Beechum Drew - Homebrew All-Stars: Top Homebrewers Share Their Best Techniques and Recipes

2016 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

Text 2016 Drew Beechum and Denny Conn

First published in 2016 by Voyageur Press, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc., 400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA. Telephone: (612) 344-8100 Fax: (612) 344-8692

quartoknows.com

Visit our blogs at quartoknows.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the copyright owners. All images in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the artists concerned, and no responsibility is accepted by producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication. Every effort has been made to ensure that credits accurately comply with information supplied. We apologize for any inaccuracies that may have occurred and will resolve inaccurate or missing information in a subsequent reprinting of the book.

Voyageur Press titles are also available at discounts in bulk quantity for industrial or sales-promotional use. For details contact the Special Sales Manager at Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc., 400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA.

Digital edition: 978-0-76035-120-8

Softcover edition: 978-0-76034-961-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Beechum, Drew, author. | Conn, Denny.

Title: Homebrew all-stars : top homebrewers share their best techniques and recipes / Drew Beechum amd Denny Conn.

Description: Minneapolis : Voyageur Press, 2016.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015040521 | ISBN 9780760351208 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Brewing--Amateurs manuals. | BISAC: COOKING / Beverages /Beer.

Classification: LCC TP570 .B435 2016 | DDC 663/.42--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015040521

Photo Credits

Laura Schott:

Eric Gaddy:

Shutterstock: Front cover, glass (gstockstudio), (Gyuszko-Photo)

Library of Congress: Front cover, baseball player (ggb2005022615)

Acquiring Editor: Thom OHearn

Project Manager: Caitlin Fultz

Art Director: James Kegley

Cover Designer: Amelia LeBarron

Layout: Amelia LeBarron

Homebrew
All-Stars

TOP HOMEBREWERS SHARE THEIR BEST

Techniques and Recipes

DREW BEECHUM AND DENNY CONN

1. CHAPTER 1
   Welcome to the Big Leagues
2. CHAPTER 2
   Getting Started
3. CHAPTER 3
   The Old-School Masters
4. CHAPTER 4
   The Scientists (and Process Nerds)
5. CHAPTER 5
   The Wild Ones
6. CHAPTER 6
   The Recipe (and Ingredient) Innovators
7. CHAPTER 7
   Bringing It All Together

- CHAPTER 1 -

I ts inevitable. Put a group of folks together in a room with a bunch of beers and sooner or later the conversation is going to turn to some variant of, So and so was the greatest to ever play the game! The names change from generation to generation and sport to sport, but the conversation remains the same. Heck, it doesnt even have to be a sport; it could be philosophers, bands, artists, and more. Beatles versus Stones, Yankees versus Red Sox, Harlem Globetrotters versus the Washington Generals, Adam Smith versus Karl Marx the list goes on!

DENNY: For the record, its the Beatles, Drew would kill me if I answered the baseball question, and its Groucho, not Karl.

Even when it comes to beer, where theres certainly no stopwatch or ruler to determine objective winners and losers, youll see comparisons flying out of the woodwork. Just look at the endless Top 100 Best Beer Lists. Homebrew is no different. Weve both spent horrifyingly large parts of our lives devoted to the art of judging beer, with hours and hours spent studying and tasting to learn to detect minute differences in technique, process, and approach. Weve cultivated bad posture as we sat scrunched over cups and score sheets armed with mechanical pencils and wishing for a computer to type on (at least the entrants getting score sheets from Drew wish he was typing on a computer for legibilitys sake). All that work is devoted to answering the question, So does this beer suck or is it awesome?

Every weekend around the globe, people are judging beers and submitting beers to be judged. But are ribbons and medals the key to being an all star? While we admit medals are awesome and tough to win, were going to argue that theres much more to being an All-Star brewer. Read on!

Our Books Manifesto

We are both big believers in the idea that brewing is a skill best learned by doing. It may seem ironic that a couple of crusty old bearded fellows whove written a few books about beer are now telling you to put down the book and go hang out with other brewers. However, it actually makes perfect sense: what weve tried to present in our books is a distilled essence of all the lessons weve learned in our solo and partnered brewing adventures.

Youll never be a better brewer if you dont fire up the kettle.

DREW: When I bought my first kettle in 1999, the biggest thing that helped me learn the fine art of homebrewing was going around and brewing with others. Every few batches, a special trip was made to the house of a different member of my homebrew club. Lots of lessons were learned; some were even directly related to brewing! Sure, not every member was a classic All-Star, but they all had experience to share. By learning from all of them, I was able to forge my own brewing style and a willingness to play around with different techniques.

DENNY: I went through a similar homebrewing evolution, although mine was based on the Internet. I was not a member of a club at that time, so I discovered the UseNet discussion group rec.crafts.brewing, and the people in that group became my mentors. I quickly figured out how to tell who had the bright ideas and who just thought they did. However, I eventually learned lessons big and small by brewing with friends. For example, in the days when I bottled I had always done so kneeling, with the bottles on the floor. Why? Because the most popular homebrewing book at the time showed pictures of people doing it that way. So, for at least a couple of years, thats the way I did it, on the kitchen floor! Then one day I was bottling a split batch with a friend who brought out two chairs and set them next to the counter with the bottling bucket. He sat in one chair and put the bottles he was filling on the seat of the other. Revelation! Now, maybe this is one of those things that everybody else had already thought of. But for me it was the first lesson about what you can learn from others!