Yankee Brew News Archive

Book Review: Great Beer from Kits

Originally Published: 10/96

By: Brett Peruzzi

Great Beer from Kits

By Joe Fisher and Dennis Fisher

Storey Communications, Pownal, Vermont

170 pages, $12.95

The Fisher brothers (of New Hampshire, incidentally) begin and end Great Beer from Kits by presenting some of the now-standard basic information for the new brewer that can be found in a large number of homebrewing books. More useful is the eight-page listing of the technical specifications of many popular (especially British) homebrew kits, including specific gravity, bittering units, and ingredients.

They finally get to the meat of the book about a third of the way through, where they explain beer styles and provide a kit-based recipe or two for each style. In the time-honored homebrewer tradition, the recipes use a kit only as a base, adding other extracts, specialty malts, fresh hops, and yeast strains, to enhance the aromatics and flavor profile of the specific beer style.

With the introduction of Brewferm products in recent years, even esoteric beer styles from Belgium can be brewed from kits. Coupled with the broad variety of yeasts now widely available, even intermediate brewers can now brew credible versions of the world's great beer styles.

The book, unfortunately, is slightly marred by a couple of factual errors. Samuel Adams Stock Ale is referred to as a lager; Belgian brewer, now adopted Texan Pierre Celis is referred to as "Pieter," and his famed wit beer is confused with his Grand Cru.

Still, these minor flaws aside, Great Beer from Kits would be a good resource for the new to intermediate brewer that wants to credibly produce a variety of beer styles without straying too far from the speed and simplicity of kits.