Browsing through the 80 recipes in this book was a great source of inspiration for my next batch of home brew. If you can't decide what to do next, pick up this book. There is bound to be something you haven't tried.

The title is misleading, the sub-title would be more accurate. It is primarily recipes. The book contains short introductory chapters on ingredients and brewing that other books have covered in more detail. If you don't know what terms like lovibond, OG, FG, and IBU are I would read an introductory how to brew book first.

The recipes are primarily setup for all grain brewers. For extract based brewers the recipes are modified to `fit' the style. I get the sense the authors are all grain brewers who wanted to broaden the market for their book by adding the extract formulations.

This is a great book to browse and see what a style has in common in terms of grains, hops and yeast.

larry 'at' brewersfriend 'dot' com
http://www.brewersfriend.com

Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew

This book is less than the price of an extract kit ... but contains recipes and advice that are worth so much more. I've brewed the Kolsch, the Belgian Wit, and just received my grain for the British Bitter.

I brew the all-grain versions but John and Jamil include extract and partial-mash versions of each recipe. They give you great pointers for each style and give you the exact fermentation temperatures for each recipe.

Easy to read and follow. Gives extract versions of recipes and conversions for all grain as well.

I have already brewed several of the beers from this book and have had outstanding results. You will need a primary book for the beginner, but if have brewed before and want to get away from kits this is definitely the way to go. You can get most of the recipes free via podcast, but there is other information included in the book that the podcasts miss. I would definitely recommend adding this book to your brewing repertoire.

This is a fantastic book, I've been brewing every week since I got the book 7 months ago. Fantastic recipes, brilliant advice.

Brewing Classic Styles gives a concise introduction to each BJCP defined beer style, and proven example recipes for how to brew them. The recipes are all based on extracts (with specialty grains), with an all-grain option, and although they are centred around the ingredients, there's enough information about process as well to help you produce very good beer -- but if you're a total beginner, I'd recommend getting John Palmer's How to Brew as well.

There are also plenty of hints for how to tweak and modify the recipes for different outcomes, so the book should be a good companion to Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels for intermediate and experienced brewers as well, and doesn't confine you to one specific way of brewing or to a particular end result. As such, it encourages further creativity, even though the recipes should be (and are, at least to the extent I have tried them) excellent as they are.

Brewing Classic Styles isn't an essential book for the home brewer. You can easily get by without it. Some of the ingredients can be hard to find, especially outside the U.S. It is, however, a very good introduction to the styles, and provides you with clear examples of how to brew each. Of its kind, it's probably the best there is.

I'm disappointed in this book because I had such high expectations. I'm trying not to let my disappointment obscure the fact that it really is a pretty good book. It's just not what I had hoped for from these two authors.

This is not a book for snobs. The recipes are written to use malt extract and steeping grains with "all-grain" as an option. The authors recognize that you can make very good beer either way. I love all types of brewing myself, from "all-grain" to "extract-only" and everything in between. I appreciate a book that doesn't look down on brewing with extracts. The authors also recognize that there are many great beer styles and they include, for example, American lagers. Zainasheff clearly thinks every beer style is worth drinking. There isn't the slightest hint of sarcasm when Zainasheff refers to the Standard American Lagers as being "crisp, dry and refreshing." I find his attitude refreshing. He's enthusiastic about brewing beer of all sorts and his enthusiasm shows, mostly in a really pleasing, fun sort of way.

Occasionally, however, he gets a bit carried away. For example, in his introduction, Zainasheff makes the comment: "Too many brewers focus on just a handful of their favorite styles and miss out on some really wonderful beer styles. Don't let that happen to you. Please make an effort to brew every style in this book well." Sorry, Jamil. I'll try to make an effort to drink all 80 styles (so I don't "miss out") but I might be a little short of time (in this life) to learn to brew them all.

He really lets his enthusiasm get the best of him when he discusses Scottish ale brewing. He writes that even though some people "detect peat smoke notes in this beer style . . . the use of peat smoked malts is not correct." Then he goes on to say that even some beer judges encourage "brewers to add peat-smoked malt, which is completely wrong." He adds, "Don't do it. Do not add peat malt to any of the beers in this category." Then, just in case we didn't get it, he concludes the section (4 paragraphs later) with the important reminder, "Do not add any type of smoked malt to Scottish ale." Wow. I can't wait to brew a Scottish ale with some peat-smoked malt to see what all the fuss is about.

I wonder about the authors' decision to use the same extraction efficiency (70%) for either mashing or for steeping of malted grain. In How to Brew, Palmer tells us to expect about 48% efficiency for steeping dark crystal malts, for example, and only 40% for steeping light crystal. He says those numbers are based on his own steeping experiments. I usually get even less than that. Also, he implies in more than one place in How to Brew that kilned malts such as brown, aromatic, melanoidin, or victory malt must be mashed, not steeped. In this book, however, Palmer writes that these kilned malts "need to be mashed, but may be steeped." Zainasheff includes each one of these kilned malts as "steeping grains" in his recipes, yet still assumes a 70% extraction efficiency. No change in the quantity of any steeping grain is prescribed if you choose to mash instead of steep. Something doesn't add up somewhere. It makes you wonder if they didn't really have their heart into converting the recipes from all-grain to extract versions. What's needed is a thorough explanation of the whole "mashing versus steeping" issue and I can't think of anyone who could explain it better than Palmer. But, alas, the explanation is not there.

Despite these criticisms, I still would say the book is pretty good. The recipes are proven in competition and the writing is never boring or "textbookish." I think it's the only recipe book I'll ever buy. Chapter two (on choosing ingredients) contains a lot of information that was very useful and that I've never found anywhere else, especially the section on choosing hops. I just wish it went further. This is a good book that should have been a bit better.

This book gives you a good starting point for designing recipes for many different styles. Furthermore the authors of this book provide an award winning recipe for each style covered. I strongly recommend this book to anybody who is ready to start formulating their own recipes.

One of the best brewing books ive purchased. I like how every recipe has an extract and all grain versions. Also like the breakdown of what skill level each of the beers are to brew, from beginner to advanced.

I was disappointed in this book. There is so much more to brewing than a recipe and I was hoping for more on input and different points of view on other aspects of brewing. This is basically another recipe book with a brief blurb on the particular recipe/style - not much real new earth shattering info presented.

John's a great guy, makes good beer, yada yada and he has a lot of knowledge - don't know much about the other guy but whatever knowledge is there didn't come through at much more than a simple level. Once you get to the place where you are doing your own combinations of ingredients to create specific flavors and other characteristics in a finished beer you're well beyond needing a recipe. I'd hoped for something that was much more insightful. Maybe a good book for novice/beginning all-grain brewers looking for tested recipes.

Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer have put together a useful handbook for homebrewers. If you don't like to formulate your own recipes, you can simply brew any of the recipes in this book to create a great beer of any style. If you do like to formulate your own recipes, this book gives you a great jumping-off point for deciding what to put in your beer. No more searching for hours on line to find out what type of malt goes in a Flanders red!

"Brewing Classic Styles" is, on another level, a condensed version of Jamil's live Internet show, also available as a podcast, and highly recommended.

If you have never homebrewed, start with Papazian's book instead to get all the basic information you will need. But if you've brewed even one or two beers and want to brew more, this book belongs in your library.

Great book.
Read recipe - make beer - tastes great - repeat !
Who has time to write long reviews of a great book,
I've got more beer to make.
Recipes can be found anywhere on the internet, but Jamil Z and John P
working together, what else could you want ?

If you are interested in defining beer profiles for yourself, BUY THIS BOOK. Also checkout Jamil's intentet radio show at thebrewingnetwork.com. Probably the best home brewer in the contry.

Jamil and John's excellent recipe book adds a missing element to the world of home brewing. This is a list of proven recipes in every style with notes about what is key in brewing that style. It is also a nice touch that an extract recipe is listed for each style as well.

Although, there are other recipe books available and recipes are all over the web, there is really no uniformly trusted source for spot on recipes for so many styles. Too many times I have grabbed a recipe even from a decent source and only later with more experience been able to isolate its flaws.

This book should help people start brewing their favorite styles or venture into unfamiliar styles with a real home brew pro as their guide. I have already brewed a couple of the recipes and can't wait to try more. Super resource.

I bought JZ's book from the TBN store because that was the only way I could get a personalized message by the great homebrewer!

Having heard all of JZ's podcasts on TBN, I came to expect a complete, precise, easy to understand and REAL book on Classic Beer Styles as they are described on the 2004 BJCP guideline.
I expected a lot.

But I got even more.
What I got was a wealth of real, tried and true information that a homebrewer at any level of expertise can brew succesfully and repeatedly.

I'm lining my brewing resources to brew as many of the styles (exact recipes) of the book I can.

I've been a home brewer for 6 months now and I have brewed 18 different styles mainly because JZ suggested getting exposure on brewing different styles. He feels that doing that will make you a better brewer, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Remember, there are no "bad" beer styles, there are badly brewed beer styles that permanently put people off.

This book should help fix that.
I can't wait to brew JZ's Flander's Red. Now if I can find the roselaere yeast anywhere... I guess I'll have to harvest the yeast from a bottle...

I just got this book and have begun to flip through it. I hate to disrupt the stream of positive reviews, but at least one thing about it really annoys me. I'm fairly new to brewing and was looking forward to having good recipes for the classic beer styles, and especially ones that can be done with extract as well as all-grain. I could be wrong, but it seems that the numbers for extract brewing are just a mathematical conversion from an originally all-grain recipe. The quantities listed for malt extract are almost all listed in odd amounts and tenths of a pound, i.e. 6.7 lbs. of pale malt or 1.3 lbs. of dark malt. Most extracts are packed in even amounts like Northern Brewer's 6lb. and 3lb. sizes. Where do you get .7 lbs. or .3 lbs. of extract!? Even if you're willing to buy more than you need to make up the difference, it would be very difficult/tedious to measure accurately.

I pre-ordered this book when I saw the quality of the two authors involved. Jamil and John Palmer are among the best in the world of homebrewing. John Palmer's "How to Brew" is a classic text on the subject. This book does not rise to such a height. The bulk of the book is recipes and not much on the whys and technical background.

The recipes may be of high quality and tested by Jamil for all his homebrewing medals. However, some of these recipes could be found through his free podcast. In addition, I've found many of the malt extracts called for in the recipes are very hard to find. Where can I get Rauch Liquid Malt Extract? It is made but I was unable to find a source for it online. This is one example of hard to find ingredients among others.

With the two authors I was hoping for more techniques and background. It is more like buying a cookbook than a food science book. It is mildly disappointing because I haven't had a difficult time finding recipes in magazines, online, and in podcasts. However, knowledge and experience are harder to come by.

If you are a fan of homebrewing you are probably familiar with the name Jamil Z. He has a bimonthly show on the brewing network. This podcast takes a style of beer and offers an hour discussion on the history, classic examples, and keys to brewing and an award winning recipe of the given style. This podcasts is sent out for free by the brewing network. It is available for download for free. The podcast is partly sustained by the sale of books similar to this in the brewing network store. Although not as inexpensive as Amazon's price the additional dollars go to a good cause. I bought my copy of the book there and I would recommend you do the same.

This is by far the best book of its kind that I've read. The authors have distilled a practical, intelligent and fun-to-read compendium of brewing magic. All of the recipes are great, and tested, and tested, and tested (it's hard, but someone has to do it). I also enjoyed Radical Brewing, which had some surprises for me. Still, this guide makes it all come together.

Reading my fourth book on brewing, I didn't think I would learn much here.
Anyway, I was really wrong! An issue I always have is finding good recipes.
This text has over 80 recipes, and better yet, it has extract and all-grain!

Perhaps my favorite part is that these recipes are all tried and true.
All the awards that Jamil has won over the years (including the Ninkasi) is
Direct proof of that!

Anyone who has read Zymurgy or Brew Your Own magazine will recognize the expertise and talent of authors Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer. This book differs from other homebrewing recipe books in that all the recipes listed have been brewed, entered into homebrew competitions and have won medals. Also, the recipes are from Jamil himself, a two time winner of the Ninkasi award which is given to the most award winning homebrewer of the year during the National Homebrewers Conference. The only other homebrewing books you will ever need besides this one are "How to Brew" and "Designing Great Beers"