This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
By Tiah Edmunson-Morton, Mary Williams
Title: Denny Conn Papers, 1998-2017
Predominant Dates: 2005-2017
ID: MSS Conn
Primary Creator: Conn, Denny
Extent: 7.34 gigabytes. More info below.
Arrangement: The Denny Conn Papers are arranged into five series: 1. Published Books, 2006-2017; 2. Presentations, 2008-2017; 3. Research and Writing, 1998-2017; 4. Audio and Video, 2015-2017; 5. Photographs, 1999-2016; 6. Experimental Brewing Website, 2019.
Date Acquired: 00/00/2017
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
Denny Conn is a homebrewer, author, educator, and advisor in the Oregon brewing community. The Denny Conn Papers is an all electronic collection and consists of born-digital materials (.mp3, video, documents, websites) and items digitized by Conn. These materials document Conn's work, including documentation related to Conn's two books Experimental Homebrewing: Mad Science in the Pursuit of Great Beer (2014) and Homebrew All-Stars: Top Homebrewers Share Their Best Techniques and Recipes (2016).
Reference access to digitized materials in Series 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 is available upon request.
The Denny Conn Papers is an all electronic collection and consists of born-digital materials (.mp3, video, documents, websites) and items digitized by Conn. These materials document Conn's work, including documentation related to Conn's two books Experimental Homebrewing: Mad Science in the Pursuit of Great Beer (2014) and Homebrew All-Stars: Top Homebrewers Share Their Best Techniques and Recipes (2016), which he co-authored with Drew Beechum. Topics represented in the collection are files related to the publication of his books (outlines and drafts, research, recipe experiments and evaluation, and photos), class and conference presentations, audio and video files of lectures and podcasts, photographs of brewing systems and equipment, and research files (recipe design, Decoction Mashing, First Wort Hopping).
Conn created and assembled materials that document his work as an educator, advisor, and member of professional groups such as the American Homebrewers Association and the Cascade Brewers Society, a Eugene-based club devoted to the appreciation and art of creating beer, mead, cider, and wine. Included are articles, speeches, and materials related to his advocacy for Senate Bill 444, which expanded the exemption of homemade beer, wine, and fermented fruit juice from the Liquor Control Act. This collection also includes materials related to recipe design and evaluation, as well as his work on First Wort Hopping (a process in which a large portion of finishing hops is added to the boil kettle as the wort is transferred from the mash or lauter tun) and Decoction Mashing (a process to conduct multi-step mashes without adding additional water or applying heat to the mash tun). Of special note are drafts, legal documents, research, and correspondence from Experimental Homebrewing and Homebrew: All-Stars, which focus on homebrewing techniques for diversifying beer flavors and forms.
This collection also contains photographs and audio/video files created or collected by Conn. The photographs include pictures of Conn; other homebrewers; and homebrewing materials, equipment, and techniques. The video and audio recordings are instructional videos and episodes of Conn and Beechum’s podcast “Experimental Homebrewing.”
Of special note is the preservation of the Experimental Brewing website, which was crawled in 2019 using Archive-It. It documents Conn's work with Beechum, including blog posts; information on experiments, recipes; books; and audio podcasts and transcripts.
Reference access to digitized materials in Series 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 is available upon request.
Physical copies of the books will be cataloged separately in the SCARC book collection.
Denny Conn is a homebrewer, author, educator, and advisor in the Oregon brewing community.
He was born in 1952 in the small town of Newton, Iowa. From a young age, Conn expected he’d take over the family-run lumberyard, but ultimately took a different path. After graduating from high school, he attended Iowa State University to study Chemistry, later switching his major to English. After graduation, Conn pursued a career in music, touring with a rock n’ roll band, and explored his interest in cooking. Conn moved from Iowa to Eugene, where he and a partner opened a recording studio. That same business partner introduced him to his greatest passion in life: homebrewing.
In 1998, Conn’s wife bought him a kit of equipment and ingredients from Liberty Brewing at Costco; it included Randy Mosher’s Brewers Companion book. Over the next several years, Conn researched and experimented with different techniques on his own, but was also deeply involved in the brewing community through individual friendships and his membership in the Cascade Brewers Society in Eugene. In 2004, Conn became a national judge for the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), which was founded in 1985 as an international certifying organization for judges of beer and related fermented products. In 2006, he was elected into the governing committee of the American Homebrewing Association. He also gained broader commercial recognition. His rye beer recipe (RyePA) was the basis for Rogue Ales 15th anniversary beer (Two Tier Bier). The Oregon-based company Wyeast developed and named a yeast after him; Denny’s Favorite Ale (Strain 1450) is a versatile yeast that can be used for almost any beer style.
In 2014, Conn partnered with Drew Beechum to co-author Experimental Brewing. Their personalities and writing styles were unique, and in the book they formed a dialogue through their experiments that was not seen in previous brewing publications. Later, the two created a podcast also named “Experimental Brewing,” which still runs today. In 2016, they decided to partner on a second brewing book entitled Homebrew: All-Stars, which highlighted specific brewers and offered more insight on different types of brewing techniques.
Many have asked Conn why never became a commercial brewer, to which he replies with his mantra: “make the best beer possible, with the least effort possible, while having the most fun possible.”
More Extent Information: 1675 files, including 555 digital photographs, 52 audio/video files
Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.
Use Restrictions: Denny Conn retains the copyright on these materials.
Acquisition Note: The collection was donated by Denny Conn in 2017.
Related Materials:
The Denny Conn Papers are complemented by the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives Oral History Collection (OH 35), which includes interviews from industry professionals, journalists and community members. Denny Conn was interviewed May 1, 2017 and it is available online.
The Brewing and Fermentation Collection (MSS BFRC) consists of materials collected by the OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center pertaining to the history, growth, and culture of the Pacific Northwest brewing industry, including regional hops and barley farming, commercial craft and home brewing, and craft cider and mead.
Further information regarding the values, logistics, and goals of the burgeoning regional brewing community can be found in organizational collections like the Heart of the Valley Homebrewers Records (MSS HOTV), McMenamins Brewery Collection (MSS McMenamins), and the Ninkasi Brewing Company Collection, 2012-2014 (MSS Ninkasi). The personal research collections of Fred Eckhardt (MSS Eckhardt), Pete Dunlop (MSS Dunlop), Fred Bowman (MSS Bowman), and Robert Daly (MSS Daly) contain additional information regarding the beer writing process and Portland-area beer culture.
Collections linked to Oregon State University research, as well as other manuscript collections are described on the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives research guide. More information pertaining to the history of hop growing and brewing in Oregon can be found on the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives website.
Preferred Citation: Denny Conn Papers (MSS Conn), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Conn, Denny
Brewing--Amateurs' manuals.
Brewing industry--Oregon.
Conn, Denny.
Home brewing
Hops and Brewing
Publishers and publishing
Born digital.
Digital audio formats.
Digital images.
Digital moving image formats.
Digital photographs.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.