What books should I add to my library?

Ok, so I have Papazian's 'Home Brewing' and I have a nice giftcard burning a hole in my wallet. I know that I want to get 'How to brew' By Palmer, I like his website but I feel like the book would be easier to read than the web.

I'm also looking at:
'Clone Brews' by Mark & Tess
'Brewermasters Bible' by Snyder
'Home Brews Companion' by Papazian
'Brew Ware: Find Adapt, Build Homebrew Equipment' by Lutzen

I thought I remebered a forum on books but I cant find the links anymore

So what brew books do you recomend, what brew books were you disapointed in? What brew books would you rather use in the litter box?

Cheers
capn

I would recommend Brew Like a Monk, and have heard Designing Great Beers is great.

I have a bunch of the books you mentioned but 'Radical Brewing' (Mosher) is my favorite.

'New Lager Brewing' by Noonan is like an advanced version of Palmer's 'How to Brew'. It was a very educational read.

I have heard nothing but good things about "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels.

+1 'Radical Brewing one of my fav's

Beer Captured by Tess Szamatulski and Mark Szamatulsk... better than the first.

Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer

both are must haves, IMHO

I got clone brews from the library and it wasn't great. Brew ware was good would I buy it? probably not but worth checking out of the library. The homebrewing for dummies was good too. warm up the library card and save your money until you've renewed it a couple of times then you know its worth buying

devaspawn said:

I have heard nothing but good things about "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels.

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Compeltely turned my brewing around. After that get Radical Brews by Mosher, it'll make alot more sense. But buy the Designing Great Beers. I promise you wont be disappointed!

+1 to most of what has been listed here. To recap my shortlist:

Designing Great Beers - Ray Daniels
Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew - Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer
Radical Brews - Randy Mosher
Extreme Brewing - Sam Calagione

and, more specialized:

Brew Like a Monk - Stan Hieronymus (Trappist/Abbey/Belgian Ales)
Farmhouse Ales - Phil Markowski - (Traditional Belgian Ales)

jspence1 said:

I got clone brews from the library and it wasn't great. Brew ware was good would I buy it? probably not but worth checking out of the library. The homebrewing for dummies was good too. warm up the library card and save your money until you've renewed it a couple of times then you know its worth buying

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My local library doesn't have a single book on brewing




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The beer style books are also good. I have Pale Ale, Mild Ale, and Munich Helles, and like them all. In addition to discussing recipes and methods for brewing the title style, they have a lot of historical information about how the style arose. Mild Ale, for example, has an in depth discussion on both historical and modern brewing techniques in England which is very interesting.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Unfortunately my library doesn't have anything on the subject of homebrew. BOOO! Fortunately my LHBS is owned and operated by Mark and Tess of Clonebrews and BeerCaptured. They have kits of most of their recipies ready to go. Anyway thanks for all the suggestions and keep them comming...
cheers

I have designing great beers (among others) and Im kinda disappointed. it does go into a lot and explain some stuff.... but there is no recipes. I dont NEED recipes, but after all that description, it should say, now heres a recipes for the barley wine we talk about

that being said, im not gonna get any more books sooley about recepies, i mean i got the web. i think you need a good mix of science and recepies.

and on aother note, I cant even spell recipies close enough for spell check to help me, how lame is that.

I just checked out Radical Brewing from the library and it's fantastic. I'd kind of hit a wall with brewing books since they were just getting repetitive, but that one made it good again.

I wish my local library had some decent brewing books. I just got Brew Like A Monk and Radical Brewing. Both great books, but I love Belgians so I lean towards Brew Like A Monk. I also have The BrewMaster's Bible but the info is a little dated.

If I was you, I would look into magazines instead like Zymurgy and BYO. Those two have the most updated techniques and very interesting articles among some fine recipes.

+1 Brewmaster's bible has old info about old hops, recipes, etc. And very few AG recipes. Designing Great Beers is my go to book. All the info you'll ever need.

You could request that you library bring in some brewing books for you. I asked them to bring in some books on marine aquariums that were written in the last few years. They told me they have a budget for new books and if I gave them some specific requests they could order them. It probably helps that I'm in the library 2-3 times a week with my kids. I'd start by asking them for help on finding some books on home brewing (they can often borrow from other libraries in the area)

Good luck
John

Are you just looking at what's there at the library? Most public libraries are part of a system and if you check the online catalog for the system, there will be books you can check out from other libraries. You just request them and the library will have them brought in. My library only had 2 brewing books, but there were another dozen or so scattered around the system I was able to reserve and check out.

I just finished Microbrewed Adventures by Papazian. While it wasn't a stickly homebrewing book I found it most enjoyable. It was pretty much a write-up of all the places around the world that he's had great and interesting beers. At the end of every section he did put a recipe that emulates the beer he drank. I just loved the way he conveyed how the environment in which you drink a particular beer can impact your memory of the situation and how to appreciate that relaxing and enjoying a good beer can be so sublime .