I picked this book up after a brief scan of the contents. Having read through it, what I really liked was Lewis' opinions. I.e., while there is plain-Jane factual content, many answers go beyond and touch on his preferences and rationales. He actually calls himself "ferociously opinionated" in one answer.

In the end that's what I'm really trying to get out of a book like this. Brewing can be approached in a paint-by-the-numbers fashion or more thoughtfully, with understanding and a full appreciation for the alternatives and creativity involved. Thoughtful answers and opinions from an expert support the latter. He simply refuses to buy into the notion you can scale recipes up and down in simple fashion, for example. Moreover, he offers tidbits of advice you won't find elsewhere, e.g., splitting a sample section of hose to look for cracks indicative of beerstone buildup, as one small example. Or his thoughts on sanitation, which offers both opinions and data I haven't seen elsewhere. Ditto filtration, yeast propagation, equipment, hot side aeration and a score of other topics.

So ... I find myself in agreement with John J. Palmer on this review - not a bad place to be! (John J. Palmer is author of one of the very best homebrewing books available: How to Brew: Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time) And I COMPLETELY disagree with another reviewer that this book amounts to "Brewing for Retards."

The only thing I don't like about this book is the format. It's a blocky, squarish, fat little book with cardboard covers of the type you find on children's books. I can't think of a single good reason why the publisher chose this format. My 4-star rating reflects the format, not the contents.

I picked this book up after a brief scan of the contents. Having read through it, what I really liked was Lewis' opinions. I.e., while there is plain-Jane factual content, many answers go beyond and touch on his preferences and rationales. In the end that's what I'm really trying to get out of a book like this. Brewing can be approached in a paint-by-the-numbers fashion or more thoughtfully, with understanding and a full appreciation for the alternatives and creativity involved. Thoughtful answers from an expert support the latter. He simply refuses to buy into the notion you can scale recipes up and down in simple fashion, for example. Moreover, he offers tidbits of advice you won't find elsewhere, e.g., splitting a sample section of hose to look for cracks indicative of beerstone buildup, as one small example. Or his thoughts on sanitation, which offers both opinions and data I haven't seen elsewhere.

So ... I find myself in agreement with John J. Palmer on this review - not a bad place to be! (John J. Palmer is author of one of the very best homebrewing books available: How to Brew: Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time) And I COMPLETELY disagree with another reviewer that this book amounts to "Brewing for Retards."

The only thing I don't like about this book is the format. It's a blocky, squarish, fat little book with cardboard covers of the type you find on children's books. I can't think of a single good reason why the publisher chose this format. My 4-star rating reflects the format, not the contents.

The Homebrewer's Answer book contains a lot of useful information in it's 400+ pages. The writer of the Ask Mr. Wizard column in Brew Your Own magazine has always provided well written, thoughtful replies to the questions he's received from all levels of brewers over the years, and these are collected in this book. Some of the questions are very basic, especially in the first couple sections, but there are a lot of very good questions from intermediate brewers in the later sections.

The only problem with the book is the format. It is small - a little shorter and wider than a standard paperback, which makes it difficult to hold and read. Perhaps the publisher thought that a pocket manual would be nifty. Unfortunately it tends to impede the readability.

Second, while the Questions are organized into several sections: Sanitation, Ingredients, Lagering, Packaging, Troubleshooting, Extract Brewing, All-grain Brewing, etc., there is no list of questions at the front of each section so that you can easily find Your question, and you therefore have to keep turning pages to find what you are looking for. Fortunately, the Questions are in bold, with seperators between questions, and there are several diagrams and sidebars to help illustrate the Answers. The index is well done too.

Bottom line: a good source of brewing information from a solid author, with an Issue, Consequences, and Resolution writing style, which I like. Perhaps the compact format won't be a problem for other readers. Get yourself some 3M Post-It Flags (tm) and this can indeed be a handy book.

John Palmer
author of How To Brew

I purchased this book thinking it might be a nice reference to keep around in the case that my curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to know why my beer came out the way it did. Upon reading part of it and scanning over the rest I soon realized that it was not a book for me... or anyone who would have the curiosity to buy it. It is presented in a Q and A format where Joe Brewer writes in to ask questions like "I made a beer that tastes like malt vinegar. Is that a bad thing?" or "I heard that brass contains lead, is this true?" If you actually ARE wondering the answers to these questions then maybe this book is for you but with its grade school topics, this is NOT a serious brewing book.