Charles N. Papazian (born January 23 c. 1949) is an American nuclear engineer, brewer and author.
[1] He founded the Association of Brewers and the Great American Beer Festival, and wrote The Complete Joy of Home Brewing (1984).
Papazian, an American of Armenian descent, was born in 1949 and raised in Warren Township, New Jersey.
He attended the University of Virginia, graduating in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering.
[2] In 1970, while in Charlottesville, Papazian was introduced to an older man who had learned to brew beer during Prohibition.
[2] After college, he moved to Boulder, Colorado where he eventually landed a job as an elementary school teacher, a position he held for ten years.
[2] In 1978 U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed a law reopening the beer market to small craft brewers, also permitting homebrewing.
[5] In 1984 Papazian published his first book on the subject of homebrewing, titled The Complete Joy of Home Brewing.
Throughout The Complete Joy of Home Brewing, Papazian reminds the novice brewer to "Relax.