The Homebrewer's Answer Book (Answer Book (Storey)) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The Homebrewer's Answer book contains a lot of useful information in it's 400+ pages. The writer of the Ask Mr. Wizard column in Brew Your Own magazine has always provided well written, thoughtful replies to the questions he's received from all levels of brewers over the years, and these are collected in this book. Some of the questions are very basic, especially in the first couple sections, but there are a lot of very good questions from intermediate brewers in the later sections.
The only problem with the book is the format. It is small - a little shorter and wider than a standard paperback, which makes it difficult to hold and read. Perhaps the publisher thought that a pocket manual would be nifty. Unfortunately it tends to impede the readability.
Second, while the Questions are organized into several sections: Sanitation, Ingredients, Lagering, Packaging, Troubleshooting, Extract Brewing, All-grain Brewing, etc., there is no list of questions at the front of each section so that you can easily find Your question, and you therefore have to keep turning pages to find what you are looking for. Fortunately, the Questions are in bold, with seperators between questions, and there are several diagrams and sidebars to help illustrate the Answers. The index is well done too.
Bottom line: a good source of brewing information from a solid author, with an Issue, Consequences, and Resolution writing style, which I like. Perhaps the compact format won't be a problem for other readers. Get yourself some 3M Post-It Flags (tm) and this can indeed be a handy book.
John Palmer
author of How To Brew

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Homebrewing — what hobby could possibly be more rewarding than the one that, in a matter of weeks, yields fresh beerfor the happy brewer? It's hard to beat that kind of payoff. Brewing beer is fun, but it's also a demanding process, requiring proper equipment, impeccable sanitation, a basic understanding of the chemical processes involved, and the patience to troubleshoot flavors and aromas that aren't quite right. No matter how experienced the beer maker, questions and problems can develop with every new batch of beer.Master brewer Ashton Lewis has seen and resolved hundreds of brewing problems and answered thousands of questions from amateur brewers as Brew Your Own magazine's Mr. Wizard. From simple queries on getting started (Are lagers and ales made differently?) to discussions on the niceties of foam (How can I improve head retention?), Lewis provides the answers that homebrewers need. His straightforward information gives readers the confidence to experiment with new ingredients, flavors, recipes, and styles.In a friendly question-and-answer format, Lewis explains the wonderful process of converting malt, hops, yeast, and water into beer. Covering the entire range of situations a homebrewer is likely to face, this handy, at-a-glance reference will maximize the flavor of every batch of brew.

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