Home Brew Forum

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Brew-Beer- ... reg+hughes

I've been given a copy of this book. Interesting.

It starts with sections on equipment and ingredients, and illustrated step-by-step instructions on brewing techniques, for all stages of the process, then the rest of the book is recipes - they're given as all-grain recipes but many of them have alternative instructions for making them with extract.

No idea how it compares to other brewing books but having flicked through it, I'm already impressed with the sheer quantity of information and the clear way it's presented. The only question is whether the information is complete and reliable, which I'm not in a position to judge (I haven't graduated from kits yet), but it looks very promising.

I recently got this book out from the library. I'm a new all grainer, and this book has been a massive help. Cheers for the Amazon link Defo gonna buy this.

Nigel1969 wrote:I recently got this book out from the library. I'm a new all grainer, and this book has been a massive help. Cheers for the Amazon link Defo gonna buy this.

The author is Greg Hughes, who is the owner of Brew UK. I've not read or looked at the book, but I think Greg has a good level of knowledge, so it should give sound advice.

EDIT: He also stocks the book, (unsurprisingly).

Dave S wrote:The author is Greg Hughes, who is the owner of Brew UK.

Looks like a good site, that. Cheers for the tip-off.

Try the "book people" rather than Amazon, it was much cheaper.

A friend of mine has recently bought and loaned me this book and I find it a good read. It's targeted at the beginner, but there's plenty of stuff to interest more advanced brewers, not least the recipes. There are also some useful tables of hops and grains for easy reference.

Got this from my local 'the works' book shop at £5, bargain to be honest, wish I'd found it last year!

I just received a copy of this in my all grain starter kit from Brew UK - the book was essentially free as the all grain kit is priced about the same as other online shops without the book.

I looks excellent and has plenty of well presented recipes - have yet to try them however! Seems to be focused on getting results, which is a refreshing change from Palmer's How to Brew which I have also read - it's very in depth.

Cracking book, just waiting for my Braumeister to arrive so I can test out some of the recipes.

Just sampling my effort at the Belgian Wit on p190 of this book - superb, even after only a week in the corny keg! Greg is obviously too polite to state that it's a Hoegaarden clone but it must be only thing is, as I've remarked elsewhere, I was far short of the target OG with a lower volume, some of that is undoubtedly due to it being only my second AG batch, but suspect some of it is down to the 60 min mash, I'll try 90 next time.

Also I used 50g of orange peel from a supermarket orange rather than half that amount of dried from a HBS, tastes about right in my view!

I like this book. Bottled the "East Kent Golding single hop ale" a couple weeks ago- my first attempt at extract brewing and it already tastes better than any kit I've made. Currently have the English Barley Wine in my fv, but won't know what it's like for a while as it needs long conditioning. There are a number of extract brews in the book that I want to try before going on to all grain sometime next year.

#2 Son bought me this for Father's day - haven't had my nose out of it since then!
I've also used Parke's Self-sufficiency home brewing which is also v good
From scratch I've done 3 kits in the last month (Wherry/Cooper's cerveza/Smugglers - well pleased with each of them although I wouldn't do the Wherry again (not to my taste). I'd have to go a long way to improve on the Corona sorry cerveza!
Gonna jump straight to AG
Had some good advice from Peter at Hop Shop who suggested 1/2 batch brews to get the hang of it
So I've priced up ESB/IPA/London/Summer/Witbier/Dry stout from the book which comes to about £80 with dry yeast and a couple of bits of kit (target price was based on free pp over £75 cos it breaks my heart to pay pp)
Hope the recipes work or I'm in trouble!!
Already planning to brew A Shropshire Lad which was lovely when we visited Whitchurch last week - my kind of beer
Copper Kettle do an AG kit for less than £20 with everything inc and free pp/ They also do a Guinness kit same deal - I'll have a look at what ingredients I have left over from above but I might give them a go

Sampled some of the Weissbeer a couple of nights ago - excellent too, even after only 10 days in the bottle. I used the White Labs equivalent of the Wyeast specified in the recipe and extended the mash to 90 mins, otherwise followed the recipe. Very Weihenstephan ish. Hope the majority of the batch which is force carbed in a corny will be as good!

Hi all,

have done a few from this and turned out very nice - Raspberry Wheat Beer seems to be going well with the wife and friends.
Also did the Amarillo ale which is really nice and the Smokey which is still conditioning. Good clear recipies with yeast 'suggestions' which is what I think is missing from gw.
I plan to brew a Fullers London Pride next weekend and am comparing the GW version with the London Bitter version in the book.

Great starter book and I can see it guiding towards adapting the recipies in future.

C

My best one from this book so far is the Nelson Sauvin single hop....absolutely lush.