Cleaning up my stacks of beer magazines and piles of beer and brewing books I was wondering what other people are reading for increased brewing knowledge.

Where do you get your “education” and inspiration from?

For me I regularly read several magazines and I refer to a couple of well read texts for reference and clarity when I have a question about what I am doing or trying to do.

Magazines:
Brew Your Own (BYO)- Well obviously I am partial to this periodical as they profiled the Brew-Dudes in there great section called “Homebrew Nation”. This is the perfect blend of basic info and advanced info. Always great recipes and always great tips. If there is only one homebrewing magazine to get this is it.
Zymurgy– This is the publication of the American Homebrewers Association. You can get this periodical as part of your membership to the AHA. I really like this magazine as it often looks at the industry’s trends, homebrew techniques and styles. Its sort of like a craft beer trade magazine for homebrewers.
Beer Advocate Magazine-While this is not strictly a homebrewing magazine it does have a small monthly section dedicated to brewing a new style each issue. I like this magazine for its inspiring articles about about brewers, techniques and highlights great beers. This magazine helps me think about what beer can be, and also helps identify great commercial examples of beer styles that I may want to brew so I can go find those beers and do very important research.

Books:
Brewing Classic Styles– This new book is a must for brewing every recognized BJCP style of beer. Whenever I want to brew a style that is new to my bag of tricks I brew up the example style in this book. I have also found utility in also comparing recipes from this book to my own established recipes and see where they are different. I have often discovered areas or ingredients that achieved desired flavor profiles that I hadn’t come up with yet.
Designing Great Beers– This book is slightly dated but it contains a great information to help you understand extract potentials and hop utilization. I also really like this book for the historical perspectives of many classic styles.
How to Brew– Its been on the market for a while, there is even a new version available. But this book is a great reference for most brewers because its available on line for free!!! Outside of that this book provides a great way to get into the science of brewing without being overwhelmed with complex scientific ideas.

Those are some of my favorites, but there are many more.