New Brewing Lager Beer: The Most Comprehensive Book for Home and Microbrewers,   ISBN:9780937381823

Customer Rating: 

A lot of people like to group brewing books in to begginer and expert categories with nothing in the middle. As a brewer for over a year now I'm fairly well informed but far behind more experience(or obsessed) people. I found this book particularly interesting. I would not say I learned a lot of ground breaking practical information for my brewing process but I certainly learned more scientific information I didn't know. I can see how this would be a slow reader to those who "just want to brew" or those who didn't endure a chemistry/biology class or two.

Customer Rating: 

If you are thinking about getting started homebrewing, stop reading now and search for "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing," by Charlie Papazian, or "How to Brew," by John Palmer. If your goal is just to make "drinkable" beer every time, then this book is probably also more information than you need. I think the easiest way to write about it may be in a pros-and-cons format.

PROS: This book has more information about decoction mashing than any other source I've ever seen, book or not. I believe that any other book that has more information on the subject of decoction mashing may be a college textbook. Noonan describes in detail how your brewing procedure should be altered to accommodate different modification levels of malt, based on quantitative parameters such as SNR, and what advantages decoction mashing provides over infusion- or step-mashing. This book also has detailed information about how to read a typical analysis for malt, and how to gauge the quality of malt without an analysis. The appendices have equations and conversion factors for all kinds of parameters and units. Noonan even gives a 3rd-order polynomial curve fit for converting specific gravity to degrees Plato for a beer wort. Water chemistry is described in startling detail in this book (although the reader without some basic chemistry background may be somewhat lost).

CONS: The reason that I only give it three stars is not what I described above. My goal is to make the best beer possible every time - something I would rather drink than anything else in my fridge. Even then, this book comes up somewhat short. It claims to be "the most comprehensive book for home and microbrewers." In my humble opinion, it is not. In the guise of being an advanced book, it skips on vital background information that the reader probably needs, such as a description of the anatomy of barley. Instead, Noonan simply writes about it without ever having described the terms fully. In addition, it is a very dry read; out of the several brewing books that I have, this one has the hardest time keeping my attention. Most of the important quantitative information is presented as worksheets instead of equations, with the intention of being easier for mathematically-challenged readers. But using worksheets instead of equations, the reader may not know what parameters affect the calculation of a certain quantity. Rather, the reader will be sure that Line G and H affect Line K, and that Line E is the same as Line G, and that Line C divided by Line D is Line E, and that Lines A and B sum to give you Line C... etc. Obviously not as descriptive as equations, unless you want to sit down and make a list for yourself about what each line represents. Other than the subject of decoction mashing, this book doesn't cover MOST subjects in greater detail than some other books. For instance, John Palmer's "How to Brew" covers all the material about malt analyses and mash starches and sugars, while providing more background information and being easier to read.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a book with detailed information on decoction mashing (which I personally was), and would like to make sure you do it right, get this book. [Searching for "decoction mashing" on YouTube and watching the three-part video by BrauKaiser may help you too]. If you're just looking for a book with advanced homebrewing information, then I would recommend John Palmer's instead. If it's a book about brewing lagers that you're after, you may find that the information Palmer puts forth in his book is more concise than in this book.

Customer Rating: 

This is one of the few book on brewing that I would recommend to everybody who is truly interested in art of making beer. Everything within the book is logically arranged and is layered from baseline topics to more advanced ones. This makes it very easy for Advanced brewers to skip the child's play and move right along into the good stuff, and for beginners to read all they need to know and skip through the scientific mumbo jumbo.

Customer Rating: 

I hesitate giving this book a bad review because it's clear that anyone who does so must not be "advanced" enough in homebrewing to appreciate it. (We might not be altogether different from those who couldn't see the emperor's new clothes.)
The book certainly isn't about brewing lagers (as opposed to other styles.) The author says as much in his introduction. That was a disappointment. More disappointing was the tone. It read more like a textbook than what I've come to enjoy in "homebrewing books." (Books like Papazian's and Palmer's among others.) It screams with the message that brewing is just too serious of a matter to have fun with. I disagree. I guess that means I'm just a beginner.

Customer Rating: 

I enjoyed the book however the technology is outdated and most people ferment lagers at 9-11C, secondary ferment then filter at -2C. Nothing on force fermenting or Hermes systems for infusion mashing. OK reference book for the shelf.