I picked up this book about a year ago while on a visit to London. It cost me £10.99 and I believe it is worth every penny. It is a comprehensive book, going into sufficient detail on each subject to provide the reader with a competent answer to any question he might have, but at the same time avoiding unnecessarily long-winded, confusing or complicated information. It left me feeling that it had been written by a friend who was anxious to pass on his knowledge with the maximum of usefulness but minimum of fuss.

Some books I have seen are either somewhat outdated, or overly scientific, or just plain boring. This work by Brian Kunath is up-to-date, very informative and easy to read. It covers all aspects of making beer and would be the perfect present for both absolute beginners and those with a few brews to their credit. It also benefits from first class illustrations and plenty of tables. These list beer colours, beer styles, malt profiles, adjuncts and sugars, as well as hops. They allow the reader to compare the variables that make up a brew and help him design his own. One recurring theme throughout the book is the sanitising all implements at every stage. Some might consider this repetition as a little over the top but it is a plain fact that all effort put into making the delectable nectar would be wasted if some nasty bacteria were allowed to find their way into the brewing process simply through lack of proper cleaning.

The overall quality of the book is very high indeed and attractive to the eye. It is of A4 size and comprises nearly 150 pages; there is a touch of humour within them, with such puns as "The taming of the brew" and "Ale creatures great and small (and some even lager!)". It is not a recipe book as such, offering just 13 recipes for different styles of beer beyond the basic recipe given. The emphasis is on showing the reader how to go about getting good results using the right equipment and quality ingredients. I have no complaints to make except to say that, as this is originally a US publication ("Fearless Brewing - ......"), many of the ingredients relate to products unknown or unavailable on this side of the Atlantic. This means that many of the recipes cannot be used as they stand - we need to modify them to suit our market - but this does detract from the usefulness of the book.