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If you started brewing back in the 80's and want a good read that you will appreciate, I highly recommend Making Beer, by William Mares. It's out of print, but you can find used ones on Amazon.com

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My Mother-in-law gave me this book back in 1987 and it changed my life. It's humorous and for the old farts, it will bring back memories.

For the Noobs, it will tell you how we used to do it in a humorous way.

The author is a journalist and award winning homebrewer so it is well written and the illustrations are great.

Many Homebrew books are great reference material. Making Beer by William Mares goes to the heart of why we are here online, communicating with noobs and experts alike.

It's a great book for any skill level just for reading pleasure. If you don't have it yet, snatch up a used one while you can. You will thank me later.

Cheers,

EdWort

Heh... I have this book, but an earlier (possibly first?) edition. I haven't read it in YEARS, so it might be fun to dust it off and give it a gander.

And no, mine is not for sale...
 
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Had some books arrive:

Radical Brewing.
Brewing Classic Styles.
Wild Brews.

Skimmed Brewing Classic Styles, which looks pretty good. And started a full read of Radical Brewing, which has started out great already. Nice stuff.

Anybody else pick up any recommended books?
 
The Brewmaster's Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food by Garret Oliver.

This is a great book that talks about food and beer pairing. It goes through each style of beer individually, and talks a bit about history, flavor profile, and how to pair them.

Hey we've gotta eat too!
 
It's got poor reviews at Amazon. I almost bought it till I read the reviews.

I can back up this opinion. I found this book at a used book store and although it's a very interesting read, I would not use it for anything other than pleasure reading.

I did enjoy the stories and opinions on brewing form the contributors, but it's also a bit dated too. I had to remind myself that craft brewing is not in the infancy stage anymore!

Since I've read it through twice, I would not feel bad about passing it on to anyone else who wants a read. Just PM me your address.

I also own:

The Compleat Joy of Homebrewing - Charlie Papzian.
Great starting book. Good advice in easy to understand format and lots of encouragement. RDWHAHB!

How to Brew - John Palmer.
THE basic reference book IMO. Lots of good info, and although a little drier than Papazian's book, a solid brewing manual with lots of good reference material.

Radical Brewing - Randy Mosher.
An entertaining guide for the more adventurous brewers out there. Mosher writes with a style that makes it hard to put down. Lots of comments and notes to keep your interest, and some solid thought-provoking ideas that I imagine are intended to kick-start your creativity.

Tasting Beer - Randy Mosher.
Not a brewing book per se., but a very entertaining read! I highly recommend it for anyone who likes to drink beer. Humourous, and witty, and loaded with facts and quips. Very well written, and enjoyable!

Designing Great Beers - Ray Daniels.
So far a nice reference to beer styles and something that I could see myself pulling out for guidelines on specific beer styles as my brewing continues. Not as entertaining as some of the others, but well put together and valuable to brewers nonetheless. I have not finished it, and in fact found myself skipping through the different styles as needed.
 
Radical Brewing is an awesome read:
Amazon.com: Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales and World-Altering Meditations in a Glass (9780937381830): Randy Mosher: Books


But the most for your dollar you get from the BYO magazine issue "150 Classic Clone Recipes":
Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine - 150 Classic Clone Recipes
I bought 3 copies of this issue; one fell apart long time ago, one is on my coffee table, and one is in my car (in case I get an urge to brew while at work and I have to stop in my LHBS on the way home :) )
 
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