SDBN: Tell us about your background. I understand you used to run a homebrew supply store and homebrewed also. Do you still brew? What's your favorite kind of beer to brew/drink? How old are you? The press release announcing your appointment mentioned experience in the non-profit sector; what was that, exactly? What does your work with Zymurgy entail?

PG: I was born in Boston, grew up outside of Philly, went to college at Drexel University, lived in Philly and Washington, D.C., before moving to Colorado in 1991. My nonprofit management experience was with Greenpeace from 1987 through 1991 as a national trainer, a regional canvass director, an office director, and direct action participant.

My homebrewing experience started in 1991. I worked briefly on the bottling line at Boulder Brewery (now Rockies Brewery) in 1993 and started working at What's Brewin' Homebrew Supply at the same time. I moved into management at What's Brewin' and bought into the ownership as well.

I have homebrewed about 2,000 gallons of homebrew over the years. I still brew 15 to 20 times per year in 12-gallon batch sizes. Of that, about half are meads. I make beer, mead, wine, cider and sake. When I make beer, about half of my batches are all-grain and half are extract, usually based on how much time I have.

My favorite type of beer to brew and drink is usually one of the bitter subcategories. I love Belgian ales, too. (Actually, I love just about all styles - the last competition I judged, I requested American lagers.) With mead, I like strong, sweet, still melomels or traditionals.

I turned 34 on July 25. I first started as a contract writer with Zymurgy in 1994, doing product reviews. I took over the "New Products" column in 1997. I currently have the "It's the Beer Talking" column, and I do the technical review of the magazine. (I also have three years as a technical editor in my background). I also co-wrote an article in Brewing Techniques two years ago.

SDBN: Do you have any idea how many homebrewers there are in the United States, as opposed to AHA members? Are sales of supplies up, indicating an increase in hobbyists?

PG: If you include dormant brewers who brewed and will brew again, there are probably over 1 million in the U.S. Sales of supplies are generally down for most of the local supply shops. The majority of new brewers have been brought in by the Mr. Beer� infomercials and warehouse and department stores.

The supply shops are seeing about 100 percent annual growth in winemaking supply sales. I think that economics plays a more important role with wine. (You can make a bottle of wine worth $10 for about $3, and next to nothing if you have your own grapes.) Sales of home draft systems is another bright spot for retailers.

I also feel that homebrewing is down because the economy has been so strong. Many brewers are working more hours, thus having less time for hobbies such as homebrewing.

SDBN: How many members does the AHA have at present? What is the trend, is it declining or increasing, has there been a leveling off?

PG: As of Aug. 1, the AHA had 17,060 members. This is a 13.9 percent decline since last year.

SDBN: Why has membership declined?

PG: I think that new brewers do not know about the AHA yet. The traditional channel for new brewers was, a person would try homebrew at a friend's house and find out where the local shop is. Now, the majority of new brewers are coming in through the Mr. Beer� and wholesale clubs or department stores. Many don't know how extensive the world of homebrewing is. I also think that as brewers become more active on the local level, such as clubs, they feel like joining the homebrew club is enough. (Some even mistake a club being registered with the AHA as a membership that includes them.)

Five years ago, the majority of club members were also AHA members. That is not the case today. The number of clubs is growing, and the number of club members is growing, but as older members drop out the new ones have not been joining the AHA yet.

What that means to the AHA is that there is not enough money available for all of the program work that we do. AHA programs are Zymurgy, the National Homebrew Competition, the AHA conference, legalization, the sanctioned competition program, Brew U., and research. We also have to maintain the Techtalk, Talkback, and Maps on Tap portion of our website.

With less membership money coming in, we have cut staff and our ability to complete all of this work effectively. As we scramble to perform the tasks of one of the programs, other program work is suffering, the result of which is our members feel we are unresponsive. We try not to be; but it sometimes appears that way, since we are spread thin for the amount of program work that has been bitten off. Yes, our programs are good ideas, there just isn't the money or staff available to make them all happen. We are in the process of evaluating which programs are priorities, which can function effectively in a scaled-back state, and which to drop. We need more members if we are to provide all the services that brewers want from the AHA.

SDBN: Jim Parker had been planning a study program that would teach things similar to what Beer Judge Certification Program judges learn. Is the AHA still working on this?

PG: The study program (called Brew U.) exists in a loose way. Style-specific presentations have been made at the NHC and beer festivals in Alaska and Texas. The study guide has not come together yet, unfortunately, as we are on our third author for that piece of the Brew U. puzzle. This and all AHA programs are under budgetary review.

SDBN: What are some of your ideas regarding how to increase membership?

PG: There has been an increase in the number of homebrew clubs and the number of homebrew club members. I think this is the most fertile ground for gaining new members. Our board of advisers is looking into the possibility of creating chapter organizations, in which club members would also be AHA members, and then we could offer benefits such as insurance for club functions.

We are also trying out a program with 15 retailers to sell memberships, which has shown encouraging results so far. We are also looking to involve our members in ways that allow them to provide input into the organization, such as the talk-back section of our website and direct election of our board of advisers. Hopefully, that will help our renewal rate. We also are reworking (former AHA director) Brian Rezac's position into a membership development role rather than his previous club administrator role.

SDBN: What are some of your other goals for the AHA, and what are the AHA's goals as an organization?

PG: The goals as an organization are to promote public awareness of homebrewing, homebrewing education, improving the quality of homebrewed beers, and the responsible consumption of homebrew. To specifically do this, the AHA is seeking to increase memberships and increase participation in our events such as the National Homebrew Competition, AHA National Homebrewers Conference and Sanctioned Competition Program.

Other goals are to produce technical brewing advances, to get homebrewing legal in all 50 states, to legalize and bring more consistency to the shipping of homebrew, and to develop a more coherent education program (what we call Brew U.). Much of our work is extremely staff-time intensive, so I'd like to find ways to streamline our programs to reduce staff demands on detail work, so we can work more proactively with the brewing public.

Other goals I have are to build a cohesive volunteer network for competitions and festivals, which would make events go more smoothly and tie people in a little more. We also don't have the revenue for the staffing to complete all the programs we've bitten off, so it is essential to have people like competition site directors who are willing to volunteer for beer.

Another personal goal is to have the AHA support international work related to general beer enthusiasm and preservation of endangered styles of beer and other indigenous beverages. Since we address cider, mead and sake, I'd like to see us address winemaking, as many beermakers are also interested in making wine, too. Also, many women are interested more in wine than beer, which opens up a whole new potential membership base and may change the gender imbalance in homebrewing. (Approximately 5 percent of AHA members are women.)

SDBN: You're the third director of the AHA in just over a year? Why?

PG: The previous two directors are individuals and made decisions in their own lives. I know that Jim Parker came from and returned to the commercial beer world. I asked Jim why he left, and he indicated that he was frustrated by the constantly changing demands to the position that pulled him away from focusing on much of the program work. Jim said he felt he wasn't achieving his goals, and that was frustrating, too.

It is a relatively thankless position with a huge amount of detailed work. I started full-time in mid-July and stepped right into the competition and conference. I was working 18- to 23-hour days, basically busting my butt, and came back to messages on the computer criticizing the AHA for being apathetic to the membership. It takes a tough skin not to internalize the criticism, whether justified or not, but to learn why people feel the way they do, even when they only have part of the picture.

SDBN: Can you discuss the AHA's efforts to legalize homebrewing in states where it isn't legal? How many states remain where homebrewing is illegal?

PG: Our approach to legalization is that we look for a "champion" of homebrewing in the state to take up the cause. Legalization only comes through grassroots advocacy. When a champion of legalization asks us for help, we provide advice, help draft legislation and contact our membership to try to push the legalization bill through.

Homebrewing was legalized federally in 1978; however, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma and Utah still do not allow homebrewing. The laws are still vague in Louisiana, Maine, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and West Virginia. Homebrewing was just legalized in Delaware, and the law was just clarified to permit homebrewing in New Hampshire this summer.

SDBN: Why is it important to legalize homebrewing in the states where it's not legal? People brew there, anyway, as the list of National Homebrew Competition medalists shows.

PG: The way most enforcement agencies work in the U.S. is to ignore illegal homebrewing unless they receive a complaint. A competition in Delaware was shut down (before legalization) due to a complaint. The Delaware law had classified homebrew on a par with illegal drugs, which permitted officials to confiscate the vehicle that someone was transporting a homebrew in, had they wanted.

To a large degree, the issue is ignored in our society at present. I do see our society as having a political polarity that ebbs and flows; I would expect that there will be several challenges to the freedoms of homebrewers in the next 20 years. Fortunately, for homebrewers in the states where homebrewing is illegal, there are other targets for people who are interested in someone else's business. I do believe there will come a time again when alcohol will be socially attacked. Should the political tide turn that way, I can envision an enforcement official persecuting homebrewers at an event again.

SDBN: In the past few years, homebrewing has become much easier to do. You can buy supplies on the Internet and by mail, or stop at your local store. As it becomes easier to get supplies, smaller homebrew stores have been closing, and others are becoming superstores. What's going to happen to the hobby from a retailing standpoint? Will it parallel what's going on in the microbrewing industry -- shakeouts, consolidations, closings? Do you have any suggestions on how a small store can be successful?

PG: There is definitely a shakeout going on with shops. When homebrewing hit the big wave in 1994 and 1995, hundreds of homebrewers opened shops and saturated the market. The key to retail success is building relationships with brewers through staff brewing expertise and customer service. Some shops use direct mail to keep people thinking about brewing. Free classes and presentations to local businesses are another great way to keep people tied in.

SDBN: It is also easier to get information about homebrewing today than it was when the AHA was founded. There are more magazines and books that deal with homebrewing, and brewers can get their questions answered on the web. How does this affect the AHA -- does your membership suffer because you're no longer the only source of information? Why should someone join the AHA?

PG: The Homebrewing Digest (which was moderated by the AHA at one time) and the rec.crafts.brewing sites are great sources for technical information, as well as Brewing Techniques. Their existence allows AHA staff to focus on other work, so, in a way, members get more AHA value for the money. We can focus on AHA-specific questions through the talk-back section of the website. Many of the folks who are so enthusiastic about brewing to participate in that forum are already members of the AHA. I don't thinks it hurts our membership roles, but gives another avenue for our more involved members to participate in regarding brewing conversation.

I have the following reasons to join the AHA: