I think I can capture the reason why
I moved out to Colorado in one word,
whimsy. This worked out well for me.
And I started
making home brew while I was a student.
It was still illegal,
but the feds had better things to do than
bust people for home making homemade beer.
At least I'd like to think so.
You know, by my standards today,
I it was probably drinkable like frost,
still drinkable beer.
But I've learned so much in the years
here in Boulder when I was teaching beer,
making classes from 1973
to 1981 out of my home.
And I taught over 1000 people how to make
beer in the Denver Boulder metropolitan area.
And that was the foundation for what
I would consider the the beer culture
that has evolved here in Colorado.
Was really important was that we the network
of people in the Community of home Brewers,
we we talked to each other,
we shared our experiences,
what we developed.
That was diversity and choice.
My one of my former students and myself,
Charlie Mattson and and I decided to let's
start a newsletter and we drank more homebrew
and our ideas got crazier and crazier.
And we started magazine.
We said let's start a magazine well.
They could have an association.
So in 1978 we established the American
Home Brewers Association and published
our first issue of our magazine,
which is called Zymurgy magazine.
The first Great American Beer Festival was in
1982 and I got I was inspired to start that.
After a visit to England I went to the Great
British Beer Festival in 1981 in Leeds.
I was invited to judge the best show
and I walked in there and there were
thousands of people and hundreds of beers
and they were celebrating their national
heritage of of Real ale and and brewing.
You know,
I got to thinking, wow,
maybe we could do something
like this in the United States.
The Great American Beer Festival in 1982,
there were only 40 breweries in
the country and they are all
making light lager pretty much.
So we didn't want to have a Great American
beer festival and just celebrate light logo.
We wanted some interesting beer so
we had a connection to the beer.
The small Brewers,
they were making some interesting beers,
some German style beers,
some porters,
some stouts and.
We've never heard of them here out
here in Colorado,
and we asked them whether they would
send their beer to the Great American,
our first Great American Beer
Festival and to this day.
I am still blown away that they say yes.
The
first Great American Beer Festival had
22 breweries and 40 beers
and 750 people. There
are more beers, more Brewers at that.
The 2019 Great American Beer Festival,
then there were people at the first
Great American Beer Festival that
that kind of kind of encapsulates
the tremendous growth.
Every time I go into the beer festival,
it's like it's it's still overwhelming.
My emotions are overwhelmed.
I get asked how does it feel?
It just blows me away because
it's such a celebration and all
the people there are so excited
to be able to be in a space.
With like minded people
not only celebrate beer,
but to have an opportunity to taste
all these different kinds of beers
that people have been Brewers have
been creating and inventing the
innovation has been fantastic.
We're never going to go back local
and regional and craft small and
independent is here to stay.
The quality and diversity and the
choice that we have is here to stay.
People are not to be denied choice
and diversity and beer ever again.
Here's the beer and what's going
to be brewed tomorrow.