Four Essential Books for Your Home Brew Library

• Posted on 24 June 2020
• By Trish Adkins
• Posted in Books + Resources, How to Brew
• 3

When you first start brewing, maybe you learned under the guidance of a friend or family member. Or maybe the team at Philly Homebrew Outlet hooked you up with some great tips and recipes. But as you progress through your homebrewing journey, having a good library of books written by experts will really help you grow your knowledge and your homebrewing technique.

Here are four essential books for your homebrew library (which make excellent gifts, too):

1. Art of Fermentation

by Sandor Katz $39.95

Winner of the 2013 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Reference and Scholarship, and a New York Times bestseller, The Art of Fermentation is the most comprehensive guide to do-it-yourself home fermentation ever published. Sandor Katz presents the concepts and processes behind fermentation in ways that are simple enough to guide a reader through their first experience making sauerkraut or yogurt, and in-depth enough to provide greater understanding and insight for experienced practitioners.

2. How to Brew

by John Palmer $24.95

Fully revised and updated, How to Brew is the definitive guide to making quality beers at home. Whether you want simple, sure-fire instructions for making your first beer, or you're a seasoned homebrewer working with all-grain batches, this book has something for you. John Palmer adeptly covers the full range of brewing possibilities―accurately, clearly and simply. From ingredients and methods to recipes and equipment for brewing beer at home, How to Brew is loaded with valuable information on brewing techniques and recipe formulation.

3. American Sour Beers: Innovative Techniques for Mixed Fermentations

by Michael Tonsmeire $19.95

American Sour Beers is a great edition to your brewing library and can help you brew beers that are intentionally tart. Craft brewers and homebrewers have adapted traditional European techniques to create some of the world’s most distinctive and experimental styles. This book details the wide array of processes and ingredients in American sour beer production, with actionable advice for each stage of the process. Inspiration, education and practical applications for brewers of all levels are provided by some of the country’s best known sour beer brewers. Bonus: grab a packet of Philly Sour dry yeast from the Philly Homebrew Store.

4. Homebrew Journal, The: From Ingredients to Glass, an Essential Record of Recipes & Observations

by Ben Keene $19.99

One of the greatest tasks of homebrewing, aside from enjoying your own handcrafted ales and lagers, is combining an array of complementary ingredients to create your own unique beverage. From grains to hops, adjuncts, yeast, and even water, there are innumerable choices out there. When you strike liquid gold with that perfect batch, you want to have all of the ingredients, processes, and peculiarities documented. Assuming a batch a week, this new journal provides handy templates for the brewer to record an entire year of brewing activities. From the name and type right through the bottling day, The Homebrew Journal features blank slates for every critical consideration, including separate grids for grains, hops, adjuncts, yeast, and costs--as well as fields and checkboxes for IBUs, original and final gravity, ABV, water type, and amount; boil temps and durations; measuring instruments and other gear used; pitching temperature; fermentation stages, temperatures, and length; and bottling day processes. In addition, the notebook offers generous space for the brewer to record other significant notes, and appendixes provide handy calculations for things like ABV, attenuation, and alpha acid units as well as explanations of tasting descriptors.

Philly Homebrew Outlet has a full collection of curated books and resources for homebrewers. Check out our store for more great books.