Book recommendations?

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Wonderwoman

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Apart from the Greg Hughes book (which is already on my Christmas list), which other books are well worth a read, with recipes ideally but also background brewing info would be nice, as long as it's not too dry and technical.

Also, the "Home Brewing: 70 Top Secrets & Tricks to Beer Brewing Right the First Time: A Guide to Home Brew Any Beer You Want" by Jason Scotts is dead cheap on amazon and kindle - is that any good at all?
 
Radical brewing by Randy mosher is a great read. Not done any recipes from it yet, but his attitude and approach is inspiring, to me.
 
The Only 'How To' brew book I've read is Charlie Papazian's 'The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing'

It's quite an entertaining and informative book. His relax, don't worry, have a home brew, theme runs a little thin after a while, but he knows his stuff.
 
thinking about it, apart from Radical Brewing - also worth a read, a history of british beer, CAMRA and where we are now:

Brew Britannia http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781311862/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

brilliant read that. other books I have read

Brew Your Own British Ale (wheeler)- not great. all the recipes look the same. might be useful if you only like very traditional british ales. but I can save you the cash if I just say add some crystal and then fuggles and goldings! stick with the greg hughes.

How to Brew (palmer) - everyone raves about it. but he is so dogmatic, and I just don't get on with his style. lots of what he says as gospel seems to be doubtful from practical experiences of others.
 
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I can definitely second Brew Like a Monk if you are into Belgian beers, and the Complete Joy of Home Brewing. I'm currently reading Sustainable Homebrewing which is interesting as it goes into ethical purchases when considering equipment and how to make more out of your supplies, like reusing grains etc. It's annoying that it was written by an American for Americans and everything is in imperial.

The homebrewer's recipe guide is really good for recipes. I made a couple, both came out really well. Whilst it's mostly recipes there are some really useful tips in there too, but again it's all in (US) gallons, lbs, oz etc.
 
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I was actually looking at the whole range of those element books. they look like a good idea broken down into the elements but not all got great reviews (malt) and also, if you end up buying 3 or 4 of them, it's a little fortune lol!

Oh yea, I've got all four of these!
They're really good, the yeast one is the best as far as solid practical information goes but they all have a certain amount of quality information.
 
is the hop variety handbook by dan woodske any good?
It's a good reference and although periodically updated it's not exhaustive (but no book could be as hops are constantly being developed). I use it as the basis of my hop schedule planning but find I also need to use online resources.
 
Liking this thread.
I've read Beer by Charles Bamford which started well with background and the history of brewing but got a bit dry later although I still enjoyed it. No recipes though. Reading Homebrewing a complete guide on how to brew beer by James Houston. Not finished it yet and no recipes so far but had some good tips on stuck fermentation and ag techniques.
Will be looking for some of the books mentioned in this thread, cheers! :)
 
is the hop variety handbook by dan woodske any good?

It's handy but not comprehensive, it misses out some standard UK hops. Useful if you are wondering if a particular hop is best suited for bittering or aroma. Most of the info is on the web but it's handy to have it in a book.

I've got three of the four elements books. 'Water' is by far the most technical, stuffed full of chemical equations. I'm skim reading it for now with a plan to revisit to understand the equations.

Yeast is the best written. Hops is harder going as it mixes stories with theory/facts. Gives you a good insight though and really makes you think about how to use them, particularly dry hopping. I've just dry hopped a Turbo Beer (see my thread) and it tastes far better than it should for a beer that took 25 minutes to make.

I too was put off the malt book by the reviews. I'll probably weaken though.
 
is the hop variety handbook by dan woodske any good?
It's a good reference and although periodically updated it's not exhaustive (but no book could be as hops are constantly being developed). I use it as the basis of my hop schedule planning but find I also need to use online resources.
 
Oops...

It's a good reference and although periodically updated it's not exhaustive (but no book could be as hops are constantly being developed). I use it as the basis of my hop schedule planning but I also need to use online resources.

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is the hop variety handbook by dan woodske any good?
 
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