The Everything Homebrewing Book: All you need to brew the best beer at home (Everything Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)I enjoyed reading this book. It has some good recipes in it. I have read John Palmer's How to Brew book and if I could only could purchase one book I would get that one. Palmer's book had some more details that you may or may not be interested in. I enjoyed this book more than The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition because it didn't have "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew" repeated over and over again. The book did give me some other ideas and I think I will make a fermentation chiller sometime (plans not in book but son of fermentation chiller and others available on the internet). Will be making the bourbon vanilla imperial porter next week and then the evil twin. Not at all disappointed in purchasing this book.

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There?s no place like home for brewing beer. In this book, you learn the secrets of the master brewers?and how you can brew you own beer yourself. Beginners and more experienced homebrewers alike will benefit from the expert tips and fresh ideas in this easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide. With this book, you learn how to:
Choose among barley, hops, and malts
Master the chemistry of homebrewing
Take the appropriate cleaning and sanitizing steps
Adapt the best recipes to their personal tastes
Enter (and win!) beer competitions
Featuring 100 delicious recipes, this guide is all you need to ferment endless brewing possibilities. Cheers!

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

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(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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Home Brewing with BeerSmith: How to Brew and Design Great Beer at Home Review

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(More customer reviews)The sad part of this book is that it really does have the potential to be a five-star book, but it falls short in many areas. It feels like an early draft (no pun intended) copy. With a good publisher and a good re-working, it could become a must-have book for homebrewers....
* This book is self-published and printed on demand by Amazon, so the book may take up to three weeks to be delivered; this is not clear from the listing on Amazon. Also, the formatting is done by the writer as far as I can tell (which is definitely not up to the quality of a book released from a publisher.) For example, the text is fully justified but it doesn't appear that any kerning has been applied; so this can be a little distracting compared to text that has been properly typeset.
* I am always leery of someone that insists on including PhD after his or her name--especially when they never mention what school they graduated from or what their major was. What you write is either good or it isn't. Adding three letters after your own name usually means you feel insecure about something (the exception is academic articles). A doctorate in computer science doesn't mean that you know more about brewing beer than anyone else.
* This book is exactly what it says it is--a compilation of blog entries. So there isn't a great deal of continuity from entry to entry and the entries were never written with the intent of ending up in a book.
* No pictures. Not a problem for a novel, but a severe limitation for a book on brewing. 'nuff said.
* It isn't clear who the intended audience for this book is. Beginning brewers? Intermediate? Advanced? This is basically Dr. Smith's notebook in printed form, so there are definitely some good nuggets of information to be mined from this book.
* Too much detail in some areas and not enough in others. For example, the author explains recirculation/vorlauf, but never mentions either term. Additionally, section on styles are just overviews, observations and suggestions; so most people would not be able to brew a beer to style using this book alone (if you could, you wouldn't need this book anyway).
* Lots of small typos. That being said, it never detracts from the information that is being presented. This book is sadly in need of a professional editor and a technical editor (or two).
* The formatting never complements the material being presented. It is barebones at best. Check out Lewis & Young's Brewing, 2nd ed., to see what a print-on-demand book can be when it shines.
* When a book has the name of a product (BeerSmith in this case), then I at least expect a chapter or an appendix (or two) about the software--how to obtain it, who could benefit from it and why, basic instructions and a couple of tutorials perhaps? Why miss such a great opportunity to proselytize a great product? BeerSmith (Download... CD Coming Soon on Amazon) I am sure many people would prefer to buy the CD through Amazon, but it has said CD coming soon since the entry was posted over a year ago....
There are many great books out there for homebrewers, and this isn't quite one of them yet. I feel that the other reviewers are fans of the author's software; and thus, they are fans of the book. In fact, all of the other reviews are copied from the author's website!
This is NOT a book for beginning brewers, so look elsewhere first. Would I buy this book again? Yes! Because I am always searching for new information and have most books published about brewing in English under US$150 in the US and UK over the past 20 years--and there is some good information in the book. Would I recommend the book to most other brewers? Probably not yet.
Here are a few books you might enjoy before this one:
+ How to Brew: Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time, John Palmer (the standard book for homebrewers at the moment)
+ The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition (Harperresource Book), Charlie Papazian (the old standard, but many still use it-- it is no longer state of the art)
+ Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales and World-Altering Meditations in a Glass, Randy Mosher
+ Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew, Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer
+ Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles, Ray Daniels
+ Brewing Better Beer: Master Lessons for Advanced Homebrewers, Gordon Strong
I wanted to give this book 3.5 stars. I can't wait for the 2nd edition!
UPDATES:
14JUL11: Added links to suggested reading. Added Brewing Better Beer to suggested reading. Deleted info related to other software programs.
19JAN11: Updated information including comments referring to BeerSmith and other software. I DO like this book and have read it completely through twice and referred to it many times.
02DEC10: It looks like the BeerSmith program has a lot of fans and they have voted this review as "not helpful", but look at the "depth" of the other reviews and judge for yourself. I look forward to comments on my review to point out where I have made any incorrect observations.
11MAR11: Minor changes.

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Are you looking to take your beer brewing from average to outstanding?Would you like to learn the latest brewing techniques?Home Brewing with BeerSmith is a compilation from over 70 of the best articles from the BeerSmith blog on detailed brewing methods, how to design beer recipes, and creating specific beer styles from around the world.This edition includes everything from how to get started with a simple batch to the latest all grain brewing methods, hop techniques, kegging, tips for making better beer, and articles focused around specific beer styles.Its a powerful compilation of brewing knowledge.Brad Smith has written over 125 articles on home brewing, wrote the top selling BeerSmith beer recipe software, and his weekly blog articles and newsletter at BeerSmith.com attract over 50,000 brewers each month.

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Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew Review

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(More customer reviews)When I first heard about the publication of "Brewing Classic Styles" last year, I was anxious to get the book so that I could try my hand at recipes that have a proven track record. Previously, I had been getting recipes off the Internet in a haphazard way, with no way of judging the quality of the recipe except by brewing it. I was also excited to read "Brewing Classic Styles" because of the impressive brewing reputations of its authors, John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff.
John Palmer is the author of "How to Brew," now in its third edition. This is my favorite homebrewing book. My brew kettle will be struck by lightning for saying this: How to Brew is better even than Charlie Papazian's The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing. John has a knack for writing clear explanations of advanced brewing topics. John is a frequent speaker at the National Homebrewing Conference and he writes the "Advanced Brewing" column for "Brew Your Own" magazine.
Jamil Zainasheff has not previously written any homebrewing books, but I think that's only because he was too busy brewing. He has won a multitude of awards in major homebrewing competitions including two Ninkasi Awards for the highest overall score at the National Homebrew Competition. Jamil is heavily involved with the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) and he writes the "Style Profile" column for "Brew Your Own" magazine.

"Brewing Classic Styles" capitalizes on the fact that Jamil has an award-winning recipe for every beer style in the BJCP style guidelines. He has fine-tuned these recipes by brewing batch after batch for competitions over many years. Interestingly, he had already shared most of these recipes on the Internet before "Brewing Classic Styles" was written.

"Brewing Classic Styles" is organized into two main sections: one covering ingredients and process and the other containing Jamil's recipes. John Palmer wrote the ingredients/process portion, which is contained in Chapters 1 - 4 and the four appendices. John provides useful information about style selection, ingredients selection, and brewing techniques--especially techniques for making better beer from malt extract. It is helpful to have this information in the same book with Jamil's recipes. For example, the sections on hop substitution, making yeast starters, and water treatment are ones that I frequently refer to. However, the "how to brew" material in "Brewing Classic Styles" is not sufficient to eliminate the need for a comprehensive homebrewing book.
The remainder of the book, Chapters 5 - 27, is devoted to Jamil's recipes. To help the reader select recipes appropriate for his or her expertise, each recipe is classified with a "level of effort" necessary to brew it. Of the 81 recipes in the book, 24 are classified as beginner, 28 as intermediate, and 29 as advanced. The beginner category contains all of the pale ales, brown ales, porters, and stouts. Strong ales and ales that use unusual ingredients fall in the intermediate category. All of the recipes for lager styles are classified as advanced because they require active temperature control for fermentation.
"Brewing Classic Styles" covers all of the styles defined in the BJCP Style Guidelines. Related styles are presented in one chapter; for example, the Pilsener chapter contains sections for German Pilsener, Bohemian Pilsener, and Classic American Pilsener. Within a chapter, the section for each style is presented in a consistent format. First, the BJCP style description and brewing parameters are stated. Next comes my favorite part of the book: "Keys to Brewing." This is where Jamil reveals secrets of his success for the style. In many cases, these "keys" are the result of brewing many batches over many years. This is the information that you probably won't find with recipes posted on the Internet.
After "Keys to Brewing" comes the recipe proper, which deserves closer attention. Each recipe in "Brewing Classic Styles" begins with the target values for original gravity, final gravity, attenuation, bitterness, color, and alcohol content. Next is a table of malt extract ingredients with columns for the type of extract, the weight in pounds and metric units, and the percent of the total weight. The recipes are based on a post-boil volume of six gallons. The extract percentage values are handy if you are scaling the recipe for a different batch size. After malt extract, the recipe continues with a table of specialty (steeping) grains, a list of hops, a recommended yeast strain, fermentation requirements, and recommended carbonation level.
The final portion of each recipe is the "All-Grain Option," which is the only serious fault of the book. Let me explain. Jamil's recipes were originally designed to be brewed with all grain ingredients, but for "Brewing Classic Styles" these recipes were converted to use liquid malt extracts as substitutes for the base grains. From a marketing standpoint, this is understandable, since the majority of homebrewers brew with extract rather than with base grains. What is odd is that the malt extract version of the recipe is presented as the main recipe and the all-grain version is given as an "option" at the end of the recipe--almost as an afterthought.
Furthermore, it is annoying that the malt bill for the all-grain version of each recipe is not listed in an easy to read table format as the extract ingredients are. Instead, the base grain types and amounts are buried in the "All-Grain Option" paragraph. To make matters worse, the base grain percentages are not given--you must either calculate the percentage of each grain yourself or refer back to the extract section. As an example, here is the "All-Grain Option" portion of the American Pale Ale recipe:
"Replace the light extract with 11.3 lbs. (5.1 kg) American two-row malt. Replace the Munich extract with 0.75 lb. (340g) Munich malt. Replace the wheat extract with 0.5 lb. (227g) wheat malt. Mash at 152 F (67 C)."
Clearly, this is not as easy to use as a simple table listing each grain with its type, weight, and percentage.
Another problem that arises from converting all-grain recipes to liquid malt extract is that the amount of each extract does not jibe with the amount of liquid extract in a can. This results in leftover liquid extract that is not readily stored. It would have been better if the authors had used dry malt extract because it can be purchased in a variety of sizes and it is easy to store any leftovers.
In spite of the well intentioned, but flawed, attempt to present all-grain recipes as malt extract recipes, "Brewing Classic Styles" is an excellent recipe book. It covers the breadth of the BJCP styles with enough depth to sink your teeth into. The "Keys to Brewing" for each style alone are well worth the price. I have brewed six different recipes from "Brewing Classic Styles" so far and I have been very pleased with the result in all cases. In fact, my rendition of the Ordinary Bitter recipe was an award-winner at the 2008 Maryland Microbrewery Festival. If I had to pare my homebrewing library down to one book, I would be left with "How to Brew." But if I were allowed just one more homebrewing book on my shelf, it would definitely be "Brewing Classic Styles."


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How to Brew: Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time Review

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(More customer reviews)Like most homebrewers, I started out with Charlie Papazian's book "The New Joy of Homebrewing". I had the second edition. It was a good book, but comparing it to this text, it seems hopelessly dated.
With the explosion of microbreweries across the country, lots of people got turned on to GOOD beer - and many of those looked into homebrewing. With so many people trying different methods and equipment, over time, brewing became simpler and much of what was deemed necessary in the earlier days was discarded. Many of the techniques and equipment listed here are the results of years of trial-and-error streamlining by other homebrewers. In addition, there's never been so many resources available via mail order and on the net. Homebrewing really is easy at this point.
This is the best basic brewing text I've found. You can start with it by making extract only beers, graduating to specialty grains in addition to extract, then to all grain brewing and making your own recipes and beer styles. The book is linear, presents the information as you need it and the information ranges from the most basic (like sanitation) to as technical as you could possibly want (water chemistry).
For years I've been an extract and specialty grain brewer. I never completely understood the process of all-grain brewing until I bought this text. It gave me the courage to build my own lautering tun and brew my first batch of beer made completely from scratch. It was a pale ale, nothing exotic, but man was it good beer. Check out the author's website and read the first edition online. The second edition is improved, so if you like the online text buy the hard copy book.
There are other good texts out there (the author lists many of them in the back of the book) but if you only want one homebrewing text, buy this one. It's a shame that Amazon doesn't carry it anymore. Track it down.

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Everything needed to brew beer right the first time. Presented in a light-hearted style without frivolous interruptions, this authoritative text introduces brewing in a easy step-by-step review.

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