Our June 2022 meeting was at Brewport Brewing Company in Bridgeport, CT. Attendance was sparse; summer activities and sick kids were a distraction for too many members. This was a real shame because our host was Jeff Browning, the premier historian of brewing in Connecticut over the last 200 years.
Jeff has two books coming out, both written in collaboration with Dr. Terry Foster. You may have heard of Dr. Foster through his “Porter” book or through his writings in Brew Your Own, Zymurgy, and other national magazines. You may not know that he has published over a dozen other books, including a homebrewers’ guide which pre-dated Papazian’s.
Jeff and Terry have complementary skills. Jeff collects voraciously: artifacts, stories, people, everything. Terry methodically collates and codifies, meticulously cross-referencing everything and following up on loose ends. Starting with a rich trove of hand-written brewing logs spanning decades of commercial brewing history, they have fleshed out the story of brewing in and around Bridgeport from the late 1800s through and beyond Prohibition.
In the process, Jeff and Terry have debunked a number of myths about old beer styles, brewing processes, ingredients, and people. They have recreated a number of historical recipes and can defend their accuracy. Jeff allowed us to sample two of them – a cream ale and a lager – and spoke about how they are two very different beers made from essentially the same grain bill.
Jeff’s talk was, simply, the most informative brewing-related talk I’ve ever listened to. None of us wanted it to end. We immediately resolved to gather a much larger group, perhaps in combination with other brew clubs, to hear a talk by Terry Foster too.
In the meantime, we look forward to the new books. If they are half as interesting as Jeff’s talk, we will all want copies.
Thank you Jeff!