Beer Book Recommendations

His other book, Brewed Awakening was decent as well.

 

I've always enjoyed Garret Oliver's writings.

 

Right. Take a look at The Oxford Companion to Beer.

 

I am a beginner in craft beer wanting to expand my knowledge on the different styles and tasting of craft beer. What would you say is the best book I could buy?

 

I think BA has a great database of knowledge and the people have been very helpful, but is there a beer book that I should really be looking into? I see lots of books, but I'm trying to weed through the crap. I'd like to know about beer basics, maybe home brewing, anything that would help me get better acquainted with beers, their styles, and help me understand what I'm tasting...

 

There are tons of great books out there, it really just matters what you are interested in.

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian and How to Brew by John Palmer are your quintessential homebrewing books. You can move on from there to books suchs as Designing Great Beer, New Brewing Lager Beer or the Brewing Elements series (Yeast, Water, Hops and the soon to come Malt). If you want to are interested in Belgian styles and want some history too I suggest Brew like a Monk, Farmhouse Ales and Wild Brews.

If you are going to start with one book read Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher. Regardless if you are a neophyte or a seasoned connoisseur, there is something to be gained from reading this book.

 

There is no 1 book. and in fact the accuracy of history in many leave my head shaking, going WTF.
Still MJ's early books were and are fun to read. If you want accurate first source history you can do NO better than Ron's Patterson books. and of course jess needs to write a book.....

I like Amber, Gold & Black, by Martyn Cornell
I like Pete Browns books
and I have most if not all now of Ron's book's
also the good guide series is killer to have
Good beer guide to Belgium is great, By Tim Webb, Ed AL (and others)
Germany, UK etc


then you get in the home brewing books, geez there are so many.

I got allot of them on kindle now.

 

Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher is the be-all end-all beer book. Every page is a history lesson loaded with beautiful pictures and quite a few good homebrewing recipes. It's my go-to book for toilet visits

 

Mosher's tasting beer is essential reading in my opinion.
It is only $10 on Amazon.

 

If you want to read something that relates a bit to the history of beer that is told in amusing story fashion then read the 3-4 books by Pete Brown. He's British so the books are not widely seen in bookstores in the US but Amazon has them.

 

I've got a bunch of home brewing books but this little book (4.5 x4.5) was a Christmas stocking stuffer and has some neat facts in it. easy reading as no chapter is more than 2 pages. Mine resides in the bathroom for quick browsing .

 

I always recommend Randy Mosher's "Tasting Beer" to people I know who want to learn more about beer.

I'm about halfway through Garrett Oliver's "The Brewmaster's Table" and I am enjoying it quite a bit. He is a terrific writer with a wealth of knowledge.

 

This is great! Thanks for the help!

 

Diary of a Part Time Monk
http://www.amazon.com/Diary-Part-Time-Monk-J-Wilson/dp/193700452X

EDIT: a fun read, and now looking back, not necessarily what you were looking for- but enjoy!

 

I have both of those and randy's book is good for a beginner or someone who wants someone else to tell them how to taste beer. j/k its a good book.
G.O. book is ok. I have it and its a long read, most of it is boring IMHO.

 

Admittedly I'm a history teacher, so reading a long book that contains a decent amount of information I already know has been normalized to me (thanks college history professors, and your book selections!).

 

Agreed to all of the above.
For those non-homebrewers wondering about Papazian's or Palmer's books, it's still a great idea, IMO, to know the process and procedures of how this stuff is made. Details are always good to know, and by knowing the processes, I think that knowledge of beer is expanded dramatically, the how and why and what it does in the end.

 

I'm taking a brewing class at my college right now and our books for the course are Brew Chem 101, and How to Brew (authors last name is Palmer) great reads so far, learning a lot about tasting, how beers are made and the chemistry behind it, what can potentially ruin your beer from brewing, bottling, to your glassware, tons of info about beer!
These books don't provide much info on beer styles though

 

The Complete Beer Course by Joshua Bernstein is pretty good.



http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Beer-Course-Tasting/dp/1402797672