Would like some book suggestions

Homebrew or brewing either or.

I've got a 15 dollar barnes and noble gift card and with the exception of the archer book, no book but homebrewing or about beer at the least is interesting me.

I've already bought How to Brew, the Complete Joy of Homebrewing, Brew Like a Monk, and designing great beers. Also have both Brooklyn's and Dogfish's autobiographies, Tasting Beer, and the Oxford Companion to beer. I saw 2 books at the B&N store that I found the most intriguing the first was the update to Extreme Brewing and the second was all about yeast. I feel like for immediate practical purposes. That Extreme Brewing is something I'd use now, since me and my brother are still in extract mode. Going to switch to partial mash soon but I dont' think we're gonna make the AG switch for a year and personally I still will do the occaisional 5 gallon extract, sicne I can't do more than a 1G All Grain. Though I can order Radical Brewing, which also intrigues me.

Any guidance would be great. I know all the basics of brewing since I've read both How to Brew and the Complete Joy of Homebrewing, what I want now is either more specific information (which is why the yeast book intrigued me) or new ideas for recipes and styles. I'm open to anything as long as it's not a basic home brew book.

I suggest radical brewing, it is an entertaining read, also new brewing lager beer by Noonan

+1 to Radical Brewing, highly entertaining and informative if you are interesting in the myriad of options of ingredients that can be used in beer!

For The Love of Hops: The Practical Guide to Aroma, Bitterness and the Culture of Hops

They just released a new edition to this one in mid-December with updates on all of the modern hop varieties. The book is $11.08 on Amazon. GREATTTTTT book. Everything about everything about hops, from good combinations and recipes to growing hop vines to some pretty deep science.

How can the Hoppy Hoppy Hippo not own this book??

Good suggestions.

I may get For the love of hops, sounds interesting, it never popped up in my searches before, guess I didn't delve deep enough. I'm leaning towards Radical Brewing.

As long as the experts are commenting on this thread; what, in your opinion, are some good books for newbie brewers. I'm looking to get away from kit brewing and want to branch out to experimenting with some of my own brews as opposed to just following others recipes.

Radical brewing is great. Lots of good info and recipes, plus a lot of cool history. Brewing classic styles is also great - lots of info in addition to the recipes.

Well, the good ones have been mentioned aside from "Yeast" by Jamil Z. and Chris White. And when you want to get a little more advanced, check out: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1855734907/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It was definitely not $15, though I got a free PDF of it on my kindle.

Brewing Classic Styles is a must have IMO. I'm constantly using my copy and have enjoyed every recipe from that book with the exception of the porter, and that's most likely because I don't like porters. I've won several ribbons with these recipes so I can attest that they're solid.

jeepjunkie007 said:

As long as the experts are commenting on this thread; what, in your opinion, are some good books for newbie brewers. I'm looking to get away from kit brewing and want to branch out to experimenting with some of my own brews as opposed to just following others recipes.

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Having read How to Brew and The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, Both are great books for different reasons. I think you learn much more about brewing from How to Brew, but I think The Complete Joy is more accessible.

Darwin18 said:

Brewing Classic Styles is a must have IMO. I'm constantly using my copy and have enjoyed every recipe from that book with the exception of the porter, and that's most likely because I don't like porters. I've won several ribbons with these recipes so I can attest that they're solid.

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If anyone has read designing great beers and brewing classic styles, is there really a massive difference between the 2? I mean I've learned that nearly all brewing books cover at least 20-50% of the same thing. But I'm hoping for a different perspective. I'm sure I'll love any of the books suggested. Just wondering about some more input.

Urban said:

brewing lager beer by Noonan

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+1

Great book, but the title is misleading. It is chuck full of good technical information on EVERYTHING brewing. Too many new books are just full of fancy pictures and repetitive generic info to avoid intimidating readers.

I second the suggestion for YEAST from White and Zaineshef (sp). Great source of information on how yeast do their thing and how to make the best use of them.

I just got a chance to glance at Lager Beer from Noonan and although I didn't get to "read" it, it looks like a good purchase as well.

TopherM said:

For The Love of Hops: The Practical Guide to Aroma, Bitterness and the Culture of Hops

They just released a new edition to this one in mid-December with updates on all of the modern hop varieties. The book is $11.08 on Amazon. GREATTTTTT book. Everything about everything about hops, from good combinations and recipes to growing hop vines to some pretty deep science.

How can the Hoppy Hoppy Hippo not own this book??

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This!

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

If anyone has read designing great beers and brewing classic styles, is there really a massive difference between the 2? I mean I've learned that nearly all brewing books cover at least 20-50% of the same thing. But I'm hoping for a different perspective. I'm sure I'll love any of the books suggested. Just wondering about some more input.

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The classic styles is mainly a recipe book. There is very little in terms of information there compared to Desiging Great Beers. The Yeast book seemed kinda boring too.

I would 3rd the suggestion of Noonan's Lager book. It seemed to have a different point of view. I just started Extreme Brewing, it seems neat, but still in the first chapter. Papizan's 2nd book is good too. Assuming you start all-grain in a year, these are valuable resources.


Haven't read Radical Brewing yet, but it is on the list.


Gordon Strong's book was a unique collection of opinions. Not sure I would recommend this as a good resource, but perhaps a different style of book from the point of view of a beer taster.

Awesome, thanks for all the tips. I'm heading to B&N on Wednesday to make my ultimate decision, according to their site they have Yeast, Extreme Brewing, Radical Brewing, and the Archer book I'm considering, I'll look at all of them, decide which one is best if any and if I pick none I'll probably get the Hop book or the Lager book depending on which catches my fancy. I'd probably go Lager since I know much more about hops than I do about lagering beer.

I am grateful for the tips and if there are any more I'd love to hear it.

How to Brew by Palmer, Radical Brewing by Mosher, and Designing Great Beers by Daniels is in my opinion the trifecta of brewing literature.

There are lots of awesome books, but those three will keep you brewing for years upon years without repeating yourself.

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

If anyone has read designing great beers and brewing classic styles, is there really a massive difference between the 2? I mean I've learned that nearly all brewing books cover at least 20-50% of the same thing. But I'm hoping for a different perspective. I'm sure I'll love any of the books suggested. Just wondering about some more input.

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I own both, and they're great books.

Brewing Classic Styles is more of a recipe book that assumes you know how to handle extract brewing or all-grain brewing. It assumes that you've got the basics down on Yeast Starters and fermentation control. It isn't a resource that is going to teach you how to brew. It does provide recipes for all the BJCP styles from Light American Lager to Old Ale. These are recipes designed to fit within the BJCP style descriptions, hence the "Classic" in Brewing Classic Styles.

Designing Great Beers can teach you how to formulate an all-grain recipe from the grain bill to the hop schedule. It examines a few large and choice style groups and looks into the winning recipes for past NHC's, and notes the occurrence and percentage of ingredients used in those winning recipes. It's a pretty good book and one that I recommend. The only thing I didn't like is that it really didn't go into as many styles as I had hoped.

The new IPA book by Mitch Steele is awesome!

along a different track but still beer related... Ambitious Brew is the next book I plan on reading. Revvy was talking about it in another post(s) and he got me intrigued.

I think Brewing Classic Styles is a great resource of recipes with some basic information about the style. A great place to start with a recipe for most all the styles.

Designing Great Beers gives a LOT more information about brewing and the history of the style and things to consider. It's probably the better of the two for helping design a beer from scratch. It's lacking in the Belgian styles though IMO. I think there is NOTHING on Saison. Small ding for that.

First I want to thank everyone for the input, I really appreciate it, the more I see posted the more I think I'm going with radical brewing. Seems to be a book a lot of people like, went on line and John Palmer gave it a glowing review on Amazon. Unless something changes by tomorrow evening that's probably what I'm getting.

Homercidal said:

I think Brewing Classic Styles is a great resource of recipes with some basic information about the style. A great place to start with a recipe for most all the styles.

Designing Great Beers gives a LOT more information about brewing and the history of the style and things to consider. It's probably the better of the two for helping design a beer from scratch. It's lacking in the Belgian styles though IMO. I think there is NOTHING on Saison. Small ding for that.

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Well, I think I've read more about Belgians than I know what to do with in Brew like a Monk. I want to at some point try making a Golden monkey type of beer in a flat fermenter, need a shallow 2 gallon bucket and a lot of cheese cloth.