Homebrew Saves Lives

Allow me a moment to share a story that many may not know. Charlie Papazian, the father of homebrewing and author of the homebrewer's "bible" has a modus operandi that has not failed him: "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew." In his homebrewing book, this phrase is repeatedly repeated and he emphasizes that if you find yourself stressing out that your wort may be a few degrees off, or if you think you have oxygenated too much/too little, or over primed the bottles, heed the words, "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew," and do just that. They are good advice for brewing, great advice for life.

Little do people know, but this mantra actually saved Charlie's life once upon a time. He was traveling with a buddy through the desert when his van got stuck in the sand. No amount of pushing, pulling, or cajoling would improve the situation. Mind you this was a time before cell phones or GPS navigation, and these two were stuck in the middle of the desert with thunderheads looming in the distance. They imagined themselves dying there in the sand and pictured their sun-bleached bones being discovered years later.

When hope was all but lost Charlie remembered a case of homebrew he had made resting peacefully in the back of the van. He said, "Let's just relax for a few minutes and have a homebrew." They proceeded to imbibe in some libations out in heat and put the seemingly futile situation behind them. After four bottles had been quaffed, and spirits had been renewed, a search of the surrounding area produced a piece of wood in the sand, a strange artifact to be found in the desert. They used the wood just as you might think and were able to get out of the sand and drive to safety just ahead of the storm.

Now, the obvious moral of the story is when life gets you stuck in the sand, relax, don't worry, have a homebrew. Charlie said that this story is how he came up with his now famous phrase. He passed it on to me, and now I'm passing it along to you. Follow Charlie's words. They won't only improve the results of your homebrew, they might just save your life as well.