Is How to Brew by John Palmer worth buying for an experienced brewer?

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
A

amcclai7

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2011
Messages
621
Reaction score
30
Location
Knoxville
Don't get me wrong I certainly do not think I know everything there is to know about brewing beer. I have however been brewing for several years and have dozens of successful batches under my belt. I also do a lot of research and reading. I read some reviews on the book and several brewers referred to it as wonderful reference book that you will never outgrow. What have your experiences been with the book? I'm only asking because I got an amazon gift card for Xmas and plan on buying beer books. The majority of the books I buy with be advanced stuff like, "Yeast." I was just wondering if a homebrewer in my position would benifit enough from palmer's book to justify including it on my purchase.

Also, While you're here include any books you think are essentail or have been personal faves of yours.

P.S. Yeast, Radical Brewing, American Sour Beers, Brewing Porters and Stouts, Brewing Smoked Beers are all in my cart right now.
 
amcclai7 said:
Don't get me wrong I certainly do not think I know everything there is to know about brewing beer. I have however been brewing for several years and have dozens of successful batches under my belt. I also do a lot of research and reading. I read some reviews on the book and several brewers referred to it as wonderful reference book that you will never outgrow. What have your experiences been with the book? I'm only asking because I got an amazon gift card for Xmas and plan on buying beer books. The majority of the books I buy with be advanced stuff like, "Yeast." I was just wondering if a homebrewer in my position would benifit enough from palmer's book to justify including it on my purchase.

Also, While you're here include any books you think are essentail or have been personal faves of yours.

P.S. Yeast, Radical Brewing, American Sour Beers, Brewing Porters and Stouts, Brewing Smoked Beers are all in my cart right now.
Click to expand...

I would say no, it's a good text but available online. I would instead add "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels
 
watermelon83 said:
I would say no, it's a good text but available online. I would instead add "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels
Click to expand...

I forgot about that. some of the chapters show up on occasion when I google search for brewing related things. I agree, DGB is a great book but I already own it.
 
I have the Third Edition (is that the latest?). It's ok, but it's outdated, and more up-to-date information is definitely available.

That said, I find most of my current info online or at places like the National Homebrewer's Conference. If you're a book person, and wish to have a hard copy of something to reference, it's fine for that.

It's pretty basic, so I haven't referred to mine in several years. But if you want a refresher on the basics, it's a good resource.
 
I'd say buy 'how to brew', it is very possible you might have 'outgrown' most of it, but it is a very good reference and you may still have some use for it. I'd say buy it because may already have made good use of the online version and it really is a nice thing to support, even though or maybe just because it is availiable for free.
Dammit... Now I've conviced myself I finally need to buy it. As you said, after googling something brewing related, I have many times wound up there.
 
I still pull mine out on occasion. But, could also get the info in other places too I suppose. I like books. I try to keep a pretty full library, so I would get it. If you are not a book person.... maybe not.
As mentioned - designing great beers, Brewing Classic Styles is one I pull out whenever I want a starting point for a particular style, the Water book. I liked Gordon Strong's book - Brewing Better Beer....... More of a general book about how he "approaches" brewing in a lot of instances.
I just ordered "Experimental Brewing" by Denny Conn and Drew Beechum. I also just ordered the Malt book.
 
I just got a copy of "The Brewer's Tale" for Christmas and I am enjoying it immensely.

Others that I've enjoyed and will pick up again in the future for their technical information include:

"Brew Like a Monk"
"Brewing Lager Beer"

"Brew Like a Monk" contains some very useful history and is particularly good at describing the "trade-offs" that one accomplishes using various yeasts and fermentation temperatures when brewing Belgium ales. "Brewing Lager Beer" is a nice primer on brewing lagers using the decoction method.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I've been brewing for four years and haven't referenced Palmer's book in two. I do own many brewing books, several of which I go back to for reference routinely: "Wild Brews", "Brew Like a Monk", "Brewing with Wheat", "American Sour Beers" and "New Brewing Lager Beers", mostly. Others on occasion. I have read and used Daniels' "Designing..." and wonder why it gets such high praise but don't find it particularly useful.
 
+1 for not buying. I bought the book. John Palmer does a great job of introducing many beginner and advance topics, but I found the book severely lacking when I wanted to delve deeper. Most notably, misprinted equations and a lack of references for further reading on most topics left me at best wanting more, and at worst down right frustrated.

I'm looking forward to seeing what books are recommend in it's stead, keep the recommendations coming!

P.S. I have the Third Edition, which I think is the most recent.
 
I brewed for a dozen years based only on info I read from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. I would say my beers were mediocre at best. I kept at it because I enjoyed it.
Then, I started lurking here in about 2010 and realized there was a lot more to know and I could make better beer.
Now I'm actually reading Palmers book. I'm almost finished. There are quite of few bits of info in there that I didn't know and hadn't gleaned from here.

I'd say it's worth a read.
 
Good book, especially for the inexperienced. It's in need of an update, though.
 
I used the website for free so much I wanted to give something back and bought a digital copy. To each their own. I still find it useful, especially when I'm talking to new brewers or brewers who haven't tried something...it's easy, I can just point them to a page on his website. Even when I had been brewing ales for a while I found his text useful when I made my first lager.
 
Black Island Brewer said:
I have it and won't get rid of it, but if your library has it, go that way.

What I recommend, if you really want something other than this AMAZING community at HBT, is Gordon Strong's Brewing Better Beer.
Click to expand...

I agree with getting Gordon's book. I found a lot of little tidbits in there that were helpful to a more advanced homebrewer. I'm looking forward to picking up Denny and Drew's book, too.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think I might go with Brewing Better beers by Gordon Strong instead. It seems to be a catch-all brewing book that skips much of the elementary stuff that Palmer's book, having beginners in mind, is required to cover. Three different people have recommended it on this thread already and the reviews are stellar.

Keep the recommendations coming though. I have quite a large gift card.
 
Palmer's book is a good general resource, but if you want to go advanced you'll be better served by buying books specifically dealing with topics at hand. I just bought a whole bunch of books recently and have both Hops and Malt sitting on my shelf waiting, but the Yeast and Water books from that same "Brewing Elements" series are definitely worth reading. Designing Great Beers is absolutely crucial in my book. I'm most of the way through Gordon Strong's Brewing Better Beer, and I've found someone of it really helpful, and I've found some of it bunk.
 
New Brewing Lager Beer by Greg Noonan. Although it's written for the lager brewer a lot of the principles apply to brewing in general. Well-written and packed with information.

Brewing Better Beers for me had only a few useful tips like adding roasted malt at the end of the mash to reduce acridness and I don't think I've looked back in it since. I think I remember there was some iffy stuff on mash pH as well. He sure does repeat his brewing philosophy though and although it claims to be targeted to advanced brewers there's a lot of non-advanced brewing filler. You can get all the same information in a couple of other books and you will be much better off having read those other books (like Radical Brewing). You can get it but read it last then retire it to the shelf.

With the books mentioned above already, that's about it for general homebrewing. Beyond that there are plenty of excellent style specific books depending on what you like to make such as Brew Like a Monk, Brewing with Wheat, Classic Beer Style German Wheat Beers, Classic Beer Style Lambic, Classic Beer Style Belgian Ale, and Farmhouse Ales.

Then of course you have your brewing, biology, and biochemistry textbooks that are less practical for the homebrewer.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/best-brewing-science-books-107280/
 
Qhrumphf said:
I know! Buy De Clerck's "Textbook of Brewing" and once you've finished it loan it permanently to me :mug:
Click to expand...

+1. His set is next on my list - until then I'm using Noonan's first book.

I found that Gordon Strong's Brewing Better Beer "pulled the strings together" with respect to my brewing process, particularly with respect to his advice about understanding your equipment. I used his British bitter recipe as a base for my first all-grain beer, and it has proven highly successful.. Ray Daniel's Designing Great Beers is great with respect to some of the history behind current styles of beer, and is helpful insofar as it teaches (at least to me) a "less is more" philosophy about putting together a recipe. Once you understand "less," you can undertake to do "more." For example, I used his data to design a Northern brown ale recently that turned out well, but if I ever decide to brew one again, I'll turn back to his book in order to achieve a beer that is more "nutty" and less "toasty." As the title indicates, Daniel's book is more about beer design than about process; Strong's book is more or less the opposite.

With some exceptions, both books tend towards British and American style ales and describe an infusion or step-mash process. Strong's book touches upon decoction method, but I do not find it persuasive.
 
I think Noonas Lager book is overly complicated not an easy read at all. You can find the information other places in a more accessible fashion... plus it's pretty old.
 
butterpants said:
I think Noonas Lager book is overly complicated not an easy read at all. You can find the information other places in a more accessible fashion... plus it's pretty old.
Click to expand...

Yes, old is bad. Young is good...lol. I have a collection of information bookmarked from the web with respect to a lot of the beer science that Noonan describes. He has two books on lager beers: Brewing Lager Beer and New Brewing Lager Beer. The older one is more accessible, imho...

One might argue that the deClerk book referenced above is also "old" and not an easy read, but I'm willing to take the plunge, and then on to the Seibel book.
 
lhommedieu said:
Yes, old is bad. Young is good...lol. I have a collection of information bookmarked from the web with respect to a lot of the beer science that Noonan describes. He has two books on lager beers: Brewing Lager Beer and New Brewing Lager Beer. The older one is more accessible, imho...

One might argue that the deClerk book referenced above is also "old" and not an easy read, but I'm willing to take the plunge, and then on to the Seibel book.
Click to expand...

I haven't read De Clerck's book, but if it's still used as a text in actual brewing degree programs, it's gotta be worth something. From what I understand, that book laid a lot of the groundwork for modern brewing science as we know it. I fully intend on picking it up one of these days.

I do have a few books by Fix, Bamforth, etc, on actual brewing science, but unless you want to read a chemistry book, they're not always the most useful. Less of "how to do such and such" and more of "this is what's happening chemically".
 
lol. My wife, who double majored in Biology and Psychology in college, (and who just received her doctorate) just laughs at me when I try to understand, let alone explain, brewing chemistry. Somehow I am slowly making the effort and starting to understand just enough to get by.

deClerck is mentioned quite a bit in "Brew Like a Monk" as an adviser who helped modernize Trappist breweries in the 1950's.
 
I got it for Christmas. Its simple and in depth. A real brewing tool. I love hearing john, tasty, jamil, and others on the BN everyday.
 
I use the vintage beers book by Ronald Pattinson quite a lot but it's fairly specific as a manual. Great reference though.
 
lhommedieu said:
How does it compare to Chris White's book about yeast? I have For the Love of Hops and Water and I was thinking about getting Yeast and Malt next.
Click to expand...

Yeast is much less in depth but an easier read and streamlined. I feel Yeast is a mandatory read for a brewer without a professional education (Siebel/Davis).
 

Similar threads

KyBeer
profiles for different styles of beer
Replies
10
Views
1K
oldschool
oldschool
T
Brewing darker beers with corn roasted in a home coffee roaster?
Replies
6
Views
808
cmac62
cmac62
B
Moving from Primary to Secondary?
Replies
10
Views
615
mac_1103
mac_1103
M
Brewing contest for home brewers?
Replies
23
Views
1K
YeastFeast
YeastFeast
E
Starting out and need advice on materials and supplies
Replies
14
Views
1K
hottpeper13
H
CornyKegs 300

Latest posts

Back
Top