Beechum Drew - Simple homebrewing: great beer, less work, more fun

Brewers Publications

A Division of the Brewers Association

PO Box 1679, Boulder, Colorado 80306-1679

BrewersAssociation.org

BrewersPublications.com

Copyright 2019 by Brewers Association

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher. Neither the authors, editors, or publisher assume any responsibility for the use or misuse of information contained in this book.

ISBN-13: 978-1-938469-59-6

Ebook ISBN-13: 978-1-938469-62-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

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

Title: Simple homebrewing : great beer, less work, more fun / by Drew Beechum and Denny Conn.

Description: Boulder, Colorado : Brewers Publications, a Division of the Brewers Association, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018056032 | ISBN 9781938469596 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781938469626 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: BrewingAmateurs manuals. | Beer. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.

Classification: LCC TP577 .B365 2019 | DDC 641.87/3dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018056032

Publisher: Kristi Switzer

Technical Editor: John Palmer

Copyediting: Iain Cox

Indexing: Doug Easton

Art Direction: Jason Smith, Danny Harms

Cover Design: Danny Harms

Production: Justin Petersen

Cover Photo: Aaron Colussi

Interior photos: Authors unless otherwise noted.

For all the homebrewers striving one pot, one pitch, one pint at a time to find their magic in a glass of beer. We hope this helps you find your way to a moment of simplicity.

T his book is exactly what the homebrewing world needs today. Well, at the very least, this book is exactly what I need, but I know that Im not the only homebrewer who cant find the time to brew as often as Id like to. I started homebrewing 25 years ago, a time when all but the geekiest of homebrewers were brewing with extracts and most of us relied on the mantra, Relax, dont worry, have a homebrew. That mantra was taught to us in The Complete Joy of Home Brewing, written by the founder of the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) and godfather of homebrewing, Charlie Papazian. Back in the early days, my homebrewing was quite simple: extract batches, brewed on the stove top, fermented with direct-pitched dried yeast in a single plastic bucket fermentor. I made tasty beers with that simple set-up (at least thats what my friends and family told me).

In 2000, I got hired as the AHA administrator. Suddenly, I was exposed to a deluge of information from Zymurgy magazine and Brewers Publications books, but the most direct exposure came from active discussions on the AHA TechTalk and Home Brew Digest email forums. All that information helped me make the leap to all-grain brewing and added new techniques to my repertoire. I built my own brewing equipment, which I felt the need to constantly tweak to gain a tiny bit of improvement in my brewing. In fact, Im quite sure I spent more time in those days working on my equipment than I did on brewing beer.

When I became a father, I found it much harder to carve out enough hours on the weekends when I wasnt traveling for work, and so my brewing became much less frequent. Im also terrible at planning ahead in my personal life, so even when I do find time to brew I may not have the ingredients together so that I actually can brew.

I know Im not alone in my struggles to find time to brew. Surveys of homebrewers conducted at the AHA show that many homebrewers are brewing less frequently or have given up entirely due to the increasingly busy pace of life. In addition, the internet has evolved from the email forums of my early AHA days to a vast proliferation of information (much of which is inaccurate) provided by websites, podcasts, YouTube, and social media. The inundation of information can make it easy to get into brewing, but it can also make homebrewing seem more complicated than it should be, and thus less approachable.

Now, thanks to my friends Drew Beechum and Denny Conn, we have a solution to this problem: the book you hold right now, Simple Homebrewing.

Denny and Drew are the perfect authors for this book. They are both extremely accomplished homebrewers. Ive been a homebrewer longer than either of those two, and have actually made a career serving homebrewers, but Denny and Drew know more about brewing than I probably ever will. Ive had the privilege of trying some of their wilder concoctions, such as the infamous Clam Chowder Saison for which Drew conceived the recipe, and Dennys Wee Shroomy mushroom Scotch ale, of which Ive had a couple of variations. While I might not order a pint of it, the Clam Chowder Saison was quite drinkable, actually reminiscent of clam chowder but without any of the gag reflex you might anticipate with such a concept. I dont know any other brewer who could pull that off. When I sampled Dennys Wee Shroomy during Club Night at the 2012 Homebrew Con in Seattle, I expected an urge to spit it out (or hurl). Instead, I found it utterly delicious; I wanted more. I dont typically like Scotch ales, but I wont turn down a chance to sip some more Wee Shroomy!

Before we go any further, I should tell you what this book is not. It is not a book that will teach you how to brew beer for the first time. If youve never brewed before, go get John Palmers How to Brew or Charlie Papazians Complete Joy of Home Brewing, read the first few chapters, brew a few batches of beer, then come back to this book.

For a seasoned homebrewer who might be thinking a title like Simple Homebrewing couldnt possibly be for me, think again. This book isnt about dumbing down the brewing process to the lowest common denominator.

Simple Homebrewing helps homebrewers cut through the overgrown jungle of brewing processes, equipment, jargon, and traditions and get down to the business of making really great beer without taking up an exorbitant amount of your free time while doing it. As Denny and Drew put it, the point is to Brew the Best Beer Possible, With the Least Effort Possible, While Having the Most Fun Possible. I need to frame that mantra and put it on my brew room wall.

In this hobby it is easy to get caught up with both traditional practices and the need to try out the most innovative techniques. Unfortunately, most of the time those practices and techniques tend to add up to make the brewing process longer than it should be. As far as Im concerned, the only thing that truly matters is the end result. Why not brew a malt extract recipe using a 20-minute boil if the end result is a great tasting beer? Great tasting beer made with less effort sounds pretty awesome to me!

Simple Homebrewing isnt a guide for a particular approach to brewing that will streamline your process. Its not an Atkins diet for slimming down your brewing method. Simple Homebrewing gives the reader many examples of how various processes can be simplified to make it easier to brew without compromising the quality of your beer. I recently ditched my homebuilt brew system with the goal of simplifying my brewing and hopefully brewing more frequently, and bought an off-the-shelf electric system that now resides in a dedicated brew room in my basement. Yet, as I read through the manuscript of this book, I still found example after example of ways I can further simplify and probably make better beer, while spending less time doing it.