Critical For All Home Brewers
345482
Using a siphon is critical for all home brewers when the "rack" the beer or wine to eliminate the various fruit or barley parts that collect at the bottom of the carboy.  This product is good.  One must use it with a tube and this reviewer suggests getting a tube that is pretty long.
3686033
Easy to use refractometer to use during brewing or wine making.  I use this unit to test my wort during mashing runs and before pitching my yeast.  Gives consistent results to determine your Original and final gravity, once you convert the BRIX number to a specific gravity reading conversion. Great way to determine if you've mashed your grains effectively and also to confirm your alcohol by volume readings in your final product. I recommend, for a no mess, ease of use, product. A must have for any quality home brewery.
2998787
A great overall look at the historical implications of the barrel and how they translated to the world of fermentation.  Many will look to this book to tell them exactly how to utilize barrels in the production of beer.  There is simply too much information; too many variables.  This book will, however, get the creative juices flowing and have you looking forward to including barrel aging in your brewing techniques, even if it is on a small garage scale.  There are lots of excerpts from some of the pioneers of the practices in order to give you an insight to how methodically difficult, wildly unpredictable and incredibly rewarding barrel aging can be.
1104931
I have now been brewing for almost three years, have brewed over 100 batches, am researching brewing professionally and this is the book that started it all. It is definitely for a beginning brewer, but is superbly organized and very accessible, unlike many other "beginner brewing books". The thing I love most is that it allowed me to skip brewing with extract, and showed me how to easily and cheaply brew all grain. Highly recommended for anyone interesting in brewing.
4651088
Being fairly new into homebrewing (about 8-10 batches), this had answered alot of my questions especially about hops, yeast, cleaning and off flavors. It is a good book because you can skip from chapter to chapter to read about the things that are most important to you or questions that you might have. I is a good book to read if you want to learn more about brewing and improve your beer.  I know there are several books out there to read, I would recommend this one in your arsenal.  A quick read and reference book.
2020323
Measuring the gravity of your beer is one of those necessities you must do if you want to get a grip on your process and turn out the best possible product.  This tool allows you to measure as often and when necessary without losing a whole hydrometer test tube full of wort or fermented beer.  There are plenty of calculators out there to correct your reading, depending on whether it is unfermented wort, or fermenting beer, or finished beer.  The first time I use it, I calibrate it for a zero reading, then I plug an actual sample measurement, along with a corrected hydrometer reading, into my BeerSmith program and it will provide you with a correction factor for future measurements.  When brewing small batches, one never likes to lose much beer to the sampling process.  When you think your beer is finished fermenting, you should take a reading on three successive days.  If the numbers are the same each day, then your beer is finished and you may bottle it up!  If you want to verify your reading with a hydrometer at the end...then knock yourself out...but I won't waste any beer on testing with this product!  Cheers and have fun making home brew!
4591588
It's a must have for any homebrewer that wants to elevate their yeast skills beyond just "dump it in".
2004865
Getting an easy win with a small-batch is crucial for a novice homebrewer. Brooklyn Brew Shops Beer Making book walked me through the basics of making my first batch (all-grain) without digressing into too much detail. I brewed the Simcoe IPA for my first batch and I was thrilled with the results. That's not to say a more experienced brewer wouldn't appreciate this book. There is a diverse selection of recipes (each with a 1 and 5-gallon scale) ranging from the basic IPA I made to a Belgium Trippel. Highly recommended.
232031
Getting back into home brewing after a long break.  This book by Mr Foster has been invaluable.  It covers a the history of the pale ale style(s) as well as some great recipes.  Each recipe has an extract and all grain version(s).
2894236
I bought this book for a family member who is a home brewer.  He was quite pleased with it and loved all the detailed information.  The buyer should be aware that this is a big book, offering much to learn.  If you just have a casual interest, it might be more info than you want.  But, as I said, my family member was just thrilled with it.
3584776
This is such a great straight forward book on home brewing. It only deals with extract recipes and procedures, but for what it does it couldn't do any better!
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.
181438
This is the best beer recipe book out there. If you are like me, I formulated many of my early beers from recipies on the internet. And if you are like me, my early beers were far from award winners. This book is set apart from other recipe books because every recipe has been proven in competition. I am confident that everyone of my brews will be amazing if I follow this book. One thing to note, follow the ingredient list, brewing process, fermentation temperature, etc EXACTLY how it appears in the book before trying to tweak it. If you listen to Jamil's podcast, you know that he has painstakingly refined each recipe to perfection. My recommendation is to listen to his podcast on that particular style before brewing.

 Friends don't let friends use random unproven internet recipes!
4663781
This book is very informative for the extract brewer and the longtime brewer, I picked up some great tips that I had either forgotten or just never heard. Remember Mike from his days in N.O. and miss being able to ask questions, this book makes up for some of that. The recipes are great and make you think more than just follow along, you have to work a little and understand what is being done. Get this book and you will not be disappointed, then find the others he recommends if you have not already.
Glad I found this, and regards to the author from the MKOB.
458929
This book will give a home brewer solid recipes for every recognized brewing style in one volume.  In the end (unless you are Jamil Z), you will probably focus on only a fraction of these styles, and for those, you may want additional detail.  But if you want to survey the scope of what is possible, this book is a great start.

Caveats:

--These recipes are award-winners, which means that the judges chose them over others.  That means they got the judge's attention, which means they tend to push the boundaries of the style to get that attention.  You will want to look to the BJCP style guidelines if you are trying to hit somewhere more in the middle of the style.

--The recipes focus on extract, with substitutions for all-grain brewers.  I brew with grain, not extract, and so it is extra thinking to substitute grain for extract.  But I know that 80% of those who brew use extract, so I don't blame the authors for focusing on that.

--As with almost every brewing book, the reader may not pay attention when the authors say "Ferment at 50 degrees" or something like that.  But the secret is to do exactly what it says:  control your fermentation and hold it precisely where it tells you to.  One sentence can't convey the importance of that.

All that doesn't take away from the value of this book.  It will make a great addition to any home brewer's library.
2219286
My husband and I have been wanting to brew our own beer for a while now.  His Daddy dabbled in it a while back, but so much has changed since then so we wanted to get some new pointers.  My husband loves IPA's, but sadly living in a small place makes IPA's hard to find.  This book makes it easier to understand the process of home brewing.  I used to think that the home brewing process would be much more difficult than it actually is.  That is not the case with this book.  My favorite part was about the glasses.  I learned a lot about what glass should be used with what beverage.  That info was also very helpful to me.  I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to make their own beer.  This is my honest review after receiving the product and trying it out. This review is in my own words and my own opinion of the product. I received this product for free in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
4074001
Dan of Beaver Brewing company has done a great service to the craft brewing community by writing this book.  Not only is it a tremendous guide to setup your nanobrewery, it is also very blunt on if you should.  Many questions that will arise if you or anyone you know are thinking of getting into the brewery business are addressed and answered.  If you are serious and motivated about getting into the wonderful industry of craft breweries then this book is 100% for you!  It helped me develop a checklist and look at things that I didn't even think about.  My favorite thing that he brings up more than once is that the quality of beer should be your number one goal... not just money.  Yes, you need money, but if your beer sucks, then so will your business.  Dan does a great job of educating and motivating the right individual for this business.  Thanks Dan!

-Beth (Brewery in progress)