An honest self assessment tells me that while my knowledge of ingredients/styles/breweries is decent, my knowledge of the brewing process is not what I'd like. I've been meaning to address this for quite some time, but real life sometimes sidetracks my hobbies. I don't intend to home brew, just increase my knowledge. I'm looking for a book that is informative, yet moderately concise and not overly technical. Any suggestions are appreciated. Cheers.
How to Brew by John Palmer is the best brewing book for new brewers. Charlie Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing is just fun. Honestly there are amazing books out there that detail history and process. Like saisons? Get Farmhoise Ales. Trappist stuff? Brew Like a Monk. Sours? American Sour Beers. What do you like to drink?
Palmer's is probably the best book out there for homebrewers, so it'd be good for you to learn the processes. It's somewhat more technical than Randy Mosher's Mastering Homebrewing, which is a little easier to digest. If you want to homebrew, I'd say go with Palmer. If you want to learn about brewing, go with Mosher. If that makes any sense... Jeff
I read one beer book for like every regular book I read. I am about to start home brewing and didn't want the first several batches to be a clusterf*&k. How to Brew (very detailed) Brooklyn BrewShop - Beer Making Book Brooklyn BrewShop - Make Some Beer Clone Brew - Recipes for 200 Commercial Beers The Perfect Keg (all over the place, but a really good read and lots of history thrown in) Tasting Beer - Randy Mosher Experimental Homebrewing - Drew Beechum (great book, lots of good information)
Agree on above. Also add Charlie P's iconic "the complete joy of homebrewing" and his other CP derivative books to the list. TCJOHB was the first practical guide for the novice /intermediate home brewer and opened the hobby up to millions starting sometime in the 80s. I got my first copy in 1991 and must have read the section on full mash 35 times over the years as I've dropped and picked up the hobby in between life events. Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!
In which case, I'd avoid many of the homebrewing books noted above, and look for books that describe the commercial brewing process. Mosher's Tasting Beer (mentioned above), for instance, has a good chapter called "Brewing and the Vocabulary of Beer Flavor" (although I'm not a fan of the book's modern/jumbled "graphics", multiple-colored and -sized fonts and general layout of the book - I guess designed for the internet generation ) Or one could go back to some of M. Jackson's books. Ultimate Beer, for instance, has a concise ~20pp "What Make a Great Beer" section, that covers ingredients and a 2 page description of the brewing process. For a more in-depth book (without getting into actual technical brewing texts), there's Bamforth's Beer: Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing. Hardly - Papazian's first version, Joy of Brewing, was copyrighted in 1976. Numerous other US homebrewing books predated it, among them An Essay On Brewing, Vintage and Distillation..Or How to Make Booze (John F. Adams ©1966), A Treatise on Lager Beers (Fred Eckhardt ©1970), Brew It Yourself (Leigh Beadle ©1971), Making Wine, Beer & Merry (Howard & Gibat ©1973) and Quality Brewing (Byron Burch ©1974). In addition a number of UK-published books, such as Bravery's Home Brewing Without Failures and Shales' Brewing Better Beers (both first published in the 1960s), were commonly available in in the US in the 1970s, at both general interest bookstores and winemaking and similar specialty shops.
I agree with Jesskidden about the how to books. Mosher is great. Jeff Alworth's the Beer Bible is also good
Here is a link to palmers book you can read on line. Newer version can be bought. http://howtobrew.com/book/introduction
1) John Palmer How to Brew as others have mentioned is the best book for learning how to brew. 2) Ray Daniels Designing Great Beers is excellent for what goes into all the recipes out there (how much of what types of grain/hops/yeast are typically used to create a style and the history of each style). 3) Brewing Classic Styles by John Palmer and Jamil Z. has tons of great recipes and details on what goes into them and why. 4) Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie P. as someone mentioned above is "fun". Doesn't get into the detail that JP's book does, but gives general overviews of everything.
Complete Joy had a certain appeal that all those other books you mention didn't have --- and I'd be surprised if it didn't outsell all of them 10 to 1 combined. Maybe insert the word "accessible" for "practical" in my original post. In any event -- RDWHAHB.
