# Good beginners beermaking book



## Barry

_The Complete Joy of Homebrewing

_http://www.barnesandnoble.com/listi..._-Q000000633-_-2687621089553&cm_mmca2=pla&r=1


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## Autonomy Acres

Radical Homebrewing -Randy Mosher


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## Barry

If you like extreme beers like I do, this is a great book!

Extreme Brewing

AA, looks like I'll have to pick up Randy Mosher's book. :thumbsup:


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## Autonomy Acres

It is a really fun read. Not only are there a bunch of great recipes, it is fun to look through and is filled with a ton of history and cool ideas!


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## Gus979

I've started brewing and I didn't need the book at all because I live about 20 mins away from a northern brewer store. I buy their kits which have all the instructions you need+ their startup kit had a step by step brewing DVD that made it really easy for me.

I think the books are good for when you want to expand your experience by just making your own- but the preprepared kits you can buy nowadays are all fairly cheap and all make good beer. The site has user reviews on each kit as well so you can learn even more info and modifications.

+ whenever I get confused I just ask the storepeople what to do. + they have $15 classes that teach you beermaking.

Books are good, but if you have a good brew supply store near you, its far easier to get a kit first.


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## rniles

_Homebrewing for Dummies_ is pretty good to get you started. _The Complete Joy of Homebrewing_ is a very good book as well. My favourite beginner's book is _How to Brew_ by Palmer. With the last book, I like the way you get a lot of detailed information on how different components work together (malt, hops, yeast, water) - then you get into your first brew - but you're going to learn a lot and have a good understanding of what you're doing instead of just trudging through the steps. He even has his book online: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

This thread reminds me that it's time to go brew some beer!


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## ubernerd

Skip the paper versions. 

howtobrew.com by Mike Palmer is a great site that has everything you'd need to know (and then some), laid out very clearly. It's the first edition of his printed book, and is highly recommended.


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## Ben Brewcat

Charlie Papazian's New Complete Joy Of Homebrewing is the book that started it all, and it remains one of the most accessible and fun books for the beginner to intermediate brewer IMO. John Palmer's How To Brew is also excellent, with a little more "meat" for those wishing to further explore advanced chemistry, equipment fabrication, etc. Also very important is to connect with your local homebrew shop and club!


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## Vance G

The local homebrew shop is an unmitigated empty disaster! I order on line or stock up when i go see grandkids 220 miles away. Thanks for all the suggestions. This whole homebrew routine is just an adult chemistry set anyway.


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## Ben Brewcat

Sorry to hear that! Well, you can always (and glad you do!) bring questions here, we like that better anyways so we all can learn!


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## sqkcrk

Speaking of Beer, does anyone make distilled spirits from Mead? A guy who makes grape wine gave me some distilled alchohol which he made from his wine.


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## Vance G

It is on my bucket list. I have the plans, the empty keg, all I need is a serious investment in copper plumbing parts and the combo pot/reflux still will be taking up space I don't have in my shop~! I look forward to using it on batches of old chokecherry wine gone to sherry and a case of fine wine I forgot and the corks dried out and it oxydized. Think of all the space I can reclaim.


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## hpm08161947

sqkcrk said:


> Speaking of Beer, does anyone make distilled spirits from Mead? A guy who makes grape wine gave me some distilled alchohol which he made from his wine.


I tasted that 'grappa' (very good - perhaps outstanding) and I wonder if it were not made from "Must" (what remains after the wine is fermented) - maybe - maybe not. Yea... if you distill a wine you get a brandy - that was definitely a "Grappa".

I'm sure you can distill mead, as long as you are careful... wonder what it would taste like? Surely it has been done, and I suspect the results were disappointing.


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## Bob J

Papazian is awesome if you are looking for a good reference book for all things beer...... For a broader scope book (beer, wine, mead, etc) I like the Alaskan Bootleggers Bible.... http://www.amazon.com/Alaskan-Bootleggers-Bible-Leon-Kania/dp/0967452406


For a good general forum on pretty much all forms of alcohol production I would recommend homebrewtalk.com..... For mead my other "go to" forum is gotmead.com.....


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## Darb

How to brew by John Palmer. You can buy the book, but he has the whole thing posted online.

http://www.howtobrew.com/


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## virginiawolf

I would agree with picking up The Complete Joy of Home Brewing. It explains the basics of extract brewing, all grain brewing, mead making, yeast etc. 
I have volume 3 of it. As you can see from this picture it has seen some use.










Home Brewing Vol. 1 by Al Korzonas is very comprehensive. 


I have been working on brewing tonight








I will have to look into some of the other recommendations and I second homebrewtalk.com It's a great website on many things related to brewing.


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## Barry

virginiawolf said:


> I have been working on brewing tonight
> View attachment 8147


A word of warning on using carboy handles. I use to have them on mine but was then told of the necks occasionally breaking off, so now I have mine in plastic milk crates.



> I second homebrewtalk.com It's a great website on many things related to brewing.


If you don't mind the incessant advertising.


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## mike haney

Vance did you ever get THE COMPLETE JOY OF HOMEBREWING by Papazian?


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## Vance G

No Mike I didn't. My hobbies overrun me! Been cooking various things and I bottled up enough mead to make me question my sanity this week. The beermaking is on the back burner. I just bought the book Charcuterie which is frog for smoking and curing meat I think. I was out scouting to get something to cure yesterday. Tuesday I make meat after the critters settle down from being hunted on the weekend. Only five and a half months til dandelions!


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## virginiawolf

Barry, I was thinking about how a person that does bees and makes beer just has so much stuff as I was cleaning kegs and bottles the past couple days. Milk crates sound smart but that would be even more "stuff."  Another advantage of the milk crates would be so you don't clink the carboys together and crack them. I learned the hard way on that. I think that I have broken one or maybe it was two. ? I have developed a sort of finesse with slinging the carboys around on the wet floor in the basement at this point keeping them just far enough away from each other that there is not a problem. I like the glass because I can see that it is clean and know that nothing is seeping in or out of it. 

On the carboy handle subject in Homebrewing Volume 1. Al Korzonas says, _I've read in many places that you should not lift full carboys by the handle (that you should lift them from the bottom) but I have yet to have a mishap, even with the full carboys._

I have been lifting them full with the handles for years without an issue myself but I suppose the glass could crack. If there is a possibility of something happening it seems eventually it does. I had a wet carboy slip out of my hand once and so I won't go without carboy handles now.

I am enjoying the link that Darb posted :thumbsup: http://www.howtobrew.com/ 

What meat are you working on Vance? Smoked meat and Mead sounds delicious. It's too bad I don't live closer I could bring over plenty of beer and just lend you the Charlie Papazian book. 

This Brewery is not too far from us and they have fun concerts in the summer. The beer is great.
The video goes over the beer fermentation process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhu0sMkox1U


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## Barry

virginiawolf said:


> This Brewery is not too far from us and they have fun concerts in the summer. The beer is great.


If Flying Dog isn't too far, plan a trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and visit Dogfish Head. It's actually in Milton, but their brew pub is in Rehoboth Beach. My most favorite beer, outside of my own.


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## mike haney

Vance G said:


> No Mike I didn't. My hobbies overrun me! Been cooking various things and I bottled up enough mead to make me question my sanity this week. The beermaking is on the back burner. I just bought the book Charcuterie which is frog for smoking and curing meat I think. I was out scouting to get something to cure yesterday. Tuesday I make meat after the critters settle down from being hunted on the weekend. Only five and a half months til dandelions!


PM me your address again and I'll send you a copy. Can't let you run out of projects you'll get yourself into trouble


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## Vance G

I keep trying to get in trouble but I am too old to catch any!


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## virginiawolf

Barry, I am a big fan of Dogfish Head as well. Several years ago I was down at a wedding in Ocean City and the morning of I raced over to Milton and went on the first tour of the day at the brewery. It was stellar. When I went to buy the book Extreme Brewing the one man in the tour area went into the back and got me an autographed copy. They were a great bunch and the brewery was phenomenal. They were just beginning to expand the brewery at the time but it was still big back then. They had giant wooden fermenters and delicious beer on tap. Your suggestion is appreciated. When I walked in to the brewery it was miraculous to be among all the hops and grain in the front part of the warehouse. I felt right at home at Dogfish Head.
Bottling only went so smooth today but everything tasted really good. I was bottling 2 different batches of beer and some braggot and as I was cleaning up I said to myself...." I have never smelled anything so good in my entire life." Between the 2 batches there must have been 10 different varieties of hops. Some of them were my homegrown ones and then having the honey in there mixed in with some of it sent a delicious aroma into the area and on to me. I am looking forward to this stuff on tap and in the bottles. When I went to snap a picture of a couple bottles the cat came over to smell them


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## Ben Brewcat

I don't lift a handled carboy when full, though I have in the past many many times. Just figured as my carboys pass the two decade mark they might be a little less resilient . I use neoprene carboy jackets that have a webbing strap handle... they're sturdy for lifting, you can tuck gel packs in for temp control, and protect the beer from light.


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## mike haney

mike haney said:


> PM me your address again and I'll send you a copy. Can't let you run out of projects you'll get yourself into trouble


Book is on its way via USPS
sorry to find it was not a first edition as I thought but a third 
Had it a while  and forgot.


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## Vance G

I appreciate the kindness Mike


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