Should I start or join a brew club?

Let me read the disclaimer before the discussion starts. I enjoy brewing quite a bit. I also enjoy the company of other brewers plenty enough. However, I am unsure what the benefits of actually joining a club are. Plus, I don't know that I would be able and willing to commit to one night a month for a club.

I recently found out that there are at least 5 different people homebrewing in my small town. I'm sure that if I included the nearby town(s), we could have enough people interested in brewing to consider creating a club.

I'm just not sure if it would be practical for me. I get tons of info here, and I can interact with members on my own schedule, and from far away places.

But I also feel the desire to help out other who may be beginning, and to learn other techniques first-hand, and to work with others to create community brews. Also, I hear that clubs often get together and share beer and discuss it's qualities (or lack thereof..)

So what's it like being in a club?

I share your thoughts exactly. I have often wondered the same thing.
If you lived closer, we could start our own "should we start/join a club" club.

Actually being able to hand someone who cares as much about the hobby as you do is wonderful. You'll get good criticism and suggestions, not just 'I like it!' The group brews are fun too (steinbier like a mother****er). Group buys are a possibility, and also I just like getting together once a month and hanging out with like-minded individuals. Maybe you have enough friends already. I'm shy.

I would suggest attending a meeting of the existing clubs and see what you think of it.

I went to one "real" club meeting shortly after moving to NC and it really just wasn't for me. Too much structure, dues to pay, etc. I even managed to piss someone off by making a comment about the smell of his beer (a vanilla stout) reminding me of my grandfather's pipe tobacco.

I never went back. There seemed to be some large and fragile egos in the room.

Anyway, we've sort of started a very unofficial club here now, mainly foxused on hanging out, brewing together, teaming up for group buys, sharing brews and soliciting feedback, and just having a good time.

No dues. No commitments. No egos.

That system works much better for me and I can't imagine that there is anything the "real" clubs are doing that we can't do with the GRABASS crew.

A favorite of mine are group brew days. Everyone gets together on a nice day and brews, drinks, and cooks out.

I enjoy the club. Our club has some great brewers and judges. I think it's important to get feedback on your beer from other brewers. It's also great to taste all the great beers that other people have made. Lastly our club has special events and parties that are lotsa fun.

I went to the local club for a visit during a group brew around here. Didn't really 'click' with the group and didn't feel they were very friendly. The club culture was very anti-automation. They had 10 or so brews going on only 1 march pump among them. My triple PID stainless Brutus would have been frowned upon.

I've hosted some group brews here and had an awesome time. Not sure if becoming an official club would be any advantage. I'd like to set up a way to communicate better with local brewers around here. I though the NorCal group on HBT would be great, but it's deader than fried yeast.

I've been in many clubs over a wide variety of things, and I guess to answer your question it really depends on A. The type of club B. Who's running it C. What rules have been set in place. What I mean by that is some clubs are free, others you pay a fee, and some can be by invite only. by who's running it I mean I've been in clubs where I had to meet a few times a week, help with an event, etc, and sometimes the president of the club was cool if I couldn't do everything and other presidents, not so much. C. Again each club may or may not have rules that you have to follow.

I would say best thing to do is ask, go check them out, and ask questions. The nice thing with technology and the internet is even you can start a club, use FB, twitter, etc, and this way you could dictate the rules and all that. Just my .02

A group brew would be a good place to start. I belong to two relatively large clubs, both a long drive away. I don't get to both every month, but I've never been to a meeting I didn't enjoy. Even the time I learned that my van cannot back up a gravel slope without several large homebrewers as ballast.

Don't get too down on dues on principle. Maybe they're silly, yeah, but our treasury pays for food for picnics, ingredients for demo brews on Big Brew Day, etc.

My local club is great. We put on an annual competition called the Cactus Challenge and do quarterly in club only competitions.

The best part I find is at meetings everyone brings a 6er of something. I have been able to try some brews I would not have bought a 6er of on my own. Plus the feed back on your home brews is great. Like Sigafoos said, not just ‘I like it’, but why and sometimes tips on improving it.

It all depends on the club.

I went to a club meeting at one of the clubs, it was all stuck up and a pain in the butt. Everyone seemed like total *****ebags, and honestly I don't think many of them actually brewed anymore.

The club I officially joined, was more like a social club. We get together 5-6 times a year for group brewdays, and I don't really attend much of the "monthly" meetings that aren't brewdays. Has dues, but those dues pay for things like brats and burgers at our gatherings, so I see my money going to good use.

I also (like Walker) have an informal "club" here on HBT where we just do a few brewdays a year at someone's place and harass each other in the gathering forum or over IM. No dues, no meetings, just get together and brew a few times a year.

I think we've talked about making our little club and official club with officers and meetings and stuff, but in the end -- it seems like so much fun to just get together and brew without any crap.

I like the club we started. It is small, informal, no dues, and really just an excuse to get together and have fun. We're all good at sharing information, and it isn't serious. Just a good time.

I can't hang with the big clubs. Way too boring, bureaucratic, and it doesn't really do anything to make my beer better, so I don't see the point in giving them money.

One thing I suggest is that if you do check out existing local clubs you should attend more than just one meeting. This is a situation where your first impression is likely going to be wrong. It's overwhelming to be the noob in an established group. I almost didn't join my club based on my first visit. I'm the club secretary now.

Bobby_M said:

One thing I suggest is that if you do check out existing local clubs you should attend more than just one meeting. This is a situation where your first impression is likely going to be wrong. It's overwhelming to be the noob in an established group. I almost didn't join my club based on my first visit. I'm the club secretary now.

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Good Points Bobby_M.

You and ollllllo met my buddy Adam at NHC. (2 years in a row) Pella Homebrew Club. Skinny, bald guy with ZZtop beard, about 35. He is the club prez.

I was a member of two brew clubs until I moved to Decatur Ill. One formal and one not so formal.

The informal was really the most fun. Adam & I are probably the most gonzo brewers of the club. We did alot of brew together activities. Like big brew saturdays making beer from swill, going on brewery tours, and pub crawls. We shared food like pot-luck, no dues, met each month at a members home who wanted to host.

The formal one was fun too. It was really big and I quickly learned that there are lot of really good brewers in Des Moines. At first appearances it can look snobby because the large groups have clicks like that of work or school. That fades pretty quickly as you get to know people. This one collected dues which was ok since they used it to cater food at Octoberfest and rented a English/Belgian Bar for the Xmas Party. As for beer there was always lots of beer. 5-10 kegs per meeting plus 100 or more bottles of beer. (Normal stuff and oddities. ) We met at a hotel and then at a bar. The bar let us serve homebrew at meetings and every Thursday (to the public). Server/beer-donor had a tip jar that paid for the beer and then some. About $100.

The only thing I didn't like about the big club were the mooches that came regulary and never shared; HB, food or microbrews. I didn't care to hear their opinions after awhile.

When you are a member of a club two things happen you either learn alot and/or teach alot. Both are rewarding in my opinion. I made many new friends at both. Had I not joined I wouldn't have had the satisfaction to share my beer with people who appreciate good beer.

Be advised, you still hear stupid comments about your beer, but you also get alot of compliments too. Heartfelt, not just what they think you want to hear. People ask about the recipe and the process, specific questions that are great to talk about as you drinking all kinds of beer.

Go to a few if you can find them, go more than once, different people attend each month. You never know who you'll run across.

BTW - I was briefly a member at the Cedar Rapids Beer Nuts. Its was medium sized club. It was like that of the small and large club. They had more of a formal setting.

Anyhow the business talk is usually short 20-30 minutes and it usually discussing activities, and balances if dues are collected.

Bobby_M said:

One thing I suggest is that if you do check out existing local clubs you should attend more than just one meeting. This is a situation where your first impression is likely going to be wrong. It's overwhelming to be the noob in an established group. I almost didn't join my club based on my first visit. I'm the club secretary now.

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so true. I am board member for a club with my other hobby. I am always reminding our members to try to talk to the noobs. Its really tough to walk into a meeting and be the only one who doesn't know anyone and everyone is laughing it up like they're best friends. hell its tough(for a lot of people) to even decide to show up and check it out.

clubs can have some big-headed people, and they have great people, but then again there are benefits. they have advice to give on your beer ( based on taste, not just recipe ), and the big brews are fun. you can even score lots of free stuff when the old hands upgrade and give away their old stuff. you can also organize bulk buys with local distributors. i know all this stuff has been mentioned already here, but that's what i like about the clubs, besides just getting out once a month and hanging out.

i am a member of chicken city ale raisers here in the north ga area and the guys were SO welcoming and they are just a great group of people. I feel kinda nerdy going, but f it. they are great people, have a lot of knowledge that they are more than willing to share, all have great resources and are out to help everyone.

I just payed my dues (25) for my second year

i'm in cap and hare. we do a few things like co-sponsor the bluebonnet brewoff and help sponsor the celtic brewoff. really, it's great being in a club. :rockin:

WARNING: Our club just adapted a section of highway to keep clean. It will be a little work but helps get our name out there.

I joined a club about 1 month into my brewing endeavor. The others were very experienced, gave great ideas/criticism of my beers, and were a wealth of knowledge. And the rule was to bring 2 home or micro brews to each meeting to pass and sample...so for 2 bottle of my homebrew I got to sample and here thoughts on sometimes as many as 20 other beers. Positive experience in my mind

I'm in two clubs and I enjoy them both. They are VERY different but both have their strong points.

One is more formal. We meet once a month at the LHBS and have a different style for each meeting. We play dues but it goes towards getting food and some of the higher priced beers.

The other is much less formal. We have at least one "meeting" a month but people are always getting together for brew days, hitting up the beer bars, or just hanging out. We also throw four big parties each year to pay for stuff. We also focus more on entering our beers in competions.

I really enjoy both of my clubs and I enjoy being around like minded people. It's really nice to be able to be a beer geek and not have people look at you like your crazy.

I may end up trying to start one. I think that first I'll contact the people that I can find locally and request their opinions on what sort of club they would like to participate in. That could start the process of starting the kind of club we all can agree on.

One thing that I wish we had around here was a brewpub. There is one in Big Rpaids, about 20 minutes away, but it's a smaller 20 gallon homebrew setup, and it's in a "fancy" cafe. Although there is nothing wrong with that location, per se, I'd be more inclined to have get togethers at a less formal location. Locally we only have BMC bars, except for the local VFW, which at one time hosted beer tastings. The lady who hosted those has moved on and so I'm positive they are back to stocking only plain beer.

There is the whole "can't bring outside beer into an establishment that serves alcohol" law to work around, so if we can't go somewhere and drink brewpub beer, we'll have to find a place to bring our homebrew or commercial craft beer.

We invite the staff from several of the good bars around town to our big parties and they normally turn a blind eye to us bringing Homebrew to the bar. One place even closes off their back deck for us.

I'm kind of in the same spot you are homercidal. I've been brewing for a third of my life and I haven't bothered to go to even one of the local clubs meetings. I go to the Jimmy Carter Happy Hour, that Schlenkerla mentioned but never the meetings. I've met a handful of the guys in the club, seem like good dudes. Got drunk with a couple more, they were good dudes. Frequent the beer bar that one of the girls in the club bartends at and has Jimmy Carter Happy Hour, she is cool. I've got plenty of beer to share and love feedback but no idea why I haven't bothered to participate. Humm- I guess that just did it. Stupid it took me until this post to realize it.