If your happy just doing kits and not really caring about all the extra little things you could be doing or the in depth process of beer making then you might not want this book.

It is however an excellent book to get if you love making beer and like to learn all about it. Lots of information. Extra things you can do to make a good beer, great.

I have read "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" and was extremely impressed with it and was equally impressed with this book. It is more in depth and detailed than the previous and covers more issues. Highly recommend it.

Excellent follow-up to the Joy of Homebrewing. Learned quite a few things that have saved me a lot of headaches during the brewing process.

I agree with some of the other readers that this book is not as entertaining to read as "The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing." Papazian's wittiness, which was fun and comfortable in his first book, now comes off as sharp sarcasm (ex. "if you haven't figured that out by now, maybe you're relaxing a bit too much"). However, you're probably not reading this because you're looking for an entertaining read. If you're like me, you want a book that's more in-depth, that'll fulfill your need to become more involved in brewing than you once were. Well, all in all, if that's what you're looking for, you may find that you use this book less than you expected. It has very good information for those who are getting into such things as filtration and artificial carbonation. There is also pretty detailed information on ions in water and their effects. However, the mathematical information presented is somewhat incomplete, and therefore hard to use with this book alone. If you are a beginner, this book is certainly not for you. Get "The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing" (by Papazian) instead, as it will guide you through an unbelievable range of brewing skill levels. If you're an intermediate brewer, and want to take it to the next level (grain-brewing, original recipe formulation, etc.), I recommend Ray Daniels' "Designing Great Beers." There are quite a few things Daniels covers that Papazian doesn't, and Daniels seems to present it in a more concise, complete, and easy-to-use way. Don't get me wrong, Papazian is a great writer and a legend in homebrewing, but this second book falls short of the standard he set with his first.

Everything you need to get started homebrewing. Its a little out of date, (I bought the 2nd edition, there is a 3rd, its from the 80s), but all of the info is good. Great book, don't worry, relax, have a home brew!

It is hard to disagree with the author, who said that this could have been titled The Complete Joy of Homebrewing part 2. This book takes the reader into a deeper look at some of the more advanced brewing techniques, but don't let that scare you off if you are a new homebrewer. This book is well worth the information even for the new brewer. Also includes more recipes (which you can never get enough of).

Papazian knows his stuff. Great reference book.

I bought this along with The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, also by Papazian. I think both books are a must-have for any homebrewer. _Companion_ is more of a reference text, while _Joy_ is more introductory. Both books have indispensable information about the basic ingredients and processes of brewing.

When formulating a recipe, I refer back and forth to both books. Each has a variety of recipes in myriad styles that provide a good jumping-off point. For customizing the recipes, I refer to the table in _Companion_ that summarizes the various malts and their contribution to specific gravity, then I go to the table in _Joy_ that catalogs the different varieties of hops and their contribution to bitterness and flavor.

As a new brewer, this book has more advanced information in it than I need at the moment. It will be a good reference as I progress through brewing and gain more experience. If you only have one book on brewing to purchase, get Charles Papazian's first book on home brewing.

I'm very happy reading this book. It's really serious and complete.
It helps me to brew good beers beacause all items in brewing are explained with enough deep.

True, this book contains a lot of the same info already found in The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing, but buy any two homebrewing books and you're bound to find loads of overlap in material. This book stands on its own as an intermediate book. The material on beer styles others have criticized as 'filler' is absolutely indispensable. With a little effort, you can use these guides to brew accurate recreations of almost any beer style imaginable. In fact, you could call it a condensed version of the entire "Styles" series put out by Brewer's Publications. This book contains much of the useful technical information found in other, practically unreadable texts, in Charlie's relaxed style. If his first book got you excited about homebrewing, this one will fan the flames. Sure there's much more to learn, but this book will help you see the benefit in beefing up your technical understanding of brewing.

After publishing the best introduction to home brewing Papazian released this unenlightening tome. His snappy style, so essential in his first book, sounds dull and contrived. One third of the book is complete filler as he lists 60 pages of various beer styles along with their specific gravities, etc. This information could have been presented in a two page spread. Additionally, he offers little in the way of advanced brewing technique. The one saving grace of this book is the recipe section, with interesting ideas like a lambic barley wine and a raspberry imperial stout. If you are looking for a book that offers a firm overview of all-grain brewing then I can recommend 'Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide' or Noonan's 'Brewing Lager Beer.' Papazian's book will most likely be a complete disappointment.

After publishing the best introduction to home brewing Papazian released this unenlightening tome. His snappy style, so essential in his first book, sounds dull and contrived. One third of the book is complete filler as he lists 60 pages of various beer styles along with their specific gravities, etc. This information could have been presented in a two page spread. Additionally, he offers little in the way of advanced brewing technique. The one saving grace of this book is the recipe section, with interesting ideas like a lambic barley wine and a raspberry imperial stout. If you are looking for a book that offers a firm overview of all-grain brewing then I can recommend 'Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide' or Noonan's 'Brewing Lager Beer.' Papazian's book will most likely be a complete disappointment.

This is Charlie Papazian's second book on the subject of homebrewing. I found this book to be more technical in nature than Papazian's first book, "The new Complete Joy of Homebrewing", and not quite as entertaining to read. Nevertheless, this book is still useful as a reference tool and it does have some good recipes. Cheers!