Beer Democracy and Open Source Brewing

May 27, 9:07 AMBeer ExaminerCharlie Papazian

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Examine current beer culture. Thirty years ago there were only a few individuals championing better beer.  When first brewed in the U.S., American pale ale, stout and porter markets did not exist.  I cannot imagine a large corporation coming out with a bold, expensive product for a market that does not exist.   Amateur/consumer innovation is ahead of existing producers.     (Photo-Beer at high ferment)

            The participation of individual consumers is driving change in the beer business.  They are a driving force of what I will refer to as the democratization of process.  Accelerating communication has only enhanced this fundamental process.   Thirty years ago the word “micro” first prefixed the word “computer.”  Simultaneously the “Beer Revolution” was in the hands of the individual homebrewer and beer enthusiast then as it continues to be now. 

The past 30 years of the “Beer Revolution” is a phenomenon attributable to one of the first “open source” collaborative experiences in this age of consumer driven innovation.   Before personal computers, before internet, before paper copying machines, before fax, before mobile telephones consumers were fashioning the beer revolution. Homebrewers, beer enthusiasts and craft brewers were among the pioneers of the democratization of process.  It is only anecdotal knowing that Steve Jobs was a member of the “Homebrew Computer Club,” from which the seeds of the Mac Computer would emerge.  The fact is, homebrewers were already fashioning their own revolution before a communication technology emerged that would later enhance the means by which revolutionary ideas and the process of democratizing innovation would be accelerated.

            What is extraordinary to me is how the succeeding professional and homebrewing craft brewing communities continue to guide their creative destiny.  The last 30 year history of American beer culture, is a mirror image of how the rest of the world has embraced, choice, diversity, information, education, grassroots activism, quality, personality, passion, pleasure, flavor (both in the real and metamorphic sense), etc.  These terms are contemporary to most, but they are the foundation of craft beer’s flavor and diversity – 30 years ago!