Par-T-Pak Pale Dry Ginger Ale

Description:

By the 1960s, some Americans were tired of the narrow range of beer styles produced by big breweries. Inspired by European brewing manuals and beers they encountered abroad, homebrewers began to tinker in their kitchens and basements, seeking to make more flavorful beers themselves. Even though brewing beer at home remained illegal following Prohibition’s repeal, homebrewers embraced a do-it-yourself approach in line with other countercultural trends of the day.

Charlie Papazian was a student at the University of Virginia when in 1970 he tasted a beer made by a local homebrewer. That first sip was a revelation to him, and he began to experiment with brewing his own beer. He repurposed these glass bottles from a Charlottesville supermarket to bottle his beer. Papazian also wrote his first recipe for homebrewed beer while a student at the University of Virginia.

After graduation, Papazian moved to Boulder, Colorado, where he taught brewing classes, wrote books, and founded the American Homebrewers Association (AHA), the journal Zymurgy, and the Great American Beer Festival. He showed Americans that they needed only basic equipment--a wooden spoon, a plastic garbage can, a metal stepladder--to brew good beer at home. Papazian became beloved by generations of homebrewers for his trademark reassurance, "Relax. Don't Worry. Have a Homebrew."