Customer Reviews

Brew Ware: How to Find, Adapt & Build Homebrewing Equipment

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a book about brewing equipment, nothing more, nothing less. It goes into great detail on how to build your own brewing equipment or where to buy prefabricated set-ups, such as; 3 tier used keg or cooler lauter tun systems, false bottom bucket lauter tuns, immersion wort chillers, dual immersion wort chillers, counter flow wort chillers, sparging equipment, filtration equipment, and much, much more.

I really liked the attention to detail, right down to the type of plastics and PVC to use or not to use, what type of solder to use or not to use for soldering.

Lutzen even goes into great detail when comparing various systems, giving his non biased opinion on many of the systems you can either buy or build. This is probably the most helpful part of the book, in my opinion. It's good to know that you can successfully accomplish what you're trying to do without spending top dollar for the equipment.

If you're not content with the simple plastic bucket brew setups that you get at most homebrew shops, get "Brew Ware". The book talks about pros and cons of LOTS of different equipment options for every stage in the brewing process.

Easy, clearly written, step-by-step instructions are provided to explain how to make lots of great gadgets to solve every homebrew problem. No more settling for that one chiller at the local homebrew shop, no sirree! With "Brew Ware" I understand different types of chillers, and I can look at the plans to see which ones would be easiest or cheapest for me to build myself. Ditto with brewing setups, lagering setups, kegging setups, etc.

If you want to know about gadgets, and want to know how the different approaches work and how to build things yourself, this is the ultimate book. I'm glad I bought it.

If you are thinking about homebrewing or have been homebrewing for a year or so and have questions, then this book is what you need. If I had read Brew Ware a year ago I could have saved a ton of money. Lutzen knows his subject well and writes in a easy to understand manner that covers his topic and doesn't make the reader feel like an idiot for now knowing the chemical difference between alpha or beta amalyese enzymes. Brew Ware simplifies the processes and tells the reader exactly how each piece of the brewing equipment works. He explains which pieces are easily built, and which would be cheaper just to buy. I for one can't wait for Brew Ware II.

If you like gadgets, and brewing, this book could prove dangerous. I couldn't stop drooling over the possibilities of building my own temperature controlled fermentation room with tons of neat little tricks. Good book for the brewer that likes to play with building things, or just wants to spend tons of money on equipment. Conversely, it provides many of the cheapest solutions to brewing equipment I've seen yet.

I think that this book was O.K. It just didn't give enough detail on how to build many of the items. While most people may be able to "figure it out", that's not what they buy the book for. If you pay money for a book that is supposed to tell you how to build your own homebrew equipment, then Darnit all, that's what it should tell you. Additionally, they could've done a bit more research, and told you how to contact some of the suppliers they mention. An appendix at the end with web addresses, and phone numbers would have sufficed, but the list they have is incomplete at best.

this was written before the internet, the majority of information in this book is available online or in basic brewing books, the gadgets described are mostly widely manufactured and / or easily available.

This book does a great job capturing the mechanical part of the essence of homebrewing. It's well written and well illustrated, but is it useful? Some of the gadgets are too simple to warrant inclusion and a few are unnecessarily elaborate. But, by and large, it includes a lot of gadgets that you could develop, with a little creativity, on your own (and Homebrewing is all about being creative). You might not make/use the gadgets, but it makes you think about the process.

So, yes, it's useful, especially if you use that saved creativity for tinkering with hops, malts and yeasts.

If you like to use your hands, build or modify things to suit your needs, and you're a homebrewer, this book is from God. Now, my Gadgetude Quotient is pretty high, so I love just about everything in this book, but Brew Ware has a little somehting for you, no matter how much you like to tinker.

This book tells you how to build virtually anything you will need for a world-class homebrew setup. It is also very informative with locations to purchase parts needed (although a few seem to have gone out of business, but many many more are very useful), and gives various levels of price / quality for you to choose.

Directions for assembly, concepts of what makes it work, are all easy to understand. A great addition to any serious brewer's library.

As an avid home brewer and builder of "stuff" , this book is brilliant . Already it has saved me $200 Australian dollars ( i built a jockey box using the ideas in this book ). The book has heaps of good ideas on easy things to do and build for home brewing, but more importantly , it also goes into the ins and outs of some more involved things such as how to cultivate your own yeast for home brew. Everything has easy to follow diagrams and explanations and even the most amatuer of DIY persons could do some or all of the suggestions the guys make . Overall a very good book to own !