Beer Club

[altenmuenster]

A few buddies are talking about putting together a 'beer club' , not for homebrew per se (though I'm imagining a lot of that might get tasted . . .)

Does anyone have any experience with such a club (some of the wives have a wine club, where they have food, and taste different wines -- seems very organized -- I'm fairly certain there is no chance we will be that organized.)

I'm figuring we can focus on different styles of beer and we also plan to have some field trips to brewpubs / microbrews in the region.

Any suggestions?

 

[DrawTap88]

It all depends on what you want to get out of the club. If you guys want to get into AHA Club Only competitions, then you need to register with the AHA. If you guys just want to sit around and drink some beers, commerical or homebrew, only your wives are gonna stop you from doing that.

Below is a link to the club that I am part of, which recently started. A few of the guys are on HBT. We have a little bit of everything. We meet at a brewpub, are starting the competition thing, and we all get together and have a few homebrews to trouble shoot and learn about the methods that were used to create the brews.

PALE

 

[Dogphish]

i think you will only start to run into legal regulations if you try to hold the meetings in a beer/wine store where the are required to have an on site or off site license for selling alcohol.

here in VA, i know that usually a wine store is not allowed to let you drink in their store, unless they are doing a tasting. then a special catering permit might be required, i'm not completely sure about that. ...but i know one store that was told that they weren't allowed to put up a sign that said "free beer tasting on Friday" so they changed the sign to say "beer school on Friday".

 

[stageseven]

It sounds to me like you're asking about doing a "tasting" club, with home brews, commercial beer, etc. I've gone to a couple of these, and what seems to work well is you get 5 or 6 people together, and everyone brings a couple bottles or a bomber of a particular beer to share. Then you go through one at a time with 3 or 4 oz tasters, talk about what you taste, what you do or don't like, etc. I'd say stay away from heavy food, snacks like crackers and cheese are more appropriate and work as palate cleansers. Then at the end of the night you can rank the beers, and everyone votes on which they liked the best. You can do themed nights (like tonight I'm going to one of all Christmas beers), or just whatever people want to share.

The order you taste them in is important though. Try to start with the mildest flavors and build your way up. So you'd do your wheat beers, belgian pales, etc. first and work your way up to IIPA, Barleywine, Imperial Stout type beers.

 

[Gridlocked]

A few buddies and I have been kicking around the idea of having a scheduled, revolving brew night, where the host brews a batch. The idea would be to keep us all brewing, talk beer, witness different styles of brewing, make batch suggestions, and of course, sample each others beer. It has not come to be yet simply because we all live so far apart and we all have families with small children but we're not counting it out yet. Good luck!