Every Man His Own Brewer, by Anonymous & Samuel Child
Two Books by the Same Name: Together for the First Time!
Over the years a few books have used the title “Every Man His Own Brewer” as their full or partial title. Probably the two most important / influential were:
  • Every Man His Own Brewer, or A Compendium of the English Brewer, 1768, by Anonymous
  • Every Man His Own Brewer, A Practical Treatise Explaining the Art and Mystery of Brewing Porter, Ale, Twopenny, and Table Beer, 1802 by Samuel Childs.
We are proud to republish both of these books together in a single volume!

The Inspiration for Modern Beers!

What makes these books interesting is not just that they were important in their day, describing the art of brewing and the recipes used, but also that these two books have been the inspiration for two fantastic present day commercial beers:

Brooklyn Brewery's Monster Ale Geary Brewing's London Porter
The Microbrewing industry has been responsible for the innovation in the brewing industry over the last couple decades. It is great to see two fantastic micro-breweries taking inspiration from the brewing past. It is even better that all of us can now read the same books that prompted them to make these beers!

1768 - Every Man His Own Brewer, by Anonymous
Sometimes erroneously attributed to Samuel Childs, the author of this book is unknown to this day but he clearly had knowledge of the brewing industry at the time and claims to have been “lately retired from the brewing business”. Though he acknowledges the recent work of Combrune and the thermometer, this book is not a scientific treatise, but seems to be more indicative of someone who worked in the industry utilizing only what was practical at the time. There was only one edition of this book.

Beer Styles: Discussions and Recipes
The Extended Title of the book includes the following:
The Most Approved Methods of Brewing London Porter and Ale. Of Brewing Amber, Burton, Western and Oat Ales. Of Good Table Beer, and Marlborough, Dorchester, Nottingham, and Bristol Beer.

This is probably the best description of this book! The book includes recipes and/or discussions on many beer styles or regional beers. The following styles/beers are mentioned:

London Brown Beer / Porter London Amber & Burton Ales
Malt Wines Table Beer
Oat Ale Wiltshire Beer
Marlbrough Beers Dorchester Beers
Nottingham Beers Bristol Beers
Western White Ale Brunswic Mum
Melassus Beers – Early Americas brewing in Newfoundland, Pensylvania, & Carolina. Fruit Beers

Early Barley Wine
An extremely interesting section is the “The Method of Manufacturing pure Malt Wines.” section. The author advocates “to prepare our malt drinks, as nearly as possible to answer the like purpose of foreign wines”. To this end, he provides a recipe for making a malt wine, which appears to be an early barley wine! The recipe includes more malt than any other style in the book! Many people have surmised when and where the Barley Wine came out. This could be early proof of the existence or pending arrival of Barley wine. Barley Wine would not be a officially recognized style for another 100 years!

As noted above, this book has been described as the inspiration for Brooklyn Brewery’s Monster Ale. This Malt Wine section could likely have been the source for that inspiration. (Click here to read an article that discusses Garrett Oliver's use of this treatise as inspiration for Monster Ale.)

1802 - Every Man His Own Brewer, by Samuel Child
The second "Every Man His Own Brewer" is probably the more well known book of the two. This is most likely due to the fact that this book underwent many editions. (Most of these "editions" appear to have been just subsequent printings, not updates to the book.) It became so popular that a couple American printings were also done. The first edition is believed to have been published around 1790. We have republished the 10th Edition, from 1802.

Samuel Child’s book is a concise treatise whose goal is to provide the information required such that a man may brew beer for himself. His treatise focuses on providing the required information to brew the style. Recipes are included for:

  • Porter
  • Ale
  • Two-penny
  • Table Beer

As noted above, Dave Geary of Geary’s Brewing used this treatise as inspiration for his London Porter. We have to thank Dave Geary, because we were able to acquire his copy of the treatise for this republication effort! (Click here to read Lew Bryson's article that discusses Dave Geary's use of this treatise.)

Book Details
Index
Neither book was published with a table of contents for us to provide here, but the 1768 Every Man His Own Brewer does contain an index, and we have provided it here for you to examine. Click here to read a PDF version of the index. (The PDF is 77k.)

Reproduction Quality
The book is hard cover bound in burgundy bonded leather with gold foil stamping on the spine and front cover. The book is 288 pages and printed on 60lb. natural offset paper. The book is produced in a handy reference size that preserves the original 1764 Every Man His Own Brewer text block size, with a slightly larger page size (4.5" x 6.75") for easier handling and reading. (The original had almost no margin to speak of, making it difficult to hold pages without blocking the text.)

Period Typeface
To maintain the original look and feel, we have typeset the book using fonts produced from original 200 year old typefaces. The 1768 book utilizes the "Long-S" in its typesetting as most books did during the 1700s. If you are not familiar with the long-S, Click here to read further about it. The 1802 book uses the standard roman S symbols.

Reviews & Articles
If you would like to read an independent reviews of one of our books and articles which reference the books, Click here.

How to Order

Now order a copy of the book and drink a Brooklyn Brewery’s Monster Ale or Geary Brewing London Porter while you wait for it to arrive! (Better save a few to drink while you are reading the book.)

The book is in stock and available for US$49.95 Sale Price US$40.00 plus shipping.

Save when buying a set:

Purchasing with a credit card: We accept credit cards via PayPal. If you would like to pay using PayPal, you can simply click on the "Add To Cart" button below. Then when you are done shopping, select "Check Out" from the shopping cart window.

International Customers (non-US): Please remember to go to the order page and add the additional shipping charges for international shipping. Click Here to go the order page.

Every Man His Own Brewer:
To order Every Man His Own Brewer: US$49.95 Sale Price US$40.00
18th Century Brewer's Set (2 books)
To order The Theory and Practice of Brewing, and Every Man His Own Brewer : US$99.00 Sale Price US$85.00
Complete British Brewer's Set (4 books)
To order The Town and Country Brewery Book, Scottish Ale-Brewer, The Theory and Practice of Brewing, and Every Man His Own Brewer : US$155.00 Sale Price US$125.00
5 Pack (Books #3-7):
To order The Town and Country Brewery Book,Scottish Ale-Brewer, M'Harry's Practical Distiller, Combrune's Theory and Practice of Brewing, and Every Man His Own Brewer: US$190.00 Sale Price US$160.00
All Six Remaining Books In The Series:
To order The Complete Practical Brewer, Scottish Ale-Brewer, The Town and Country Brewery Book, M'Harry's Practical Distiller, Combrune's Theory and Practice of Brewing, and Every Man His Own Brewer: US$200.00

Purchasing with check or money order: We also accept checks and money orders. Click Here to go the order page.

* A limited quantity of these sets are available due to the limited number of copies remaining of some of the books. (Complete Practical Brewer and Complete Practical Distiller.)

** Sets that contain a pre-order book: If you order a set of books which contains a pre-order title, the entire set will be shipped when the pre-order title comes back from the printer.

* Disclaimer: Recipes from old books should be viewed with caution. Ingredients may have since been deemed dangerous. These books are being published soley for the historical perspective and information.