True Brews: How to Craft Fermented Cider, Beer, Wine, Sake, Soda, Mead, Kefir, and Kombucha at Home Kindle Edition

I bought this book primarily to make soda since I already make kefir at home and as far as kombucha goes.. I just can't with the SCOBY. It's too... gelatinous for me.Anyway, the very first thing I did was to make the watermelon mint soda. WORTH IT. Oh My Gawd. I'm hooked.. some of these methods are too involved for me, like the sake, but I'm very interested in brewing mead and hard lemonade.My favorite bit about this book is that everything is small batches. You get to dip your toe into brewing without a huge investment. My first batch of soda was made in the recommended washed out two liter bottle. Less than a dollar for champagne yeast, a watermelon and some mint from my garden and I was all set to make the best soda ever in the world.Emma gives you a basic recipe/method for each thing to make.. a Master recipe, if you will. I'm already dreaming of the different kinds of soda I can make with this new information.I'm also looking forward to making hard cider as soon as it's apple season.UPDATE: 02/08/14:Well, I have a SCOBY because someone sent me one... and let me tell you, it's totally awesome once you get past the "omg whut is this?" factor. I have made the blackberry sage kombucha and it's totally one of my favorites. I've also made the pear water kefir.. DELISH. I'm currently working on the Sweet Mulled Cider.. I'm adding the yeast tomorrow.. it'll be a long wait but it will be ready in October.

Wonderful book on brewing, especially for the beginner. My biggest issue was that she doesn't mention how important temperature is when brewing, and my first batch of mead had to go down the drain because it was brewed too warm (it is summer after all, in Texas lol-room temp was 78 but with the natural rise in temps during fermentation it probably got up to 85 in there) and the yeast made higher-order alcohols like fusel alcohols (think jet fuel). Yuck! I like that the batches are small, and she has lots of different brews to try, including some naturally carbonated sodas. She doesn't touch on wines but that topic is a whole volume of books in itself. I do wish she went into more depth with the fermentation process and types of yeast, but overall a very good into book for beginners.

Love love love this book! I’ve recently gotten into home brewing and fermenting in general. I spent quite a bit of time looking for different interesting recipes and this book was referenced a lot in my findings.So far I have made a few things and they’ve turned out great. The Pear Cider, kombucha and ginger soda were all great...although one of the sodas turned into a bottle bomb, so I would use a plastic 2 liter as recommended.I currently have a hard lemonade that’s 2 weeks away from being ready and I can’t wait. Next on my list is Mead but it takes a year!

I want to make the recipes in this book, but they just seem like they are for people who have a lot of time, money, experience, and space to make anything in here. The recipes are complex and after reading it I was just overwhelmed. It sits on my shelf and maybe one day down the road when I get more experienced in ferments and have the money for everything required... then I'll give some of the stuff in there a try.3 starsLooks fantastic. I want to try some things in it. But taking a few stars off because it's very complex and overwhelming.

This book does have a little bit of everything which was nice. It didn't go into history or overly science for the drinks in the book. If you are looking to focus on ONE type I would say not to get this book since it only touches the base of each and then builds on it with adding flavors to that base.

This is a very basic book on brewing a lot of different things. While we've brewed mead, beer, cider, and wine (not fruit wine), the clear recipes are handy even for these (except beer' we're pretty experienced with beer... although these recipes are for 100% mashed, and we've tended to use a mix of mash and extract).One of the nicest things about these recipes is their small scale. If one does not know what one is doing, it helps not to be trying it in 5-gallon sizes! Even the 100% mash beer would be possible for us in a 1-2 gallon size, though it's unwieldy at 5+ gallons.I am very interested in learning to make soda. I am also finding the kefir and kombucha fascinating, because I think I could use some more probiotics in my diet and these recipes look tasty. I'm also intrigued by the fruit wines, especially in the smaller quantities described here.I've got some basic kefir started now, and am looking forward to exploring more of these very accessible brews.

So many ideas! This is my bible for kombucha, soda, cider...I love that it includes recipe ideas (as Christensen says, you *have* to try the hibiscus kombucha even if you hate hibiscus tea, it's this magical transformation)...and the orange cream soda is awesome.

I brewed beer long ago when Mr Beer first sold kits and now am planning to get back into home brew but where to get updated info and guide? Here! This is it!From simple to new things I only heard about in home brew. Plus, everything in small batches so it is only a small disaster if it does not go as planned.Thank you! I am looking forward to my first batch of hard cider!

The book is very informative and easy to understand.I used it to make to make my life more delicious.

really good book with some good recipes, I am particularly interested in the beer and cider and the sake looks good aswellI've only tried the IPA recipe so far and its really nice. its a bit of a shame that its in cups but then having said that there is a conversion table in the back. highly recommended.

Good read

Great book easy to follow

I'm not entirely satisfacted with this book, because I like to understand more about what's happening in the brewing processes than to have straight recipes that works with high certainty. I just tried some sodas, the easiest recipes, two different flavours. In the Ginger ale recipe, I tried the alternative that was use bread yeast to carbonated the beverage. But in the next recipe, Orange Cream Soda, I combined knowledge from other book, The art of fermentation (Sandor Katz) and used instead whey from the iougurt that I make weekly. I was amazed at the results! It took longer to starting the carbonation process, but it was a more natural approach. Anyway, for someone that are interest in starting brewing a lot of different beverages at home, this book is a great starting point. Those that prefer a more naturally approach to brewing, it is better to combine the recipes of the book, with tips from other books and internet blogs.