The Brewer's Apprentice: An Insider's Guide to the Art and Craft of Beer Brewing, Taught by the Masters by Koch, Greg, Allyn, Matt (2011) Paperback Paperback

Truly a compelling book about the elements of brewing, with a focus on the homebrewer. To be clear, this isn't a "How to Brew" book, but a run-through of those base elements (grain, hops, yeast, etc.), advanced techniques and styles (tasting, perfecting processes, organics, Belgians, lambics, cider, mead, etc.), and one interview per chapter with an established expert in each area.This is where the book really shines. Supposing the basics of brewing are old news to you, the interviews really dig into personal theories on each piece of the puzzle, and that brewer's journey into expertise in that area. As a homebrewer with about 20 batches down, it was a fun journey through the what makes brewing so enjoyable, full of great pictures and niche questions and ideas presented beautifully. No recipes, no 80-page deep-dives into yeast cell structure, but rather a sort of "brew porn" book that excites and prods homebrewers to make better beer. It's a fun read that I couldn't recommend enough.

Upon first opening the book and looking at the Q&A format, I was thinking that the conversation(s) with the various professional brewers would be over my head and irrelevant to me as a homebrewer. But no, Greg Koch did an outstanding job of always bringing it back to how the homebrewer could apply the lessons to a 5 gallon batch. Sure there's a lot of technical and detailed information that I won't necessarily use in my brewing, but there are dozens of tips and suggestions to inspire any homebrewer to try something different. My only problem now is deciding what to brew next - so many ideas.

I've been an avid homebrewer since 2007 and I've read a slew of books on a wide array of different subjects. That said, this is one of the easiest books to digest. Koch covers different beer types, pH, water chemistry, and other topics that delve a bit deeper into the process and the chemical makeup of beer. Where the book makes its money is the fact that with each "technical" section, they are followed up with interviews with different brewers that employ these methods or further elaborate on the topic through anecdotal tales. Aside from the content, the photos and typeface really stand out and make the book very visually appealling. Highly recommened for the casual or veteran homebrewer.

Look, I love Stone Brewing Co. and Greg Koch seems like a good enough guy, but this book just seems like a way to cash in. There are a lot of pretty pictures but the info is all pretty general and somewhat vague (i.e. "homebrewers...hold their mash between 145*F and 158*F for at least twenty minutes" - yes, we know). It may be "taught by the masters" but they're not giving away any master tips. Anyone who has at least homebrewed one all grain batch isn't going to gain much knowledge from reading this. The interviews with the specific brewers are the most interesting piece of the book and the reason this review still garners 3 stars.Go read Palmer.

This book was just as described. It's an unusual combination of deeply informative and casually entertaining. I enjoyed both its attractive layout and content -- like a good coffee table book, and the in depth questions asked of and answered by some of the best professional craft brewers of this generation. As a serious homebrewer of four years I learned a lot from the content. But it was fun to pick up and page through as well. I'll be leaving this one on the coffee table to pick up and peruse often!

Very well structured, highly recommend. Each chapter is a new topic/concept, which is then paired with a real-world example/interview. Talking about the mash? Here's a description of the mash process, followed by an interview with a brewmaster about their mash process. Talking about sours/lambics? Here's a bit of history regarding sours/lambics, followed by an interview with a brewery that brews sours/lambics.Note: this is not a 'How to Brew' book, you shouldn't expect that, but it's a great companion to have on a brew day.

As someone new to homebrewing, I found this book really interesting and full of useful information. While I enjoyed the information the book contained, the kindle edition was difficult to read. Formatting to the kindle edition, when viewed on an iPad is horrible. There are charts where text from one area runs into text in the next area making it almost impossible to decipher. Photos appear by themselves on one page with the caption alone on the next page. An otherwise beautifully laid out book was not translated to the digital edition. I returned the digital edition and bought the hard copy.

This book is just plain fun to read. I would strongly recommend it to any one who is excited about brewing. The book is structured with a series of short topic summaries, each followed by an interview with a professional brewer. In addition to being an entertaining mix of brewing history and insider wisdom, the book contains a surprising amount of useful brewing information. Though this is not a brewing "how to" book, it is a great book for explaining what is possible.

Great insight into brewers setting up their own micro breweries. Great reading for homebrewing geeks with dreams to go one step further!

Esse livro nao trata do processo de producao de cerveja, mas fornece dicas de como melhorar os processos e de como puxar as receitas para o extremo. Otima leitura e como livro de consulta rapida.

Dieses Buch wendet sich an den neugierigen Hobbybrauer, der seinen Horizont erweitern möchte. Es werden verschiedene Brauer interviewt und dann die Grundzüge eines Verfahrens mit kleinen Tipps erläutert. Es ist ein Buch in dem man gut schmökern kann, nette Anekdoten lesen und sich hier und da ein paar Ideen holen kann. Ein nette Ergänzung wäre es gewesen, wenn es zu jedem Kapitel noch Rezepte gegeben hätte.

This book condenses a huge volume of information on the history of and processes related to a wide range of alcoholic beverages. I was very impressed by the breath of information, the depth of knowledge and the enlightening interviews.Well worth adding to your brewing library.

a good read, it could dig more inside but anyway interesting, if you are not interested the part on cider could be proportionally too big.