Product Description

Charlie Papazian, master brewer and founder and president of the American Homebrewer's Association and Association of Brewers, presents a fully revised edition of his essential guide to homebrewing. This third edition of the best-selling and most trusted homebrewing guide includes a complete update of all instructions, recipes, charts, and guidelines. Everything you need to get started is here, including classic and new recipes for brewing stouts, ales, lagers, pilseners, porters, specialty beers, and honey meads.

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, third edition, includes:

• Getting your home brewery together: the basics -- malt, hops, yeast, and water
• Ten easy lessons for making your first batch of beer
• Creating world-class styles of beer (IPA, Belgian wheat, German Kölsch and Bock, barley wine, American lagers, to name a few)
• Using fruit, honey, and herbs for a spicier, more festive brew
• Brewing with malt extracts for an unlimited range of strengths and flavors
• Advanced brewing techniques using specialty hops or the all-grain method or mash extracts
• A complete homebrewer's glossary, troubleshooting tips, and an up-to-date resource section
• And much, much more

Be sure to check out Charlie's The Homebrewer's Companion for over 60 additional recipes and more detailed charts and tables, techniques, and equipment information for the advanced brewer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3725 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Released on: 2003-09-23
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

About the Author

Founding president of the American Homebrewers Association and organizer for the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup, Charlie PaPazian avidly brews lagers, ales and honey meads. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Customer Reviews

The only book you really need
I bought this book as a gift. I have the same book, only the third edition. If its like the third edition its got all the answers, and is easy to read.

Excellent beginers guide
If you've ever even THOUGHT about brewing your own ales, lagers, stouts or porters, this is the book for you. Papazian is extremely knowledgable and has a writing style that makes the process fun and easy to follow. It is essentially the "bible" for home brewers.

My 3 cents (wasn't it worth more then 2?)

A Joy
I got this book on recommendation from my friend Aaron when we were brewing at his house this weekend. We brewed a variation of the "Goat Scrotum Porter" on page 200.

The book is however much more than a recipe book for beer. It is divided into three major sections:

Pgs 1-39 give a basic outline of brewing history and the knowledge you need to brew a beer from a basic kit.

Pgs 40-240 are the meat of the book. This intermediate brewing section goes over every aspect of brewing from yeasts to sanitizing your equipment. It also includes many recipes for ales and lagers as well as ideas on how you might adapt any recipe for your own tastes.

Pgs 241-388 really get into the science and math behind brewing. I have only skimmed this section, but it seems to be a fantastic reference guide for the advanced brewer.


What sets this book apart is the well written and funny style that Papazian brings to everything from water mineral content to the human migrations that transport Viennese lagers to Mexico. Most appreciated is his constant reminder that if you are feeling stressed about the minutia of brewing "Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew." This seems to be both his philosophy and the first step of all of his recipes.