what books do you recommend? i have water,yeast,malt, hops. definitely wanna pick up brewing lager beer by greg noonan, if you can recommend some good brewing text books that would be great, thank you cheers
I will advise you that the Noonan book is pretty out of date, as is Designing Great Beers. In their time, they were great books. These days, not really since so much has changed.
even the New version of brewing lager beer?
What kind of book are you looking for? I’ve enjoyed Scott Janish’s New IPA book and Lars’ Farmhouse Brewing books, but if you don’t like IPA or history/Scandinavian brewing traditions then those aren’t for you.
I’ve been vaguely considering looking at Eclectic IPA by Cantwell, but haven’t heard too many reviews of it.
The new version is probably 20+ years old. I know 3 books I’d recommend, but it’s kinda self serving.
you are a humble man and FYI i’m picking up simple homebrewing its already on my book list 
but im also looking for a complex text book type brewing book that you would get in “brewing school/collage” lol
Brewing Better Beer by Gordon Strong
Fix. Principles of Brewing Science: A Study of Serious Brewing Issues - George Fix - Google Books
This is not bad
Someday I will get a copy of Der Kunze, but that is expensive.
I stumbled across a copy of Mastering Homebrew by Randy Mosher copyright 2015 and find it to be more helpful to me than other brewing books I’ve read.
I like the challenge of developing my own recipes and this book makes it easier.
The charts and illustrations are more useful and the information is arranged to show relationships between different kinds of hops and malts for example or the illustrations showing how to modify different types of beers that make it simpler to formulate my own recipes.
I would recommend it to any beginner or intermediate brewer.
Yeah, that’s a great book. Randy and I talked bout doing one together, but I think we’re both out of writing mode these days.
This would probably by the first book I would buy if I hadn’t already bought 12+ brewing books.
I still believe that there is value in the newer of the two Noonan books. Sure, the book is a bit dated, but there is absolutely no other affordable brewing text that is dedicated to brewing traditional lager beer. That being said, I would look at purchasing the book used. I purchased an original version of the book in mint condition for not much more than the cost of shipping. That is the version I had in my library before I sold off my entire brewing collection. Noonan is the only publication that is written in English that covers a decoction mash in gory detail. Granted, decoction mashing is not as necessary today as it once was, but there is still value in learning the technique. Even with modern malt, I find that decoction mashing produces a different wort than infusion or step mashing.
I treasure my autographed copy of this book. He was a brewing hero for me.
Agreed. Despite the extent it might be dated it is still the most technical homebrewing book out there. There is a lot to take away from the book even if you don’t brew lagers.
Brewing Better Beer is a really good intermediary skill book.
Brew Like a Monk remains an exceptional guide to trappist/abbey beers. All of the white books are good but BLAM is the best of the group.
American Sour Beers is a good guide to getting into sour beers. Wild Brews is a great guide to classic Belgian styles and also worth reading.
The Homebrewer’s Almanac is a great guide to incorporating unusual plant ingredients in beer. Brewing Local is a pretty good second in that subject.
IPA is a good guide to IPA before the domination of haze.
The 1990s Brewer’s Publication style books are full of awful misinformation but great snapshots of craft beer in the 1990s.
On on my favorites is The Home Brewer’s Guide to Vintage Beer by Ron Pattinson. Brewing guide and a history lesson wrapped into one.
Let’s Brew by Ron Pattinson is the only book I still refer to from time to time. His 1957 Whitbread IPA recipe is a regular in my rotation.
The most comprehensive and accurate brewing book your are going to find is: Technology Brewing & Malting by Kunze.
Yes as mentioned it’s expensive but why buy 20 books @$20 when you can get the only one you really need for half that. Think of all the wasted book shelf space you will save!
$197 and they ship to the US.
If you are into Belgians, I definitely recommend Brew Like A Monk.
Excellent book, and a lot of general brewing info, too.
This is actually really disheartening, since I just got around to picking up Designing Great Beers after getting it from a friend who was clearing out his homebrewing library and thought it was going to be good for my recipe design skills. I guess I’ll have to check out some of the other books mentioned here and see if I can get my hands on them.