University Brew Clubs?

I'm getting the Iowa State club off the ground and the administration loves the idea, but they just want to protect themselves legally and find a precedent.

I know University of Colorado has a club and I'd heard the University of Madison Wisconsin had one too but I cant find confirmation.
Does anyone know of other colleges with homebrew clubs? it'd be a huge help

I know Skidmore, where I go doesn't. But I can check to see if the University of Michigan does...

Clemson had one, but it fizzled out before I got there. I thought about restarting it, but never got around to it. I'd check into a few things:

-Whether they allow alcohol consumption on campus. There is always homebrew at my club meetings (non school related). Nobody is getting hammered, but meetings are a great way to share beer, get feedback and have a few pints with friends while discussing beer and brewing. If alcohol can't be served on campus, find a place to meet off campus.

-try to find a regular meeting place. It will be much easier to attract people to the same location than a new one each month.

- make sure to put a focus on responsible drinking and connoisseurship. If you use it as a platform for people to appreciate beer, the administration will be more open to the idea. Make it known you aren't here to provide cheap/free booze.

Edcculus said:

Clemson had one, but it fizzled out before I got there. I thought about restarting it, but never got around to it. I'd check into a few things:

-Whether they allow alcohol consumption on campus. There is always homebrew at my club meetings (non school related). Nobody is getting hammered, but meetings are a great way to share beer, get feedback and have a few pints with friends while discussing beer and brewing. If alcohol can't be served on campus, find a place to meet off campus.

-try to find a regular meeting place. It will be much easier to attract people to the same location than a new one each month.

- make sure to put a focus on responsible drinking and connoisseurship. If you use it as a platform for people to appreciate beer, the administration will be more open to the idea. Make it known you aren't here to provide cheap/free booze.

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I appreciate the advice. These are all things that me and the president have thought out in depth and for the most part have already taken care of.

We do have a dry campus so we plan to meet off campus at our local microbrewery Olde Main (if you're ever in the central Iowa area, I suggest you stop by and try their dinky wheat and if you're lucky enough to be here in the winter grab a pint of Reindeer fuel) who has been nice enough to sponsor us and offer a heckofalot more support than we anticipated (in the form of kegs, carboys, yeast, hops, grains, the whole nine yards!).
They will also handle ID'ing members to ensure that no one under 21 is drinking and protect us from liability.

We're also in talks with a local Substance Abuse program and we plan to have someone from that group come in and talk to our group at least once a semester about alcoholism and other risks involved.

Also we've branded ourselves as a homebrewing club, not just a beerbrewing club so people of all ages can get involved. We do intend to look into making our own sodapop and holding non-alcoholic events on campus to encourage a more widespread appreciation

I go to the University of Houston and we have a pub on campus, but I'm not sure if that implies that we can drink on campus outside of that pub. That's a good question I guess. I'm not sure if there are any homebrew clubs in Houston at all. I've tried to do some research and have found nothing. It's kinda depressing.

Edcculus said:

- make sure to put a focus on responsible drinking and connoisseurship. If you use it as a platform for people to appreciate beer, the administration will be more open to the idea. Make it known you aren't here to provide cheap/free booze.

Click to expand...

ISUbrew said:

We're also in talks with a local Substance Abuse program and we plan to have someone from that group come in and talk to our group at least once a semester about alcoholism and other risks involved.

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I think combining these ideas are the way to go. Prohibition doesn't work, especially in a college setting. I'd see if the university would offer an exemption since it gives them the opportunity to promote responsibility in this area.

cford1 said:

I know Skidmore, where I go doesn't. But I can check to see if the University of Michigan does...

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UM doesn't have one on campus, but there is a large homebrew community that meets at Grizzly Peak in Ann Arbor. They have monthly meetings that feature a variety of homebrews and a yearly homebrew competition, the winner of which get's to brew a batch of their beer with Duncan (head brewer) and it is featured on the rotating cask selection.

Wish I would have dove headfirst into brewing while I was grad school at UM, but I just didn't have the time. Now I am curious if CalTech has a homebrew club, doubt it...

Good luck with the club! I'm an ISU alum and unfortunately I didn't get into craft beer/homebrewing until after I graduated. A club like this might have gotten me on the 'right' path a little earlier!

Glad to hear Olde Main is still going - they just got off the ground when I was finishing up and the beers weren't quite dialed in yet. Will have to swing by next time I'm in central Iowa.

I am also a recent ISU alum. I still make frequent trips back to Ames. I would be interested in the club and information once it gets started. I got into home brewing after i graduated. I still support one of the clubs i was involved in as a student.

As for help on the topic i have none.

Best of luck to you.

That's a pretty sweet deal you have hooked up with the local brewery.

ISUbrew, are you aware of the local homebrew club that already exists in ames?

http://www.amesbrewersleague.org/

i'm not trying to dissuade you, just giving you more contacts on this whole deal. i'm a ph.d. student at ISU and would definitely be interested in helping out how i can if you get this off the ground. i would guess that there might be some hurdles that will be really hard to get over to become a university recognized club... but if you don't try you'll never know.

wish i could share your enthusiasm about olde main brews... maybe i need to try them again but the last time i had a dinky wheat, i got some major diacetyl flavors, had to dump the whole growler... olde main is a meeting spot for the ABL as well.

We have one at the University of Illinois. President and Treasurer have to be Students or Faculty, but after that anyone in town can join. We have probably 40 members but we don't have that many show up at meetings. We sometimes use university equipment to brew and have a club frozen yeast bank that the university keeps for us.
Boneyard Union of Zymergical Zealots

We don't drink on Campus per say, but it's a block from the main quad so....
As far as alcoholism talks and whatnot, we don't have any of that. The vast majority of use have a deep appreciation for beer and I doubt it's a problem. And that's what AA is for. We do have talks on various subjects regarding beer. One person presented what was presented at NHC one year about fast mead. Clarifiers were a topic once. This last month a guy did a presentation on the different types of wheat and brought samples of each so people could taste what he was talking about.
In fact I'm surprised more people don't taste their grains out of the bag. There's no better way to find out how it'll taste in the finished product.

android said:

ISUbrew, are you aware of the local homebrew club that already exists in ames?

http://www.amesbrewersleague.org/

i'm not trying to dissuade you, just giving you more contacts on this whole deal. i'm a ph.d. student at ISU and would definitely be interested in helping out how i can if you get this off the ground. i would guess that there might be some hurdles that will be really hard to get over to become a university recognized club... but if you don't try you'll never know.

wish i could share your enthusiasm about olde main brews... maybe i need to try them again but the last time i had a dinky wheat, i got some major diacetyl flavors, had to dump the whole growler... olde main is a meeting spot for the ABL as well.

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I wouldve got back to this earlier but I haven't been getting updates on more replies so I didnt realize there were more.

Yeah, I know about the ABL and I've heard absolutely great things about the group. We're not forming this to butt heads in any way, and in fact it'd be great if there could be a certain amount of synergy between the two groups.

I just feel as an ISU organization we will be able to create a larger interest in students than the ABL is able to achieve, while it does do a great job of working with the entire community.

Also some of our members aren't 21. As I said before this is something we'll deal with by looking into the other facets of brewing such as soda brewing and even cheese crafting. I wasnt sure what the ABL's policy on age was or I wouldve been involved with them a long time ago

Did this ever happen?

South Dakota state in brookings has one