Homebrew Club. Gonna give it one more try

[FedoraDave]

There's a homebrew club that meets at our local micro brewpub, Defiant. I signed up to get email notifications, but most times I've been too tired after work to think about going out.

But I got home fairly early tonight, and I'm actually feeling kinda chipper. So I think I'm going to attend tonight. I hope it's changed since the one time I went a couple years ago. At that time, it was just four or five guys sitting at the bar drinking their homebrew instead of Defiant's house beers, and BSing about nothing in particular. I pretty much felt like an outsider, and was extremely disappointed that they had no agenda. It was just an excuse for a night out.

If it turns out to be less than what I want, I intend to speak to someone about it. Ask what they do, what their plans are, how is it a homebrew club if they're not organized and presenting mini-seminars to educate, answer questions, improve our processes, etc.

I hope I'm not disappointed. Again.

[BigPapaG]

Hmmm...

Every hear the one about four or five homebrewers and a hired killer walk into a bar...



Good luck Dave, I hope it turns out better than the last time!

[Gymrat]

I feel that same way about the chess group that meets here in Topeka. In Burlington IA where I am from we had a club that was registered with the USCF (United Chess Federation), when we met we used clocks so all of our games ended at the same time, then we switched opponents. We hosted 2 tournaments a year. I came here and found a group that meets, never use clocks so the games never end at the same time, so I often get stuck playing the same guy 2 or 3 times. And people arriving don't have any idea when they are going to jump in. The whole idea of no organization or direction just bothers me. I think that is what you are seeing with them.

The local homebrew club, on the other hand, is spectacular. We meet at the local brewery. The Master brewer there attends the meetings as a member. We get about 20 people at each meeting. They do some educational thing each month. They have two parties a year. And now that Kansas laws have changed so it is legal to take home brew out of the house and have tastings, etc. They are organizing a home brew competition for this November. So I may enter my first competition soon. This is the type of thing that is much more fun to be a part of.

[John Sand]

There are organized homebrew meetings? Isn't that like herding cats? My local group meets once a month at the LHBS, brings homebrew and sometimes craft beer, drinks and talks. The talk is generally homebrew centered, reviewing what we brought. That's about as much organization as I can stand.

[FedoraDave]

This was about as organized as a basket of puppies.

That's it. I'm done. This is going nowhere, and I don't want to be a part of it.

The organizer was there at 8:00, as was I, since the email notification said the meeting started at 8:00. We talked for a while. Well, he talked. He hasn't quite grasped the notion that conversation is a two-way street, so he kept talking about whatever he wanted to talk about, rather than actually engaging me in a conversation that might interest me.

Then someone else showed up, but he was content to just let the other guy talk, too.

I managed to bring the topics around to some of the things I was interested in, and what I'd like to see in a homebrew club, but after a short acknowledgment, the topic was diverted once again.

I did run home and get a couple bottles of Pearly Pils, and they evaluated it, and it was rather enlightening. So that was a positive.

Then, around 9:00, a full hour after the "meeting" was supposed to begin, two other guys showed up.

But I'd had enough, and decided to just go home.

Sad.

[BigPapaG]

Sorry it didn't work out for you Dave.

I'm thinking though, that your experience is not indicative of home brew clubs in general.

Might want to see if there are other clubs in your area.

[Rebel_B]

That's disappointing Dave. I'm glad my club has a structured monthly meeting. Unfortunately, I'm usually still at work when the meeting begins.

Here is the yearly 'summary' from 2013:



Section 1: Club Introduction


The Impaling Alers are one of the oldest clubs in the state and have a little over 200 members with approximately 35-45 members showing up at monthly meetings. The Alers have new brewers, old brewers, extract brewers, all grain brewers and everything from beer to mead to cider to wine is fermented and enjoyed as a club. Meetings cover regular business (finances, upcoming events, club business), an educational topic, as well as a style education from the “Style Sherpa”. After the formal meeting, an informal tasting with members sampling example beers from the education/style focus as well as each other’s goodies. This is the time where new brewers meet up with experienced members and judges for feedback. There are 3 meetings that are social potlucks to foster community and draw new members.






Section 2: Club Vision


We don't brew because we have to, we brew because we love to. We want to share our knowledge and our brew with others, which is why we have 19 active BJCP members. We love to learn about all aspects of brewing. The Alers passion is to make everyone in the club a better brewer, an educated beer lover, and to enjoy fermenting all things. The Alers seek to grow the club and promote craft beer culture at regularly scheduled meetings and potlucks as the substrate to foster growth in brewing by encouraging new ingredients/styles/techniques/equipment/attitude/friendships. That is augmented with organizing brewing related events to draw more people into the brewing community. This is all done while having the most fun humanly possible.


Section 3: Club Accomplishments


1. Encouraging people to brew. Yeah, crazy, right? The Alers want people learn about brewing by doing! The Alers have several Iron Brewer competitions throughout the year to encourage thoughtful recipe formulation by assigning challenging ingredients to the participants. The resultant brew is brought for everyone to share and the brewers share what they did and what they though went well (or not so well occasionally). We host a “Share the Wort” event with Big Al's, where Big Al brews the wort and everyone is encouraged to take the wort and make a different beer and then bring it back to the club to share. The Alers promote competitions in WA and OR and encourage members to brew and enter. The Alers have partnered with Rogue and the Issaquah Brewhouse to have members brew on their nano system. This is an opportunity to brew with a slightly bigger system than most homebrewers have and to enjoy having your beer served at a pub. The old adage, “it takes just as long to brew N*5 gallons as 5 gallons” is a good one. So the club has invested in a barrel and half brew system (fermenters not yet included) for members to brew on and learn to scale up their recipes and have more beer to share with the club and personal events like weddings, birthdays and holidays. The Alers like to experiment! We brewed the same wort on a big system and then fermented it with six different yeast to see the different characters. We then charted that and brought it to NHC. Experimental hops? Bring 'em to the Alers. We brewed wort on a big system and then used different experimental hops to showcase their flavor. That beer also went to NHC. And then later in the year some more experimental hops came the Aler way to brew (my personal fav was 0027-036).


2.) Encouraging learning about brewing. The club has had a couple of malt tasting experiments as part of club meetings. Club members teach brewing classes at Larry's. We had lectures and live brewing at the Enumclaw Oktobeerfest. The Style Sherpa teaches regularly about tasting and brewing styles. We help with Pro-Am, NHC (bottle sort, organizing committee, WaHa tasting beer, poster sessions, judging, enjoying) and we host Novembeerfest, Oktobeerfest. National Homebrew day is huge with Alers and we always log at least 200 gallons,

[FedoraDave]

There are other clubs in the area, but the one at my LHBS meets on Thursdays, and I have mandatory meetings on Thursdays. Others require a little more drive time, and I'm not sure I'm ready to do that, although it might be worth checking out just to see if they're actually Homebrew Clubs and not Beer Drinking Clubs. I want to see a little more organization and commitment from core members; I'd like to see events being planned, even if they're only "Guess The Style" night, or "Here's My Process" night.

The venue isn't conducive to a Homebrew Club, either, I'm sorry to say. Defiant is a very narrow building, with just a long bar and enough room for a couple of small tables. So any group is going to be sort of spread out and part of whatever clientele is there, which makes having any kind of official meeting difficult. A place with a back room or any area where small-group privacy can take place would help.

I think I'm going to look around at what might be in the area, but I sort of got the feeling that the guy in "charge" has been trying to revitalize and sort of consolidate local homebrew clubs without much success, so I'm not sure but that I'd encounter the same what-the-hell attitude in other spots in and around my area.

Sad, really.

[RickBeer]

I find that many volunteer organizations lack organization. Drives me crazy, so I rarely join. Sometimes if they are organized it`s due to one overbearing leader, like me...

After watching our old neighborhood decline, I ran for President and fixed it. Three years later I couldn`t leave fast enough.

[Beerlabelman]

Damn Dave - I wish you lived closer to me because my Home Brew Club HOP'D "Homebrewers of Putnam Danbury" is really starting to take off. We have a diverse group of brewers from age 25-60 using different methods, brewing many styles. All the brews are top notch. Everybody is laid back. Tonight was all about the finer points of tasting brews. We are getting ready for our 1st Home Brew Contest & we are the judges. We meet at DeCicco's Brewster NY every 3rd Thursday. Next up is a Big brew Day at the Simple Brewer in Somers NY on 7/19. Anybody around, please stop by. This is the best Home Brew Store in the area. We'll have 8 + people brewing & the Bar-B-Q is always on. Hope you can stop by. It's about an hour or so from your house Dave. Stop by & bring some of your Home Brews to share. Love to see you again -BLM

[FedoraDave]

Beerlabelman, I looked up Westchester Homebrewers, and they meet in Elmsford, and I might consider it worthwhile to check them out on Monday evening. I know they were represented at last year's AHA convention in Philadelphia, so I have to assume they're an active group. It would mean crossing the TZ, but it's still only a 20-30 minute drive.

[mtsoxfan]

Dave, have you ever considered starting your own group? It could be as simple as a business card on the LHBS wall. It doesn't mean you'd have to be the main organizer etc. Just start it.. see who comes... discuss what the club would be about etc. and let everyone be a part of the process. Thinking about it, it sounds easy, but things aren't always. But while it may take a while to even get a few people together, it might just be worth the effort.

[FedoraDave]

I understand what you're saying, mtsofan. I'd like to be involved in an active, vibrant homebrew club, but I don't have the time or the organizational ability to put one together myself.

Say what you will about that, and what it may say about me, but that's simply a fact. Knowing my limitations, this wouldn't be something I could do.

[jimjohson]

The local brew club here is just a bunch of folks gettin together to try each others brews. It's always more fun to get plowed in groups.

[Foothiller]

It's too bad some are having disappointments. I have nothing but compliments for the club that I found (Hangtown Assoc of Zymurgy Enthusiasts, HAZE). Meetings find the happy medium between organization and having fun comparing our brews. We organize a yearly competition, staff a brewfest, and host public demos when the occasion arises. One of the highlights to me is our Award Of Brewing program, where with multiple National rank and a Grand Master judges (among others), two pros, and a LHBS owner, we can bring beers for judging at meetings to accumulate points for variety of styles successfully brewed, and comments as good as from competitions. Hang in there, Dave, good clubs do exist.