Brewing club for the sort-of-north metro (Minnesota)

I’d consider myself a novice, but heartily enthusiastic home brewer and enjoy it quite a bit, but feel relatively cut-off from the wider brewing community (apart from forums). I’d love to share brews, get helpful advice and feedback, and basically be a part of a laid back community of home brewers. I’ve looked into what my options are here in the Twin Cities (particularly closer to the north-end of the metro) and it seems my only options are the Minnesota Home Brewers club and the Saint Paul Home Brewers club. The MN Brew club’s website gives the appearance of either inactive or just cut-off and not all that accessible to new folk, and I’m not sure that I’m quite ready for something along the lines of SPHB just yet.

Being a dad with two little kids, a full week schedule and a weekend warrior with the brewing, what might be a better fit? I’m not a do-it-right-or-die-trying beer nerd where I’d have a nerd rage if my efficiency didn’t hit 80% and I don’t nail my brew just right; but I am up for a little adventure and want to learn more along the way without getting torn to shreds. Sure I want to learn more as I go, but I’d love to have my ego in one piece when I leave. :wink:

Which one would be a good fit, or are there other home brewers in the northish Metro (Arden Hills, New Brighton, Fridley area) interested in starting something closer to home?

I’m just exploring my options at this point and wanted to see what the NB community recommends.

You could move to Austin and join the Zealots - no dues, monthly tasting meetings, weekly happy hours, active forum, full range of members from the casual to the uber-competitive, and did I mention no dues?

there is the Rum River Wort Hogs in Anoka. I went to a meeting about 12 years ago, but I don’t know what their status is now.

Judging by their website (hosted on Tripod — source of every pop-up ad in the universe) and the dates of their most recent events and meeting minutes (2002), I think they’ve either gone belly-up or are too busy enjoying their brew to keep their website up-to-date.

rum river worthogs is a club in that area. I get there monthly emails and it doesnt seem to be to much of brewing, just a gathering to sample. I see more commercial beers in the meeting notes than I do homebrew and everything is always “good”
It all depends what you want out of it.
I was in the MN homebrewers club for a while and was not a big fan of it.

Well to reiterate what I said, I want to learn and improve my home brews on a casual level and perhaps even make a few friends along the way that share the love of homebrewing. I just don’t want to get barraged by brewer nerd rage about all the things I’m doing wrong (something that seems to be implied by Saint Paul Home Brewers). So in a few words, that’s what I want to get out of all this.

@Shadetree — sounds like a GREAT club and right up my ally, free and welcoming to all levels of skill and interest. There’s just that little problem of your club being on the other end of the map. My wife and I just moved, so I don’t think we’ll be moving anytime soon if we can help it. :wink:

The Minnesota Home Brewers club sounds like it’s sort of on the level of interest, but with a closed off forum (for members only) and a website that looks like it was made in the late 90’s with minimal apparent content updates, it’s hard to really assess if it’s something that would be for me or not.

[quote=“twohenries”]Well to reiterate what I said, I want to learn and improve my home brews on a casual level and perhaps even make a few friends along the way that share the love of homebrewing. I just don’t want to get barraged by brewer nerd rage about all the things I’m doing wrong (something that seems to be implied by Saint Paul Home Brewers). So in a few words, that’s what I want to get out of all this.

@Shadetree — sounds like a GREAT club and right up my ally, free and welcoming to all levels of skill and interest. There’s just that little problem of your club being on the other end of the map. My wife and I just moved, so I don’t think we’ll be moving anytime soon if we can help it. :wink:

The Minnesota Home Brewers club sounds like it’s sort of on the level of interest, but with a closed off forum (for members only) and a website that looks like it was made in the late 90’s with minimal apparent content updates, it’s hard to really assess if it’s something that would be for me or not.[/quote]

Your not going to find hardly any homebrew club web sites that look good

saint paul is not like that in my mind. It good honest critique instead of a place that says yeah thats good, thats good, thats good…Never been to the meetings but know quite a few that have been in the club.
They like to win comps, have good sit downs and talks and help you out being the best brewer you can be. Wish I was closer to go to that type of club
MN Homebrewers is a bunch of gatherings and thats about it, a big brew here and there. They do have a lot of great brewers as members just not much beer help from what I got out of it.

Go to the RUm River wort hogs on one of there meetings and see if you like it, it is at some bar around that area, cant remember where.

theres a list of clubs

http://mnbeer.com/homebrew/homebrew-clu ... nizations/