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
In 2014, Conn partnered with Drew Beechum to co-author
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.”
The collection was donated by Denny Conn in 2017.
Denny Conn retains the copyright on these materials.
Collection is open for research.
Denny Conn Papers (MSS Conn), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
The Denny Conn Papers are complemented by the
Further information regarding the values, logistics, and goals of the burgeoning regional brewing community can be found in organizational collections like the
Collections linked to Oregon State University research, as well as other manuscript collections are described on the
The Denny Conn Papers are arranged into six 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.
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
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
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.
This series is comprised of Conn's book files for the two books,
Includes book files, photographs of brewing materials and processes, receipe research, correspondence, legal documentation, and drafts for
The administrative records in this folder include financial records, presentation and publicity items for promoting the book, sales and marketing materials, and planning documents such as recipe templates and book outlines.
The book files in this folder include drafts and final edits for chapters, various outlines, final book text and design layout, conference presentations at the American Homebrewing Association, recipe and process research, and articles and pictures gathered by Conn and Beechum.
In addition to conference materials, in the digital folder "American Homebrewing Association 2006-2013: 2009 Conference: Brut Brewing" there are three short videos. Also of note in the folder "Source articles 2008-2014: Beecher source articles" are articles and recipe ideas from 2008-2014.
The photographs in this folder include brewing equipment and supplies pictures used in the book, cover art and other book graphics, and pictures of Conn and his homebrewing space.
Includes book files, photographs of brewing materials and processes, correspondence, legal documentation, and drafts for
The administrative records in this folder include correspondence with Olan Suddeth, legal documents, permissions and and royalty documents, and sales and marketing materials.
The book files in this folder include author acknowledgments and biographies, headshot pictures, homebrewer profile drafts and categories, questionnaires and correspondence sent to potential contributors, drafts and final edits for chapters, final book text and design layout, and research and data (graphs, charts, recipes).
This series documents classes, conferences, and events that Conn has presented at or attended. Included are research materials, graphics and picture files, handouts, and Powerpoint files for various presentations at the National Homebrewing Conference "HomeBrew Con" (2008, 2010-2011), Pacific Northwest Homebrewers Conference (2016-2017), and Brewniversity (2014). Size: 410.3 MB for 128 files.
This series includes articles written for newsletters and newspapers, transcripts of public presentations, records of brewing experiments, correspondence related to the Beer Judge Certification Program and research experiments, and testimony and correspondence for Conn's support of Senate Bill 444 in 2011, which expanded the exemption of homemade beer, wine, and fermented fruit juice from the Liquor Control Act. It also contains recipe research, design, and evaluation; tasting notes; First Wort Hopping research; Decoction Mashing research and results; and materials related to his teaching for the Hop and Brew School program in Washington. Size: 64.4 MB for 93 files.
This contains articles that are about or written by Denny Conn in different publications, including the Register-Guard.
Included are speech transcripts for American Homebrewers Association nominations and in support of Senate Bill 444. Also seen are business correspondence and fundraising documents.
This holds documentation from different experiements, including research, recorded findings and report forms.
This series includes a collection of instructional videos and recordings of the popular "Experimental Brewing" podcast (episodes 1-38); subjects covered include how to apply different brewing techniques such as batch sparging. Size: 4.07 GB for 52 files.
This series contains photographs Conn collected or took during his homebrewing career. Included are pictures of Conn and others, brewing systems and equipment, a 2015 trip to Brazil, and homebrew labels. Size: 951.8 MB for 202 files.
The Experimental Brewing website was crawled in April 2019 using Archive-It. This website documents Conn's work with Drew Beechum, including blog posts by Conn and Beechum, information on experiments and recipes, information about their books, audio podcasts and transcripts, and information about sponsors. The captured and preserved websites are available