I am trying to decide between John Palmer's and Ray Daniels' book...can anyone help?

[Elysium]

Hi there

I have been brewing for 10 months now and I would like to buy a new book to read.
So far I have read “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing” which didnt become a reference book (it is just so simple that after one brewing you almost look at it as it were a kids' book) for me, but Chris White and Jamil's “Yeast” is a another book that I own and it is truly great literature for a homebrewer.

I'd like to deepen my knowledge and buy some other books.
I am planning to buy either “Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels” or “How to brew: Everything You Need to Know to Brew Right for the First Time by John Palmer”.

My question is which one is great and a must have book for even someone who has a little bit of experience in brewing, but wants to brew awesome beer instead of just “beer”? My main goal is to perfect the recipes I already have....meaning that "Designing Great Beers" might not be the best options, if it is all about just recipes...

I am still fascinated by the Yeast book I have recently read and shocked how horrible the “For the Love of Hops” book was. The latter I couldnt even finish to read. Too technical, and boring.

Anyway...what do you guys think?
Just to help me decide...I have opened a poll so that you guys could tell me what you think.
Thanks

UPDATE: Well, I have just bought both of them. I think I need to read them and then form an opinion.

 

[Philistine]

Buy both, they are great books. The books are about different aspects of brewing. Designing Great Beers is for helping you to come up with your own beer recipes and How to Brew is about the process of brewing. I like How to Brew over The Complete Joy of Homebrewing myself. I'm always referencing it.

 

[mozart4898]

My $0.02 - I haven't read Palmer's book (although someone correct me if I'm wrong, I believe the entire thing is online anyways). That said as I understand it, I think Palmer's book is similar in many ways to Papazian's in that it presents a lot of the how to as far as the brewing process.

I have the Daniels book on Kindle and it's a good reference if you're interested in formulating your own recipes and learning what others have done that has worked well. It's also detailed in the history of many styles. However it is also not without its own drawbacks, one big one being that the recipes analyzed in the book are old at this point, and some ingredients simply didn't even exist when it was written (if I remember right the Columbus hop had just been introduced when it was written and little was known about it, while some of the current favorite hops like Citra, Simcoe, and Mosaic weren't even heard of yet, and may not have even been bred yet for that matter). It sounds like it's more the sort of book you're looking for, if only it were newer - it does not go into basic brewing techniques at all, assuming you have some experience.

 

[fartinmartin]

I have J.P.s How To Brew Its terrific !!! havnt seen the other one.

 

[BigJack]

An older edition of Palm'er's book is available on-line here. If you like it and find it useful, help the dude out by buying the updated version. If you don't find it helpful, get the other book.

 

[RM-MN]

I've read Papazian's "The Joy of Homebrewing", Palmer's "How to Brew" and Daniels' "Designing Great Beers" and I own the latter two. I go back to Palmer's "How to Brew every so often to reread parts as my brewing changes. I haven't had a desire to look at the other two since I read them.

 

[Trox]

I have both and I personally feel "How to Brew" should be in every homebrewers library (even if it is the only book they own).

"Designing Great Beers" is a decent book I do wish I bought a physical copy of it and not on m Kindle, would have made it easier to flip through so as to reference the various charts; if I had then maybe I would find the book a bit better. As it stands I'm kind of ifish on how useful the book will be for me (I'm don't plan on entering competitions) so don't really care about following a particular style, and rather do my own thing which I've found the Beersmith software to be much better for me. I might pick up a physical copy here to see if that comes across a bit better than the Kindle version though.

 

[Oginme]

It's difficult to pick one over the other as they both have a different audience target. 'How to Brew' is a brewing process book, giving great information on the ways and means of brewing. 'Designing Great Beers' is a methods book on how to make your own recipes. It deals very little with the brewing process itself and focuses more on the individual ingredients and a methodology for combining them to create recipes to match beer styles.

I have both, both are excellent books worth being in any library for different reasons.

 

[W0rthog]

Buy Palmer's book to start. I've thumbed Daniel's book after buying it, but haven't found any gold nuggets of information like in Palmers.
In fact, I don't find much value in Daniels book. It's just a bunch of boiled up data on what others have done.

 

[diS]

If you need to pick just one I'm on Daniels side.
How to brew you can find on net, non revised though.

 

[rklinck]

I bought How to Brew as my first brewing book. If you have been brewing 10 months and have already read Papazian, I doubt you will find How to Brew incredibly useful. I refer back to some of the reference material in it from time to time, but could get that from the internet just as easily.

Designing Great Beers is an awesome book to get you into recipe development. The first part of the book is general discussion of various issues. If you have Beersmith, you really don't need too much of that part. To me the helpful part was the section part, which provides information about the ingredients and process used in brewing commercial and award-winning homebrew versions of various styles. If you want to know how to brew a true Dusseldorf Altbier, for example, you will find all the information you need in this book. It provides info that you can't get from Beersmith (or other brewing tools) because it doesn't just give you the numbers you are shooting for, it tells you what ingredients are traditionally used to get their for each style.

If you are looking for a process type book that is useful for more advanced brewers, I would suggest a third option: Gordon Strong's "Brewing Better Beer." It has lots of useful information for more advanced brewers.

 

[NuclearRich]

They are both great, and as stated, kind of target slightly different audiences. For what it sounds like you are looking for, I would recommend Ray Daniels' book. As previously noted, it has its 'age' drawbacks, but there are some fascinating technical details. I keep reading more and more of it (its pretty wordy, and reads like a college textbook, so its not something you would read cover to cover), and every subject Daniels covers, I find something interesting.

When I am looking to tweak a recipe, or start a new one I do two things with regards to my books. I refer to a clone recipe book for something similar to what I want to do. I then get knee deep in stylistic differences within the given style by reading "Designing Great Beers" and find where I want my beer to be if I were to brew it perfectly. I find it to be a great tool.

"Designing Great Beers" is a decent book I do wish I bought a physical copy of it and not on m Kindle, would have made it easier to flip through so as to reference the various charts; if I had then maybe I would find the book a bit better.

I have a physical copy, and I can see how trying to flip on an e-reader would be much less useful.

 

[flatlanderHQ]

I too appreciate Daniel's book. If you are interested in the history of specific styles, and the ingredients used (though there is nothing on Belgian beers for some unknown reason) then this is a very good resource. I consult it regularly when I am tweaking recipes or looking to add a different grain to a previous recipe to add a new flavour.

I just access palmers book online if I need it.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I bought How to Brew as my first brewing book. If you have been brewing 10 months and have already read Papazian, I doubt you will find How to Brew incredibly useful. I refer back to some of the reference material in it from time to time, but could get that from the internet just as easily.

Designing Great Beers is an awesome book to get you into recipe development. The first part of the book is general discussion of various issues. If you have Beersmith, you really don't need too much of that part. To me the helpful part was the section part, which provides information about the ingredients and process used in brewing commercial and award-winning homebrew versions of various styles. If you want to know how to brew a true Dusseldorf Altbier, for example, you will find all the information you need in this book. It provides info that you can't get from Beersmith (or other brewing tools) because it doesn't just give you the numbers you are shooting for, it tells you what ingredients are traditionally used to get their for each style.

If you are looking for a process type book that is useful for more advanced brewers, I would suggest a third option: Gordon Strong's "Brewing Better Beer." It has lots of useful information for more advanced brewers.

Also the Designing beers book has some good long intros to styles, I knew the basics of why/how IPA's came around but theres a good 4 page story about where IPA's came from. Ive learned a lot from that book already just looking at the IPA section since i just got it, most notably that ESB's are basically just British IPA's. Nearly everything is identical between the two styles.

 

[rklinck]

ESB's are basically just British IPA's. Nearly everything is identical between the two styles.

No, ESBs are Pale Ales. IPAs are stronger and there is an entire category called English IPAs. That is where the style originated (with sending strongly hopped ales to India).

 

[mozart4898]

I have a physical copy, and I can see how trying to flip on an e-reader would be much less useful.

I bought it not that long ago on Kindle and actually haven't gotten through the whole thing, but what I've been doing is highlighting sections, formulas or whole charts. Then when I pull up my notes, I have a list of charts and info that's nice and concise - one tap takes me to the page. I do indeed like physical books but I also have to admit to being a bit of a nerd and digital gadgets are just fun - plus, there's nothing like deciding to buy a book and bam, it's there

 

[passedpawn]

JPs book should win here, but there is GREAT discussion in Daniels book about the beer styles and malt bills for them that JP doesn't touch. I suggest both, with the JP book first if necessary.

JPs book is written as an engineer would write about brewing, and RD writes as a poet and aesthetist of the same.