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The Brewmaster's Bible: Gold Standard for Home Brewers
The Beer Renaissance is in full swing, and home brewing has never been more popular. According to the American Homebrewers Association, there are currently 1.2 million home brewers in the country, and their numbers keep rising. Tired of the stale ale, bland beer and lackadaisical lagers mass-produced by the commercial labels, Americans are discovering the many advantages of brewing their own batch of that beloved beverage: superior aroma, color, body and flavor.
For both amateur alchemists eager to tap into this burgeoning field and seasoned zymurgists looking to improve their brews, The Brewmaster's Bible is the ultimate resource. Its features include: Updated data on liquid yeasts, which have become a hot topic for brewers; 30 recipes in each of the classic beer styles of Germany, Belgium, Britain and the U.S.; extensive profiles of grains, malts, adjuncts, additives and sanitizers; recipe formulation charts in an easy-to-read spreadsheet format; detailed water analyses for more than 25 cities and 6 bottled waters; directories to hundreds of shops; and much more.
For both amateur alchemists eager to tap into this burgeoning field and seasoned zymurgists looking to improve their brews, The Brewmaster's Bible is the ultimate resource. Its features include: Updated data on liquid yeasts, which have become a hot topic for brewers; 30 recipes in each of the classic beer styles of Germany, Belgium, Britain and the U.S.; extensive profiles of grains, malts, adjuncts, additives and sanitizers; recipe formulation charts in an easy-to-read spreadsheet format; detailed water analyses for more than 25 cities and 6 bottled waters; directories to hundreds of shops; and much more.
400 pages, Paperback
First published June 18, 1997
37 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Snyder
2 booksLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
June 8, 2022
This has a pretty exhaustive list of beer styles. Very helpful.
TONS AND TONS of recipes across that exhaustive list of beer styles. Most of them are recipes that use either liquid or dry malt extract as the grain base instead of "all grain recipes." I wish it had more all grain recipes.
Still, it is pretty nice to use this when I need a recipe to either refer to to create my own or to just get something in one of my fermenters.
TONS AND TONS of recipes across that exhaustive list of beer styles. Most of them are recipes that use either liquid or dry malt extract as the grain base instead of "all grain recipes." I wish it had more all grain recipes.
Still, it is pretty nice to use this when I need a recipe to either refer to to create my own or to just get something in one of my fermenters.
February 9, 2022
This is for the homebrewer who's been successful with their first dozen or so batches and is looking to learn more and take their brewing to the next level. It's not nearly as user friendly as Homebrewing for Dummies, but that's ok. This is for the homebrewer who's mastered the basics.
Contained herein you will find in-depth details on brewing procedures and equipment; mashing techniques; bottling and kegging; selecting grains, hops, and yeast varieties for your brew; the importance of your source water and how to adjust it to your beer's needs; recipes for 39 styles of beer at different levels of difficulty; information on how to formulate your own recipes; and formulas for determining the level of beer's bitterness and alcohol content.
Although new equipment and ingredient varieties have appeared on the scene (particularly in the world of hops), it remains my #1 resource for homebrewing. I have it on hand every time I brew.
Contained herein you will find in-depth details on brewing procedures and equipment; mashing techniques; bottling and kegging; selecting grains, hops, and yeast varieties for your brew; the importance of your source water and how to adjust it to your beer's needs; recipes for 39 styles of beer at different levels of difficulty; information on how to formulate your own recipes; and formulas for determining the level of beer's bitterness and alcohol content.
Although new equipment and ingredient varieties have appeared on the scene (particularly in the world of hops), it remains my #1 resource for homebrewing. I have it on hand every time I brew.
July 23, 2025
This book is mostly a large collection of recipes, but to be honest, I didn't find them very engaging. There's a lot of repetition. For example, do we really need seven dubbel recipes and eight for porters? None of them stood out as particularly inspired.
Another drawback is the inconsistency in presentation. The recipes come from various sources, and each one uses a slightly different format for the instructions. This can be confusing, especially for beginners.
Overall, it's not a bad book, but there are better options out there if you're looking for a solid starting point for your brewing journey or a well-organized collection of recipes.
Another drawback is the inconsistency in presentation. The recipes come from various sources, and each one uses a slightly different format for the instructions. This can be confusing, especially for beginners.
Overall, it's not a bad book, but there are better options out there if you're looking for a solid starting point for your brewing journey or a well-organized collection of recipes.
April 23, 2023
The first chapters are a good introduction, but the directions for beginners was not as good as Papazian’s book. Most of the book is beer recipes.
December 22, 2015
The Brewmaster's Bible starts off great, but in the end it falls short of canonicity.
Stephen Snyder opens TBB with great introductory material: easy how-to's on yeast starters and decoction mashing. A few great tables on different fermentables yields.
But TBB falls apart in the long, long recipe section. The recipes don't all hold to the same format or the same tone. Some give specific metrics to shoot for (IBUs, SRM), and other's leave you with little more than an estimated ABV.
Neither is the tone the same throughout the recipes. Some feel re-worked by Snyder. Others read like an email forward or advertising from a homebrew supply's store kit.
Only a marginal few of the recipes strike out into all-grain territory. The malt-extract recipes may very well be decent. But I'm not sure how many extract recipes for any given type of brew I need.
Worth reading for the front matter. But I'd stop there next time.
Stephen Snyder opens TBB with great introductory material: easy how-to's on yeast starters and decoction mashing. A few great tables on different fermentables yields.
But TBB falls apart in the long, long recipe section. The recipes don't all hold to the same format or the same tone. Some give specific metrics to shoot for (IBUs, SRM), and other's leave you with little more than an estimated ABV.
Neither is the tone the same throughout the recipes. Some feel re-worked by Snyder. Others read like an email forward or advertising from a homebrew supply's store kit.
Only a marginal few of the recipes strike out into all-grain territory. The malt-extract recipes may very well be decent. But I'm not sure how many extract recipes for any given type of brew I need.
Worth reading for the front matter. But I'd stop there next time.
January 6, 2008
Most people seem to have learned to brew through friends and Papazian's The Joy of Homebrewing. Me, I didn't have easy access to friends who brewed or Papazian's book, but I did pick this book up very early in my brewing history. I wouldn't recommend any other book for starting or even moderately experienced brewers. It's a goldmine of good brewing informaton and it's organized in a way that even if you don't read the whole thing, you'll easily find the tidbits you need to get started, troubleshoot problems, and upgrade your brewing process.
June 16, 2016
Impressively thorough coverage of the subject, though it gets redundant in places (esp. w/r/t/ a ale vs. lager brewing). The thing I liked the most, and the reason I would recommend it to beginning brewers, is that Snyder covers even the most mundane aspects (e.g., cleaning/sanitizing, making priming solutions, etc.) in fine detail. There are a lot of useful tables, and it's typeset nicely (2-column layout, with good use of call-out boxes and bold/italicized text), but there are few (any?) images, diagrams, or charts.
March 27, 2008
To me, one of the best resources for the home brewer. There is a ton of information that starts at a very beginning level, and moves up to a more advanced level for people moving from extract to whole grain brewing. There are a lot of collected recipes in almost every style, and they really try to get a range of difficulty for the recipes as well. My copy is battered, beaten, torn, and stained, but still used nearly every time I brew. Helped me become the brewer I am today
March 16, 2011
Overall a very useful book (I actually have two copies of it). It describes good brewing methods, has some very insightful tables and charts. It digs deep into the history of styles and what makes them unique. It also has hundreds of pages of recipes. The information though is somewhat dated (both ingredient charts and recipes). A lot has changed in craft brewing (both on the home level and the commercial level) since 1997, and this book shows its age. Otherwise it is a great resource.
June 3, 2011
Excellent resource for new brewers.
There are many great recipes for amateur brewers and solid resources for more advanced techniques.
The Maryland Style IPA is good and the oak chips are interesting especially after a short aging period. It's not as good of an IPA as simply dry hopping.
The Fire Breathing Stout is one of the best extract brews I have had. Similar but richer and more burnt than LIONS STOUT.
There are many great recipes for amateur brewers and solid resources for more advanced techniques.
The Maryland Style IPA is good and the oak chips are interesting especially after a short aging period. It's not as good of an IPA as simply dry hopping.
The Fire Breathing Stout is one of the best extract brews I have had. Similar but richer and more burnt than LIONS STOUT.
January 23, 2012
I've read all of the detailed info here on beer, its history, homebrew, ingredients and beer styles, which is the first 100+pages. The rest of this big book is recipes, and I will be using this as a reference and source going forward for some great homebrew ideas...
February 6, 2012
This is an excellent resource for those interested in brewing their own beer. It's got a ton of information on the process, grains, hops, adjuncts, water quality, equipment, etc., and it has a large selection of recipes as well.
September 6, 2013
Nowhere near as good as How To Brew, but still a nice resource with quality photographs and approachable writing.
January 2, 2021
Great book on brewing techniques with many recipes.
August 2, 2008
The best beginner/intermediate brewing book.
June 23, 2009
A must read for those engaged in the most holy of pursuits... brewing beer.
May 4, 2010
this book has tons of different styled recipes.. i cant wait to try some of these....
Currently reading
February 28, 2011Since I've been brewing a lot of beer lately, I've been studying up from this book.
April 1, 2012
A worthy reference. The Internet age makes the book less valuable as a recipe source, but the formulas, charts, background, and glossary are very useful.
September 10, 2016
I can't say I've read all 400 pages because 90% of this book is receipes, but it's been read.
January 7, 2017
Great book. Very detailed and relevant for many experience levels. The version I read is 20 years old, so it is a bit dated, but still very useful.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews