New Brewing Lager Beer: The Most Comprehensive Book for Home and Microbrewers

New Brewing Lager Beer is the probably the most scientific brewing book I own. It goes through the chemistry of the mash, the effects of the water, calculations for almost everything you could run across, and several other things I can't remember. It has a small section of recipes, but it's mainly a fundamental knowledge book.It is also the fundamental resource for one of the most difficult methods of homebrewing beer: the dreaded triple decoction mash all grain brew. Apart from using wild yeasts, nothing strikes fear in the hearts of homebrewers like the thought of a decoction mash. Instead of shying away from it or explaining it away, Noonan embraces the technique with an almost religious zeal. Although decoction mashes require several times the amount of effort and care of a standard mash, Noonan's process leads the brewer through it as easily as possible, and the results are simply not reproducible by other means. The question is: is that flavor worth the effort? For Noonan, it is. For most other brewers, it isn't. For those types, Noonan provides scaled down mashing processes, including double and single decoctions, step mashes, and the basic infusion. (after trying all of them, I've settled on the step for most of my brews. I figure it gives a good balance of conversion/extraction and not taking all damn day!)For all its technical information, New Brewing Lager Beer is short on a couple fronts. It does not have much on recipe formulation or much of anything on ales, as the name would suggest. But that's ok: lots of other books have those.

In January I was lucky to be stuck in Berlin with Salmonella...because it gave me a month to go through this book chapter by chapter, reading, and re-reading with highlighter. And after 2 reads and a well worn and hi-lit version of the book, I have to admit, it is a potent and nearly perfect book for understanding how brewing works on a variety of levels. Best of all, it follows through all methods of all grain brewing for lager beer in the traditional Germanic style.Thought the book tends to repeat itself a little as it describes the process, then re-describes the brewing process for practical use, it is well descriptive with paragraphs making perfect sense on a variety of levels of information. Once read by a beginner, he then has a great source for a step into higher understanding of the chemistry and biology behind brewing.I put this book as THE BEST brewing book on my ever expanding beer book shelf.

First of all, let me state that the only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is because it contains several chapters which will be superfluous to you if you've already been brewing for awhile and are buying this book to expand your repertoire (like me). I'm assuming most folks looking to get into brewing lagers and triple decoction mashes will already be well-versed in the basics; so to me, the introductory material in Part 1 (pp. 1-110) was unneeded. However, the overwhelming majority of Part 2 (The Brewing Process, pp. 113-253) was absolutely chock-full of either new information, or it at least provided the logical (and historical) framework behind every little decision-point in the brewing process, with a particular focus on brewing lagers. Perhaps the most valuable information is the author's simple, yet orderly and explicit regimen for conducting a triple decoction mash. His presentation was elegant and tremendously helpful in demystifying the PROCESS, while preserving the mystique of the RESULTS of decoctions. Now I can't wait to try a decoction, to see if I can taste the difference (and to finally earn some bona fides with respect to decoction mashing). For that reason alone, the book is well-worth your time and money. You should see my copy - Part 2 is absolutely bristling with protruding Post-it(R) notes, and virtually every page in Part 2 has multiple highlighted passages for me to re-read (and re-re-read) as I commit the information to my memory and rote brewing practices. Definitely one of the best books in my growing library of brewing compendia...

The first half of this book is basically a chemistry textbook for brewing. I don't think most home brewers would find it useful. The second half has procedural details that can be helpful to home brewers, but again a lot of it is very technical and detailed and more suited for the professional or semi-pro brewer.

A very good overview of the essentials regarding Lager brewing. I'm keeping this book at arms reach when planning a beer. It teaches the reader, in a nutshell she'll, how to get it right taking out allot of guess work for beginners and intermediate. It is NOT exhaustive however, and there is the need for further research for the individual components, i.e., Grains/malt, water, yeast, hops, adjuncts, techniques, equipment, building recipes, size of operation, etc. And there are several good books on each of these subjects. This book is a must for any brewing library and helps lay a healthy foundation for success in brewing goals and oporations.

I have many books dealing with the subject of brewing and I find this to be right at the top of the list. The late Mr. Noonan presents a book not only relevant to brewing lager beers, but a wealth of brewing knowledge that carries over to all aspects of brewing.The art of making beer as a whole is represented. There are 40 pages on water alone. While a new brewer would find this book to be a lot to take in, anyone who has been brewing for a little time will gain much from this book. Mashing, lagering, water adjustment - it is all here and backed up with concrete science. Greg used the word 'Comprehensive' in the title and he delivered.

A must have book if your are brewing Lagar, or just to read. 5 stars.

Libro scritto bene e molto interessante con ottimi spunti. Da acquistare per avere una visione migliore del molto brassicolo

Boas técnicas para fabricação de lager, apesar de ser um livro antigo e contar com alguns processos (como a decocção) não usados atualmente, por conta de maltes modificados.

Das Buch richtet sich schon an den fortgeschrittenen Hobbybrauer. Ich finde es in der Breite noch etwas "wissenschaftlicher" geschrieben als "Howtobrew" oder "Water", und dabei trotzdem sehr nachvollziehbar. Auch wenn es schon etwas älter ist, ist es eines der besseren Bücher und sollte in einem gut sortierten Regal nicht fehlen.

This has all the usual things you expect to find in a book on brewing, water, malt boiling, and you could be tempted to skip the sections you have read about already. DON'T this book is full of hidden nuggets of information just dotted in the middle of paragraphs. Well worth a careful read.