 I started
William's Brewing in August of 1979, after graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in History in 1978. The economy was lousy: unemployment was high, inflation was rampant, and I was repeatedly told that a history graduate had relatively few job prospects. I
didn't think too much about this except thinking that I wanted a recession proof job, and that I wanted to be a writer. Besides cleaning swimming pools to support myself, I tried a few local paper writing jobs before realizing that being a writer was, in general, a very tough way to go, and paid less than cleaning swimming pools.
During this period, a friend of mine and I started home brewing, shopping at the very Berkeley named store Wine and the People. We made a batch or two with fairly good results, and I was hooked. When I was buying supplies, I remember hearing something about home brewing being illegal, although the stores existence, openly selling brewing supplies, led me to assume that the law was not vigorously enforced. Then in February of 1979, a bill introduced by Alan Cranston of California was signed into law by Jimmy Carter, legalizing home brewing. This was minor, uncontroversial news at the time for the nation as a whole, but it got me thinking; if home brewing is now legal, maybe I could write a book on how to brew and get it published.
I set to writing the first edition of Home Beermaking, with a friend as an illustrator, soon after this. This was to be a very clear and concise guide to brewing a
successful batch the first time, with an emphasis on using all malt (instead of the 50% sugar 50% malt canned kits prevalent at the time) and real hops, not hopped extract. At about the same time, I had an idea to sell a mail order home brewing kit featuring the recipes and techniques in my book. I named this company
Williams's Brewing, and fulfilled initial orders out of my apartment in Oakland, driving orders to United Parcel Service in my MGB.
During this time, I met the late Jim Weathers, owner of a wholesaler called Brewmaster in San Leandro. Besides selling me supplies, he offered to publish Home Beermaking, and the the first black and white edition came out in 1980, distributed to stores by the Brewmaster and sold direct by
William's Brewing.
Since 1980, many changes have occured. William's Brewing has grown into an industry leader and moved to its third location, my book Home Beermaking has sold over 350,000 copies, and home brewing has expanded to the benefit of everyone who appreciates fresh and flavorful beer. We have a truly exceptional staff doing everything from packing orders to future product development to customer service. And it is all made possible by you, our valued repeat customers throughout the years.
Thank you.
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