Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #130542 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Customer Reviews

Highly over-rated
Although it deserves more than one star, I'm trying to compensate for the blatant over-rating this book has received. It is obvious to me that many of the ratings are from friends or clients of their brewshop in Connecticut, USA(my home state)
The recipes seem fine for beginning to intermediate brewers, although I find them ridiculously precise with such beauties as "after 48 minutes of the boil, add so and so, then boil for 13 minutes, then add so and so and boil for 2 minutes, etc". Does boiling for 48 minutes make a different beer than boiling for 50 minutes?
What avid, advanced homebrewer would want to use these recipes for all-grain beers? Who honestly believes that you can "clone" beers using malt-extract recipes? And finally, what all-grain brewer ever goes back to using extracts once they have experienced the FAR SUPERIOR results of cereals?
I won't repeat other reviewers' negative comments, but I wholeheartedly agree. I do regret having bought this book.
My advice for all who find this book excellent: try proper brewing with cereals and not extracts and you will experience a whole new world!

Pretty Good Intro for Homebrewers with Plenty of Ideas
This isn't a bad book, it covers a lot of different styles of beer from around the world and opens ones mind up to the various options and possibilities of what can be brewed at home. But it's not a technically perfect book, and if you're an experienced brewer you will quickly be able to find fault, as some of the other reviewers here have already done. However, if you're new to homebrewing and are looking for a book that can stimulate your imagination and guide you through the brewing process, then this book represents an excellent investment. There are so many recipes, that the modest homebrewer will be engaged for years.

Pretty good, but not a 'stand-alone' book
This book is ok if you are a competent homebrewer, want to copy a particular style of beer and want to know what ingredients to buy. I've found a couple that I may try in the future.

However, you have to remember that this is a recipe book, NOT a homebrewing guide. It doesn't tell you WHY you should proceed in a certain way or give too many finer details. For example, almost every recipe ends with "bottle when fermentation is complete". This is fine if you know what you're doing, but not good if you don't. Also, every recipe calls for the use of a 'secondary fermenter', which I for one never use. (I could go on, but you get the idea.) So a certain amount of prior knowledge and recipe adjustments for issues like that may have to be made to get the best from the recipe.

Also, I don't agree with a previous reviewer that you will necessarily know most of the beers in here - I'm a beer enthusiast and I found a lot of them to be pretty obscure. The authors seem to have tried to give equal coverage to every possible style and region rather than focus on popular beers.

Basically it's a good recipe book. I would couple it with a decent brewing guide such as 'How to Brew' by John Palmer to get the best from your brew. Still, a good one for the brewing collection.