Customer Reviews

The Homebrewers' Recipe Guide: More than 175 original beer recipes including magnificent pale ales, ambers, stouts, lagers, and seasonal brews, plus tips from the master brewers

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have used this book so much I wore it out. I now have a second copy. This is no doubt the best recipe book I own. It is geared towards the extract brewer and is a great companion to Papazian's "Complete Joy of Homebrewing". It is not an instruction book for the new brewer but rather a comprehensive book or recipes. There are simple recipes that a new brewer can use instead of purchasing a kit. There are also more advanced recipes for the more experienced brewer. It contains recipes for nearly every style of beer as well as cider and mead. My personal favorite is the Saison recipe, which most recipe books do not include.

Unfortunately I don't see copies this book at the local bookstores or LHBS anymore. Grab a copy before this gem goes out of print.

If you're looking for a "how-to" book with regard to home-brewing, this ISN'T it, but if you just want RECIPES than this is the one to get. There is a mix of both extract and all-grain recipes. The emphasis on the former is not as great as advertised which I found slightly disappointing--for me, home-brewing is a hobby and not an occupation. (With a little bit of practice, however, it's not too difficult to convert an all-grain recipe into an extract version.) No matter what your style or taste, you'll find at least several different choices here, with recipes complete and easy to understand, and usually presented in a very entertaining fashion. Lots of tips, "history of beer" vignettes, and quotes from famous people on the subject of beer, many of which I have found fun to use in label-making. There's also some very good food recipes in here, all using beer--the Chicken with Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce has become a family favorite, and I'm anxious to try the Chocolate Cream Stout Cake!

Anyone can put together a list of recipes for all the classicstyles of beer, throw a cover on it and hawk it for ... ... or put up a web site and collect a thousand different ways to combine malt and hops... recipes are easy to come by. But this book is more than just a collection of formulas.

I give it a wholehearted five stars because the authors fill the pages with their passion for brewing great beer. The pages are a combination of anecodtes, brew tips and best of all quotations from all the greats of literature... Shakespeare to Orwell, they all had something to say about beer. I never tire of flipping through the pages when I am getting ready to make the next batch, and laughing at the wit and wisdom found within. I'll say it again. Get this book, it's worth twice the asking price.

It's fitting that Charlie Papazian wrote the foreword for this book. "The Homebrewer's Recipe Guide" is written very much in the spirit of Papazian's "Complete Joy of Homebrewing". The book is filled with famous beer related quotes and bits of beer related prose, most of it quite good. The recipes are divided into the usual categories, most of the recipes have whimsical names and a little information about the brew or the person who made the recipe. Everything about the book is light and fun, much like "Complete Joy of Homebrewing". I've tried a few of the recipes and they made good beer. I'm sure all of them will make good beer. One of the more interesting ones is a Belgian Wit that involves dry hopping Cascades, definitely not to style but I bet it tastes good.
The authors are right up front that this is not a technical manual but rather a guide, hence the title. I'm puzzled by all the negative reviews that criticize for not specifying IBU's and not including instructions for partial boils. If you've brewed a few batches of beer, you should be able to look at these recipes and understand how to adapt them to your system and your personal taste, it isn't difficult. The authors weren't out to write a textbook but rather to share whats worked for them and inspire the reader to brew beer. This, like "Complete Joy of Homebrewing", is an excellent book just to browse through on rainy days when you can't brew. For me, both books really capture the spirit of homebrewing. You can follow these recipes to the letter no matter what size boil you're doing or what %AA your hops are and make great beer or you can change these recipes to hit whatever marks you want to hit. There's all kinds of software you can plug the ingredients into to figure out what you're going to get, or you can calculate with pen and paper, or you can just wing it. I don't think it's fair to criticize this book for not nailing down all the specifics and for not providing specific conversions for extract, partial-mash, and all grain versions of each recipe. It's not that kind of book and it doesn't pretend to be. It is a great recipe guide with some wonderful bits of literature. It's not a beginner's guide but it certainly can be used by beginners and it's not an advanced manual but you'd have to be pretty heartless not to like it.
If you didn't like Papazian's "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" because it's a little too whimsical, not specific enough, and contains "outdated" information, then you're not going to like this book either. However, if you love "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing", this book makes an excellent companion. As for the politics several people have mentioned, there are no political discussions in my edition (1996). There is a reference to Jimmy Carter since he's the one who made homebrewing legal in the US and there is a reference to Thomas Jefferson also in a beer related context, but I find no references to Newt Gingrich or the Democrats in my edition and I've read it many times.
Amazon has the "Search Inside This Book" feature available for this book. The sample pages are a good representation of what you get. If you like what you see, I highly recommend purchasing it.

This is a delightful book of recipes, tips, and antecdotes. As an extract brewer, the book meets my needs perfectly. The recipes are varied and wide ranging, from classic recipes to historic and seasonal brews.

As a beginning homebrewer looking to extend beyond pre-hopped extracts and pre-packaged kits, this book was exactly what I was looking for. I found the asides and exerts amusing. I would higly recommend this book for anyone who's already brewed a few batches and is looking for more recipes.

This book has some really good recipes in it. I've tried only a few, but plan on doing a lot more in the future. The problem with this book is that I got it when I first started brewing. I wasn't looking for a step by step (I've got another book for that), but I was wanting a little more guidance in the individual recipes. They rarely (if at all) give you the amounts of water to use in different stages of brewing. Another problem is that the gravity predictions are WAY off. For example, the Oak Leaf Brown Ale on p. 43. The recipe calls for almost 8 lbs malt extract and 1 lb brown sugar. They say the OG should be around 1.044. I haven't even tried this recipe, but I can tell you there's no way that in a 5 gallon batch of beer that with that much malt and sugar you're going to have an OG that low. This was confirmed by both the local brew shop (who after I brought this to his attention pulled this book from his shelves and is contacting the publisher) and the brewing group I belong to.

My other problem with the book is that it really should be titled "The Homebrewer's Extract Recipe Guide." Almost all of the recipes in here are extract so if you want to brew all-grain, you have to modify them. Not a huge problem (it's very easy to convert the recipe), but with how generic the instructions are, it's clearly not targeted for a beginning brewer. I don't know many experienced brewers that don't brew all grain.

Don't get me wrong, this book is a great place to start with recipes, but be ready to modify them to get something really good.

Ok, so some recipes are in need of adjustment, but the book is loaded with recipes and interesting brewer tips. It is simple, but it is not a step-by-step how-to. I suggest that this is good for the homebrewer that is ready to experiment and try new things and of course, the more experienced can tweak the recipe when and if needed. The beginning section touches on the framework for all the recipes provided, explaining the amount of water used, yeast type, batch quantity and more. Other than that, it's recipe after recipe and the occasional brewer's tip and back story on beer styles.

This is a fun book with a variety of recipes that will be enjoyed by any homebrewer. Those new to homebrewing will enjoy reading and making, but will be ready after some experience or the help of their local brew supply shop. I made a few and they came out quite well.

This is a good book to give as a gift or add to your library.

This book provides a good mixture of recipes including some cloned ones. There are some good tips, sprinkled throughout the book, that I found to be especially useful in creating high quality batches of homebrew. I think this book would be good for someone who has started home brewing and is looking beyond the beginner stage.

I've found that the recepies in this book are great starters for designing my own. It's great that it's an all extract based book using Wyeast. It also has some great tips. Excellent book for newbies.