I found this book high on generalities and low on specifics. If you are a person with a lot of commercial brewing experience but little business acumen, you will probably like this book. If, on the other hand, you are (like me) a person with good business acumen, know how to brew beer at home and are just looking for some solid specific numbers on costs, equipment, etc. to help with planning, do not buy this book. It reminds me of a Monty Python sketch I heard years ago where a radio show audience was told they were going to be taught how to play the flute. When the time came for the "lesson", they were told to "blow in one end and move their fingers up and down the outside". I found this book about that helpful. There was very little that I already did not know, or could not find on line for free.

As others have mentioned, it's really a collection of articles on various topics that a brewer will deal with. Some of them are decent, some are totally "in the weeds" with details that don't really matter in the "thinking about it" stage. The main value lies in it's ability to give you a reality check: Do I really want to do this?

There is some useful information here, but it is mostly a collection of magazine articles written by various authors. This is not worth the $80 listed retail or even the $50 at amazon. The book not being written by a single author lacks a flow between sections. The sections dealing with financing and startup are nice, but I would like some more in depth information on various types of equipment available. If you can find this book for 20-25 that might be a more worthwhile price.

And as a side note, I think Ray Daniels' books that he authored are great.

What worse way to describe a book than, 'It was OK', it's like someone telling you your best atribute is that your 'nice'. But that's just it, for what it was supposed to be 'The Brewers Association's Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery' (think about it, that's a lot of weight in that title) it was only OK. There was some nice insight from brewing professionals whose opinions I already respect, there was some rough ideas of what to expect, and some sections with great detail about things I couldn't care less about at this point - the point of 'I'm still reading books to plan a brewery'.

I would have really have liked to have seen more real money and real equipment talked about. Basically they broke it down like this: it is hard and expensive, but if you can pull it off it is sooo worth it. That's not enough for me. Oh, I will mention there was a very detailed business plan which could be a great reference to the right person, but it reads like a business plan, go figure. Real snoozer of a way to end the book.

One last thing, this is an $80 book that as an AHA member I was able to buy for $50 from the Brewers Association so I at least felt like I got a deal, but to now see Amazon with it for sale for $50 kind of burns me up. This isn't an $80 book (think college text book) nor really a $50 book (think high school text book or instruction manual), it's more of a decent $25 book (think normal informative/opinionated book). So, all in all I am not saying don't get this book, but I would only get this book if you are seriously contemplating opening your own brewery and only as one more reference, not the be-all-to-end-all.

I had high hopes for this book, but ultimately am left greatly disappointed.

First, I agree with the previous reviewer - this book has more typos and grammatical errors than any book I've ever read! It's really unacceptable in any book, but certainly when the book retails for $80.

Second, this isn't a step-by-step guide to starting a brewing business. It's a hodgepodge of articles from old issues of The New Brewer magazine combined with random interviews and new writings from various "brewing professionals". Their seems to be no real "road map" or grand plan to the way the info is presented. I was extremely disappointed in the amount of information provided on professional brewing equipment. In contrast, an entire chapter was devoted to the selection of flooring material for the brewhouse floor. Admittedly this is an important decision, but the ratio to other information is odd at best.

I've met Ray Daniels at an AHA rally and he seems like a great guy who is passionate about beer and brewing. Unfortunately, this is a poor effort by Ray and I am guessing he's quite embarrassed whenever anyone mentions it.

Michael

One of the more expensive books I've bought recently...but an enjoyable, inspiring, and informative read. Obviously doesn't contain all the details (cost of individual brewhouse components for example) but does a great job identifying and describing the business on the system level. Also introduced me to some required areas of expertise I had not previously considered (e.g. wastewater treatment).

Ok, so for someone who went to school for art, hasn't taken an English class in 7 years, this book has more grammatical and editing errors than I have EVER seen in a published book.

The transcribed interviews are missing punctuation needed to make it read properly. In-text notes to the designers are still present. There are typos and misspellings, as though the chapters from various brewery owners were simply copy/pasted from their e-mails to the final publication.

And I've hardly started the book! I'm on page 23....

What gets me most is that this is the second/revised version of this book. Seriously people. Next time ABA, let me copy-edit it in exchange for beer. You know I'll do it.

If the book improves dramatically by the end, I'll revise my review.

kvh

One of the more expensive books I've bought recently...but an enjoyable, inspiring, and informative read. Obviously doesn't contain all the details (cost of individual brewhouse components for example) but does a great job identifying and describing the business on the system level. Also introduced me to some required areas of expertise I had not previously considered (e.g. wastewater treatment).

Ok, so for someone who went to school for art, hasn't taken an English class in 7 years, this book has more grammatical and editing errors than I have EVER seen in a published book.

The transcribed interviews are missing punctuation needed to make it read properly. In-text notes to the designers are still present. There are typos and misspellings, as though the chapters from various brewery owners were simply copy/pasted from their e-mails to the final publication.

And I've hardly started the book! I'm on page 23....

What gets me most is that this is the second/revised version of this book. Seriously people. Next time ABA, let me copy-edit it in exchange for beer. You know I'll do it.

If the book improves dramatically by the end, I'll revise my review.

kvh

Before America's weird experiment with prohibition there were hundreds, maybe thousands of small breweries in the United States. Of coure the do-gooders got them put out of business. The inevitable result was that almost all of the beers produced in the United States turned out to be identical. As 'Consumer Reports' termed it, beer was produced by Milcoorweiser, and it was basically all the same. The big difference was volume production and marketing.

Then came the west coast small brewery revolution. I'm not sure just where it started, Seattle, Portland and Northern California all claim fatherhood. All of a sudden people found that: First, it was possible to go buy good ales and beers that didn't taste like Milcoorweiser. Second, by opening a small brewery you could sell beer without the big price competition from Milcoorweiser. This was assisted by far out agressive marketing with names like [...].

Business has gotten more difficult as more small breweries have started up. But the end isn't in sight yet as there is still plenty of room for more companies to get started.

This book is put out by the Brewers Association, an industry group of small brewers who have contributed some of their knowledge to describing their success and giving advice on how to get started yourself.