First Home Brew Club meeting... How much to bring?

I'm planning to attend a home brew club meeting tomorrow evening for the first time. I have plenty of brew to bring, but I have no idea how much I should bring... I'm guessing there will be around 20-30 people there. Do people typically bring enough for everyone to sample every style you bring?

A lot of time, newer people don't bring anything to the first meeting. I'd go, get the feel of things and find out what others are bringing. Then...next month you'll be ready. I think a growler or equivalent is the standard.

Jersh said:

I'm planning to attend a home brew club meeting tomorrow evening for the first time. I have plenty of brew to bring, but I have no idea how much I should bring... I'm guessing there will be around 20-30 people there. Do people typically bring enough for everyone to sample every style you bring?

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Our club meetings usually have around 20-40 people depending on the month and I usually pick 1-3 of my most recent ready to drink beers (depending on what I have on hand that I want to show off or get reviews on) and take 2 bottles of each. That usually gives me more than enough of each beer for anyone who wants to try it to do so.
I wouldn't anticipate having eveyone try your beer because the reality is if everyone tried eveyone else's beer everyone would be having 20-50 samples and at even 2 oz thats 100 oz of beer and most have to drive home

I'd pick 1 or 2 beers you're either really proud of or have questions about and take around 24 oz of each, after the first meeting you'll have a pretty good idea of what your clubs norm is.

Cool, thanks for the responses... I have an oatmeal stout that's been aging for 1.5 years so I'll bring a few bottles of that....

Email and ask. At our club you are required to bring a sixer or equivalent. Sadly most people bring commercial beer (not that I don't like drinking commercial beer with friends but that's what the bar is for). When people bring homebrew you can elect to have it passed around for comments (without people knowing who the brewer is though they optionally reveal that at the end). A sixer or growler is enough for 30 people roughly.

I rarely have mine passed around as it takes up time and I can make sure the few people who's opinions I want get some.

First timers aren't required to bring beer at my club's meetings, so I don't think you should worry too much about it. I usually bring a growler's worth, since I don't bottle, but our rule is one bottle of beer is enough (whether it's a 12oz or 2 gallons is up to you).

My god, I couldn't imagine bringing beer for 20-30 people at a club meeting. My homebrew club averages around 5-8 a meeting and it seems like a perfect number. Two bottles is always enough to share with everyone.

how much you bring dictates how large a sample everyone gets.

I'll bring a bomber of something, or two 12's of mead. Average turnout is at least 15 people, sometimes over 30 for picnics/weekend gatherings with spouses.

I'm going to my first next week and was told two bottles is plenty...

My fear is that they are all grain brewers and I've already seen a bit of the All Grain Brewers only sign hanging on the wall somewhere; maybe hiding in the back.. but never the less, still hanging...

don't be an extract hater........

bschoenb said:

I'm going to my first next week and was told two bottles is plenty...

My fear is that they are all grain brewers and I've already seen a bit of the All Grain Brewers only sign hanging on the wall somewhere; maybe hiding in the back.. but never the less, still hanging...

don't be an extract hater........

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Extract Brewers Unite! I'm of the opinion that if you can ferment something that tastes good from kitty litter, gym socks, mountain dew code red and the blue **** growing on a block of cheese, go for it.

Extract hatred is totally unacceptable in a home brew club if you ask me. It is obnoxious and does nothing to further the community. I wouldn't even bother going if that's the attitude they have.

I just listened to a Podcast on the Brewing Network by Jamil ~ BrewStrong and he was all positive about Extract.... He was gushing all over the hopped extract cans he brewed.

Easy, tasted great! and relatively cheap, he commented that if he gets back into competition, he was going to enter all extract since it was so Dang gone good.

Been my experience as well.... I'm doing extract w/grain and trying to focus on the important stuff of using software to create "My" beer while using good temperature control, proper yeast pitching and sanitation to create a fantastic beer. Actually, my beer is much better than I expected using extract. It might not be an award winning "style" beer... but, it's "my" beer and I don't need competition in my beer world; it would feel like work

cbauer210 said:

Extract hatred is totally unacceptable in a home brew club if you ask me. It is obnoxious and does nothing to further the community. I wouldn't even bother going if that's the attitude they have.

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There is much more of it on this website than in the club community, from what I have seen.

BrewDocND said:

the blue **** growing on a block of cheese

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Time to brew some sake!

I'm an ex-all grain brewer who brews partial mash extract beers now out of necessity (moved from a house in the suburbs to a small NYC apartment). Honestly, I've been doing the extract thing for a few years now and love it. They are just as tasty. I can bang out three different batches in a day if I'm feeling ambitious. I may go back to all grain when I get a house, but I don't think I'll ever stop doing extract.

I take more than I will drink.

I've never been to a club meeting, but if I did and it had a "All Grain Only" sign visible, I'd turn right around and walk out.

Even if I was an exclusively AG brewer, I wouldn't want to belong to a club that looks down it's nose at ANY other fellow brewers.

We usually get 20+ people at meetings and we pass around everyone's beers to evaluate.
I think we sampled 36 different beers last month.
I don't believe that new members are required to bring anything to the first meeting.
I'll usually take 2-3 12oz bottles of each beer or a couple of bombers or a growler.

I'm also a person who would walk out of a meeting at the first sign of looking down on extract brewers.

While I brew all-grain, I still had to start somewhere. Extract is extremely easy and makes some great beer. I've had extract brews that taste better than all grain brews. To me...it's all about the fermentation. If you can control temps and be consistant in that aspect, you'll make great beers. No matter what kind of fancy equipment you have, if you're skipping the small things just to do all-grain, then you'll have crap beer.

Almost everyone started with extract...so there's no reason to look down on it.

I only do all-grain because my beers are more customizable that way.

I usually go with 2 bottles of each for whatever I plan to bring. Enough to pour several small tastes.

I cannot imagine attending a meeting where everyone at the meeting was required to bring a 6-pack of beer. Is the goal to give and get critical feedback on homebrew, or get everyone $hitfaced?

I'd ask about the sign and assume it's a joke unless I heard otherwise. If it's true, then they're a bunch of self important dip****s.

Well, I'm glad to report that my first homebrew meeting went well; seems like a great bunch of folks w/ 1/2 being extract and the other half being grain. to my suprize, my extract brew of a california common (my first brew from awhile ago) was one of the topics of the night by the all grain brewers.. they really liked it and thought it came out fantastic. They never asked whether it was grain/extract.. only the taste of the beer.

I might add that only the extract brewers seemed "concerned" about extract; the grain guys just cared about good beer. Perhaps use newbies are a little gun shy?

bschoenb said:

. Perhaps use newbies are a little gun shy?

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for real, most all-grainers are experienced enough brewers to really care about the end result. great beer can be brewed with grain or extract. many of us grainers also brew with extract for less complex beers. i use dme for hefeweizens, for example. my brew club's expectations are "bring beer if you want to. there's plenty to go around". i usually bring a 6'er, just to have the input of people i know so i can get better

I usually bring a growler, 2 bombers, or 4 12ozers per style. We usually only open 3 12s but ti's always nice to have that spare if people want more or someone come in late or you can always take it home at the end.