Charlie Papazian, craft beer icon, is (almost) ready to retire
Charlie Papazian has a résumé a mile long: founder of the Great American Beer Festival, the Brewers Association, the American Homebrewers Association and the World Beer Cup; bestselling author; publisher of two brewing magazines; contributor to the Smithsonian; and, perhaps less well known, the founder of National Pie Day.
He stepped down as president of the Boulder-based Brewers Association in 2016. One year from now, he’ll step away entirely from the organization he brought to life. The date — Jan-
uary 23, 2019 — will mark his 70th birthday.
For this birthday, Papazian planned to celebrate with a fresh-baked pie at home and, it goes without saying, a glass or two of beer from his four home taps. And though he is retiring from the Brewers Association, he will be a continued presence in the homebrew and craft beer scenes.
“My life has been an unending series of unanticipated opportunities,” he said. “What I’ll do next, I’ll see.”
He will spend his final year of work compiling a massive archive of craft brewing history. Many of his own contributions deserve a place.
“He’s the godfather of American craft beer,” said Marie Fox, co-owner of Gunbarrel Brewing Company. “We wouldn’t have existed without Charlie. That would be the case for most craft brewers in America if not every one.”
Fox and her husband Jamie are longtime members of the homebrew club Papazian founded on March 30, 1989: Hop Barley and the Alers. The Foxes taste-tested creations there, and at the Homebrewers Association, which used to open up on Fridays to the brewing public.
“Charlie would be there and taste our beer and give us encouragement,” Fox said. “He always had something positive to say.”
Papazian turned his knowledge into tomes, including magazines Zymurgy (for home brewers) and The New Brewer (for independent craft brewers). He also wrote the seminal “The Complete Joy of Home Brewing.” Originally a self-published, 74-page book, it has gone through multiple editions and read the world over.
It was the first book Bill Campbell put in his Longmont homebrew supply store, Brewmented, which opened (coincidentally) Tuesday, Papazian’s 69th birthday.
“Charlie helped to invent and legitimize the entire industry on the homebrewing front,” Campbell said. “I wouldn’t have opened up this store without what he did. The industry just wouldn’t be where it is today. Everybody owes him a great deal of thanks.
“We are all here today because of Charlie Papazian,” said Bob Pease, president and CEO of the Brewers Association, in a statement. “His influence on the homebrewing and craft brewing community is immeasurable. Who could have predicted that a simple wooden spoon, ingenuity and passion would spawn a community of more than one million homebrewers and 6,000 small and independent U.S. craft breweries?”
Said wooden spoon, at least, has earned its place in history. Papazian donated his personal instrument to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History for an historically accurate display of homebrewing in the 1970s, part of the institution’s American Brewing History Initiative.
Papazian counts the book and the spoon among his proudest accomplishments in a long line of them. Another? The time Anheuser-Busch asked him to brew a commemorative beer to celebrate their brewmasters. He did it, happily delivering 30 gallons of his finest.
Brewers big and small supported one another in those days, he said. Craft “wasn’t going to take over the world then. We are now.”