New to homebrewing

Ok... so your friend wants to get into homebrewing, but doesn't have a clue. Not only that but you guess that your friend needs something pretty easy to understand. What is your suggestion for this friend to learn the most from?

I am assuming that comming here would be included Except for the poll of Homebrewtalk.com.

I'm saying Homebrewing for Dummies, even though I don't like it, simply because it is organized in a very easy-to-follow manner. Lots of bullets, numbered instructions, etc. I would say to quickly follow that up with COmplete Joy of Homebrewing (as I did), but that may be a little overwhelming for someone to whom this is completely new.

Of course, if your friend is local probably the best is to have him (or her) come over and give you a hand on brewday.

the_bird said:

Of course, if your friend is local probably the best is to have him (or her) come over and give you a hand on brewday.

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Damm... forgot about that one... thats a very good one though. Your right though, have to be local.

I would recommend The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing because even though Charlie has a bit of out dated information in his book, he makes it easy for first time brewers to get started. He also makes it fun.
This was the book, second edition, that got me started. A friend at work lent me his copy and I read that thing in one evening. I didn't even know home brewing existed until that day. I brewed my first batch that week. Charlie hooked me and I'm still hooked over 10 years later.

Incidentally, in the third edition of Complete Joy, the photograph on page 289 - can we all agree on what the subtext is there?

the_bird said:

Incidentally, in the third edition of Complete Joy, the photograph on page 289 - can we all agree on what the subtext is there?

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Yeah but that guy is too much of a dork for that hottie to be doing that!

I wanted to vote for 'How to brew' and dave Miller's book, but there was only one choice.
i started with dave miller's and i still use it. But my new fav book is Palmers. it might be a tad technical for a newbie but not really.
i never got 'Joy" untill pretty recently, and its pretty good. I like his "microbrewed adventures', that has some really good recipes in it. Its not a good book for beginners of course, because it doesnt really go into the details, more anecdotal traveling, drinking, meeting crazy pro brewers stories.

As I novice brewer, I would say The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, 3rd Edition. Yes, there is a lot of information that might overwhelm a beginner in that book. I would suggest stopping before the advanced section in that case to avoid unnecessary confusion.

Ninkasi

I started with the How to Brew website, and would probably recommend it as a starting point for a friend.

Beer Snob said:

Damm... forgot about that one... thats a very good one though. Your right though, have to be local.

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Personal advice, the web address of this forum and the Complete Joy (it fostered a whole generation!) and tell them to buy and read everything they can get their hands on. If one is around, I'd tell them to hook up with a club too.

Nothing beats the practical experience. I think the books help understand the process, and the mechanics, but actually participating in the process is the best guide.

Actually it was an "Alephenalia" catalog from Pike's that started my interest. I had never seen anything like it. It was so cool I had to find out more, and so I got "The Complete Joy" and that was it.

Re-Reading AGAIN in fact...

And hanging out with you clowns of course.

Actually I understand much more of the process now from reading and reading here than I did from Charlie's book...


Ize

I went with Papazian, that's how I started. I think Designing Great Beers is a good book too but the first half of the book is way too much info for someone who is brand new to brewing. The second half of the book is great since it tells you how all the different styles came to be and the different types of ingredients but the first half just has way too many equations that a first time brewer shouldn't really be concerned with just yet,

I would give them the link to Palmer's How To Brew. That is how I got started, and I thought it was, and is still, a great resource. I now own other books, but I still refer to Palmer's information, and felt it was great for a n00b.

I chose Homebrewing For Dummies because that's the first "modern" book I bought on the subject that made sense. I read a copy of Zymurgy at the library, which overwhelmed me at the time. Then, I was given an old copy of Papazian's Homebrewer's Companion which is not nearly the same as Joy. I didn't know about the others.

HFD was a great primer for me. Lot's of illustrations and it's very easy to follow. I know there are some out there who pooh-pooh it. But, IMHO, I still think it's a great resource for newbies.

HFD is actually not THAT bad. I have not felt a need to buy it, but love reading it in the bookstore. I have a lot of brewing books so it is pretty redundant for me. But as a beginner book its not a bad one. Expect it to be pretty basic and eventualy your going to want some more detailed information if you start to really get into the hobby. But all in all you could do far worst then HFD.... you could get a book too advanced and get frustrated and drop the hobby!

Pooh pooh no book unless it has completely incorrect information. I advocate reading as many as possible. Take what you like, leave what you don't. Something that helped me (and continues to help) is downloading some software like Beer Smith or Pro Mash (register and get the full functionality regardless of the brand), then mess with it and figure out why the recipes work the way they do. The software also used some terms and procedures I was unfamiliar with, so I went and read about those, too!

Palmer online for the tech savvy and Papisan for those who are not.

Can't beat Papisan at making you feel at ease. Plus where lese do you learn the origins of the RDWHAHB mantra? Beside's without reading that book then noobs would be confused by his god like status amongst home brewers.

I like the websites too, but you can't read websites in the toilet, er, library can you?

The very first time I made beer I was certain I would ruin it even though my step-dad was helping me with baby-steps. I'd read Papaizan's book over and over, and all over the place in it he's very reassuring and easy going. I think that's a wonderful approach to someone doing something completely new and uncertain it's going to work.

Actually, I have his 'Cheeks to the wind' brown ale in a secondary right now for a party in a few weeks. Ugh, gotta bottle two batches this week...

I agree, The Complete Joy is a very good book for beginners, including me. You can stick with just reading the first section until you're more comfortable with the basics, and Papaizian is pretty good at making you comfortable pretty quickly. Heck, I decided to try a lager on my second batch! Once I was pretty confident that my first batch was going the way it should, I started reading through the rest of the book to see what things I could try down the road... I can't say that I understand all of it yet, but the more I brew, the more I will experiment, and the rest of the book should be a great resource at that point.

As he says, "Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew!"