A great addition to any serious homebrewer's operation
931647
What can I say? It fits famously, to both my mash tun and to my siphon tubes. Just a great addition to my operation.
2635540
If you have a kegerator with homebrew and you like to share, you need this!  My brother lives a few hours away.  Whenever he is in the area for the weekend he hands me a clean and empty growler and I use this to fill it up for him before he heads home.  He is always grateful to get to try what I have on tap at his leisure during the following week and it ensures he always finds some time to stop over.
4420288
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Gardening for the Homebrewer. Backyard gardening just found a new friend with the home brewer. This book shares not only gardening tips and plant recommendations but brewing ideas. You can grow hops in your garden and begin to create your own homebrew. Wine from your own grapes? Sure! Authors Debbie Teashon and Wendy Tweten talk about grape growing, pruning and variety selection. You say you grow herbs? Herb infused spirits give a whole new dimension to basil, thyme, lavender, and many many more.
Ciders, ales, gruits (I know, a new word!), wine, beer, and spirits; whatever your prefered beverage can start with goodies from your garden. Well written and wonderful photos. Janet Ledebuhr
4713462
I've had my Picobrew for about 9 months now.  I've logged about 12-14 brewing sessions on it and a couple of Sues Vide recipes.  I absolutely love the device.

I wanted the Picobrew for two primary reasons.

1) Between a toddler and hectic job, I found being able to sneak away for a 4.5 hour brew session wasn't going to fly with the wife...  It's quite a treat being able to start up a brewing session as soon as I get home.  I'm able to walk away, have dinner and family time and put the toddler to bed.  I can keep tabs on the brew session from my phone and clean up when the session is complete (normally around the wife is asleep).  I went from not having the time to craft my own recipe to allowing the process to fit nicely in my current routine.

2) I love the control that the Picobrew gives you.  I utilized a cooler mashtun before and getting consistent temperature was always tough.  I couldn't always attribute a slight modification to a recipe to the recipe itself.  With the Picobrew, that is not the case at all.  I am able to play with minor changes in a recipe and know that shift in flavor  and ABV are due to the recipe and not the process.  It really helps with the refinement of a recipe.

The brew session takes about 4.5hrs, but I'm only needed about 20 minutes of that.  It takes about 5-8 minutes to weigh out my hops, mill my grain and get everything set up.  At the end, it takes about 10 minutes to clean up.

I absolutely love this machine.
3492712
This is a pretty good home brewing book.  It's NOT a yeast biology textbook or a yeast-ranching manual, though, and I think the other recent review is a bit unfair in its expectations.  (If you're looking for that kind of information, it's out there.  Start with George Fix.)  It is technical enough to get its point across without requiring me to dig out old college textbooks to understand its references.

If you're an intermediate- to advanced-homebrewer, this is worth having.  (True beginners should probably concentrate on big-ticket techniques first.)  It will teach you everything you need to know to get the best performance out of yeast purchased from reputable sources and help you shepherd it through a typical 4 or 5 generations.
1778485
I have recently began trying some of the seasonal selections of beer in our local grocery and have surprisingly enjoyed alot of them, so I thought this DIY Beer Brewing would be a good read to start exploring the art of home brewing. With so many types to choose from, they take what could be an intimidating and confusing process and simplify it so that you can quickly get started and gain knowledge and courage to tackle more complex brews. Being a big DIY person, I love that with this method you can customize brews to your individual tastes without pre knowledge of even the difference in pilsners and ales. I found it interesting that homebrew can even be healthy for you and appreciated the master tips as well as the breakdown of different style of glasses and their uses.
I received this in exchange for a fair and honest review
1585580
This book gives the beginner homebrewer a lot of useful information. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to get into homebrewing, no matter what your skill level is.
3702018
As a 15 year veteran of the hobby of homebrewing, even though I no longer brew my own, I wanted to read what kind of tips "Homebrew" Hendricks had to offer to those who are involved in this hobby.

I was completely amazed at the thoroughness of the author in his tips. While some of them are minor, they will ALL result in a better glass of homebrew, no matter which ones you choose from.

His understanding of the subtleties of the art and craft of homebrewing belies years of experience and more than a few "Lost Batches" of homebrew... I've been there myself more than a time or two.

If you're new to the hobby, or live in a town where a homebrew club isn't readily accessible, this would be a perfect book for you. The only thing it lacks is the people there who would taste your own beer for even more feedback. Having once been a member of a well-established homebrew club, most of the tips and tricks that I learned came from the experience of the members of that club. This valuable book is a homebrew club in your Kindle reader!! Get it!! Read it!! Follow it!! You'll make even better homebrew once you do!!
1596785
Palmer's online guide ([...]) is legendary among homebrewers, but it is definitely nice to have a tangible copy.  Much of the initial stuff is information you could get from a 10 minute conversation at a local homebrew shop (I am fortunate to have several in the area), so don't buy it if you just want to dabble and get a couple decent batches.  However, the later information on how the brewing actually happens (e.g. the relative roles of malt, hops, and yeast) is very interesting and critical if you ever hope to take brewing from the kits to actual "creation".  The sections on partial mash and all-grain brewing are great for understanding how many different ways there are to brew, and the pros and cons to each.  It's essentially what strategy guides are to video games: the only real way to get better is to practice, but it will make you feel a little more like you know what you're doing (and convince others that you know what you're doing).
1636544
As soon as I saw these labels, I immediately thought about my old homebrewing hobby. I have not homebrewed for years, but still have some bottles (and even a mini-keg) and will occasionally drink one. The Irish Stout bottles are more for remembrance than actual consumption, but my mango melomel (mead) is still quite drinkable.

I generally spent little effort identifying the bottles. I mostly just used a Sharpie or, if I was feeling particularly ambitious, a P-Touch label. Function took definite priority over form. With these labels, I see huge opportunities for really producing a custom crafted beer.

Avery's online templates make it simple to produce basic labels. The Microsoft Word template adds additional possibilities for customizing the labels. The best option may be to create a .png file with the template (e.g. I used Adobe Acrobat) and use a graphics program to edit each label or set of labels.

With homebrew labels, removing labels gets prime consideration. Usually the empty bottles are soaked overnight in soapy water and the labels fall off the next day. I tried it with these labels and was pleased to find it worked. These labels are somewhat expensive so I would not use these for every bottle in a batch, but would certainly add them to impress others.

Overall, I like them a lot.
4070155
Using this for hops and flavoring addition in my home brew set up. Saves having to buy and clean the mesh bags normally used in home brewing. Just use clasp to open the mesh ball, add ingredients, close and secure clasp, and drop this bad boy in the kettle or fermenter, rinse off when done.
1855618
So you know when you start homebrewing and you get carried away and you start brewing 5 or 10 or 20 gallon batches every weekend and then some. Well, thats me and I have way too much beer on my hands. Not a bad thing at all. That said,I stopped buying kits a while ago and now I'm making my own recipes, hence the need of just buying a lot of the standard US-05. Cant go wrong with this work horse.
1374717
This book is awesome. If you are like me, and you don't listen to what the other brewing authors say about perfecting a few beers that you like, read this one. I hardly ever brew the same beer twice, and I like experimentation. This book will pave way for many new ideas and tasty new brews. There are a few inaccuracies and typos in the book. For example, altitude does change the boiling point of water. However, the few mistakes are far shadowed by the excellent writing and research that went into this book. If you brew with a lot of odd ingredients like I do, you will have to pick this one up.
1513185
For those of us who have been homebrewing for anything over a few months, Gordon Strong is a sort of deity. Thus, I had high expectations for the first book from the only Grand Master V BJCP judge and BJCP President. Brewing Better Beer does not disappoint.

I've read this book cover-to-cover twice. I keep it nearby with other homebrewing classics such as Designing Great Beers (Daniels) and The Homebrewer's Companion (Papazian). Especially for the all-grain brewer, this book is equally, perhaps more necessary than these 'bibles.'

Brewing Better Beer covers it all: equipment, ingredients, tasting, and even performing better in competitions. All the information is clear, concise, and complete. This book is a must-own for any serious homebrewer.
4889151
Excellent book for the mid-level to advanced home brewer. The book assumes you understand basic brewing principles and techniques, so it might not be a good choice for the beginner. Lots of unique insight from some of the industries top brewers discussing particualr styles, and ingredients. Information you just don't get from a single author how to brew book. Definately got some ideas on how to modify and improve some of my recipes.
2894982
This is an excellent book! Whether you're new to brewing or have a lot of experience this book has a wealth of information. I recommend keeping this book on hand while brewing, The recipes are really good too! Must have for anyone who is serious about their beer!
3018230
It is amazing how the littlest of tools can make such a huge impact on your brewing. The first time I hooked this thing up to my tubing and unleash my wort into the fermenter, it was way foamier than I could have ever made it by shaking the fermenter. This also works very well for sparging your grains and recirculating (vorlauf) your runnings for clarity, without disturbing the grains (which act as an extra filter on top of your false bottom/manifold.)