This book is a nice picture book of brewing techniques and not a lot more. It is part basic equipment and instruction manual, and part recipe book. It is well done for what it is, but can be passed by if you are already doing more than beginning extract brewing and certainly if you are already into all-grain brewing. The "Extreme" in the title should be regarded as from the extract brewer's perspective (i.e., all grain is more involved than extract), or perhaps it's a hyperbolic reference to some of the more unusual ingredients mentioned in some of the recipes.

This book is a nice picture book of basic brewing techniques. Nothing more, nothing less. Well done for what it is, but should be passed by if you know anything at all about brewing beyond the simplest of extract-based techniques.

This book contains 25 fun and `extreme' beer recipes. The introduction surrounding the makeup of ingredients is well done and more detailed than most books. This book contains a lot of photography and the images are excellent. The intro to brewing chapter is a good review, but there are other books out there that go into more detail. Get this book for the information about using fruits and spices in your beer, or the best beer and food pairings. The recipes are extract based, which makes then accessible to beginners, but some of the recipes are also quite complex.

Topics unique to this book

* Brewing with fruit: (apricots, arctic cloud berries, black currants, blueberries, white muscat grape concentrate, raisins, raspberries, sour cherries, strawberries, sweet cherries)
* Brewing with spices: (allspice, anise, cardamom seed, chicory, coriander, cinnamon sticks, coffee, ginger, grains of paradise, juniper berries, licorice root, rosemary, saffron threads, spruce tips, st. john's wort, valerian).
* Brewing with other ingredients: (pumpkin, pepper corns, molasses, wood chips, etc)
* Adding sugar during fermentation to boost ABV
* High gravity beers

I love the passion of this author and the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, and highly recommend both of his books.

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

I've been brewing for a few years, but I'm still learning lots of new tip and tricks with this book.
The presentation, layout and photos are terrific.
Having food and beer pairings is such a bonus and unexpected treat.
Highly recommended for any beer maker or beer lover's library.
Know what you're making or know what you're drinking, even if you don't brew at home.

This book is one of those flashy glossy books with very little content. This is not for the all grain brewer, maybe for the extract people it could be of interest. Recipes are very basic and common. Dry writing style but lots of cozy pictures of people drinking beer.

I purchased this book after seeing it at my local homebrew store. The author is the founder of Dogfish Head Brewery in Deleware, and I love their 60 min. IPA. They have a clone recipe in the book for it, which I brewed in Nov. '07, and loved. Wasn't exactly like DFH 60 min. IPA, but pretty close, and very good.

I may try a few of the other recipes later on, lots of good ones, all for 5 gal. batches.

This book has great recipes for the experienced brewer, but I found the beginning of the book to be somewhat unnecessary. It had a lot of advice for brewers just learning how to brew. I do not feel people buying a book of "Extreme Brewing" recipes are going to need advice about getting started in brewing. All in all, the book is worth the price for it's easy reading and great recipes.

While this book has been put down pretty heavily by some of the other reviews, I have to say that, while this book isn't exactly for the super-experienced brewer (Radical Brewing is more for that.), this book does a good job of introducing brewing concepts up front, then pushing the reader to push the envelope and make something interesting.

This is a severely quick read with quite a few worthwhile recipes. For those out there who already know what they're doing, this book is pretty okay for the recipes in it. Particularly if you are a fan of Dogfish Head beer. For the beginner, it makes beginning homebrewing more interesting by offering more complex and interesting recipes up front, rather than pushing overly simplistic recipes other books tend to afford.

While this book isn't exceptionally deep and complex, it is entertaining and puts forth a bit of useful information here and there. Certainly not a reference manual, like The Brewmaster's Bible or Radical Brewing, but it is a worthwhile first brewing book in my opinion.

While this book has been put down pretty heavily by some of the other reviews, I have to say that, while this book isn't exactly for the super-experienced brewer (Radical Brewing is more for that.), this book does a good job of introducing brewing concepts up front, then pushing the reader to push the envelope and make something interesting.

This is a severely quick read with quite a few worthwhile recipes. For those out there who already know what they're doing, this book is pretty okay for the recipes in it. Particularly if you are a fan of Dogfish Head beer. For the beginner, it makes beginning homebrewing more interesting by offering more complex and interesting recipes up front, rather than pushing overly simplistic recipes other books tend to afford.

While this book isn't exceptionally deep and complex, it is entertaining and puts forth a bit of useful information here and there. Certainly not a reference manual, like The Brewmaster's Bible or Radical Brewing, but it is a worthwhile first brewing book in my opinion.

Firstly, let me say that I respect Sam's achievements in brewing and applaud his creativity. I'm looking forward to more "extreme" offerings from Dogfish Head in the future. Unfortunately, my regard for this book does not match that of the author. It's really a bit of a mess. In trying to appeal to beginner and experienced brewer alike, I think it fails to satisfy either. The title would lead the consumer to believe that this is a guide for brewers (enthusiasts) to kick their brewing knowledge and techniques up a notch. However, the first sections of the book are an uninspired description of the extract brewing process, barely detailed enough for a beginning brewer. The book then describes how and when to use extreme brewing ingredients (non-traditional sugars, spices, herbs, etc). This is by far the most interesting part of the book, but is more applicable to an experienced brewer. The book then concludes with an extract/partial mash recipe section leaving us all-grain brewers hanging out in the breeze. Next time Sam, pick an audience and stick to it throughout the book.

For the title I felt this book not bringing it all home. It contains all extract recipes and is not that informative for the experienced home brewer. For beginners only.

Let me start by saying I like Sam's beers and he seemed like a good guy when I met him a while back.

When I heard about the book I was quite interested as I had recently read Radical Brewing (which is a fairly in depth examination of ingredients and techniques).

Extreme Brewing is a great book for a novice brewer who want some basic extract / partial mash recipes for what are currently viewed as some "extreme" craft brewes from Dogfish Head, Avery, Russian River, etc. The brewers and beers in the book are some of the best but there is no real depth of information for anyone who has been brewing for any length of time. I'm not an expert, but this book really had nothing new to offer in terms of brewing ingredients / techniques.

If you want some recipes for extract versions of some big beers, go for it. If you want to really explore brewing on a creative level - pass.

I just received my copy of Extreme Brewing and I haven't been able to put it down since it arrived. I've been a big fan of Dogfish Head beers for years and thoroughly enjoyed Calagione's first book Brewing Up Business. Wow, not only does this guy make the world's greatest beers, he's a heckuva a writer too!

Extreme Brewing is informative, engaging and so far pretty easy to understand. I admit I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but the instructions seem simple enough to follow. I'm really excited to brew my beer in the Dogfish Head tradition.

This book is just what I've been looking for to take my brews to a new level. I am planning to try one of the fruit beer recipes this weekend. I've always enjoyed the Dogfish beers so I think that Sam's recipes will be just what I am seeking.