The Best Brewing Books?

[spicks]

I've got some vouchers for a home brew store, and I'm thinking of buying a brewing book. I've only brewed twice to date, so I'm definitely in the begginers stage. That said I know the mechanics of brewing using extract. I just want something that will be a good read.

Here is the list off the online store (I'm not sure how many books they'll have in the actual store). If you've read some or many of these books could you let me know which ones are good and if any should be avoided. I've just done a copy paste from the website so the comments below the author are obviously not mine.

Here's the list:

Home Brewing
(Rodgers-Wilson)
The best all round beginner & intermediate book in Australia

Complete Handbook of Home Brew
(Miller)
Excellent advanced brewing text

Complete Joy of Home Brewing
Charlie Papazian
For intermediate & advanced brewers

Brewing World's Great Beers
(Miller)
Great recipes for mash brewers

Brewing Quality Beers
(Burch)
For beginners & intermediate brewers

Big Book of Brewing
(Line)
Advanced brewing book

Brewing Beer Like You Buy
(Line)
Recipes for mash brewers

Dictionary of Beer & Brewing
(Forge)
Home Brewers Companion
(Papazian)
Excellent text for advanced brewers

 

[Plastic Man]

Spicks

They should have a copy of John Palmers "How to Brew". I'd grab that if you can as it will serve you well for many years.

Cheers - Richard.

 

[Ray_Mills]

Spicks
Plastic Man is right
"How to Brew" is the best book, It has one page on kit brewing and 340 pages on how to make beer
Ray

 

[bradmcm]

Avoid the Dave Line books - horribly outdated.
Never heard of the Rogers-Wilson Homebrewing book.
The other books are OK.

 

[jayse]

Hey spicks,
I'll reinforce the suggestion of 'how to brew', undoubtly the best book you could get your hands on.

Jayse

 

[Torsion]

Remeber that How to Brew is here. So if you are near a PC all the time (like me) then you don't need to buy that one.

I had real trouble finding any good brewing books in Brisbane a few months back, I don't know where you are so you may have more luck, that said I found some good ones on-line and I like them all

They are: -
Dave Millers Hombrewing Guide:
Easy to read, and contains a lot of technical information about what is actually happening in the mash tun, brew kettle etc. (amazon.com)

Homebrewing volume I by Al Korzonas:
Lots of recipes and a big section on trouble shooting. (ebay, actually bought it off the authors father its even signed!)

Brew Ware - How to find build and adapt homebrewing equipment:
Karl F. Lutzen & Mark Stevens
I like this book a lot, it gives you ideas on usefull things you can build/buy to make brewing easier. Some people say they are obvious ideas, but I realy enjoyed this one and got a lot of ideas from it. (amazon.com)

Radical Brewing - Recipes, tales & world-altering mediations in a glass.
Randy Mosher
This one is a very interesting book for getting ideas about "strange" brews to make. Includes recipes for fruit beers and spiced beers, and some recipes to make historical beers like gruit (It also has recipes for some clasic styles like trippels, IPAs and wits). Also contains instructions for some intersting brewing methods like "stone brewing" - which is dropping redhot stones into the kettle to get it boiling ! (Dymocks, of all places)

Hope that helps!

 

[warrenlw63]

I bought the two Rogers-Wilson books when I first started about 9 years ago.

Don't bother with them. They don't encourage past kits in some ways and only steer you towards products that suit the author. Author runs/ran a store need I say more. No names, no packdrill

In some ways books are really a pass medium with perhaps the exception of Palmer's How to Brew. You'll learn more on this forum than you will in any book. Most of my brewing books just sit on the shelf and rarely get consulted these days.

Problem is as soon as a book hits the shelves a lot of ingredients and equipment are suddently yesterday's news.

Blow your vouchers on ingredients. You'll get something a little more tangible.

Warren -

(Aussie Home Brewer is the best brewing book) :super:

 

[Backlane Brewery]

We have a few wine cider & beer making books-
Joy of Home Brewing (Papazian) is still good.
101 Ideas For Homebrewing (Daniels) is OK, perhaps a bit like a watered down version of Radical Brewing, though some of the ideas are a bit lame- serve cheese & crackers with beer, wouldnt have thought of that! <_<
My fave is one of our op shop specials called Home Brewing, based on a UK tv series on HB from 1973 (!). Some ideas/equipment are a bit outdated, but the techniques havent changed much and the recipes read well at least. We are itching to try them. When the gallery is up I plan to scan some of it in, esp. the front cover which is a full on 1973 fashion eyesore. :blink:

As warren says though, you could do worse than print out pages of the AHB & staple em together.

 

[warrenlw63]

Groovy pants Chaz Papazian and his wafty-armpitted chick more or less tell us that a lot of these books are sadly superannuated. :lol:

Mmmmmm... Can hear that Supertramp music playing now. :blink:

Warren -

 

[pint of lager]

I think I have a copy of that book. TV Times "Make Your Own Beer and Cider" based on the Independant Television Series. Published by Hamlyn/TV Times in 1973. I bought mine new in I think 1980 for $1.95. And yes, the front picture is truely representative of its time.

I wonder which of the current books will look so dated in 30 years time.

With your vouchers, buy at least one really really good book that you refer to all the time, I know I have lots of good books, printed out notes and files on the pc, but having a guide to hops, yeasts, grains and recipes and brewing is a good idea.

It has been a while ago since I have read it, but the Dave Miller, "Complete Handbook to Homebrew" would probably be the best from the list you have given. But, I haven't read some of the others on your list that may be equally worthy.

The Palmer book is excellent if you can lay your hands on it.

If you are looking at buying books from another source with a greater range, there are a few earlier threads on books to buy.

 

[warrenlw63]

Actually I forgot to add one in here. Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels isn't too bad a book as well.

Warren -

 

[somnar]

You could always go to your local library and see what they have...
i did this and have read a heap of books now... and i'm glad i didn't
buy a few of them too...

Our local HB store also lends books out too...

cheers,
SoMNaR

 

[thehipone]

I strongly second the Designing great beers recommendation. Light on technique, but loads of reference info plus guidelines to formulating recipes.

 

[morry]

I reckon the Papazian one is great. Good for beginners and mashers.

 

[spog]

spicks go with torsion,s suggestion check it out online then you can read it when it suits you.

 

[Gerard_M]

Read this first
How to Brew by John Palmer.

Noonans Lager book is a fun read.

I saw a book called Beer Chemistry 101 that looked like it could help develop a brewing vocabulary.
Cheers
Gerard

 

[wee stu]

Noonans Lager book is a fun read.

[post="49555"][/post]​

Gerard, you need to get out more!!!

Noonan is an excellent technical tome, but a fun read?

Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing is much more fun to read.

Don't shoot me - I've been dipping into Nachel's Homebrewing for Dummies a bit lately h34r:

I agree with many others, best place to start is Palmer - free on the net.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Apologies for dragging up such an old thread.....

Cruised through the local bookshop at lunch today and noticed the three following texts:

Homebrew Favourites and More Homebrew Favourites by Lutzen and Stevens.

Basically 500 odd extract and AG recipes (Mainly AG and claiming to be BOS beers). Seemed very comprehensive. Just over $30.00 each

The third was the Brewmaster's Bible by Stephen Snyder. Bit of everything, with a good deal of attention to different grain and hop charcteristics and of course some recipes to various styles. $43.00


Has anyone read/borrowoed/bought/wiped their @rse with any of these texts?


Was thinking of seeding some thoughts into Santa early this year!


Cheers,

Fester.

 

[benno1973]

I have Brewmaster's Bible. It's ok I guess, but nothing special. Just my 2c

 

[bigfridge]

Has anyone read/borrowoed/bought/wiped their @rse with any of these texts?

Fester,

I think that the last option is the most appropriate for the Synder book. Would have been fine before the Internet but now it is pretty basic stuff.

And all in annoying yanky units.

Nothing that you can't get from the suppliers websites (eg hops, yeasts etc) or a good recipe database.