Customer Reviews:
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 Short on substance June 21, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I found this book high on generalities and low on specifics. If you are a person with a lot of commercial brewing experience but little business acumen, you will probably like this book. If, on the other hand, you are (like me) a person with good business acumen, know how to brew beer at home and are just looking for some solid specific numbers on costs, equipment, etc. to help with planning, do not buy this book. It reminds me of a Monty Python sketch I heard years ago where a radio show audience was told they were going to be taught how to play the flute. When the time came for the "lesson", they were told to "blow in one end and move their fingers up and down the outside". I found this book about that helpful. There was very little that I already did not know, or could not find on line for free.
 Good for people -just thinking- about doing this February 14, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
As others have mentioned, it's really a collection of articles on various topics that a brewer will deal with. Some of them are decent, some are totally "in the weeds" with details that don't really matter in the "thinking about it" stage. The main value lies in it's ability to give you a reality check: Do I really want to do this?
ok... September 1, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
There is some useful information here, but it is mostly a collection of magazine articles written by various authors. This is not worth the $80 listed retail or even the $50 at amazon. The book not being written by a single author lacks a flow between sections. The sections dealing with financing and startup are nice, but I would like some more in depth information on various types of equipment available. If you can find this book for 20-25 that might be a more worthwhile price.
And as a side note, I think Ray Daniels' books that he authored are great.
The Guide to THINKING About It June 21, 2007
24 out of 24 found this review helpful
What worse way to describe a book than, 'It was OK', it's like someone telling you your best atribute is that your 'nice'. But that's just it, for what it was supposed to be 'The Brewers Association's Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery' (think about it, that's a lot of weight in that title) it was only OK. There was some nice insight from brewing professionals whose opinions I already respect, there was some rough ideas of what to expect, and some sections with great detail about things I couldn't care less about at this point - the point of 'I'm still reading books to plan a brewery'.
I would have really have liked to have seen more real money and real equipment talked about. Basically they broke it down like this: it is hard and expensive, but if you can pull it off it is sooo worth it. That's not enough for me. Oh, I will mention there was a very detailed business plan which could be a great reference to the right person, but it reads like a business plan, go figure. Real snoozer of a way to end the book.
One last thing, this is an $80 book that as an AHA member I was able to buy for $50 from the Brewers Association so I at least felt like I got a deal, but to now see Amazon with it for sale for $50 kind of burns me up. This isn't an $80 book (think college text book) nor really a $50 book (think high school text book or instruction manual), it's more of a decent $25 book (think normal informative/opinionated book). So, all in all I am not saying don't get this book, but I would only get this book if you are seriously contemplating opening your own brewery and only as one more reference, not the be-all-to-end-all.
 Not Recommended March 31, 2007
30 out of 31 found this review helpful
I had high hopes for this book, but ultimately am left greatly disappointed.
First, I agree with the previous reviewer - this book has more typos and grammatical errors than any book I've ever read! It's really unacceptable in any book, but certainly when the book retails for $80.
Second, this isn't a step-by-step guide to starting a brewing business. It's a hodgepodge of articles from old issues of The New Brewer magazine combined with random interviews and new writings from various "brewing professionals". Their seems to be no real "road map" or grand plan to the way the info is presented. I was extremely disappointed in the amount of information provided on professional brewing equipment. In contrast, an entire chapter was devoted to the selection of flooring material for the brewhouse floor. Admittedly this is an important decision, but the ratio to other information is odd at best.
I've met Ray Daniels at an AHA rally and he seems like a great guy who is passionate about beer and brewing. Unfortunately, this is a poor effort by Ray and I am guessing he's quite embarrassed whenever anyone mentions it.
Michael
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