I am interested in joining a homebrew club in the Twin Cities. There are a number of local clubs listed on the AHA website, but its hard to tell which ones are active, and what the clubs’ philosophies/culture are all about. A couple of clubs that jumped out to me due to their websites are the St. Paul Homebrew Club, the Minnesota Brewers Association and the Nordeast Brewers Club. Can anyone give any insight as to how welcoming these (or other) clubs are to new members, how big they are, how active they are, focus on education/socializing/competition/mix, or any other characteristics? As for what I am looking for, I would like a club that includes brewers of all levels, educates its members without being over-the-top critical (its a hobby, after all), and is made up of regular folks of all walks who just want to periodically talk about and brew good beer. Thanks much for any insight!
I would recommend MHBA or Primary Fermenters. SPHC can get a bit . . . competitive. The Nordeast club is only a couple years old, but I’m not sure how active they are.
Good luck. Only one club around here. It could be fun with the right people. I like hanging here
Only problemo here… is sampling… I know we’ve talked about it… but finding a shipping company and a way to send our “yeasts” (
) to each other… Very good info, and bantering right here… I’m very happy here. Sneezles61
If contest entries find their way in the mail and all these beer trades can go through, why can’t we send each other “yeast” samples as well? I would love for others’ to try my beer and critique it, I’ve never entered a contest and the only feedback I get is from the handful of friends that “love” my beer. I’d also like to try some of you guys’ beer as I see some of these topics with interesting ideas and recipes.
I do remember a drawing (thinking @gregscsu ran it) the other year where each participant sent 2 or 3 bottles or styles of their beer to another. I sent my samples out but I never received any to try myself and was pretty bummed.
Great scam. Greg got alot of free beer that way.
I think mine went to @560sdl and he gave me some feedback on the few I sent. Sucks that we can’t get something like that going again…
