BeerBorg

Beer guys are good guys. Not the Bud drunk fisherman in a Maine bar trying to intimidate tourists. (I puzzled him and smoothed him over)
Not the aptly named "Bruise Brothers" I worked with in NYPD.
Craft beer guys, homebrew guys. Tonight after a meeting at town hall, I stopped for nachos and a flight of IPAs at a local grill. I planned to attend a homebrew meeting at LHBS, had some time to kill. The tall, lovely bartender knew her beer, talking about saisons and Belgians. Just about when I finished, a young guy sat next to me. After the cursory nod, he said "Hi!" with surprise and recognition. He's in the homebrew club. And the store resold, but not re-opened. So, the meeting was at the bar I was already in. Cool. I introduced my beer buddies to my new bartender pal. Apparently she told the beer manager that we were brewers, because he came over with the last bottle of Founder's Harvest Ale. On the house. And told us that he'd just brewed his first batch, an IPA that worked out well. We introduced ourselves and invited him to our next meeting. I gave him a bottle of my homebrew to try. It isn't the first time I've found craft beer guys to be very friendly. It's a true brotherhood. A Brew Brotherhood.

Cool breeze! I have found that same thing in a number of situations; a brotherhood that is open to other cool people; whether they brew, or not.

That is pretty cool. I agree, it is like a brotherhood.

Ooh, we need a secret handshake!

The secret handshake would have to be a hand extended with a full beer stein in it.

Exchange a beer with the left hand, shake with the right, but don't spill!

John Sand wrote:
Exchange a beer with the left hand, shake with the right, but don't spill!

+1!

Those would be to obvious to be secret. You would have to pass a bottle cap or hop pellet or barley grain for it to be a true secret handshake.

I like the barley grain.

So I was back in the same bar today. And the bartender was a nice guy, craft brew guy. I tried Ommegang Hop House, told him about Rare Vos. He didn't know it. I told him it's a Belgian Strong Ale with coriander and orange, I'd brewed a clone. Turns out he's a homebrewer too. Then the guy from last time came out. We had a nice long talk about brewing and beer, promised to exchange some brews. More Beer Buddies.

There is a great home brew club in Austin called the Zealots that we follow on YahooGroups via e-mail. They have roaming happy hours at different micros around town and a lot of the members are big into brewing for competitions, some are world class home brewers.

We'd love to be able able to get more involved with them because they seem a fun and friendly bunch but we live a tad to far out in the rural area with iffy roads to be comfortable driving into town (well back home actually) at night.

I know what you mean JS about how cool it must be to run into fellow home brewers and strike up a conversation.

Too cool.

Kealia wrote:That is pretty cool. I agree, it is like a brotherhood.

Ooh, we need a secret handshake!

Ya know? I like Inkleg and all and I think he's one heck of a nice guy...But I don't know if I want to touch him.

Chuck, you're on a roll lately. Are you off your meds?

Another meeting tonight, really great. First went back to Road Trip, the beer bar. Had a burger, an Arrogant Bastard, Founder's Stout, something else. All good. Brought a couple of bottles of my Fat Cat PA for Eric and Dennis. The guy next to me overheard us, he's a homebrewer too. All very good. And for the first time I remember, everyone brought good beer. Some new guys too. It was a fine beer night!