Home Brewed Beers and Stouts

Home Brewed Beers and Stouts by C.J.J.Berry

When Home Brewed Beers and Stouts [1] was first published in 1963 it was probably the best available homebrew book in the UK at the time. When I bought my copy (for 70p) in 1978 it was the 17th reprint, but still the same edition and I found it to be much less useful than the excellent Dave Line books at the time. The fact that it hasn't had a significant update since then means that I cannot recommend it as a useful guide to homebrewing. If you want to start home brewing, I'd recommend the writings of John Alexander, Graham Wheeler, Charlie Papazian and/or John Palmer.

However, this book has some curious recipes that may be of some historical value, e.g. a recipe for Cock Ale, but I'm not sure that these are worth 70p never mind the current asking price! I never dared to brew any of them. Life is too short to brew recipes that look bad on paper and I have little confidence will be any better in the glass.

--LesHowarth 10:08, 6 February 2009 (UTC)