Fermenting is a great way to preserve foods and drinks in a delicious and fun way. Here are the 12 best books on fermenting and homebrewing. These books will give you a great start on how to make your own fermented veggies, kombucha, miso, tempeh, mead, and homebrew!
Simple Mead Making eBook
Before I get to the 12 best fermenting books, I want to let you know that I have my own eBook on how to make your own mead (honey wine)!
Simple Mead Making: A Beginner’s Guide to One Gallon Batches teaches aspiring home brewers how to make their own one gallon batch of mead. You’ll learn how to make your own homemade honey wine without complicated processes and expensive equipment!
12 Best Fermenting & Homebrewing Books
Fermented vegetables are full of healthy probiotics, kombucha is all the rage, and homebrewing your own mead, hard cider, wine, or beer brings a little cheer into your life!
For beginners, fermentation might seem a little daunting, however. It’s definitely a learning process, but thankfully it’s not hard at all!
The way that I (and probably most others) began was by reading some great books on fermentation. Here I’m going to share with you what I think are the 12 best fermenting books to help you get started!
These are my favorite fermenting and homebrewing books, from fermenting vegetables, to making tempeh, miso, and yogurt, to making kombucha, mead, and country wine. I think you will love these books!
Be sure to check out my other book guides here:
Related: Gift Guide for Fermenters and Homebrewers
Wild Fermentation and The Art of Fermentation
These two books by Sandor Katz are the first ones that I always recommend to beginning fermenters.
I got my start in the fermentation world with the original edition of Wild Fermentation, and now I also own the new updated version. It was probably the first book that really brought fermentation into popularity. It is such an amazing resource, and if you want to only buy one book on fermentation then this is the one!
The Art of Fermentation is Sandor’s 2nd book on the subject, and it is what I call the fermentation bible!
This is a big book that is packed full of useful information and goes into much more detail than his first book. For that reason I think it’s better for people who have done a little fermenting before and want to explore the topic more fully.
Fermented Vegetables and Miso, Tempeh, Natto
I love these two books by Kirsten and Christopher Shockey. Not only are they great guides, but I love the fact that they are local to me here in southern Oregon!
Fermented Vegetables is an in depth guide to just that, making your own lacto-fermented vegetables! You would think a topic like this would be simple enough, but there is so much to cover and they do it so well. My favorite part about this book is the step by step visual guides for the basic types of vegetable ferments.
I’ve made two delicious recipes from Fermented Vegetables here on the blog: Fermented Cherry Tomato Bombs and Fermented Dilly Beans.
Miso, Tempeh, Natto is all about fermenting grains and beans. This is a great book for more experienced fermenters who want to explore all that there is in the wonderful world of fermentation! Making miso and tempeh is a little more complicated than fermenting vegetables, but totally worth it!
The Shockey’s also have a third book titled Fiery Ferments that is all about making fermented hot sauces and condiments! (See my post on fermented hot sauce here).
Ferment Your Vegetables and Traditionally Fermented Foods
Ferment Your Vegetables by Amanda Feifer of the blog Phickle is an awesome book for beginners.
I love it because there is a wide range of recipes for all types of vegetable ferments, and she includes recipes for kvass as well. I did her recipe for Winter Herb Kvass from the book and it was delicious!
Traditionally Fermented Foods by Shannon Stronger of Nourishing Days is full of amazing recipes! Besides vegetable ferments, which she has quite a few of, there are also recipes for dairy ferments like yogurt, milk kefir, and cheese.
She also has a huge section on sourdough recipes, including gluten-free sourdough, which I love! I made her recipe for Sweet Potato Kvass, also known as sweet potato fly, and it was really good!
The Noma Guide to Fermentation
The Noma Guide to Fermentation by René Redzepi and David Zilber is a gorgeous guide to gourmet fermented foods from the highly regarded Noma restaurant.
This tome is a New York Times bestseller, and has a ton of interesting recipes for miso, koji, vinegar, shoyu, kombucha, and more.
Due to the more complicated recipes, I would say this book is for more advanced fermenters. It’s perfect for anyone who really wants to dive deep into experimental fermenting!
Make Mead Like a Viking and Brew Beer Like a Yeti
These two amazing books by Jereme Zimmerman are a must have on any homebrewers bookshelf!
Make Mead Like a Viking was one of the books that really got the mead movement back in action (and you all know how much I love mead)! It is a great resource that includes history, how to brew, and a bunch of really lovely sounding simple mead recipes.
Brew Beer Like a Yeti is along the same lines, with simple recipes for ales, gruits, and other beer-like brews using minimal hops. Many of the recipes are flavored with herbs, spices, flowers, and wildcrafted ingredients, which I love!
I can’t wait to make a few recipes from both of Jereme’s books!
The Wildcrafting Brewer and Artisanal Small-Batch Brewing
Here are a couple more amazing books on homebrewing using foraged and herbal ingredients!
The Wildcrafting Brewer by Pascal Baudar is a wonderful foray into brewing with wildcrafted and foraged ingredients. He mostly uses natural yeasts and has a whole section on how to make a wild yeast starter.
Not all of the recipes in his book contain high levels of alcohol, there are also some with low levels like medicinal brews and natural sodas.
Pascal has another fermenting book titled Wildcrafted Fermentation due for release in March 2020 that can be preordered now.
You can also read about his foraging book The New Wildcrafted Cuisine in my post on 12 Best Books on Foraging and Wildcrafting.
Artisanal Small-Batch Brewing by Amber Shehan of Pixie’s Pocket is a wonderful book that I just love!
Amber likes to make one gallon batches of mead, cider, and country wine just like I do, and her book has some amazing recipes that use herbs, flowers, and fruit. I recently made her Spiced Pomegranate Wine from the book, and it is delicious!
The Big Book of Kombucha
If you are interested in digging deep into the world of kombucha making, then The Big Book of Kombucha by Hannah Crum and Alex LaGory of Kombucha Kamp is for you!
This book explains in detail what kombucha is, how to make it, along with more advanced techniques like flavoring with a second ferment, continuous brewing, and ways to use your brewed kombucha.
It’s the perfect resource for all things kombucha!
There you have it, the 12 best books on fermenting and homebrewing! These should get you started on your fermenting and homebrewing journey.
Happy fermenting!
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