Archives West Finding Aid

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.

Physical and electronic records are available for use in the Special Collections and Archives Research Center reading room.

Physical copies of the books will be cataloged separately in the SCARC book collection.