Advice on Starting a Club

[Lodovico]

Hello,

I'm looking for tips and advice from those of you on the forum that have started or are a member of a homebrew club. There isn't one in my area and I'm interested in starting one. We have a nice LHBS and I have the names of many people that have expressed interest, but no one is actually doing anything to get it going so I'm considering it.

I've read the resources from the AHA but what are some of your experiences in starting this up as far as structure and how you run it??

I would love to hear some do's and dont's from successful homebrew clubs.

Thanks!!

 

[Edcculus]

I think the most important thing is finding speicific place to meet every week. See if the LHBS will host the club or something. I've heard of some clubs meeting in brewpubs, but that doesn't sound too appealing to me. It really needs to be a place where the club can be alone and bring beer to.

 

[skeeordye11]

I just got elected president of my local club at the last meeting so I have been doing some research myself. We haven't really done much other than drink beer in the last couple years I've been a member and I thought I'd try and change that. I listened to most of this show on the brewing network and got some pretty good ideas. You can probably skip the first 30-45 minutes as it has nothing to do with homebrew clubs at all. Pretty good info from the guest on there though.

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Sunday-Session/The-Sunday-Session-03-11-07-Homebrew-Clubs

Also, look for a post by Bobby M and he has a link to the club he started. He may be a good person to ask direct questions. I got some pretty good ideas from the podcast though myself. Good luck!

GO SABRES!!!

 

[beerjunky828]

+1 to this. There is no homebrew club where I live. Wait, I take that back, they meet on the 1st or 2nd Tuesday of each month at an organic, "healthy" supermarket.

I would want to see this from a homebrew club.

At least 2 meetings a month at a residence suitable for brewing.
Group Brews (Monster volume brews ~15-30 gallons)
Individual brews but with virtually same ingredients. (For testing purposes)
Competition amongst members by holding tasting panels and voting
Competition locally and nationally with Group Brews
Hold brew sessions to inform and educate
"Bring a friend to brew" day
Brewery Tours
Door Prizes


If you could some how hold these meetings at a place of heavy traffic and make beer for all to see, then maybe you can convert some folks to try homebrewing.

ADVERTISE! ADVERTISE! ADVERTISE!

 

[Lodovico]

I just got elected president of my local club at the last meeting so I have been doing some research myself. We haven't really done much other than drink beer in the last couple years I've been a member and I thought I'd try and change that. I listened to most of this show on the brewing network and got some pretty good ideas. You can probably skip the first 30-45 minutes as it has nothing to do with homebrew clubs at all. Pretty good info from the guest on there though.

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Sunday-Session/The-Sunday-Session-03-11-07-Homebrew-Clubs

Also, look for a post by Bobby M and he has a link to the club he started. He may be a good person to ask direct questions. I got some pretty good ideas from the podcast though myself. Good luck!

GO SABRES!!!

Real helpful post here. Thank you.

 

[Lodovico]

"Bring a friend to brew" day


lol. I like that. Some good ideas here, thanks!

 

[JefeTheVol]

I think the most important thing about clubs is making sure you guys all have really cool bracelets. Also, a get a treehouse and follow the golden rule: GROSS "Get Rid of Slimey girlS" Any Calvin and Hobbes fans?
-Jefe-

 

[Conodor]

about how to get started, you need members. the best thing is talk to your LHBS and ask if you can put a flyer up someplace. Ask if they would be interested in some form of a discount. The club i'm in i get 10% my LHBS. not just my club. other clubs get 10% off there also.

so you charge like $20 or so and use that to have a "learning" portion of each meeting. our club will pick a style each month and buy a few beers and let everyone sample that style and discuss the differences. then if members get 10% off, they will join just for that and eventually they can get more active in the club meetings.

Try to see if you can meet at the LHBS or if they'll have a "brew day" hell they may even have that already, and you will drum up members that way.

try to be a Brewing club, rather than a lets get together for some beers once a month. Meaning, meet have a short 20-30 minute discussion about styles, maybe a club competion, the club finances and next meeting. then have fun and enjoy the beers.

do a 50/50 to get some extra funds. your club can eventually start to buy higher end equipment to use on special brew days. maybe that can be rented out...

ok, i just rambled this all out from ideas on things our club does. hope it helps.

 

[JoeJones]

I just started a homebrew club at my college, so this post is very timely. So far I've scheduled a tour of one of the local microbreweries and gotten a place for us to hold brew days. I want to hve a shrt presenttion at each meeting that covers topics that the members are interested in - ie. yeast biology, style definitions, general techniques, etc. In addition to brew days I hope to have build days so that we can make some equipment that is club property. I also want to make brews to enter into competitions.
My biggest problem so far has been getting people to show up. There are 15 people on my mailing list, but only 3 or 4 show up on a regular basis.

 

[Bobby_M]

Just a correction.. I didn't start the WHALES club. It's been around since 1996, about 10 years before I started brewing.

 

[david83]

+1 to this. There is no homebrew club where I live. Wait, I take that back, they meet on the 1st or 2nd Tuesday of each month at an organic, "healthy" supermarket.

I would want to see this from a homebrew club.

At least 2 meetings a month at a residence suitable for brewing.
Group Brews (Monster volume brews ~15-30 gallons)
Individual brews but with virtually same ingredients. (For testing purposes)
Competition amongst members by holding tasting panels and voting
Competition locally and nationally with Group Brews
Hold brew sessions to inform and educate
"Bring a friend to brew" day
Brewery Tours
Door Prizes


If you could some how hold these meetings at a place of heavy traffic and make beer for all to see, then maybe you can convert some folks to try homebrewing.

ADVERTISE! ADVERTISE! ADVERTISE!

+1 to all of the above i havent been able to find anything in my area anything like this if it exists at all.

 

[Bobby_M]

If you check out the whales website, you can read just about every meeting newsletter for 10 years. You'll get a good idea how the meetings typically run.