforth’s Practical Guides for Beer Quality Series, is a solution unto itself for ensuring the flavor stability of beer.
In an informal and reader-friendly way, this book guides the reader through the complex nature of beer flavor stability, covering the many factors and issues associated with keeping your beer tasting fresh and consistent. It features…
- Specific advice related to stability, such as staling and skunking
- The factors that impact stability, such as raw materials, process, and packaging
- Explanations behind the smells and tastes of beer that change over time and how to predict the rate at which these changes will occur
- How to minimize flavor stability issues at the outset
- Step-by-step explanations for interpreting and fixing flavor stability problems
- References and links to help readers source methods and equipment that will maximize the shelf life of their beers
The book is ideal for commercial brewers, suppliers to the brewing industry, scientists studying beer aging, home-brewers, beer wholesalers and retailers, and serious lovers of beer.
Dr. Bamforth has been a thought leader in the brewing industry for almost 40 years. As one of the early researchers of flavor stability, he was involved in much of the original research upon which the book draws.
FLAVOR
FLAVOR is the second book in the “Practical Guides for Beer Quality” series. FLAVOR offers an easy-to-read yet comprehensive and authoritative description on the science of flavor in brewing. It also addresses how factors such as raw materials and the process impact the flavor and aroma of beer.
Through this book, the reader can systematically get to the root cause of flavor problems they are encountering and address quality issues through:
- Brewing science knowledge without the technical complexities
- Practical advice pertaining to brewing for flavor characteristics
- Quality assurance and control parameters for flavors
- Troubleshooting guides to flavor issues
References and links provided in the book will also allow the reader to source methods and equipment that they can use in pursuit of flavor excellence.
FLAVOR will be of interest to brewers; suppliers to the brewing industry; sensory scientists; home brewers; beer servers in bars, restaurants, and hotels; and any serious lover of beer. It will enhance courses in malting and brewing science and any class where flavor is covered.
FOAM
This book, the first in a series entitled “Practical Guides for Beer Quality,” offers an easy-to-read yet comprehensive and authoritative description of all the factors that impact the quality and quantity of foam on beer.
FOAM guides the reader through the many factors that impact foam, culminating in a step-by-step explanation of how problems with too much or too little foam can be interpreted and rectified. The book takes the reader through the role that foam plays in perceived quality, the factors that impact foam, and the contributions that all stages from barley to dispense make to foam. It also describes how to measure head stability and cling and diagnose problems with over foaming (gushing). The author has conducted detailed research studies on foam for more than 30 years and indeed has been referred to as the “Pope of Foam.”
The book might be justly called a “foam owner’s manual” and will be of interest to brewers; suppliers to the brewing industry; scientists studying foam; home brewers; beer servers in bars, restaurants, and hotels; and any serious lover of beer. It will enhance courses in malting and brewing science and any class where foaming and bubbles are covered.