Dibbs Harting: Homebrewer, beer judge, sausage maker and rocket scientist.

I've known Dibbs Harting (see below for newspaper profile) for something like 20 years, and still recall the conversation way back then, when one of my friends told me about this fellow from Pekin who made great homebrewed beer.

Me: I haven't heard of him. What's he do for a living?

Friend: He's a rocket scientist.

Me: (arches eyebrows)

Friend: No, really!

Yes, really, in the sense of explosives destined for rockets and the like.

Politically, Dibbs and I probably are a few poles apart, but that's the great thing about the world of better beer, because it brings us all together around the table.

If the irish Rover's Michael Reidy is correct, and the pub is a poor man's university, then I took care of few elective courses with Dibbs around. In fact, he was my teacher in the runup to the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) test in 2002 (?), and the exam's proctor. He hasn't yet determined how I managed to pass it, given my abysmal grasp of science.

Speaking of the BJCP, consider the similarities between Henry Hunt's account of state fair judging in 2013, and mine from 2005.

And so, these many years later ... about Dibbs, and what he does for a lving.

MOSS: Indiana Ordnance Works winds down mission, by Dale Moss (News and Tribune)

Indiana Ordnance Works, Inc. President and CEO, Dibbs Harting, began working for Picatinny Arsenal helping manufacture smokeless powder in the former Army ammunition plant along Ind. 62 nearly 50 years ago. While the Indiana Ordnance Works and Harting still have continued purpose disassembling large-caliber propellant charges, both will be moving on from River Ridge following the completion of currently contracted duties with the Army in 2018.