Review: Competent introduction and easy to read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 9, 2013
"Brewing Beer (4 Simple Steps To Your First Home Brew - With 40 Easy Peasy Recipes" by Homebrew Hendricks is not my usual type of book. I picked this book up during a promotion, intrigued by the title and curious to see how easy it would be to make my own beer.I found the book rather interesting as it gives a good overview on the types of beer and the kind of equipment you need. As resident of the UK I did not learn all about the legality of home brewing and shipping for myself but the section on the US is very knowledgeable and extensive.It is obviously up to us readers how much we would want to invest in such a new career or hobby and so the variety of equipment and the expected quality of the result depends on the effort we are prepared to make.The book is very detailed in all parts, whether it be the preparation, useful facts about water and types of malt or how to bottle and age your beer. It is user friendly with lots of cross references and links to other relevant chapters. The author is clearly very experienced in the field - 40 recipes alone speak for themselves - but he writes in very clear and easy to follow instructions, with logic and precision, something that is the downfall of many a cook book I have tried to follow.I found the enthusiasm for the subject and the love for beer sparked from every page and infected me enough to seriously consider buying a basic kit and experimenting with my own beer production. Although as German I have drunk my share of beer I am admittedly not an expert in the field but the book feels competent and trustworthy.