Projects and Thoughts

Quick book review: Brewing Made Easy

This is a quick review of a really quick read. I like to check out any brewing book that crosses my path in the hopes of unearthing something new. I spotted this book, Brewing Mad Easy (2nd edition) by Joe Fisher and Dennis Fisher at my local library. It is a short book intend to ease you into home brewing. I think the format of quick easy steps to brewing is a good way to approach brewing. I have likened it to writing, putting down a first draft, before you can improve upon it. You have to get a beer into a fermentor before it makes sense to try to tackle more details in the brewing process. It’s a good approach. My gripe about the book, that they seemed to perpetuate some inaccuracys that I’d think would no longer be in a modern book, top vs bottom fermenting, the use of secondary. In addition, they really gloss over hop usage, late additions, etc. All in all if the book gets someone brewing beer it’s not bad. However for my money, I’d buy either the Complete Joy of Homebrewing, or How to Brew by John Palmer. If you are a detail oriented person, How to Brew, if you are a laid back, less detail driven person, Joy.

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With that said, the book is extremely approachable. I enjoyed my hour or two reading it, and appreciated the small section on small batches, which I feel like is a lost brewing practice. Beyond being a good quick start guide, I feel the book won’t get you much beyond your first few batches, where the other getting started books have much greater depth and value to them, while not being too complicated to lose you in the process.

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