How to Brew - John J. Palmer

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Good Ed

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John Palmer is an American and is well known in beer circles; this book is the 3rd edition and he has also kindly made it available online here

I bought this along with GW's book when I started brewing and have found them to be a great source of knowledge and refer to them often.

John's book is very comprehensive and covers every topic of brewing, including extract, partial mash and all grain, all written so the beginner can easily understand. There are chapters on the malts and hop varieties. There are many tables and graphs included; an example is the nomograph for working out the amount of priming sugar to add to get the required volume of CO2 to suit the beer style, which I find very useful. There is a short recipe section with recipes for both extract and AG for all the main beer styles (imperial and metric).

The appendices also include a section on mash tun design, going through different types and choices of manifolds etc.

So at 347 pages I have found this book to be great value for money, and you can always review it on line before buying it.
 
Just one thing to say is that the online edition is old and inaccurate in many places. The printed 3rd edition is OK. Just try not to pick up on too many Americanisims :D
 
Aleman said:
Just one thing to say is that the online edition is old and inaccurate in many places.

you managed to avoid mentioning the hot break issue :)
 
This is the book I recommend to every new brewer in my club. It used to be Charlie Papazian's series, but I think Palmer has raised the bar.

I have been brewing for 10 years, and 5 of those are on a semi pro level; I still reframe this book on almost a weekly basis.

The next in the series is "Brewing Better Beer." it is written in the same format, but geared toward a slightly more advanced brewer.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.497486,-120.853070
 
Quite simply this book is amazing. First started out with Graham Wheelers - Brew Your Own 3rd edition, which gives you a basic idea of brewing, equipment needed, hops, ingredients etc to get you started. How To Brew provides an indepth look at all aspects of brewing and each of the individiual processes in brewing (enzymes in grains, yeast cells, hop acids, water treatment etc.) , detailed, yet easy to understand and includes many pictures and photos to help guide you along. I'm still glad I bought GW book first though, it's the perfect starter book to get you going, but if you want to get serious with brewing I recommend buying this book. :thumb:

This was the first book that got me into All Grain because of the easy to follow step by step guide and illustrations, it just made it look so easy :D
 
John Palmer contributes to a few brewing podcasts which are well worth a listen,The Brewing Network and Beersmith for example.
He sounds like a thoroughly decent bloke as americans go ;)
 
Palmer's book is quite good.

He covers a broad range of topics in decent detail.

The online version of the book's first addition is a great resource for those times in which you have a brewing question but are away from your library.

Palmer employs simple graphical methods to determine the amount of mineral salts and/or acid required for the desired adjustments to the water chemistry. This very simple methodology is also the only aspect of the book which I find detracting.

I don't mind the simple engineer's approach to the subject. Palmer is an engineer by trade so I'm sure that mind set comes naturally to him. The problem is that the equations from which the graphs were created are nowhere to be found. There are times when you just want to know the answer but then there are other times in which one wishes to actually learn. I believe the utility of Palmer's How to Brew would have been greatly enhanced had the fundamental equations been delved in to.

Overall John Palmer's How to Brew is an excellent book and I would recommend it to brewers of all levels of experience. There is sufficient detail in a wide range of topics to appeal to pretty much everybody.

- Scott
 
Looking to get myself a book as I have just started out with kits.

I am particularly interested in a book that contains comprehensive info on different sugars and fermentables I can use with my brews and how to adjust them accordingly, i.e. how much more syrup to use when in place of sugar. Can anyone who has read this confirm if this kind of stuff is included?
 
Much of what you mention is contained in the book, particularly the sugars issue. The online edition is an early draft and the current version (3) is much improved. I would recommend it as a start out book to any one who is interested.

Here is the link to the online version, decide for yourself.
http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html
 
LeithR said:
Much of what you mention is contained in the book, particularly the sugars issue. The online edition is an early draft and the current version (3) is much improved. I would recommend it as a start out book to any one who is interested.

Here is the link to the online version, decide for yourself.
http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html
, would quite like to have a hard copy to refer to, call me old-fashioned!

That's great thanks, i will look into it. Will prob go ahead and buy
 

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