New Brewing Lager Beer: The Most Comprehensive Book for Home and Microbrewers

However, the sheer volume of detail would bore a newcomer to brewing, or worse yet, scare him or her off. The beginner simply doesn't need this much highly-technical information. However, after that beginner gets a few batches under his belt, this book would be a good addition to his or her brewing library.


Required reading for all-grain efforts, lager or ale.   August 23, 1998
18 out of 19 found this review helpful

Noonan's text is simply superb. It is well organized, extremely detailed, and concise. This is a book about how and why you use each part of the brewing process. Noonan champions and explains the decoction mash, and even explains how to figure out if the malt you're using needs a decoction or an infusion mash. Appendices address both the infusion mash and the step mash, concisely, yet in detail.

The first third of the book, dedicated to ingredients, is alone worth the price. The detail on malt, brewing water, and yeast instantly imparts a greater understanding of and appreciation for the brewing process.

Read this book and begin to make informed decisions about your ingredients and the processes you use to brew beer from them.


Absolute must have for homebrewing!   October 10, 2003
theoriginalsubguy (Florida)
17 out of 20 found this review helpful

This is without question the best book for homebrewing available. It is the only one that covers decoction mashing in detail. Most German brewers and even Anheuser-Busch use this efficient method to get maximum flavor and yield for your beer. Noonan covers a broad area of topics in great detail. From brewing chemistry to practical procedures outlined for the intermediate to advanced brewer, Noonan hits the bullseye. If you have brewed a little and really want to get into it, get this book!


Excellent bridge from Beginner to Advanced brewer...   September 27, 2005
Stephen Ressel (North Dakota, USA)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful

In January I was lucky to be stuck in Berlin with Salmonella...because it gave me a month to go through this book chapter by chapter, reading, and re-reading with highlighter. And after 2 reads and a well worn and hi-lit version of the book, I have to admit, it is a potent and nearly perfect book for understanding how brewing works on a variety of levels. Best of all, it follows through all methods of all grain brewing for lager beer in the traditional Germanic style.

Thought the book tends to repeat itself a little as it describes the process, then re-describes the brewing process for practical use, it is well descriptive with paragraphs making perfect sense on a variety of levels of information. Once read by a beginner, he then has a great source for a step into higher understanding of the chemistry and biology behind brewing.

I put this book as THE BEST brewing book on my ever expanding beer book shelf.


Believe the title of this book...   February 2, 1997
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

...this is /the/ book for those who wish to enter all-grain (as opposed to extract or partial mash) brewing. The title specifically references lager beers, but the information, techniques and theory described apply to the production of ales as well. Don't buy this book first if you are just entering brewing as a hobby, but do buy it second or third if you move on to all-grain methods.

Cheers to beers.