As much as I love free beer, there is one kind of beer that I like even better -- and that's my own, fresh homebrewed beer!
You see, when I make it myself, I forge a unique bond with the beer. The difference between drinking a homebrewed beer and a commercial beer (even one that's free), is like the difference between how you feel about your own child versus somebody else's kid -- no matter how cute or well behaved that urchin might be.
Almost two decades have passed since my first foray into the wilds of homebrewed beer. Over the years, I've brewed a lot of wonderful beers...a few stinkers here and there too, truth be told...but on the whole, mostly good beers that helped me learn more about my own tastes and preferences. Sure I learned about hops, and yeasts, and sparging and all that fun stuff, but as much as I learned about brewing history and techniques, I learned even more about myself -- especially what I really like as opposed to what's popular. Most people don't ever seem to get past that "popular" stage. What a shame!
Of course, I didn't come by wisdom completely on my own -- I stood on the shoulders of giants. There are a lot of wonderful people around the world who brew their own beers. Most of them brew with passion, and dignity, and pride in what they do. Homebrewers are sharing folks -- I've never been to a homebrew club meeting where I wasn't offered the chance to taste at least a dozen interesting, home crafted zymological creations. More importantly to anyone who is trying to expand their set of brewing skills, homebrewers love to swap stories and to share techniques.
One of the ways homebrewers share information is through Zymurgy, the official magazine of the American Homebrewers Assocation.
In the Past... Zymurgy was the brainchild of Charlie Papazian, who founded the American Homebrewers Assocation over 25 years ago. Papazian is the well-known author of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing -- the world's best-selling book on homebrewing -- and he is probably the one man in the world who has helped the most people get started in homebrewing.
Charlie is a whacky guy. He's fun and irreverant, but he's also passionate about his beer and he's extremely knowledgable and cultured, though you might not realize it if you first meet him in his Professor Surfeit getup, handing out tastings of his "Goat Snot Stout".
From humble beginnings in Boulder Colorado, Charlie managed to forge relationships with anyone and everyone who knew beer at any level, and his budding American Homebrewers Association grew and became the most recognized organization in the Americas of people who knew and loved beer. Quite a few AHA members have brewed little or no beer, but they join to keep their finger on the pulse of America's quality beer movement, some join just to get advance cheap tickets to the Great American Beer Festival, but quite a few join to get Zymurgy -- America's premier magazine not just for home brewers, but for beer appreciation.
There's a lot of reasons for that. The magazine has been around longer than any other beer magazine in America, it's (mostly) independent of commercial interests, it attracts some of the most knowledgable beer writers in the world, it presents solid technical articles that challenge hobbyists to further their skills and knowledge, it's the only magazine in America that fosters a true sense of community among the scattered beer cognoscienti, and frankly -- it's just down right interesting!
Insightful...
Far and away the best reason to read Zymurgy is to take advantage of the deep insight and research that goes into just about every feature article they print. The sheer depth of knowledge is astounding.
Occasionally, Zymurgy has been criticized as being "too advanced" for beginning homebrewers, but I think that's the real strength of the magazine. It's challenging -- never stupid nor repetitious. It doesn't shirk from interesting topics just because they may sometimes require a little bit of mathematical or scientific comprehension. Beer brewing is a far more technical and challenging field of study than is wine, just as physics is a little tougher to get a handle on than is sociology. It's often been said that the reason Germany brews so much beer and France so much wine is because Germany is a country with technological precision in its heart and soul, while France is a country with art and song in its heart and soul. Maybe. Maybe not, but one thing for sure, it's easy to get lost in the myriad nuances of biochemistry that goes into fermentation, and the subtle traps of fermentation control and yeast propagation, and all the wonderfully rewarding challenges that await anyone with the curiosity to delve just a little deeper.
Brewing is like an onion. (What, it smells bad? No! It has layers.) You can approach homebrewing at a very easy, gentle level with a mix and leave it "kit" beer, but who would really want to subscribe to a magazine that doesn't go any further than that! Nobody! It would be like never letting the writers at Gourmet magazine talk about anything harder to make than a Betty Crocker brownie mix. Do you think that would interest genuine foodies?
No way!
By the same token, genuine "beeries" want enough new stuff to make their mouths water. They want to know about techniques that they haven't already got down pat. They want to hear about new ingredients that aren't already part of every homebrewer's bag of tricks. They want to hear about new brewpubs that are opening, they want to hear about professional practices that they might be able to pick up a trick or two from. They want to hear about beer in far away corners of the globe, as well as the beer sold at the corner store.
Zymurgy offers up a steady diet of food for the homebrewer's brain and soul. Every issue has something that will challenge a brewer to explore a new frontier, and along the way, to learn a little more about what it is that truly tickles a palate. Every issue...
Sometimes the feature articles are about technique, sometimes about ingredients, sometimes they're about events, sometimes they're about breweries.
Crack the cover of the newest issue -- the main article is a seriously in-depth article about the Belhaven Brewery. Do you know Belhaven? I know you do if you're serious about beer, because they're one of Scotland's most well-regarded breweries (not to mention being the oldest brewery in the country). When you pick up Zymurgy, you'll get a chance to do a virtual tour of the brewery and an armchair tasting of their wonderfully malty brews. It's like getting a VIP behind-the-scenes tour! (But without the jet lag).
My favorite issues are always the annual special theme issues. These are wonderfully in-depth, big fat, reference oriented issues. They're "keepers" that I have on my shelf for years and years, until I wear the pages thin from so much re-reading and cross-checking. Special issues are usually on broad themes, like hops, or yeast, or lagering techniques, and they feature a dozen or more extremely thorough articles that delve into different nuances and points of view.
Some of my favorite special issues are the 1998 Yeast Issue and the 1997 Hops issue. Both of these have become reference points for me and both contain dozens of incredibly in-depth articles. Like every beer judge in the world, I rely on books like Michael Jackson's Beer Companion to put the world of beer into perspective, but I've also gleaned incredible insight from some of the Zymurgy special issues -- particularly the 1991 Classic Beer Styles issue, though I've always had a fondness for brewers who push the envelope in the "specialty beers" category, so for me, the 2002 Experimental Techniques and the 2000 Historical Styles were just incalculable treasures to me.
The only other brewing magazine I've ever held in quite as high regard is the now defunct Brewing Techniques. But that's a moot point these days...
No matter what's on tap though, I know I'm in for a treat when I see a copy of Zymurgy in my mailbox!
Fostering a Sense of Community...
One of the big reasons I always recommend that homebrewers subscribe to Zymurgy is because it is the only magazine out there that really fosters a sense of community. Through Zymurgy, you can find out about homebrewing events, competitions throughout the U.S. (and beyond), and about clubs in every corner of the world -- clubs with people who love beer just as much as you do, and clubs that will welcome you to their outings with open arms and open bars (always open bars).
You don't get that with other magazines because they're in the business of selling you their single source. Check out the club lists in Zymurgy, and send a note to a local club -- guaranteed you'll get an invite to come hang out with the club and have a brewski. If you've brewed a beer that you know is your piece d' resistance, why not send it into a good competition and see how it fares up against the best stuff from other folks like you. Maybe you'll snag a few ribbons for the wall, or at least you'll come away with some evaluation write-ups that let you know what other people are tasting in your beers.
Zymurgy is the voice of the AHA, and the AHA sponsors a huge annual national competition, plus an annual conference that's just chock-full of fascinating speakers, many drawn from the ranks of professional breweries, but all who love beer just as much as you and I do.
But there's more! I've always been a recipe hound, sniffing out the very best beer recipes the homebrew community has to offer. I love skimming through the "Winners Circle" column in each issue -- that's where Zymurgy publishes some of the best medal-winning recipes from the annual AHA National Homebrew Competition. The winners of that competition are often the very best of the best homebrewers in the U.S., and it's fun to see how innovative recipes can be when they come from homebrewers who are good enough to be professional (and who, by the way, often do turn pro -- did you know that Pete's Wicked Ale started life as a winner of the AHA National Homebrew Competition? You do if you're a long-time Zymurgy reader! ...and you have the original recipe.)
If you really want to plug into the world of homebrewing, you can start by joining AHA and reading Zymurgy. The only problem might be how to convince your S.O. that family vacations really NEED to include brewery visits and Michael Jackson beer tastings and treks to Oregon's hop-growing region and Belgian beer dinners and annual pilgrimages to Munich's Oktoberfest but of course no time for pesky in-laws or cousin weddings.
Bottom Line
If you love beer, you should try homebrewing a few batches. And if you like homebrewing, you'll love reading Zymugry. Just brew it! Just read it!
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