I'm relatively new to homebrewing (12 batches in as of this post) and have been reading voraciously about the subject to make the best beer that I can. This has made me wonder what people think are the indispensable books on the topic, or the homebrew canon for short, are. The following is not my proposal for a list, but rather my current homebrewing library. How to Brew by John Palmer The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian Brewing Better Beer by Gordon Strong Homebrew: Beyond the Basics by Mike Karnowski Designing Great Beer by Ray Daniels Water by John Palmer and Colin Kaminski For the Love of Hops by Stan Hieronymus Yeast by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff My goal is to eventually have a comprehensive library to reference for any problem and continually inspire better beer. What do you think I should add to the library? Subtract? Are there alternatives to some of my books that have aided you and might make better reference material?
I would add the following podcasts as references: Brew Strong Brewing with Style Can You Brew It The Jamil Show I would also add the book Brewing Classic Styles. It is a good starting point for those getting into recipes, but it will be dated once the new guidelines come into play. I would also add any book by Charles Bamforth. I would also add the BA Homebrewing Forum.
I don't see any reason to subtract anything you've already got. I'd add Brewing Classic Styles and Mitch Steele's IPA Brewing, assuming you like brewing IPAs, and maybe Brew Like a Monk or other books dedicated to particular styles. If you're really determined to have a reference for *everything* you might consider some of the more academic texts, like Michael Lewis's Brewing. Then again, you could just start googling whenever you have a question ...
Not a homebrewing book, but I've always thought Great Beers of Belgian by Michael Jackson to be a rather fine book. Rather inspiring if you want to get into Belgian beers. Maybe I'll open one of my cellared homebrewed Belgians and start giving it another read...
Reading is good; however...if your goal is to make "the best beer" reading books will only take you so far. Brewing beer is the best way for beginners to learn how to brew the best beer. Take notes. Collect data. Learn what works and what doesn't work. In the final analysis ... making tasty beer at home ... in spite of what some would lead you to believe ... is not that hard.
It really isn't, I've only been really disappointed in one batch of the twelve. But I attribute that in part to the amount of research that I have been doing. I think making the best beer possible will be a combination effort between practical experimentation and research. I'm curious what other BAs have found useful in the latter category. Thanks everyone for the tips. There are some books I hadn't heard of and I certainly will use online resources such as this forum, but I also like having physical copies of information because I'm not always able to go online and greatly prefer the page when I'm reading for extended periods of time.
I would certainly point you to the MadFermentationist.com and to american sour beers if you are so inclined. Michael's blog is great, lots of demonstration of how to step through developing a recipe, how it worked for him, how to taste and take notes, plus you can email him and ask questions if something doesn't add up for you. I learned a lot brewing recipes from his blog.
Eeee-yup. If you read this forum regularly, you'll notice that there are lots of "is my beer ruined?" posts from people who make elementary mistakes they probably wouldn't have made if they had done a little research prior to brewing. Research (ie, reading at least a few of the many excellent published sources of info) is the fastest way to get up to speed on the basics of brewing. Anyone who doesn't take advantage of that info will learn, eventually, but it'll cost 'em a few bad batches, a few dollars, and not a few hours of effort. Experience comes in when you learn, after some experimentation, how to adjust for your equipment and your tastes.
