The Big Book of Brewing

Dave Line was a British beer authority and an electrical engineer. He is regarded as a pioneer in home brewing during the 1970s, a time when the hobby was in its infancy. At the time of his death in 1979 at the age of 37, he lived in Southampton, was married, and had a son. Line’s first book, The Big Book of Brewing, helped people improve the quality of their homebrew by using ingredients and processes similar to those used in breweries, but with simple homebrewing equipment. He advocated for the use of proper brewer’s yeast, whole-grain barley malts, whole hops, and even went into simple analysis and comparison of the chemistry of water used for brewing different beers, and rudimentary water treatment. He also encouraged sterilisation and proper cleaning of equipment. He was a regular contributor to The Amateur Winemaker magazine and, in a decade, likely had more recipes published than anyone else.