Best Books On Brewing

[discoloop]

The wealth of knowledge available online to the home brewer is virtually infinite, but sometimes I'd rather just sit down with a book in hand. There's something tried'n'true about having a book on hand that you can take anywhere with you, spill ingredients on and just generally abuse in a way you can't with a computer.

So the question is, what are the best books for the home brewer? There's bits and pieces of info on various parts of this site that make the odd suggestion, but not really in anything in a single place.

I'm fairly new to HB, and was given Laurie Strachan's "Complete Guide to Beer and Brewing" for Christmas. I've found it to be a great overview for the beginner, but now I'm interested in getting a bit more into the nitty gritty of how to make a decent brew. I'm at the stage where I think I'm kind of ready to do away with kits entirely and move down the extract path. I've heard "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels is a pretty good resource. Opinions on this one? Are there any better books?

Come on, give us your book reviews!

 

[mika]

Just started reading 'Designinng Great Beers', seems pretty good at this stage. Also got 'Brew like a Monk' and 'Radical Brewing'.

Amazon is your friend

 

[KillerRx4]

I really enjoyed reading "Brew like a monk" but its not a book showing you how to brew, more on belgian styles & ingredients used. I think it appealed to me because I brew alot of belgians & gave me ideas to try.

"Radical brewing" Im not enjoying as much & have really only skimmed through it. Its also more of a style guide & some beer history.

"Beer captured" is full of recipies, a good book. Im having trouble finding some ingredients it calls for for a few id like to brew though. Im hanging to pull off a delirium tremens clone.

John palmers "How to brew" is a great book for the ins & outs of how to brew (funny that). That was my 1st book i bought & often refer to it for info. Its got the most basic guides to brewing & some very complex scientific stuff that goes way over my head.

Thats all ive read so far.

 

[MHB]

For someone moving into mashing

"How to Brew" by Palmer
The third edition is updated, even acknowledges the existence of the metric system (sometimes). Tho its a touch Amaericentric gives a good foundation.

For English Ales
Both "Brew Classic European Beer" its prequel "Brew Your Own Real Ale at Home" by Wheeler and Protz; are great for classic English ale production, if you can find them. Getting a little dated but fundamentally sound

There are a host of other good books
Beer Captured
Clone Brews
Designing Great Beer
New Lager Beer

To name a few, all of these would be more suitable for someone with a bit more experience; "Designing Great Beer" is outstanding.

For technical books
"Technology Brewing and Malting" by Kunze; Lager focus, the new third international edition is one of the best books I have ever read.
"Brewing Science and Practice" by Dennis E. Briggs, Chris A Boulton, Peter A Brookes and Roger Stevens; a more modern successor to "Malting and Brewing Science Vol 1&2" excellent book on commercial Ale production.

Defiantly go for the Palmer book, best place to start.

MHB

 

[Linz]

I still reckon 'Homebrewing, a CAMRA guide' by Graham Wheeler is a top book to read for the beginner through to the transitioning AG'er in English by English in metric.

 

[Adamt]

Palmer is definitely the best general brewing resource book in my eyes. It's worth it for just Section 1 alone. It covers just about all aspects of the brewing process to varying degrees with adequate understandable explanations.

 

[Aaron]

I have Plamer, Daniels and Kunze. All very valuable in their own ways. If I had to pick one I couldn't go past Palmer. Daniels is good to get you thinking about how to formulate recipes and if you need to know everything in detail start reading Kunze.

Palmer covers everything in idiot proof language.

 

[lonte]

well, only repeating the above, but if weight of opinion swings your choices then I have to support Daniels and Palmer.

 

[Wortgames]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned Charlie Papazian - 'The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing' and 'The Home Brewer's Companion'.

Seriously, I think these should be among your first brewing books - they are kind of the Old Testament when it comes to home brewing. So much of what you read in other people's books will refer to Charlie's techniques or theories, that you are missing a big chunk of background by not reading them. He is kind of The Godfather of the US home brewing scene.

There are plenty of other great books around, and many of them go into better detail about specific aspects, or they improve on certain techniques, but Papazian has really covered everything from the ground up and will get you off to a fantastic (and fairly entertaining) start in kits and extracts as well as get you well into all-grain if you so desire. After that perhaps look at the 'Classic Beer Styles' series to get you more into understanding the specifics of a particular style that takes your fancy.

I've got a fair number of brewing books, and I love reading them all, but I don't think any of them really taught me much that I hadn't already learnt from Papazian.

 

[neonmeate]

my opinions on every book i can think of h34r: :


Palmer: foolproof introduction and resource for practical questions - no advice on recipes or flavour though, other than how to avoid off-flavours


Radical Brewing: my favourite - he sidesteps the boring over-scientific or over-practical approach of just about every other brewing book and concentrates getting you to think in terms of the art of combining flavours - not a brewing 101 text though. really good recipes.

Daniels: honestly this book frustrates me beyond belief. he goes through all this stupid data with all the statistical interpretive skill of Bill Lawry, just to end up at boring middle of the road advice like use 80-90% pale malt and 0-10% crystal and this or that, without addressing WHY or WHEN you should use these ingredients - he just goes through the data of winning recipes or commercial beers, without analysing how each recipe works individually in terms of flavour, or evaluating the merits of one way versus another. Stupid stupid stupid. Similarly, from this book you will learn all about myrcene, humulone and beta acids, but you will never know why you might not want to put fuggles in a koelsch - (answer - it tastes like crap). if you follow this book you will be able to place well in competitions but you won't understand anything about beer.

Wheeler CAMRA guide and "Brewing European beers at home": oldfashioned and pigheadedly traditional in a very English way, but some useful stuff on water treatment, mashing and basics - but some of the stuff he says about sour beers is just plain wrong, and the recipes are really hit and miss. (he also seems to believe you can get a hop aroma with 15g of hops at 15mins!)

BLAM and Farmhouse ales - fantastic books if you want to brew Belgian beer

Rajotte Belgian beer - hilariously chaotically edited and very difficult to understand at times, reads like it was written in french and put through babelfish. however some useful advice on fermentation and some good recipes, if you can understand it. basically outdated though with all the new yeasts and ingredients we can get.


Beer captured and Clonebrews: DO NOT BELIEVE A WORD OF IT none of these recipes are clones at all, most in fact are laughable. e.g., did you know that Duvel contains pear extract? every page is a cut and paste job with only a few words moved around. somebody should completely rewrite these books, it would be great if you could actually trust the recipes - but like the Protz and Wheeler they don't tell you what is fact and what is guesswork. so when you get to make the beer and you inevitably have to substitute ingredients, you're substituting for a substitute for a supposition.

Noonan new lager brewing : extremely rigorous explanation of traditional German lager brewing: more aimed at pros. if you can follow all the tests and techniques this guy recommends you deserve some sort of prize (and you will probably end up with good beer). he doesn't really offer you much in the way of shortcuts, which is kind of admirable but frustrating if you don't have all the equipment, time and headspace to follow it all to the letter. Noonan is the sort of guy that would definitely not turn up at the AGM of the AHB no-chill association.

Dave Miller Guide to homebrewing and Snyder "Brewmasters Bible" are good for technical stuff but quite outdated and stodgy. lots of recipes in Snyder but most look kind of dodgy.

Extreme brewing - some interesting recipes but not enough meat for the price of the book

 

[bindi]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned Charlie Papazian - 'The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing' and 'The Home Brewer's Companion'.

I will 2nd the above AND 'Mastering Homebrew- The beer Makers Bible' by Brian Kunath.
Lots of good info and photos which also makes a great coffeetable book, check out your local libraries and 2nd hand book stores.

Oh, and it's also printed under the name "Fearless Brewing: The Beer Maker's Bible" by Brian Kunath. in some countries <_<

 

[the_fuzz]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned Charlie Papazian - 'The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing'

That's good to know, I just bought this yesterday of ebay for $5

I'm only onto my 6th brew, but without Palmers and this website I would be lost. I highly recommend Palmers "how to brew" to all beginers

 

[tangent]

For pure joy of reading about beer Mosher's Radical Brewing,
and Brew Like a Monk were a real joy to read.

Can't remember which one had all this stuff in the last 3rd of the book about who used what in some US HB comp. That was a real disappointment.

 

[neonmeate]

Can't remember which one had all this stuff in the last 3rd of the book about who used what in some US HB comp. That was a real disappointment.

that would be that one about brewing with nuts?
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...=11693&st=0

 

[tangent]

that's the one.

 

[blackbock]

Dave Miller Guide to homebrewing and Snyder "Brewmasters Bible" are good for technical stuff

Dave Miller's book is excellent. I found it a good all-round introduction to most aspects of brewing.

Also I see that noone has mentioned 'Wild Brews' by Sparrow (it's interesting if only as a read, because most of the techniques are beyond the scope of 99% of homebrewers). I won't be doing any 'turbid mash lambics' anytime soon... B)

 

[spog]

fellas,some of the books mentioned i have heard of some not,now i don"t want to p anyone of but when you recommend a book could you give as much info as possible like the isbn number,publisher,author,blah blah...cheers...spog... :super:

 

[tangent]

sorry mate, Google or Amazon should help you with those details
for some reason i can't remember the ISBN of BLAM...

 

[spog]

doh.never thought of googling,ahh live and learn..cheers..spog..