While I have tons of stuff to write up from my four days at the Siebel Institute, I thought I’d give you readers a heads-up on a series of pieces coming out on two blogs.
http://maureenogle.com/2009/04/first-draft-follies-early-history-of-the-american-homebrewers-association-part-2/
and
http://www.examiner.com/x-241-Beer-Examiner~y2009m4d6-Relax-dont-worry-have-a-homebrew-insights-on-history?cid=examiner-email
It’s about the early days of the American Homebrewers Association. For those of you that aren’t aware of this group, and even those of you who think you’re in the loop, these pieces are giving a background of the origins of the Brewers Association, if not some of the momentum for the beer revolution of the past 30 years.
Led by that irrepressible Nuclear Engineer, Charlie Papazian (or Naizapap, as some of his friends called him), this is the foundation of the gung-ho attitude about great beer — home brewed and craft brewed. If there is one reason that America is different than any other country in the world with choice in beers it could be because of this one organization.
I started with them in 1981, or thereabouts, and one thing I remember from very early on is Charlie’s belief that every town should have a brewery. He missed that by a couple of miles. He recently wrote that everyone in the United States now lives within ten miles of a brewery. Pretty close.
It was pretty heady days and these blogs appear to be sharing a lot of great info, and the attitude, about that time. I recommend looking in on them.
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