What are the best books for noob Brewers? I’m looking for something that breaks down in more detail the reasons for each step/method and how each ingredient works towards building a beer as well as how to develop your own recipes. Any suggestions?
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
My personal fav is “Designing Great Beers”
This plus How To Brew for the basics.
I’d recommend the the brewer’s series as well as what’s already been mentioned: “Yeast” Hops" " Water" and “Malt”. Each book breaks down the principal ingredients of beer in detail and will help you understand each element
+2. Love Charlie P for the RDWHAHB vibe, too.
I just noticed that he released a new revision sometime last year. Same old early 90’s photos from what I saw on Amazon.
Yeah, saw it in a bookstore. Looked pretty similar to the 2nd revision.
What is RDWHAHB?
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
Relax, don’t worry, have a home brew. Charlie papazian catch phrase. It’s pretty much true.
Along with the others already mentioned, I think Randy Mosher’s new Mastering Homebrew is worth a look. It has the basic process description for the new brewer as well some nice discussion of recipe formulation, with some nicely designed charts and graphs.
Sounds good. Do any of these also go into why specific ingredients work best for certain styles?
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
Yes, that’s exactly what Designing Great Beers does.
Brewing Classic Styles works well as a guide to each of the 2008 BJCP styles. There are specific recipes for each style. Try them with good water and you should be in good shape.
Brewing Association Publications needs to make this a box set and just call it “Beer”.
I would definitely read through some of the others mentioned before hitting these. They can get technical very fast.
I have always thought “How to Brew” was a great intro book. I just got Mosher’s new book (Mastering Homebrew) in the mail a couple days ago. I have only had a chance to flip through it, but it looks like it is going to be an excellent book.
True and a box set is a great idea! I threw these out there just because the other great books were already mentioned. Some of these are definitely more technical but valuable resources
For someone just starting out brewing, I would recommend Homebrewing Vol. I by Al Korzonas.
As great a book as that it, it’d getting long om the tooth. While there’s some great info there, like the concept of BU:GU, most of the recipe ideas are based on the unavailability of ingredients back then. There are substitutions for ingredients that are readily available these days.
He’s a new brewer. Why would he want to saddle himself with that?
But as I mentioned, due to the lack of many ingredients years back, there are work arounds you wouldn’t have to make today.