The Homebrewer's Companion

Rating:
Summary: Regurgitation of old material
Review: After publishing the best introduction to home brewing Papazian released this unenlightening tome. His snappy style, so essential in his first book, sounds dull and contrived. One third of the book is complete filler as he lists 60 pages of various beer styles along with their specific gravities, etc. This information could have been presented in a two page spread. Additionally, he offers little in the way of advanced brewing technique. The one saving grace of this book is the recipe section, with interesting ideas like a lambic barley wine and a raspberry imperial stout. If you are looking for a book that offers a firm overview of all-grain brewing then I can recommend 'Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide' or Noonan's 'Brewing Lager Beer.' Papazian's book will most likely be a complete disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Regurgitation of old material
Review: After publishing the best introduction to home brewing Papazian released this unenlightening tome. His snappy style, so essential in his first book, sounds dull and contrived. One third of the book is complete filler as he lists 60 pages of various beer styles along with their specific gravities, etc. This information could have been presented in a two page spread. Additionally, he offers little in the way of advanced brewing technique. The one saving grace of this book is the recipe section, with interesting ideas like a lambic barley wine and a raspberry imperial stout. If you are looking for a book that offers a firm overview of all-grain brewing then I can recommend 'Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide' or Noonan's 'Brewing Lager Beer.' Papazian's book will most likely be a complete disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: The "Companion" is like a volume 2 of "The Complete Joy..."
Review: Many ask me, "What's different about "The Home Brewers Companion?" It's a book that I might have titled "The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing, Volume 2." The information is 98% new information, improved procedures for beginning and malt extract brewers as well as advanced and veteran brewers. Loads of new recipes and useful charts and data that I, myself continually refer to in my own current homebrew recipe formulation (I still homebrew about 20 batches a year). My theme throughout is "Keep it practical. Keep it useful." I wanted to answer 10 years worth of questions in this one volume. I did...and I had fun doing it.

Rating:
Summary: More info on brewing beer
Review: This is Charlie Papazian's second book on the subject of homebrewing. I found this book to be more technical in nature than Papazian's first book, "The new Complete Joy of Homebrewing", and not quite as entertaining to read. Nevertheless, this book is still useful as a reference tool and it does have some good recipes. Cheers!

Rating:
Summary: More info on brewing beer
Review: This is Charlie Papazian's second book on the subject of homebrewing. I found this book to be more technical in nature than Papazian's first book, "The new Complete Joy of Homebrewing", and not quite as entertaining to read. Nevertheless, this book is still useful as a reference tool and it does have some good recipes. Cheers!

Rating:
Summary: More info on brewing beer
Review: This is Charlie Papazian's second book on the subject of homebrewing. I found this book to be more technical in nature than Papazian's first book, "The new Complete Joy of Homebrewing", and not quite as entertaining to read. Nevertheless, this book is still useful as a reference tool and it does have some good recipes. Cheers!

Rating:
Summary: A good follow up to the Bible of Homebrew
Review: True, this book contains a lot of the same info already found in The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing, but buy any two homebrewing books and you're bound to find loads of overlap in material. This book stands on its own as an intermediate book. The material on beer styles others have criticized as 'filler' is absolutely indispensable. With a little effort, you can use these guides to brew accurate recreations of almost any beer style imaginable. In fact, you could call it a condensed version of the entire "Styles" series put out by Brewer's Publications. This book contains much of the useful technical information found in other, practically unreadable texts, in Charlie's relaxed style. If his first book got you excited about homebrewing, this one will fan the flames. Sure there's much more to learn, but this book will help you see the benefit in beefing up your technical understanding of brewing.