For clarification: I'm referring to the free-to-access version of how to brew in this video. There are later versions with updated information but they are only available as a book for purchase
Designing Great Beers, Daniels, Principles of Brewing Science, Fix, New Brewing Lager Beers, Noonan, Beer Captured, Tess and Mark Szamatulski. Palmer’s How To really got me started, plus, he’s a really nice guy. Tess and Mark’s book has lots of recipes to imitate commercial brews. All these I mentioned give great foundation for brewing..
I have “How to Brew” and “Brewing Classic Styles”. Both great resources. Whenever Zi come across a recipe I will back-check to “Brewing Classic Styles” before I commit. You can get Palmer’s first book free on the Internet but the latest edition in paperback is worth every penny. Yep, I still mash in a converted 10 gallon cooler!
Great video! Although, I would argue that Charlie Papazian is the father of homebrewing (i.e.- the first or at least recognized as the first)… his book was first published in 1984, vs John Palmer’s book being first published in 2000. John Palmer is more like the “Older Brother” of homebrewing… ;) But yes, both books are equally as good and both men have taught homebrewing for years!
If you are interested in learning the czech language I have to recommend "Pivařka 2" - its basically the homebrew bible for czech people, theres basically everything you need to know covered, recipes, calculations, charts to convert between things
Thank you for mentioning Mashmaker! That book has a lot of great recipes that I have brewed several times. Anyone who wants to brew some beers that are outside the norm, it’s a great book! I never brewed with rye, corn, or honey before using this book. You can get an online copy of it but the book is no longer in print.
I have the Palmer book and “ Joy of home brewing”. I plan on getting “ classic styles” and “ brew like a monk” as I’m getting into more Belgian styles. In fact will be brewing my first Belgian Tripel soon. Thank you.
I have most of those books. The first book I had on home brewing was "Home Brew Beer" a DK book. It goes through basic equipment and processes and great pics of what the beers look like. For me as a beginner, the pics were inspirational. Basic recipes - I brewed a Dortmunder from the book a few years later that won an award. The other book is "Mastering Homebrew" by Randy Mosher - great section on recipe strategies. And it doesn't hurt that he's an accomplished graphics designer as well!
Yay for "Brew like a monk"! Probably the book that had the greatest influence on my homebrewing. I can also recommend "Home Brew Beer" by Greg Hughes, it's a great collection of recipes and explanations that get you off the ground if you have just started brewing your own beer. That Malt/Water/Hops/Yeast series looks interesting too but I did not yet have the courage to dive into them :D Cheers from Germany!
One of the reasons I subscribed to your channel almost 2 year ago. You seem to be like me. Always researching and soaking in all the info you can get. Like I've said before your water chemistry knowledge is top notch. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
@@TheGavranatar The good thing with BCS is that every recipe in the book either won a Gold Medal or a Best of Show (there might be a few exceptions). It might not be the best source of modern IPA recipes, but every recipe is a solid base for the style.
@@TheGavranatar I don't see that style, but there are a bunch of German/European styles covered like Pilsner, Oktoberfest, Marzen, Munich Dunkel, Kolsh, several Bocks, and German Wheat/Rye.
Excellent recommendations! How to Brew as well as the Water, Malt, Hops and Yeast books are actually among my textbooks for college. I will say though, my copy of How to Brew is the fourth edition and was revised and updated in 2017 so it is up-to-date, at least for the most part. Cheers 🍻
@@TheApartmentBrewer I am! Going for an Associates of Science in Fermentation. Yeah, it’s kinda weird that the site isn’t updated. Maybe a marketing thing? I was able to grab a mint used copy off of Amazon for $12.
Great video and recommendations as always! I’d add these three, which I consult all the time and are great for beginners and more seasoned brewers as well. Homebrew beyond the basics by Mike Karnowski Mastering homebrew by Randy Mosher. Probably the book with best graphics out there. Experimental homebrewing by Drew Bechum and Denny Conn, once you’ve got some experience and it’s time to experiment!
Fantastic choices!! I also love Gordon Strong’s books especially “Modern Homebrew Recipes”. I used “How to Brew “ and “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing to learn to extract and then all grain brew. I still use “Brewing Classic Styles” regularly to this day. It would be awesome if BCS were updated with the newest styles in the BJCP guidelines, plus the styles that are on the verge of being put into a future update of the BJCP. Now that Jamil is retiring from Heretic maybe he will come out with an update to BCS!
My understanding is that a new version of BCS is in the works. Hopefully an updated version will have separate extract and all-grain recipes, vs now where the all-grain version just says what to swap into the extract recipe.
Good stuff! It’s amazing how fast some of these books become dated. I just recently read Brewing Better Beer by Gordon Strong. He was advocating whole cone hops and not dry hopping… ok. One book that I think is a good companion to Brewing Classic Styles, that I never hear anyone talking about, is The Secrets of Master Brewers by Jeff Alworth. It goes into a bunch of classic beer styles and brewers with a homebrew recipes from that brewery.
Well, I personally prefer the book that was recently published on Amazon, called “BEER as a way of life”, simple and to the point, without unnecessary words and facts
Great vid yet again, I’ll be back to this list when I need a new book! I just bought one last week and haven’t finished it yet but so far it’s great, Secrets de Brasseur, yeah I know it’s in french AND from France but it’s supposed to be great for beginners, like I am !
Nerd! (Not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to brewing...) Thanks for the recommendations, I've been meaning to get more into the books lately and a few of those look great. Cheers!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thank you for your videos! I think you will enjoy the "Historical Brewing Techniques: The Lost Art of Farmhouse Brewing" by Lars Marius Garshol.
I think Complete Joy (I’m so old that it was called “The New Complete Joy …” at the time) was the 3rd book I read about brewing. Charlie had another volume called The Home Brewer’s Companion which was the first thing I read from him. Those 2 books taught me a lot, almost 30 years ago now. I read the Palmer book. I think it’s up to a 4th edition now, published in 2017 iirc. Covers a lot of ground. Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels is a a classic. With all the easy-access software available today I am a bit too lazy to read all of Ray’s calculations but it’s a great book to get the brass tacks of classic styles. It’s old though. I read Randy Mosher’s Mastering Homebrew. I know this book has a lot of fans but I found it fairly annoying. It has quite a few inconsistencies and errors when you get right down to it. I suppose the general thrust of it is fine but if you’re trying to use it as a practical instruction text it’s just too flaky imho. I know people like RM’s graphics work. Personally, I find it gimmicky and unnecessary. I’m currently reading RM’s earlier book, ‘Radical Brewing’. Seems ok. So far I’m not a huge fan of the layout but I’m just getting into the more interesting part, and beyond the basic introductory concepts/ingredients section. Brewing Classic Styles is a pretty solid recipe book which also contains some sound advice on brewing with extracts. I’m not convinced all the recipes convert to AG quite as simply as suggested, or maybe it’s actually the other way around. I believe JZ started with AG recipes and created Extract versions of them for the book, so the AG stuff might actually be more like it. Whatever, it’s pretty sound. I brewed a hybrid AG/extract version of his RIS from this book and won BOS at the Australian Amateur Brewing Championship last year, so I’m not dissing the book in any way. I’m also reading Brew Like A Monk right now, along with Radical Brewing. I think I prefer the ‘Belgian’ book so far. It seems easier to read. I read Simple Homebrew (Denny Conn & Drew Beechum) last year. I liked it. Haven’t changed my ways but I thought it held some good ideas. I’m all about simple. I’ve also got the Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer book, which is basically a recipe book. I think he has compiled recipes rather than formulated them, and the book seems to have a big following. I don’t think I’ve brewed anything from it yet. Thought I might try the Biere de Garde recipe
Historical Brewing Techniques is a really nice book, tons of info about the history of brewing and lots of glossy pictures and sketches too. It's by Lars Marius Garshol, the guy who kindly brought Kveik into the new world
When you are ready to grow, buy Technology Brewing and Malting by Kunze. It's one of the primary references that homebrew authors go to anyway, you might as well go to the source and get the information firsthand. Warning: If you pony up for this tome, you will never be able to seriously read a homebrew book again.
@@TheApartmentBrewer I just brewed my second ever stout, using reiterated mashing, and managed an ABV of 9.5%. I'm still learning a lot every time and am now fiddling with a new recipe for a base 11% chocolate stout that I want to use for pastry stouts in the future. Quite difficult to judge, as I have to wait a while during conditioning. Fingers crossed, quite bitter still but not even in the secondary so far.
@@TheVindalloo repetition is key! Keep brewing similar beers and you'll pick up the things you need quickly and you'll make improvements. Congrats on the beer!
Brewing classic styles has a lot of style specific nuggets, which are not typically mentioned elsewhere. Great book! IPA was frankly very disappointing - too much history, very little brewing information.
I have to disagree with the recommendation of How to Brew and The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing. I have had the most up to date versions of both of them for a long time and recently went back through them. When they were written is exactly the problem; everything from equipment selection to recipe formulation is hopelessly out of date and is only going to steer wrong somebody just getting into the hobby. The homebrewing subreddit and RUclips channels such as this one are better resources and free.
For clarification: I'm referring to the free-to-access version of how to brew in this video. There are later versions with updated information but they are only available as a book for purchase
Designing Great Beers, Daniels, Principles of Brewing Science, Fix, New Brewing Lager Beers, Noonan, Beer Captured, Tess and Mark Szamatulski. Palmer’s How To really got me started, plus, he’s a really nice guy. Tess and Mark’s book has lots of recipes to imitate commercial brews. All these I mentioned give great foundation for brewing..
The book that introduced me to brewing was radical brewing by randy mosher. Good read.
Lots of people here adding that one to the list! Definitely will need to check it out
John Palmer has 4th addition of How to Brew series with include an update water section and more advanced fermentation sections.
I have “How to Brew” and “Brewing Classic Styles”. Both great resources. Whenever Zi come across a recipe I will back-check to “Brewing Classic Styles” before I commit. You can get Palmer’s first book free on the Internet but the latest edition in paperback is worth every penny. Yep, I still mash in a converted 10 gallon cooler!
I do the same thing with BCS. Even just reading the style paragraph is worth it every time
Great video!
Although, I would argue that Charlie Papazian is the father of homebrewing (i.e.- the first or at least recognized as the first)… his book was first published in 1984, vs John Palmer’s book being first published in 2000. John Palmer is more like the “Older Brother” of homebrewing… ;) But yes, both books are equally as good and both men have taught homebrewing for years!
If you are interested in learning the czech language I have to recommend "Pivařka 2" - its basically the homebrew bible for czech people, theres basically everything you need to know covered, recipes, calculations, charts to convert between things
"Prost" by Dornbusch and "6 O'Clock Brews" by Peter Symons are two favorites on my bookshelf
Awesome, I'll take a look at those!
That water book and the series. Yeah it's like a text book. If I was a college teacher for brewing. I would highly recommend those books.
Thank you for mentioning Mashmaker! That book has a lot of great recipes that I have brewed several times. Anyone who wants to brew some beers that are outside the norm, it’s a great book! I never brewed with rye, corn, or honey before using this book. You can get an online copy of it but the book is no longer in print.
There are a few used copies floating around. Well worth it!
I have the Palmer book and “ Joy of home brewing”. I plan on getting “ classic styles” and “ brew like a monk” as I’m getting into more Belgian styles. In fact will be brewing my first Belgian Tripel soon. Thank you.
Great reads!
I have most of those books. The first book I had on home brewing was "Home Brew Beer" a DK book. It goes through basic equipment and processes and great pics of what the beers look like. For me as a beginner, the pics were inspirational. Basic recipes - I brewed a Dortmunder from the book a few years later that won an award. The other book is "Mastering Homebrew" by Randy Mosher - great section on recipe strategies. And it doesn't hurt that he's an accomplished graphics designer as well!
Thanks for the suggestions!
Yay for "Brew like a monk"! Probably the book that had the greatest influence on my homebrewing. I can also recommend "Home Brew Beer" by Greg Hughes, it's a great collection of recipes and explanations that get you off the ground if you have just started brewing your own beer. That Malt/Water/Hops/Yeast series looks interesting too but I did not yet have the courage to dive into them :D
Cheers from Germany!
Cheers and thanks for the suggestion! Brew like a monk is a great read!
One of the reasons I subscribed to your channel almost 2 year ago. You seem to be like me. Always researching and soaking in all the info you can get. Like I've said before your water chemistry knowledge is top notch. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
I really appreciate that man! Very very happy to hear you've been finding value in my content. Cheers!
Just startes homebrewing and ive been looking for a first home brewing book so I'm glad you did a video for it! Thanks!
Very good content!
Could you please make the video about type of beer glasses?
Thanks a lot!
I'll keep it in mind!
Brewing classic styles is amazing. I brew beer out of that book to this day.
I must check that one out. I've been using the Greg Hughes' 'bible' but some recipes are hit and miss
@@TheGavranatar The good thing with BCS is that every recipe in the book either won a Gold Medal or a Best of Show (there might be a few exceptions). It might not be the best source of modern IPA recipes, but every recipe is a solid base for the style.
@@CascadesHomebrew i'd like to do more german styles, if they have those i'd be well pleased. Things like Kellerbier?
@@TheGavranatar I don't see that style, but there are a bunch of German/European styles covered like Pilsner, Oktoberfest, Marzen, Munich Dunkel, Kolsh, several Bocks, and German Wheat/Rye.
@@CascadesHomebrew sounds excellent. It's a wee stocking filler for sure!
Excellent recommendations! How to Brew as well as the Water, Malt, Hops and Yeast books are actually among my textbooks for college. I will say though, my copy of How to Brew is the fourth edition and was revised and updated in 2017 so it is up-to-date, at least for the most part. Cheers 🍻
Thats awesome, are you in school for a brewing degree? I wish the online free to use How to Brew would be updated, though
@@TheApartmentBrewer I am! Going for an Associates of Science in Fermentation. Yeah, it’s kinda weird that the site isn’t updated. Maybe a marketing thing? I was able to grab a mint used copy off of Amazon for $12.
#6 Brew Better Beer by Emma Christensen is an excellent beginner beer brewing book. Very detailed step by step instructions with photographs.
I'll have to look around for it!
Great video and recommendations as always!
I’d add these three, which I consult all the time and are great for beginners and more seasoned brewers as well.
Homebrew beyond the basics by Mike Karnowski
Mastering homebrew by Randy Mosher. Probably the book with best graphics out there.
Experimental homebrewing by Drew Bechum and Denny Conn, once you’ve got some experience and it’s time to experiment!
I'll have to check those out, thanks for the recommendations!
Just logged on to Amazon today to buy my first book. Serendipity!
Yes! All these are awesome, wouldn't add or subtract a thing. especially the elements of brewing series for the inner nerd ;)
They are among my favorites, but takes a while to get through!
Perfect timing on this video! Was just putting some books on my amazon wish list for Christmas!
Awesome! Thanks for watching!
Do yourself a favor and check at your favorite ebook sources, many titles come electronic and quite a bit more palatable than in paper.
Nice set for long brewdays or long winter nights, just oredered 2 that are missing from my shelf and are available used.
Good stuff!
Fantastic choices!! I also love Gordon Strong’s books especially “Modern Homebrew Recipes”. I used “How to Brew “ and “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing to learn to extract and then all grain brew. I still use “Brewing Classic Styles” regularly to this day. It would be awesome if BCS were updated with the newest styles in the BJCP guidelines, plus the styles that are on the verge of being put into a future update of the BJCP. Now that Jamil is retiring from Heretic maybe he will come out with an update to BCS!
My understanding is that a new version of BCS is in the works. Hopefully an updated version will have separate extract and all-grain recipes, vs now where the all-grain version just says what to swap into the extract recipe.
I agree! It would be great to see an update.
@@CascadesHomebrew That’s fantastic news!
Good stuff! It’s amazing how fast some of these books become dated. I just recently read Brewing Better Beer by Gordon Strong. He was advocating whole cone hops and not dry hopping… ok. One book that I think is a good companion to Brewing Classic Styles, that I never hear anyone talking about, is The Secrets of Master Brewers by Jeff Alworth. It goes into a bunch of classic beer styles and brewers with a homebrew recipes from that brewery.
Great suggestion, and interesting stuff about the Gordon Strong book. Thanks for watching!
Definitely get Janish's book over Steele's.
Well, I personally prefer the book that was recently published on Amazon, called “BEER as a way of life”, simple and to the point, without unnecessary words and facts
Great vid yet again, I’ll be back to this list when I need a new book! I just bought one last week and haven’t finished it yet but so far it’s great, Secrets de Brasseur, yeah I know it’s in french AND from France but it’s supposed to be great for beginners, like I am !
Nerd! (Not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to brewing...) Thanks for the recommendations, I've been meaning to get more into the books lately and a few of those look great. Cheers!
Ha! That's awesome though, I hope you enjoy them!
Damn looking good in that shirt! 😁 also amazing list I have almost all those and agree with everything you said!
Its a damn comfy shirt! Glad to support you!
Knowledge is gold! Thank you for your suggestions.
Glad you enjoyed!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thank you for your videos! I think you will enjoy the "Historical Brewing Techniques: The Lost Art of Farmhouse Brewing" by Lars Marius Garshol.
I'll put it on my list!
I think Complete Joy (I’m so old that it was called “The New Complete Joy …” at the time) was the 3rd book I read about brewing. Charlie had another volume called The Home Brewer’s Companion which was the first thing I read from him.
Those 2 books taught me a lot, almost 30 years ago now.
I read the Palmer book. I think it’s up to a 4th edition now, published in 2017 iirc. Covers a lot of ground.
Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels is a a classic. With all the easy-access software available today I am a bit too lazy to read all of Ray’s calculations but it’s a great book to get the brass tacks of classic styles. It’s old though.
I read Randy Mosher’s Mastering Homebrew. I know this book has a lot of fans but I found it fairly annoying. It has quite a few inconsistencies and errors when you get right down to it. I suppose the general thrust of it is fine but if you’re trying to use it as a practical instruction text it’s just too flaky imho. I know people like RM’s graphics work. Personally, I find it gimmicky and unnecessary.
I’m currently reading RM’s earlier book, ‘Radical Brewing’. Seems ok. So far I’m not a huge fan of the layout but I’m just getting into the more interesting part, and beyond the basic introductory concepts/ingredients section.
Brewing Classic Styles is a pretty solid recipe book which also contains some sound advice on brewing with extracts. I’m not convinced all the recipes convert to AG quite as simply as suggested, or maybe it’s actually the other way around. I believe JZ started with AG recipes and created Extract versions of them for the book, so the AG stuff might actually be more like it. Whatever, it’s pretty sound. I brewed a hybrid AG/extract version of his RIS from this book and won BOS at the Australian Amateur Brewing Championship last year, so I’m not dissing the book in any way.
I’m also reading Brew Like A Monk right now, along with Radical Brewing. I think I prefer the ‘Belgian’ book so far. It seems easier to read.
I read Simple Homebrew (Denny Conn & Drew Beechum) last year. I liked it. Haven’t changed my ways but I thought it held some good ideas. I’m all about simple.
I’ve also got the Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer book, which is basically a recipe book. I think he has compiled recipes rather than formulated them, and the book seems to have a big following. I don’t think I’ve brewed anything from it yet. Thought I might try the Biere de Garde recipe
My favorite brewing book: Michael Tonsmeire's American Sour Beers.
Nice, I'm not a big sour beer person but I'm sure it would be an interesting read!
Historical Brewing Techniques is a really nice book, tons of info about the history of brewing and lots of glossy pictures and sketches too. It's by Lars Marius Garshol, the guy who kindly brought Kveik into the new world
I'll have to look for that one, thanks for the suggestion!
Awesome!
Another book worthy of mention which taught me loads is Brew by James Morton
I have most of them, good choices
They're great references. Cheers!
Books are a great way to learn! Cheers Steve!
Cheers Brian! Thanks for watching!
I really enjoyed both of Gordon Strong's books......
Those are good suggestions. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to read them but they are on the list!
Do you have a favorite recipe from the "The Mashmaker"?
Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels
Thanks for the suggestion!
When you are ready to grow, buy Technology Brewing and Malting by Kunze. It's one of the primary references that homebrew authors go to anyway, you might as well go to the source and get the information firsthand.
Warning: If you pony up for this tome, you will never be able to seriously read a homebrew book again.
I'll keep it in mind!
Does anyone know a good book on stouts, especially big imperial stouts?
Off the top of my head I don't but there are a lot of good style specific notes for the stouts in Brewing classic styles and Mashmaker.
@@TheApartmentBrewer I just brewed my second ever stout, using reiterated mashing, and managed an ABV of 9.5%. I'm still learning a lot every time and am now fiddling with a new recipe for a base 11% chocolate stout that I want to use for pastry stouts in the future. Quite difficult to judge, as I have to wait a while during conditioning. Fingers crossed, quite bitter still but not even in the secondary so far.
@@TheVindalloo repetition is key! Keep brewing similar beers and you'll pick up the things you need quickly and you'll make improvements. Congrats on the beer!
You hit all the bases...
Yup that's the point!
Brewing classic styles has a lot of style specific nuggets, which are not typically mentioned elsewhere. Great book!
IPA was frankly very disappointing - too much history, very little brewing information.
I have to disagree with the recommendation of How to Brew and The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing. I have had the most up to date versions of both of them for a long time and recently went back through them. When they were written is exactly the problem; everything from equipment selection to recipe formulation is hopelessly out of date and is only going to steer wrong somebody just getting into the hobby.
The homebrewing subreddit and RUclips channels such as this one are better resources and free.
Send me the books I will read them hahaha, thanks for the suggestions, I will add them to my reading list.
Enjoy!
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