Any tips or advice on starting a home brewers’ club? Meeting format? Topics? Frequency? etc
Ours is a very loose group that doesn’t formally meet under a schedule, just guys that brew and get together when we can for what we call Beer 30 and occasional brew days. We try to brew on holiday weekends, when possible, and usually a few guys make it to any one of the days.
We grew by introducing neighbors and friends to brewing, but I could see where just a couple guys could start a club, let the local homebrew shop know about you, and ask it to post something about it (on line and on a poster at the store). In that setting, a more regular schedule of meetings would probably be helpful, though not essential.
:cheers:
I’ll tell you what worked great for our club. Start out simple. Don’t start covering topics at all for the whole first year as it will take a long time for people to just get to know each other and figure out what they would like to get out of the club besides just free beer. The meetings should be monthly and will probably stay that way. Pick something easy like the first Thursday of every month, and find a location that will let you keep it tere at a consistent location every month, and that will allow you to bring homebrew and the occasional commercial brew for group tastings. Bring your own glassware and clean up after yourselves to make this easy on your sponsor. If you can get your local homebrew shop or a brewpub involved, they can advertise and get you more membership, very very important for the first year. After you establish a strong core membership of at least 12 to 15 people who show up every month, then and only then can you consider this a real club that can start working out the business of what topics to cover, when to hold group brewing events at somebody’s house, etc. Don’t be afraid to just drink and chitchat for that first whole year. Most good friendships need time to grow. From there just let nature take its course. It will all work itself out with minimal structure from the beginning. When the members are ready to do more they will say so. That is my advice.
My local club is very similar to dmtaylo2’s. Do dues, no structure.
We have a set meeting day of the 3rd Tuesday. We traveled around town supporting restaurants that had good beer selections. Order 1 beer and something to eat. Drink homebrew and chat the rest of the night. Tip well for doing the dishes.
We had one meeting each month at a city park for a grill out. The only park that allows alcohol. This past year the City has required a “non refundable deposit” to reserve the shelter. So we are now meeting at members home during the summer.
The local restaurants have become busier on Tuesdays. So the noise level is making harder to chat. Usually we are meeting at homes all year now.
Here’s some advice from the AHA…
http://ahaclubs.homebrewersassociation. ... mebrewClub