The Homebrewer's Garden: How to Easily Grow, Prepare, and Use Your Own Hops, Malts, Brewing Herbs

I bought this book looking for a guide to grow hops... It is certainly that, and more. It covers varieties and where they grow, how to treat the soil, where to plant, what how to build an effective trellis etc... AND it covers how to dry the fresh hops in preparation for use in a brew... how to build an oast (which is the drying structure)... And it does all of this in a very approachable way. Bonus for me - was that it covers the same for the cultivation, harvest, and treatment (malting and drying) of barley ... And has a nice run-down of brewing herbs and their uses (how much of what herb to use in the brew - and when to add it)... Just noticed - the cover says: How to easily grow prepare, and use your own Hops, Malts, and Brewing Herbs yeah ... that's about right. ;) Inspiring.

The Homebrewer's Garden is an expertly written guide which will teach you how to take your homebrewing to a whole new level. Whether you are a newcomer to the hobby or a seasoned veteran brewer, Homebrewer's Garden will be a book that you'll go back to again and again. The book repeats little if any information found in a homebrewing primer, so advance knowledge of the brewing process and terminology will be helpful. However, little (if any) experience is needed in actual brewing to take advantage of this book. The book is broken up into four main sections. The first teaches you everything you need to know about how to grow your own hops, the differences between the varieties, and how to use them. Included in this section are instructions that will take you from planting your first hops plants to drying and storing your hops with your home-built oast, or hops dryer. The second section is a comprehensive list of herbs that can be used in brewing. This section includes information on which varieties to use, how to grow them, which parts of the plant to use, when to add them, how much to use, and expected resulting flavors and aromas. Also includes a section on herbs that are poisonous or should otherwise not be used. The third section covers growing, harvesting, malting, and using your own grains. There's far more than just barley covered in this section! Also covered are amaranth, corn, oat, quinoa, rye, sorghum, spelt, and wheat. Each grain has a breakdown of different varieties and how to grow and use them. The fourth section is the obligatory recipes section. Many traditional herbal beers are here, as well as some more innovative beverages that I'd never heard of--Gotlandsdrika, anyone? Where applicable, both extract and all-grain recipes are listed. Even if you never expect to grow your own hops, grains, or herbs, The Homebrewer's Garden will make you a better brewer. Also recommended is the book Clone Brews, which feature recipes adapted from popular beers of different styles from around the world.

The Fisher brothers have done home brewer's a great service with this book. As a life long brewer and author of The Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible I give them my highest compliments and thanks for their research into ancient herbal brewing and their presentation of their material without a lot of technical jargon.Wether you're a complete novice or a veteran brewer there's a lot to learn here from almost forgotten techniques and ingredients to growing and malting your own grains.Well done

Great book for the beginner. Even if you have never planted a simple garden, you cannot go wrong with this book. Very timely and explanatory - covers a range of subjects, including where to order hops, trelis construction, diseases, soil nutrients, and drying/using. Also includes techniques to grow herbs to use in brewing. A must read.

I bought this book to learn how to grow my own hops. It was very clear on different techniques and also has addresses of where to get some starter plants.