Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles
ISBN:9780937381502 read summary

I am still working my way through this book, and I have found tons of useful information that should help me design a batch of beer rather than buying the ingredient kits. I like the way the chapters are laid out, making it easy to go back to certain chapters and find the information you are looking for quickly.

This is an excellent intermediate beer brewing guide. It breaks down the nitty gritty science of brewing into laymen's terms as best anyone can. I would recommend reading the joy of homebrewing or some other more introductory book prior to this one. The first half of the book describes various aspects to brewing and the second half outlines beer styles and how to achieve those styles. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in taking their brewing to the next level.

"Designing Great Beers" is the best brewing book I have ever read. It certainly isn't for beginners, though. A friend loaned it to me and I tried reading it when I started homebrewing, but because I was unfamiliar with many of the more scientific concepts, it didn't make a lot of sense. After a couple years of brewing, reading a dozen more books and years worth of homebrewing magazines, I came back to Daniels' tome. The book kept getting referenced in other literature, so I figured that it had to be good. I was not disappointed; this book is amazing.

Daniels has a gift for explaining brewing concepts in easy-to-understand terms. The science presented in the earlier chapters is never confusing and I finally understand scientifically what is happening in my brews. Many of the topics are referenced in other brewing books, but not explained; Daniels makes sure that you aren't confused. The formulas are also extremely helpful, I use his water volume calculations for every brew now.

The second part of the book about recipes is also exceptionally beneficial. The upper and lower limits of style, along with the averages have improved my recipe creation skills immensely. Before reading this book I was afraid to make my own recipes because of some disastrous earlier experiences, but these chapters give excellent guidance. Overall, I find this book to be indispensable.

It's great I've read it and refer to it, but the data sampling pool is so very small that it's almost a joke. Seriously, of a sampling pool of 7 winners 86% used Crystal.... wow that tells me alot... ah, but it's still fun to dig into each style when formulating your own recipes.

Great book for anyone who is thinking about brewing more than just pre-packaged beer kits. The first half of the book covers some ins and outs of brewing that you can find in several other books. I would say that it is nothing ground breaking. The second half of this book is what stands out and makes it a must have. The chapters are divided by beer style for easy reference on what you want to try brewing. The chapters start with historical info on the beer style and progreses into the nuts and bolts of how to properly brew the style. Using the information that I read in this book I was able to design my own brew with ease...and it tastes better than a lot of the prepackaged kits that I've brewed!!