The Ultimate Guide to Making Your Own Vodka - and More (The Joy of Series)

This book is serious! This is not some watered-down "How To" booklet. This was actually a little over my head. It is technical and designed to teach someone who actually wants to learn about distilling. If you really want to know about home distilling, this is the book!

An excellent source of information, written to acquaint the reader with the distillation process and to guide him into the actual distillation as a home distiller. A good and informative read written in a conversational style.

Fairly detailed book on distillation. Being a home brewer, I was familiar with most of the methods of producing the wash. I was hoping to get more information on setting up a still. Still (no pun intended) well worth the cost.

So far all the books on distilling have their own idea of how to do it.
Different recipes, different techniques. It's an art not a science.
It seems as if all the books we have leave out the entire spectrum of making and running a batch from start to finish. Maybe for legal reasons?
None address our alembic still.
Good background info for beginners.

I would advise anyone who is interested or wants to increase there knowledge in the distilling process to read this book. If you like your cocktails and want to know what your drinking this is your book.

I would advise anyone who is interested or wants to increase there knowledge in the distilling process to read this book. If you like your cocktails and want to know what your drinking this is your book.

An excellent book for those transitioning from beer/cider/mead making to 'the next step'. Logically organized and clearly presented with diagrams and photos to explain the concepts of the process and what the specific pieces of equipment do. I took part in a group distilling session on a cobbled-together home made system. The book's exacting description of the process allowed me to understand (and make sense) of what was happening that day.
A must have resource for your library!

Absolutely NOT the ultimate guide to distilling. I bought this on the strength of the the store description and the available reviews, and was very disappointed. The author includes very few actual recipes, and those recipes do not give specific distilling information, i.e. when to make the cuts between heads and hearts, etc. Also I was disappointed in how the author handled the issue of legality; he spent several pages talking about New Zealand (where it is currently legal to distill liquor at home without a license), and was vague about the laws in other countries including the U.S. I read through the entire thing twice and the message I came away with was, "The rules are stupid, so let's all ignore them." This is the first book that's come out in a while about distilling that is NOT self-published, so I had hopes that it would be better than it turned out to be. Just plain disappointing.

A very interesting and easy read. The author does a good job of explaining the distillation process at a very high level overview. I wasn’t particularly interested in learning all the details about every part of the process, I just wanted to get a good idea on the general process. This book was perfect for that. Having read this I have determined that this process isn’t for me (for now, anyway) and I will stick to home brewing. I highly recommend this book for beginners, although if you already know the basics and are looking for a very in depth analysis you will probably be disappointed.

I have wanted to learn to Craft Distill forever and now I have a powerful guide to give me strong tested information.I read and reread this book and I an impressed with the depth and yet easy to understand literal instruction this writer gives me...The manual you need to even consider this as a hobby or Profession !!! Easy to learn and digest material.. A.Lot of key information in one book.

Severely lacking needed information. I couldn't figure out why my results were not similar to those described in the book. It's because it only discusses reflux distillation (and that poorly). If you're running a pot still or want better reflux information- the internet was a far more valuable source

While I do believe for someone new to distilling this book is a good starting point. My reason for two stars is the fact that I purchased it based on believing that it was the "ultimate" guide, which it is not. Again, there is a wealth of usable information in the literature but is by no means the ultimate guide. When it comes to making top quality spirits this book simply does not cut it. I realize that publishers want to sell books with catchy titles but I believe it must be a true reflection of the content.

While this may have some good information the reality is that it is still a Federal Tax crime to distill hard booze in your home without a (impossible to obtain) federal permit and tax stamp, not to mention the various state and local laws. Good luck with that let me know how that turns out,....by mail.