The Complete Handbook of Home Brewing: Equipment, Ingredients, Methods, 55 Recipes [Paperback]

Dave Miller (Author), Kay Holmes Stafford (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 11, 1988

Includes 55 recipes for classic ales and lagers as well as equipment, materials, and procedures information. 103,000 copies in print.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As Millerwho has practiced home brewing for more than a decadenotes, "With patience, determination, and solid information, anyone can make a great variety of excellent beers at home." His guide discusses how to begin brewing, and what equipment is required; brewing ingredients; and the brewing process, emphasizing bacteria control to avoid "haze" in the bottle. Recipes in brewmaster's shorthand for a variety of lagers, bocks and ales are also provided, but would be cumbersome for the inexperienced to follow, since the master recipe appears in an earlier chapter. If all of this sounds complicated, it is. But, as the author assures us, his goal is "to give a full picture." Never forgetting the reader's likely frustration, at times, with such a technical process, Miller offers a helpful glossary and bibliography and frequent encouragement: "Remember that brewing is one of mankind's oldest crafts. If the Sumerians could manage it, you can too." Illustrations not seen by PW. Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Tastes in beer have changed as Americans have come to know and love the robust flavors of international beers. And connoisseurs agree that quality beers can be brewed right at home -- a hobby that can quickly become a passion. With The Complete Handbook of Home Brewing the beginner or veteran can learn to brew a range of fine lager beers and ales -- from the Trappist ales of Belgium and the stouts and porters of Ireland and Great Britain, to the pilsners that are the predecessors of American beers.

The author's clear and lively presentation makes this complex, technical subject fascinating. In his words: "Brewing is complicated in its details but simple in practice, and there is no magic involved. Ordinary people were doing it for centuries before it became the province of specialists, and now, thanks to modern science, we can turn out better, more consistently flavorful beers than our ancestors would have thought possible."

This book is a practical guide to brewing good beer at home and gives you a full understanding of the brewing process. Equipment, materials, and the procedures to follow for successful home brewing are full described. The book concludes with a section that shows how to make beers to suit your own taste, including fifty-five of the author's tested recipes for classic ales and lagers.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Storey Communications; 1st edition (January 11, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882665170
• ISBN-13: 978-0882665177
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #319,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the classics, July 24, 2008

By 

Lynn Hoffman, author:The Short Course in Beer (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Complete Handbook of Home Brewing: Equipment, Ingredients, Methods, 55 Recipes (Paperback)

There are probably three books that are genuinely helpful for the beginning homebrewer. Which one is right for you depends on how you approach techniques of dealing with things in the physical world.

If the idea of doing anything physical scares the bejabbers out of you, get The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition (Harperresource Book). This is a very simple, slow and reassuring book. The author-Charlie Papazian- sounds like the friendliest, least intimidating guy in the world. The style is very chummy in a post-frathouse kind of way that some people find very difficult to read and that others find relaxing. In this book you may see the ancestor of the Complete Dummies series. I believe that Papazian, who has made a carreer of coaching homebrewers, has been published on the topic for thirty years or so.
If you're the sort of person who likes the idea of baking his own bread or wiring her own lamp, then probably this book-The Complete Handbook- is right for you. The information is straightforward and well-organized and the author allows for the fact that sometimes you want to make it fast and simple and other times you may want to linger over the details. There's a separate book of recipes ordered by beer style and also by degree of difficulty. I still have notes on recipes that I brewed two decades ago that are just marked: Miller, p55.
If you love worrying, then Palmer's How to Brew: Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time is the book for you. There are dozens of complications lurking in Palmer's world of brewing and a host of precautions and gadgets gadgets for avoiding them. Palmer is also the book for those who are curious about fundamentals: the hard science of brewing is to be found here.

--Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine and bang BANG

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First-rate, in-depth study of brewing, September 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Handbook of Home Brewing: Equipment, Ingredients, Methods, 55 Recipes (Paperback)

~Miller has written a book that covers ALOT of info about brewing and the science thereof. For anyone weaned on Pappazian's books, this is the next logical step. Every aspect of the science of brewing beer is covered.~ sometimes funny style, but that doesn't detract from the excellent layout of this book, which leads from simple partial-mash brewing to all-grain mashing via a logical and step-by step progression of ideas and metho

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beer brewing book for the serious home brewer, March 26, 2003

By 

Plasbo (Lopez Island, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Handbook of Home Brewing: Equipment, Ingredients, Methods, 55 Recipes (Paperback)

I own four beer brewing books. Three of them are inadequate, inaccurate and cater to brewers who take the short-cut of extract brewing - one would actually be better off without them. Dave Miller's book is the fourth and indispensable one. It describes in detail the equipment, ingredients, science, procedures and recipes. Although Dave Miller prefers, as he should, to take the brewer down the path of mashing, the extract brewer can by-pass these steps and still follow a sub-set of the book's directions and recipes. There is enough theory which can either be read in detail or in conclusion to make the home brewer understand what he/she is doing or should have been doing. The recipes are more than enough for a life-time of brewing and cater to both ale and lager lovers, English ale addicts or German beer buffs. And if 55 recipes are not enough, then the book provides base information and calculation tables for recipe development without having to shoot in the dark.
There may be other good brewing books available, but if you were to have only one beer brewing book, this could be the one. It takes you from being a mere amateur to being a real microbrewer.