Homebrewing books

If you could own, or recommend only ONE homebrewing book, what would it be?

For a beginner, probably Papa Charlie's Complete Joy. Some of the info is a little dated, but it's the spirit of the thing, the whole "relax, don't worry!" attitude.

My new brewing bible. Not much of a homebrewer's book, but basic theory of brewing at it's finest.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/pics/fullsize/textbookBrewing.jpg

But for homebrewing Ive read Miller's, Palmer's, & Papazian's books and they are all good to have in yolur library. I would never limit myself to one book on the subject

Why would I own only one?

The tandem of CJOH and Designing Great Beers is perfect, IMHO.

I would go with Palmer's How to Brew. The level of detail is just enough to not overwhelm the beginning brewer but to also be useful to the advanced brewer. Even Papazian recommends it over his own book

http://www.howtobrew.com/

Palmer, hands down. He's an engineer & strips the mystery out, but keeps the fun in.

david_42 said:

Palmer, hands down. He's an engineer & strips the mystery out, but keeps the fun in.

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Yep - you can be ready to brew within 20 minutes by reading the 1st chapter or you can get very detailed. Very well designed book that I go back to often.

rdwj said:

Yep - you can be ready to brew within 20 minutes by reading the 1st chapter or you can get very detailed. Very well designed book that I go back to often.

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I'll echo this as well.

I've only read Palmer's book online, but I know it's extremely well-regarded. Still, I had to make this decision when I bought my brother-in-law a kit for Christmas, and went with Papazian just because it is so accessible. For purely informational purposes, I would concur with the pro-Palmer sentiment.

Palmer all the way, with Designing Great Beers next.

Agree, Palmer to start. Noonan for next step.

I've brewed three batches thus far (only got to drink one of them yet, though), and the books I'm using are Palmer's How to Brew and Daniels's Desiging Great Beers. Each of my recipes is extract+steeping grain but modified from existing recipes using info given by both Palmer and Daniels. The first one involved a different hop bill from the one given in the recipe, and I did the math on that by hand, but have used BeerSmith to help with the most recent two. My next recipe I may be doing is a stout that I have designed myself with a little help from BeerSmith.

Everything I do in the actual act of brewing is pretty much straight out of Palmer's book. My experimentation with recipes is heavily influenced by Daniels's book.

Ok, you can read Palmer's online for free, so your next choice would be?

I don't believe the full contents of Palmer's book are online. The book is pretty big.

For a beginner, probably Papa Charlie's Complete Joy. Some of the info is a little dated, but it's the spirit of the thing, the whole "relax, don't worry!" attitude.

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I agree about the spirit of the thing. No one can get you as excited about brewing in the beginning a Papazian. I have great respect for the man and how much as he has done for homebrewing. He has without a doubt had more to do with the growth of homebrewing than any other dozen people combined.

But, if I could only have one book - it would be John Palmers latest edition. It is the closest to a single perfect "how to brew" book there is for the beginner going right on up to the advanced.

I have Papa Charlies Joy of,3rd edition.I use it for reference(I forget things )quite often and i would recommend it.I have one other book also,Stephen Snyder's The Brewmasters Bible.which is pretty much the same as Papazian's.I mostly bought it for the 250 pages of recipes but they're mostly extract ones so that was a little disappointing.Not a bad book overall though.I do like his tables containing outlines for beer styles.
Cheers

JnJ said:

Ok, you can read Palmer's online for free, so your next choice would be?

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You can read the first edition online... the book is now in its third edition and has added tons more information.

But if I had to pick a second book I would say Beer Captured. Seeing clone recipes for popular brands helps you formulate your own recipes.

First and only one I would think of owning in Noonan's New Brewing Lager Beer. Has enough info for the beginner but will make you into an allgrainer in four batches. You just have to read the index's before the book.

JnJ said:

Ok, you can read Palmer's online for free, so your next choice would be?

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Daniel's Designing Great Beers, then Noonan.

Designing Great Beers because it pushing you into self design with knowledge and reason.

Dave Line's Big Book of Brewing