Editorial Review
Charlie Papazian, master brewer and founder and president of the American Homebrewer's Association and Association of Brewers, presents a fully revised edition of his essential guide to homebrewing. This third edition of the best-selling and most trusted homebrewing guide includes a complete update of all instructions, recipes, charts, and guidelines. Everything you need to get started is here, including classic and new recipes for brewing stouts, ales, lagers, pilseners, porters, specialty beers, and honey meads.
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, third edition, includes:
- Getting your home brewery together: the basics -- malt, hops, yeast, and water
- Ten easy lessons for making your first batch of beer
- Creating world-class styles of beer (IPA, Belgian wheat, German Kölsch and Bock, barley wine, American lagers, to name a few)
- Using fruit, honey, and herbs for a spicier, more festive brew
- Brewing with malt extracts for an unlimited range of strengths and flavors
- Advanced brewing techniques using specialty hops or the all-grain method or mash extracts
- A complete homebrewer's glossary, troubleshooting tips, and an up-to-date resource section
- And much, much more
Be sure to check out Charlie's The Homebrewer's Companion for over 60 additional recipes and more detailed charts and tables, techniques, and equipment information for the advanced brewer.
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Customer Reviews
Excellent 
2008-09-30
This book is great. The authors easy to follow instructions make homebrewing simple and easy, anyone can do it.
Great first book... Relax, It is JUST Brewing 2008-09-18
I found this book an inspiration to me when I was a first time brewer, and I still use it and refer to it from time to time many years later.
Awesome Book for a Range of Skill Levels! 2008-09-04
This book is amazing. I got it with a set of equipment to brew my first batch. The book answers many, many questions for beginners, theoretical and practical. Not only is there information for the brewer just about to brew their first batch, but there is also rich information for people just starting to brew mash-extract and all-grain beers. Because of this book, I went from brewing my first batch from a pre-set kit (malt extract, hops and dried yeast) to my fourth batch, where I formulated and brewed my own ALL-GRAIN recipe!! The book also contains many useful tables for reference, and is a fun read, with Papazian's witty style. I highly recommend this book if you're just starting out!
Brewer's need... 2008-08-03
My wife bought this and a True Brew kit for my birthday (I know, you're thinking, "she rocks!"). Anyway, I've just started reading the book and I love it. There is a ton of GREAT information in the book and I would encourage anyone interested in brewing to buy this book.
Simply put, a must have for homebrewers! 2008-07-12
This book is THE ONE to have for home brewers. The information will take you from brewing in the simplest of forms to all grain and everything in beteween. It was written in an easy to understand style that skips throught the nonsense and gets you to the point. Full of recipes, anecdotes, suggestions and resources, it should be required reading for all homebrewers.
The only book you really need 2008-06-16
Charlie Papazian, master brewer and founder and president of the American Homebrewer's Association and Association of Brewers, presents a fully revised edition of his essential guide to homebrewing. This third edition of the best-selling and most trusted homebrewing guide includes a complete update of all instructions, recipes, charts, and guidelines. Everything you need to get started is here, including classic and new recipes for brewing stouts, ales, lagers, pilseners, porters, specialty beers, and honey meads.
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, third edition, includes:
- Getting your home brewery together: the basics -- malt, hops, yeast, and water
- Ten easy lessons for making your first batch of beer
- Creating world-class styles of beer (IPA, Belgian wheat, German Kölsch and Bock, barley wine, American lagers, to name a few)
- Using fruit, honey, and herbs for a spicier, more festive brew
- Brewing with malt extracts for an unlimited range of strengths and flavors
- Advanced brewing techniques using specialty hops or the all-grain method or mash extracts
- A complete homebrewer's glossary, troubleshooting tips, and an up-to-date resource section
- And much, much more
Be sure to check out Charlie's The Homebrewer's Companion for over 60 additional recipes and more detailed charts and tables, techniques, and equipment information for the advanced brewer.
Excellent beginers guide 2008-05-30
If you've ever even THOUGHT about brewing your own ales, lagers, stouts or porters, this is the book for you. Papazian is extremely knowledgable and has a writing style that makes the process fun and easy to follow. It is essentially the "bible" for home brewers.
My 3 cents (wasn't it worth more then 2?)
A Joy 2008-05-30
I got this book on recommendation from my friend Aaron when we were brewing at his house this weekend. We brewed a variation of the "Goat Scrotum Porter" on page 200.
The book is however much more than a recipe book for beer. It is divided into three major sections:
Pgs 1-39 give a basic outline of brewing history and the knowledge you need to brew a beer from a basic kit.
Pgs 40-240 are the meat of the book. This intermediate brewing section goes over every aspect of brewing from yeasts to sanitizing your equipment. It also includes many recipes for ales and lagers as well as ideas on how you might adapt any recipe for your own tastes.
Pgs 241-388 really get into the science and math behind brewing. I have only skimmed this section, but it seems to be a fantastic reference guide for the advanced brewer.
What sets this book apart is the well written and funny style that Papazian brings to everything from water mineral content to the human migrations that transport Viennese lagers to Mexico. Most appreciated is his constant reminder that if you are feeling stressed about the minutia of brewing "Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew." This seems to be both his philosophy and the first step of all of his recipes.
Good book to get you going 2008-05-17
I like this book and it is a good guide to know what to purchase and how to brew. I'd recommend it to any beginner. The book also seems advanced enough for the experienced brewer. It contains many recipes and advanced techniques such as lagering and double brewing. I think this is a great book and acts as a handbook in almost any brewing situation.
For the Nervous Novice 2008-05-03
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, you have to begin withThe Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition (Harperresource Book).
This is a very simple, slow and reassuring book. The author 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 The Complete Handbook of Home Brewing is right for you. The information is straightforward and well-organized and he 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.
If you love worrying, then 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
