"The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."
-Franklin Delano Roosevelt

It comes as no news that the United States was founded on an ethos of experimentation. The country's founding fathers consciously framed their political ideologies on the notion that truth would result from the free exchange of ideas. Free speech, democracy, and a free commercial market would produce an enlightened, creative, and progressive society. As Thomas Jefferson said, "Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them."

Despite this legacy, I suspect few of us fully appreciate the implications of free thought and experimentation. Experimentation requires an open mind and a willingness to accept change - sometimes radical change. It is an irony of American culture that most of us, for a multitude of reasons, prefer to live safely. We want sure bets. We want to know what works. Rare is the person who lives the life of experimentation.

Brewing is no stranger to the fears of change. The earliest brewers of Sumeria were ritualistic priests whose success depended on carefully replicating each step in the prescribed order to mediate the alchemical creation of beer. Medieval brewers likewise depended on known methods of brewing. In both examples, of course, these early brewers operated without the benefit of scientific knowledge. Yet today, even with our deep technical knowledge of brewing, we continue to revere and apply traditional methods.

Today's specialty brewers represent a curious mix of both extremes. On the one hand, we revel in the rich textures and nuances of tradition. We can re-create beers that made history and sip flavors that nameless ancestors enjoyed hundreds of years ago. At the same time, we are curious, innovative, and experimental. We are living, after all, in the age of microbrewing revolution, one that owes its genesis to home experimenters.

One of the many testaments to the brilliance of today's specialty brewing culture is its ability to synthesize tradition and experimentation into a unified experience, one that keeps alive the best of the past while infusing new life from the application of modern approaches.

With this issue, BrewingTechniques embraces the richness of tradition infused with change through our new editorial structure and graphical redesign. Chief among the editorial changes is the launch of a new series on experimentation in specialty brewing. Look for reports on experiments and reader-involvement opportunities in future issues. Note also our new Home Brewers' Corner and Craft Brewers' Corner sections, which are dedicated to news, information, and tips and tricks for each segment of our readership. The new design overall gives us a little more room for text and more flexibility with graphics in a simpler, cleaner environment. We hope you like this updating from the traditional BrewingTechniques design.

Experimentation is the heart of progress. Here's to many more developments in the future of brewing!

Stephen Mallery
Publisher