farmbrewernw
Well-Known Member
So after many years of brewing on my own I felt like it was time to join a club, so for one I could talk intelligently about beer with other beer lovers, and two so my wife would not kill me after having enough of hearing about obscure brewing methods and procedures. Last night was my first meeting (likely my last) for the hb club here in Salem. First of all let me say I have no problem with hanging out and having a good time, I just think that for a club meeting there should be a little more structure and meaning. Ok, so first thing I arrive at someones house that I do not know and there are a bunch of guys standing in the garage, I think to myself this must be the social thing before the meeting, well an hour later we are still just hanging out, the president said a few words about the new sweatshirts they have and that's pretty much it. Ok, on to the beer, first off I try someones Irish Red and it is awful, sickingly sweet and very harsh. Everyone keeps saying it's a good beer, I assume just to be nice to the guy that made it, but no one gives any constructive criticism and I feel too new to say anything. Then I start talking to a guy about all grain, he asks me what I get for effeciency and I say I'm pretty much locked around 80%, he says that he never gets more than 65% . So I proceed to talk to him about his methods and he tells me that he looses like 40 degrees within a mashing period like thats not a big deal, oh and he also says he doesn't sparge really but kind of rinses but it's not fly and it's not batch. I'm like "well no wonder you get such crappy numbers". Everyone I talked to with the exception of one guy have the worse brewing methods ever, I drank a lot of crappy beers and only had two that I would say were good. Oh and what really pissed me off is one guy tried my Guinness clone and said that it "tasted thin" right after he had had a half glass of Russian imperial stout . Am I just a snob now or should I have given them more of a chance? After about an hour and a half I sneaked out and went home and had a good pint. Sorry just had to rant cause I'm kind of pissed