Please throw some opinions at me concerning homebrew clubs. I would like to expand my interest beyond brewing and consuming.
I enjoy this forum because I can share my failures and frustration anonymously and the responses are usually not too brutal and mostly helpful.
I’ve explored some of the brew clubs on AHA, but I’m concerned when the clubs website hasn’t had any activity in over a year or two.
How does one get further involved in this hobby?
Thank you.
My homebrew club is a little lax on keeping the website up to date. Ask and go to a meeting.
Having been a musician, cyclist/racer, and home brewer, let’s just say that the first 2 can be a little tough on newbies. You’ll get the occasional homebrew snob, but most want to help you brew better beer.
It also kinda depends on what the members are like and who you want to hang out with. My club is really mellow and in the next town over, one of the clubs in that city are 100% about beer perfection and competitions. While I’ll enter the occasional homebrew comp, being so competitive doesn’t interest me.
You’ll probably just need to go to a meeting and see what you think. Don’t take any beer with you, just go check the vibe, see if you’re welcomed, and if you like what they do at the meeting. Ask some brewing questions, see if you get good answers.
My local club has no website. But we do have a “yahoo” group and some of use are trying to migrate to a “php” based board like this.
We have no dues. Just show up. The meetings are more of a social hour than anything else. But it works for us.
Some have proposed doing a “style of the month”. But that take more planning than some of use want to put into this hobby.
In the past we did have a hydrometer calibration night. That was interesting and we should probably do it again sometime.
when I first started brewing, I joined SNAFU. everyone was great! very helpful group. then I moved back to my hometown & found a brew club there. they were very arrogant. if it wasn’t “classic style”, then it was crap. clubs can be helpful & fun, or smugly patting yourself on the back. I’d do as Shadetree suggested.
100% agree! Our little club started back in the very early 90’s and has had some ups and downs but still keeps chugging along. No website and absolutely no organization but folks come out of the woodwork for the Big Brew and usually end up brewing 100-200 gallons. It’s a social thing and we all have a good time. I’ve seen a few clubs implode over the years, mostly because of hard heads or ego’s or a combination of both. I tried to suggest competitions, judging etc, but everyone just wanted to get together and play bocce, cook chili, bake bread, whatever and drink each other’s beers so that’s the way we rolled!
I think there’s different areas of the homebrewing scene that are utilized for different reasons and once you understand where these fit in, it’s all good. Forums are one great way to learn, if you use a little logic, whereas lots of club events can provide a social aspect to the experience. Just keep lookin around and you’ll find all you need - takes a little time.
Our club is just in its second year now and remains unorganized and unfocused. We just took a vote recently and it was unanimous to keep it this way. We have a great time and there is much sharing of brewing info.
I have enjoyed the homebrew clubs around here. Changed from one to the other over the years. And some belong to more than one. Our membership is always changing. Growing more lately with the increase in interest in homebrewing.
We enjoy sharing beers, and homebrewing techniques.
