Brewing/brewery books I just ordered.

[billvelek]

As per suggestions that I've received, I have just placed an order for the following books to help give me some insight into starting a brewpub:

"The Brewers Association's Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery" by Ray Daniels;
"Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery" by Sam Calagione;
"Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery" by Steve Hindy et al.

I also ordered three other books that I've been wanting to get for about a year:
"Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles" by Ray Daniels;
"Clone Brews: Homebrew Recipes for 150 Commercial Beers" by Tess Szamatulski;
"Beer Captured" by Tess Szamatulski.

I hope I've made some wise choices and won't need to ask so many questions after I've read them. If anyone has any other book suggestions, let me know.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

[SRB]

The Beer dictionary has been great.

Brewing second edition is an affordable, college level read...well worth it.
For me much of the in depth chemistry was intense and over my head. (I tried )
The Biology content was very educational and understood. The process discussions extremely helpful as well.
Kolsch and Pale Ale are interesting and informative volumes of the extensive series.
Brewmasters Bible:homebrewers gold standard is very enjoyable read with great recipes.
Clone brews is excellent for recipes development as you'll soon find out.
Ive read Beer school and Brewing up a business. Both great reads...inspirational and excellent outside the brewhouse beer business concepts.

Ray Daniels starting a brewery is very good as well. So much is involved in this process that a book that size cant have it all. But its a great launching pad.
There are more books of course...our (Salmon River Brewery's) education budget is trimmed tight right now until this winter..so im patiently waiting to order
books like: Handbook of brewing second edition
Essential Quality Control for Brewers Lab Manual and Beer Deposits, A Lab Guide and Pictorial Atlas over at Siebels book store.

enjoy....

matt g

[ParadisePint]

Great Thread. I would like to add a request for what Periodicals would be good.

[Moonlight]

Master Brewers' Technical Quarterly. Free after joining the MBAA.

[porter]

May I add?

I would like to add some of my fave's.
The MBAA Practical handbook for the specialty brewer- Vols 1,2, & 3
The Homebrewers Garden; great for alternative and historic ingredients.
For some side reading, Ambitious Brew: The story of American beer, gives insight into the big brewers histories and what they've done to pave the way for our industry's existence.

[bruno851]

The MBAA Practical handbook for the specialty brewer- Vols 1,2, & 3

I have the complete set and since I am no longer in the business they are for sale = SOLD

I also have a copy of the print version of the Methods for Craft Brewers for sale = $40.00

If there is any interest you can e-mail at bruno@brunoandlori.com to discuss further.

Thanks

Rob

[tsewong73]

I recommend the following:

The Brewmaster's Table, by Garrett Oliver: especially for a brewpub, this is a great book for learning how to pair beer with food. Mine is a production brewery and this book has come in handy for making recommendations to our draft accounts. It makes for a great reference book, too.

Built to Last, by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras: this is strictly a business book, but it's the best business book that I've read. There are some bullshit business books out there that should simply be avoided at all costs, but this book examines the core practices of some very successful companies. Some of it seemed over my head and a bit on the idealistic side, but it was still fascinating to learn about some of the things companies like Merck and Sony did in their earliest days to establish their businesses. I certainly learned some valuable lessons.

The Complete Joy of Home Brewing, by Charlie Papazian: I'm sure everyone has a copy of this. It still serves as a good reference book from time to time.

[SRB]

Thanks for Vol 1-3 Handbook for the Specialty Brewer Rob! Well worth the money!
Outstanding question answer manuals.

[beerking1]

Since there have been some homebrew books suggested, let me add my list of the top 3 homebrew books out there, IMHO. If a beginning homebrewer were to ask me what books he MUST have to brew great beer, I would give the following list, all 3 of which have information that is also useful to the professional brewer:

1. The aforementioned Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian. I believe this is the best book out there for the beginning homebrewer.

2. John Palmer's "How to Brew." By far the best intermediate level and beyond homebrewing book. A pretty good amount of technical information, made accessable to just about anyone. The third edition is the best, but all 3 are good. The first edition is available online at www.howtobrew.com. In addition to the text from the first edition, if you go to chapter 15 and read the section on water chemistry, you will find a link to a spreadsheet for calculating water editions, that I find EXTREMELY useful and have used to great results.

3. "Brewing Classic Styles" by John Palmer and Jamil Zainischeff. I would put this above any other recipe book I have ever seen, including the clone brews (I probably have every recipe book to have come out in the last 20 years). This book goes through every beer style in the BJCP guidelines (no mead or cider) and gives a desription of the style, several key tips to producing beer of this style, and a recipe that has won awards for that style. The base recipes are extract, but there is a section for each recipe that describes the changes to make an all-grain version. The tips and tricks listed for each beer are great, and there is also a section that discusses ideal fermentation profile. About the only thing it is missing is a discussion of water adjustments or preferred water profile for each style.

[knightmoves]

I'm also looking into starting a brewpub in the next year or so. I started with a lot of the same books that are listed here and from a business perspective, I can also recommend the Ray Daniels book and Built to Last.

Now that I have my business plan together for the brewpub, my newest book orders are focused on the restaurant side of the house. I recently ordered (but haven't received yet) "The Restaurant Manager's Handbook: How to Set Up, Operate, and Manage a Financially Successful Food Service Operation. It has received great reviews and I can give my own after I've had some time with it.

[gitchegumee]

I suppose it depends on what you want to learn. Most of these books might be a good introduction to homebrewing and starting a small business--I don't own many of them. My most useful references are textbooks that deal with the straight science of the trade. I'm a better brewer than businessman. The Practical Brewer is fairly concise. I often reference Malting and Brewing Science, Vols I & II. A Textbook Of Brewing Vols I & II by DeClerck, although dated is extremely comprehensive. Beer Packaging is useful for those in the packaging house. And lastly, Standards Of Brewing, by Bamforth is a nice read. Because I have a flair for using odd ingredients and techniques, two homebrewing books I can recommend highly are Radical Brewing and Sacred And Herbal Healing Beers. Although I used to have a copy of Joy of Homebrewing, I can't imagine why I'd refer to it now.