Beer Captured: Homebrew Recipes for 150 World Class Beers

The brewing technique books are great for getting to the bottom of brewing, but they can become boring. This book (and Clone Brews) is pure fun. First; you review what is arguably the collection of famous and not so famous international brews. Secondly; using a process of elimination you decide which to try and emulate. Thirdly, you brew it and compare the result (with friends) and the original brew - if your lucky enough that it's imported. The combination is home brewer's bliss. Two home brews never taste the same, so I don't complain if they taste a wee bit off target. It's great fun and variety is the spice of life, as you know or you wouldn't be home brewing!

I have been brewing beer from this book for a couple of years and, to date, the recipes have earned me five home brewing ribbons - including (2) First Places. My most recent, and proudest, is a first place I earned for my version of Stovepipe Porter. This beer placed first in the Northeast Regional's of the 2004 National Homebrewing Competition. Tess and Mark have incroporated a wealth of information into this book. The recipes are easy to follow and with some care will produce very nice beer. This book (as well as their earlier "Clonebrews") makes one thing difficult - which beer to make first?? This is a MUST HAVE for anyone interested in brewing their own beer. I can not thank Tess and Mark enough for their tireless efforts and dedication to making brewing beer so easy and rewarding!! Keep up the great work!PROSIT !!

By the authors of "Clone Brews" Beer Captured is also a book of copies of 150 commercially produced beers from around the world. I found this book to be an improvment over the Szmatulski's first effort in that with the book's new look you get a helpful hints section on each recipe along with serving suggestions. Divided into four sections pages 1-14 tell a lot about brewing (probably not quite enough for a complete novice), followed by pages 15-164, beer recipes, section three (165-174)has recipes for foods involving beer in them someplace (some sound very tasty. Part 4, pages 175-195,contains lists of mash guidelines, water mineral and modification charts, several other charts not given in most books that should really help in brewing something drinkable.

I can't say enough good things about this book. The title is perfect. Every Szamatulski recipe I have tried has been great (I own both of their books and have brewed a bunch of their recipes). The descriptions of each beer and the suggestions of food to go with it make my mouth water. Every recipe has instructions for all-grain, extract w/ grain, and partial mash methods of brewing. Find a recipe in the book that appeals to you, taste a store bought beer to see if you like it a lot, brew it, taste your version and the brewery's version and see how much better your's is than the "real thing". I have 16 homebrewing boks on my shelf and most of them are at least half full of recipes. "Beer Captured" is my all-time favorite. 5 stars is not enough.

I can't believe it is finally here. The sequel to Clonebrews. This book is a MUST HAVE for every brewer. Whether you brew Extract, mini-mash, or all grain, this book is full of great information. The book is so complete that it comes with water tables in the back of the book that tell you how much water to mash and sparge with for both mini-mash and all grain brewing. It will help you adjust your water so it is the same as some of the greatest breweries in the world as well as help you adjust your tap water for each particular style you are brewing. Each beer recipe comes with food suggestions, the appropriate glass to drink the beer from, and helpful hints. The helpful hints will help you with determining fermentation time for each beer as well as when the beer peeks and how long it will stay drinkable. There are also hop charts, yeast charts, and grain, malt, and sugar charts. I almost forgot, there are 150 new recipes for commercial beers that were not in Clonebrews: Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, Fuller's London Porter, Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter, and Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout to name a few. This book also has an added bonus. There are food recipes as well. The pepper encrusted filet mignon and the chocolate stout cake are AWESOME. Get this book into your brewing library as soon as you can and start brewing award-winning beers. Thanks to Tess and Mark Szamatulski, the homebrewing world is alive and well.