Alstrom Jason - Project extreme brewing: an enthusiasts guide to extreme brewing at home: including over 50 homebrew recipes and creative brewing philosophies from dozens of Americas most beloved and coveted indie

2018 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

Text 2018 Sam Calagione, Jason Alstrm and Todd Alstrm

First Published in 2018 by Quarry Books, an imprint of The Quarto Group, 100 Cummings Center, Suite 265-D, Beverly, MA 01915, USA.

T (978) 282-9590 F (978) 283-2742 QuartoKnows.com

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Digital edition: 978-1-63159-434-2
Softcover edition: 978-1-63159-287-4

Digital edition published in 2018

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

Design: Burge Agency

Photography: Steve Legato, except the following: Hogger & Co. Photography,

WE DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO THE CREATIVE BREWERS WHO MAKE US THINK AND DRINK DIFFERENTLY. WITHOUT YOU, BEER WOULD BE BORING.

Todd and Jason Alstrm

BY SAM CALAGIONE

IM ALWAYS SUPER PROUD WHEN I GET TO THE CUSTOMS BOOTH AT AN AIRPORT SOMEWHERE FAR FROM HOME AND I HAVE TO WRITE DOWN MY OCCUPATION ON THE REQUIRED FORM. I AM PROUD TO WRITE: BREWER. THAT IS MY VOCATION AND MY AVOCATION. IM A BREWER FIRST AND A BUSINESSMAN SECOND.

The tradition of brewing beer is as old as civilization itselfLiterally. The oldest known fermented cereal beverage (the most basic definition of a beer) was brewed around 10,000 years ago in China. Thats about the same time in human history when we evolved from being hunting and gathering nomads to settling down into communities to domesticate crops. You might say this was the era when humans evolved socially and stopped competing with each other to hunt down and kill; instead, we started helping each other work the land and raise crops to assure our nutritional sustenance.

The earliest known beer recipe comes from this period in China and includes rice and grapes and hawthorn fruit. I know because Dogfish Head and Dr. Pat McGovern produce a modern interpretation of this early recipe called Chateau Jiahu. When considering this unexpected beer recipe, you might say that the earliest known fermented beverage wasnt just the prototypical beer but the prototypical extreme beer. And it was more than thatas all beers are. It was a catalyst for human interaction, for sustenance, for collaboration, and for creative expression. I have always said the beer community is 99 percent asshole-free. Thats true today and I like to think it was true in those early days of fermentation as well.

The recipes in this book can be brewed solo. They could even be consumed solo, if you as the brewer and reader fancy yourself the anti social, loner type. Ideally, they are meant to be shared; to be brewed with friends and family; to be consumed with friends and family; and to serve as catalysts for conversations, interaction, education, and fun. There are really two components of brewing for me that have been existentially rewarding. One: the opportunity to take risks and try ingredient combinations and techniques that may never have been done before. And two: the opportunity to meet, learn from, and be inspired by so many amazing people who have informed my journey as a brewer.

Each and every one of the brewers who have contributed recipes and their philosophies of creative brewing to this book inspire me. To name a few, specifically who are contributors, personal friends, and true evangelist for the brewing community: Charlie Papazian, author of the Joy of Homebrewing and founder of the Brewers Association; and Chris Graham of MoreBeer! And, of course, my coauthors of this book Todd and Jason Alstrm of BeerAdvocate. The craft brewing and homebrewing communities have truly exploded since I wrote my last recipe-oriented book, Extreme Brewing, eleven years ago. There are so many more commercial brewers and homebrewers making beers outside the Reinheitsgebot today than there were back then.

I love that this books pool of contributors has expanded in the same way that our community has since the last book. I truly believe it has been the creativity and infectious joy in sharing beer knowledge in both the homebrewing and commercial craft brewing community that has sparked the explosion of consumer interest in flavor-forward, adventurous beers over the last ten years. We created this excitement ourselves. It was not created by the global brewing conglomerates who spend billions of dollars advertising their light lagers and quasi-craft beers each year.

Each of the fine folks who contributed recipes to this project makes their livelihood in the world of beer, and each of them inspires me by prioritizing passion before profits. I was working on this book intro in a hotel room in New York City recently. I took a break from writing to read Hemingways The Sun Also Risesa great book about morality and natural beauty, the Lost Generation, and a group of friends drinking numerous glasses of adult beverages together. I got to this passage about bullfighters seen through the eyes of the hotel owner character named Montoya, and it made me think of my beer friends and mentors, all of the brewers who contributed to this book, and all of you readers who are interested in taking some of the recipes within these covers on your own creative brewing journey. Its staccato, repetitious poetry, with a strong sense of purpose as is the best of Hemingways writing:

Your friend is he aficionado, too?" Montoya smiled at Bill.

Yes, I said. He came all the way from New York to see [the bull-fight].

Yes? Montoya politely disbelieved. But hes not aficionado like you.

He put his hand on my shoulder again embarrassedly.

Yes, I said. Hes a real aficionado.

But he's not aficionado like you are.

Aficion means passion. An aficionado is one who is passionate about the bull-fights. All the good bull-fighters stayed at Montoyas hotel, that is, those with aficion stayed there. The commercial bull-fighters stayed once, perhaps, and then did not come back. The good ones came each year. In Montoyas room were their photographs. The photographs were dedicated to Juanito Montoya or to his sister. The photographs of bull-fighters Montoya had really believed in were framed. Photographs of bull-fighters who had been without aficin Montoya kept in a drawer of his desk. They often had the most flattering inscriptions. But they did not mean anything. One day Montoya took them all out and dropped them in the wastebasket. He did not want them around.