Beer Craft: A Simple Guide to Making Great Beer

by William Bostwick, Jessi Rymill

Six easy steps to making world-class beer in your kitchen! Beer Craft by William Bostwick and Jessi Rymill is your guide to drinking the best beer you've ever tasted—by making it yourself. This kitchen manual has everything you need to turn your stove into a small-batch, artisanal brewery. Hone your craft by perfecting the basic beer styles, or go wild with specialty techniques like barrel-aging and brewing with fruit. Beer Craft is the ultimate modern homebrewing resource, simple and clear but packed with enough information to satisfy anyone making their first, or four-hundredth, beer.

• Master simple stovetop recipes for all your favorite styles, from pale ales and barleywines to fruit and sour beers
• Flavor your beer with spices, special grains, and a pantry full of deliciously unexpected extras like coffee, chocolate, and homegrown hops
• Create labels and bottle caps for your home brewery, and get inspired by retro designs of beers gone by
• Get pro tips on advanced techniques like barrel-aging and wild bacteria from interviews with brewers at Rogue, Sierra Nevada, Stone, and more of today's best craft breweries
• Learn facts from beer history, like recipes for ancient bog-myrtle and heather beers, the story of the great London beer flood of 1814, and even brewing advice from Thomas Jefferson

Genres: Beer, Nonfiction, Brewing, Food, Cookbooks

176 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2011

Reviews

[Brent Woo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why no i'm not starting anything foolhardy

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

As it says: simple guide. I started brewing with this book and it has everything you need to brew. If you are a beginner it is perfect.

[Sagely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recently I've converted to one gallon brewing. The truth is, I'll never drink 53 beers of whatever I've home-brewed (especially if the results are less than impressive). I share with friends, but pastors have to be careful to whom they hand out free beer. (You never want to send someone back down a dark road they've been struggling so hard to leave behind.)

Beer Craft presents a fairly usable intro to one gallon home brewing (though the layout ad text colors sometimes make for hard reading). It's simplicity is helpful. I'm going to try a few of their basic beer style recipes.

But BC lost me with its emphasis on label design. I could have used a lot more info on the brewing process without page after page of beer labels--most of which aren't that impressive.

Maybe the highpoint of BC is the interviews with professional craft brewers. Some of the advice and especially the reflections offered there will keep me thinking for a while.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little book about beginning all-grain homebrewing in simple one-gallon batches. The book is very well designed and is filled with interesting and informative graphics. Also starts with a nice little history of beer where I learned quite a few things. The book is small and will come in handy for someone trying to follow along and use as an instruction manual when trying out their first homebrew. Does a great job of describing the different varieties of the different ingredients, giving some basic recipes and offering advice on how to do variations. Also enjoyed the little one page interviews they had with various professional craft brewers, from the big (Sam Adams) to the small (Jolly Pumpkin). A pretty quick read that will be handy to hold onto as a guide to homebrewing for someone like me, who knows beer but doesn't know much about brewing, can understand.

[Ashlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way more style than substance, which annoyed me and made me want to rate it 1 star, but the substance that is there salvaged the rating. The main idea in the book is brewing one gallon, all-grain batches which allows the brewer to easily try different styles. The book provides (very) basic recipes and ideas for adapting them to the brewer's preferences. There were some good ideas on decorating bottles -- I particularly like the idea of the fired-on labels -- and bottle caps in order to add one's own style beyond what's inside the bottle. However, I think this is better taken from the library than purchased, or if you must own it, get it used. Most of the info on brewing itself has been covered much better -- and the history of beer styles more accurately reported -- by others.

[Steven Raines · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the bedtime home brewing books I have in my collection, this is just a very straight forward guide to all grain brewing. Definitely not for the experienced brewer, but a great choice for new brewers or the occasional brewer looking for simple step by step instructions. Recipes included are for basic styles with instructions on how to make modifications (hoppier, maltier, spiced, etc). I especially like that the book explains beer making for 1 gallon batches (10-12oz bottles) which suit small kitchen brewers.

[Alex Podolsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for a beginning brewer who is really interested in learning about the ideas behind beer. Builds a foundation that's sufficient to go and start brewing, but then offers a ton of detail and opens a window on the variety that's possible in the world of beer. While it may seem overwhelming at times, the easy-to-follow design and an understandable language make it a great introduction for a beginner.

[Katia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super easy and fun read which I finished over the weekend. Cute graphics full of info. I was hoping for the video tutorials they said could be found on their site, but was unable to find them. The blog is good and informative. Super excited to start brewing this fall. Need to buy some equipment.

[Clif Brittain · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this. Exactly where I want to be: newbie, all-grain, small batch, MacGyver brewer. Extra bonus that book has very neat graphics. Love bar charts with stubbie bottles as icons. Not as complete as Palmer, but great first brew book. My brew library would now be 1. Bostwick, 2. Palmer, 3. Miller.

[LINDA · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most simple and most useful Beer Brewing books that I have come across! A fun read that inspires you to get your brew on! P. 148 had instructions to fire-on a permanent label to your bottles at home!

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for anyone who is just getting started as a home brewer. I purchased this book because it had recipes for one gallon batches of home brew, where most other books concentrated on five gallon batch recipes. Easy to read, straight forward and packed with great information.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic little reference that's a handy guide for starting out with homebrewing or getting more info about the history and current state of the hobby. Very well laid out with sections that allow it to serve -in my opinion- more as a reference than narrative text.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is lovely--as much graphic triumph as handy guide to brewing your own beer.

[Tim Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it. Can't wait to brew up our first batch. Think we're going to start with a Pale Ale.

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent reference with attractive graphics

[Du · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun book to flip through. It is very graphically presented, and easy to follow. Not too in depth, and not too advanced.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is too cool! It's got excellent illustrations and recipes. Makes me want to start a brewery, that's for sure!

[Kevin & Meagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREAT book, but for a small batch. I think it compliments other "beginning" brew books.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit simplistic but incredibly well designed and invaluable for anyone striving to experiment with one-gallon batches.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book and have tried some of the recipes with good results. It is a good starter book for small all grain batches.

[Robert Haight · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book, I think it should be the equilvient of Mao's little red book for home brewers. They should carry it with them always.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliantly-designed book that completely demystifies all-grain brewing. I got it from the library and promptly ordered a copy for myself after reading it.

[Kyle]

Great quick read. Would highly recommend this book as a good reference guide.

[Philipp Muellauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great intro. Beautiful graphics. Makes home brewing very approachable.

[Kevin Gallan · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book about making small batches of beer