How to Brew, John Palmer
Palmer was formerly an aerospace and medical equipment engineer before going full-time into craft brewing, including authoring multiple beer books. That technical background is infused in his book How to Brew, a definitive, systematic blueprint to brewing good beer at home. It helps novices bypass tedious trial and error by giving readers Palmer's hard-won wisdom.
"The book comes from that very premise of trying to understand the brewing process and make it foolproof," he says. "What are we trying to accomplish at each stage? What goal are we looking for at each stage so we know that we've done it right and can move on to the next?"
The book is a valuable guide for anyone who can follow a recipe.
"Brewing is cooking, so if you can bake cookies, you can brew beer," Palmer says. "It's just a matter of understanding what the steps are and understanding what the proportions of ingredients in a recipe are meaningful."
Mastering Homebrew, Randy Mosher
While Palmer's book emphasizes the system and structure, Mosher emphasizes ingredients in his comprehensive guidebook Mastering Homebrew.
Mosher is the author of five books and teaches beer styles, recipe formulation, and beer-and-food classes at the Siebel Institute brewing school. He's been in the craft beer industry since the '80s
"It's been my experience that many brewers—even professional ones—could be making better beers if they understood their ingredients a little better," he says. "There's also quite a lot on the process of putting recipes together, another important and overlooked topic."
With Mastering Homebrew, Mosher put everything he had learned in his 50-plus year history in beer in a clear and visual way.
"It covers both science and art with equal emphasis since you need both to make great beer," he says
Water, John Palmer
Palmer wrote another book on the critical yet mostly flavorless and often overlooked ingredient of water.
We're all familiar with a brand identity associated with a water myth, such as Coors's Rocky Mountain spring water or Guinness Stout's Dublin water.
What is this magic ingredient, water? What makes a different water source special?" Palmer asks.
That's what the book answers.
The book gets into the nitty-gritty, like how pH affects flavor expression. Water also influences the sulfate-to-chloride ratio, which can enhance beer differently. Sulfate accentuates the hop character while chloride rounds out the malt character, just like table salt does. Chloride also slightly sweetens and adds to the fullness of the malt character.
Palmer says Dortmund Export is an example of a good beer made great by its water. The German Lager is only about 4% ABV, but it tastes like a 5% beer. The minerals in the water support the beer's flavors, giving it a very robust flavor.
"The difference between good and great when it comes to making beer is you can brew a good beer with any water, but if you understand how water can affect the flavor of beer, that allows you to crank it up and brew a great beer," Palmer says.
The Beer Lovers Guide to Cider, Beth Demmon
Author of The Beer Lovers Guide to Cider, Beth Demmon, says that most of the research on cider comes from wine or a historical perspective, "like Johnny Appleseed and Thomas Jefferson and all that."
"I saw an opportunity to use beer knowledge and vocabulary to explore cider as a new segment for many people," she says. The Beer Lovers Guide to Cider is a jumping-off point for people to come to cider from where they are. The book offers suggestions and shows the variety of cider that is being made in the United States and beyond."
Each chapter is organized by alternatives to different beer styles.
Demmon says cider is an excellent option for brewers looking to diversify their output and offer their consumers different products. Diversification is more valuable today as the craft beer industry is as booming as it once was.
"If you are going to connect with consumers, you need to offer as wide a variety of products as is possible for you and your business," she says. "Whether that means dabbling in non-alcoholic beer, dabbling in gluten-free beer, or simply offering these alternatives to what you're currently putting out there, that's a really smart thing to do."
The Beer Bible, Jeff Alworth
The Beer Bible is the go-to resource for anyone wanting an all-encompassing encyclopedia of beer.
"The idea was to create a book that could answer any question a person might have about beer—about its history, the way it's made, the styles, national traditions, the key examples, and stuff like tasting and serving it," Alworth says. "I wanted it to be the most comprehensive guide to beer ever written."
But the book is not an instruction manual. It's an entertaining exploration of every aspect of beer. The pages illuminate how the same beers, like cuisine, can be made in different ways. The book also familiarizes brewers with essential ingredients.
"That usually gives brewers enough information to create their own version of any beer out there," Alworth says.
Tasting Beer, Randy Mosher
You might know how to do a keg stand, shotgun, beer bong, or guzzle a beer, but what about actually tasting it?
Tasting Beer is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to train their senses and get the most out of drinking beer. The book teaches you to identify classic styles' colors, scents, flavors, and mouthfeel.
Mosher said the book came from material from a course he taught at the Siebel Institute brewing school. As a result, it's well-organized, starting with the big picture and going through beer's parameters, brewing process, and flavors.
"You can brew beer in a vacuum, of course, but the past is so informative that you don't want to miss it," Mosher says. "And understanding classic styles and how to taste will make your beer better and are even more important if you hope to win competitions."
