Home Brewing with BeerSmith: How to Brew and Design Great Beer at Home

I've long been a fan of the BeerSmith software and love Brad's podcasts and email articles on homebrewing. So I was excited to get this book when it came out. I hoped it would be down-to-earth useful and practical and was delighted to read through it! Unlike some of the other reviewers I was glad that it wasn't just a how-to book for using the BeerSmith program -- though that might be a good book to have from Brad too. Instead I was impressed with Brad's restraint in not pushing his software on every topic.From beginning to end I found the information easy to understand, very useful for me in my brewing and expanding my brewing knowledge, and delightful reading. I only wish the book were bigger.Brad touches on just about every subject in homebrewing and goes into surprising depth on some subjects such as water chemistry and water additions.Even if you've received all of Brad's email homebrewing articles, having them compiled in this book in concise order and indexed makes it a great buy.I own most all of the essential homebrewing books but would rate this one at the top with John Palmer's How To Brew for having good practical information for homebrewers from beginner to advanced.

I bought this book mostly to support the beer smith community. The forums and blog are a tremendous wealth of information. They may not be all original, but the beersmith software and the forums are the most complete and thorough resource I have found forHome brewing. TheBook is a compilation of blog articles, but it flows fairly well, ad I have reference it numerous times already, so worth the money 100%

This book gave me a lot of very useful information.Together with the program, you can design your own recipe, and check if it falls into the category of lets say English Ale by color, SG, alcohol content, etc.. Very valuable tips are scattered all over the book.I now actually understand what the specialty grain is for, I am all excited about growing hops next year, etcI have been brewing for one year starting with How to Brew book, which is very good. I now own a few more books, but have to say that some of them are fairly useless - recipe books for clone beer and brewing classic styles - if they mention only base malt, and "add specialty grains" - they do not say which ones, how much, all of the malting temps are the same - very generic.On the contrary, this book is very concrete: it describes which specialty malt does what, how to mash at different temps for different body, how to hop, how to filter,and lots other tips.Indispensable for intermediate brewer !My best brewing book buy so far !

Let me preface this by saying I love beersmith and Brad's podcasts and blog are outstanding. That being said,I was a bit mislead by what the book would be, and I admit a part of that was my fault. I was expecting the book to cover some basics on brewing and mostly be a down and dirty in depth user manual for the beersmith software. After all, the title of the book is Home Brewing with Beersmith. In reality there is not a whole lot about Beersmith in the book. While I don't agree with some things in the book, for example the recommendation that using bleach and rinsing is still acceptable in homebrewing (Sanitizing and rinsing after is like washing your hands before you clean up poop. Why use bleach solution you have to rinse with when there are so many great and affordable no-rinse sanitizers available today? There is some great information for someone new to or looking into getting into homebrewing and a lot of the information is current, unlike some of the iconic brewing books by Charlie Papazian. The content is also easy to understand. I'm giving it a 3 stars rating based on the name of the book being very misleading. It felt like he was using the popularity of the software just to sell a how to brew book. He could easily have named it something more appropriate and put in there "Written by Brad Smith, creator of Beersmith" So if you were looking for nice down and dirty print version of all the ins and outs of the Beersmith Software, this book is not for you. If you want a decent how to homebrew book, then this is a good read for you.

I am an avid homebrewer, and own, and have read, many homebrewing books. This book has more usable tips for a homebrewer than any other book I own. Because this is a new book, the information is totally up to date. I recommend it highly for the brewer trying to up his or her game. Don't be put off by the name. The information is geared for all levels of homebrewers, and doesn't require the BeerSmith software. Of course, the author shamelessly promotes his BeerSmith software, but he should. It's excellent. If only it was available for the Macintosh.(sigh)

The book is well written, concise and informative. What prevented me from giving it 5 stars was I was expecting more of a "Missing Manual" book. It spends more time on beer theory and creation than on the finer points of using BeerSmith.

A great read and reference for brewers. As a newbie to the brewing scene, this read opened a broad view into the styles, whys, and hows to brew reasonable beer.

This book was well written and easy to understand, there were a few too many sales pitches for his BeerSmith (which I love by the way), but it was well done. Would have liked to see a little more in depth writings on All Grain brewing and the different styles and ways guys use various equipment.

Si lo que buscas es un libro que te explique bien como usar el software de BeerSmith esta no es la opcion, es mas un libro del tipo How To Brew

I've read other books on homebrewing, but this one is really about practical tips for beginners. Excellent read to start your production

Now using this book as my bible for home brewing. It has everything you need whether novice or advanced brewer and written in terms you’ll understand, well with the money.

Quando ho capito che era direttamente collegato al sito beer smith sono rimasto un attimo male, probabilnente avrei potuto avere le stesse informazioni dal sito, ma leggendo piano piano mi sono ricreduto. Libro molto ben fatto, aggiornato e molto dettagliato. Assieme a progettare grandi birre il mio preferito. A volte rimanda al sito ed al software... ma si fa perdonare.Un encomio sulla chimica dell'acqua. In inglese

Great read. Lots of information. Really helps if you have the Beersmith program