New Brewers ~ Please Join a Homebrew Club !

If you are a New Brewer and have the ability to join a Homebrew club; please do.

I'd like to share a story of homebrewer that was getting so frustrated w/his brews he was ready to give it all up. He attended one of our meetings recently (his first meeting ever) after brewing for five plus years all by himself with no other brewers.

He had all the kegs, the three tier equipment, and the overall knowledge to Brew a good beer it seemed. He is doing all grain but was disappointed in all of his beers to date. He said they had a strange taste and Bite to them. We went over all his process in great detail first (very good I might add!) and everything seemed fine; he seemed to have it down pretty good. He was a Primary only Brewer as well.

We did a taste and asked him if he liked the Buttered Popcorn and Extreme Yeast bite? ?

Upon a deeper dive he told us he knew that you didn't need the secondary anymore and could primary only......So, for the last many years,.... yes.. he would rack his seven day old beer right into the keg and then into the Keggerator...... ; no secondary anymore .

It seems like a simple fix for him; just a couple more weeks on the yeast cake and his beer should be very good. We are looking foreword to him as a new member and not loosing a brother in brewing. :fro:

A Homebrew Club can help you evaluate your beer, your process, and your "personal" brewing wants and needs. It's not always about the best equipment. It's a great help to new brewers and like golf, can help you perfect your swing before you give up the sport and toss the clubs in the closet.

Hope this helps.

That's a good story, and generally pretty good advice. I would add one piece to it, however: let whoever is introducing you to the club know that you need advice, or have a problem to solve, or whatever. By focusing on the new guy, they made him feel included.

I tried joining a group, and while everybody was friendly enough, I always felt like an outsider. The other problem is that the meetings weren't focussed. It was just guys getting together to sample beers and homemade wine.

I'm sure like any club they run the gamut from suck to primo. The one I go to, when I have time, is pretty good. I've received a lot of good feedback without being made to feel stupid.
I would recommend everyone give it a try, or start one.

I agree with this 100%. I joined a brew club and have met some excellent brewers and funny guys. Just got back from a fellow brewers place we just brewed a Florida bomb ipa. We used Amorillo, centennial, and citra hops in copius amounts and the og landed at 1070. Im learning the AG process by going over to his Tues night brews. I thought I had some decent beer, but getting out and around other brewers has really helped me be a better brewer. I have also learned a lot about kegging, and where to get stuff. I have my first kegerator going in the basement this weekend. His 4 taps is always a bonus too

I think I've seen a few people on the board that live in Louisville, but I don't anything about any local clubs. Part of me would maybe want to try and start one up if there isn't already one, but I feel like given that I'm still an extract brewer and I'm pretty young (22), not many people would pay much attention.

Why join a homebrew club? He could have figured that out on this site.

I "joined" a club/ society and from the way the first post described theirs it way different then the one I belong to there isnt really meeting just fb postings

1Q84 said:

I think I've seen a few people on the board that live in Louisville, but I don't anything about any local clubs. Part of me would maybe want to try and start one up if there isn't already one, but I feel like given that I'm still an extract brewer and I'm pretty young (22), not many people would pay much attention.

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That's not the case in my experience, and you should not feel like a second class citizen for doing extract. I have met people at our club who will never do AG because they feel extract plus specialty grain steeping is just as good. And they have been very good. I have no idea what the actual split is, but a lot are extract.
As long as you are legal age, I don't see that getting in the way.
If there is not one in your area, try posting here, and consider starting a meetup.com site to help find interested people. If you start it, you can set the structure to promote good feedback.

I also agree that a homebrew club is a great place where you can get nice, constructive feedback. For the holidays I tried my hand at making a porter recipe. When I tried it, it was not at all like I expected. It had a spice and tang that I wasn't expecting. I brought it to a local homebrewer's meeting and they all appreciated it (although it really wasn't a porter*). I got a better understanding on what went on with that batch and got some experience that will hopefully make me a better brewer.

*PROTIP: Rye is not a good choice for porters.

GySgtLynn said:

Why join a homebrew club? He could have figured that out on this site.

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Joining a good club is a good idea but in this case the subject clearly got set in his ways. Also they were not good ways. If he could not brew beer that he really liked but stuck with the same methods???

I hope he learns from the help he got from the club and brews many great beers.

Don't forget about organizing groups buys. You can save a lot of money on ingredients if brewers chip in together.