Brew Club Sampling Strategies

[lostcheesehead]

Our little homebrew club in Jonesboro, Arkansas has been growing over the past year, which is really exciting (we are at about 15-25 members per meeting, and growing). It's been amazing to watch the new members join and the old members grow and hone their craft. However, we have been running into an issue at recent meetings - folks are bringing too much to share!

The other officers and I have been tossing around ideas of how to best get the group to share samples without risking that anyone gets totally smashed, but I wanted to see what you folks here do. Any suggestions about the best way to share homebrew at club meetings?

 

[user 30639]

We just use the small sample glasses for tasting. That way even if you try a lot of beers, it's usually only 2 ounces tops of each beer.

 

[Zekk]

We just use the small sample glasses for tasting. That way even if you try a lot of beers, it's usually only 2 ounces tops of each beer.

This is what my club does. There's usually a lot of kegs that are all self serve. In all honesty, if people want to get smashed at a brew meeting, they're going to get smashed. Most people at my club know their limits and take small samples and take advantage of the bottled water the club provides.

 

[DocScott]

We do small samples too. There's also a "dump cup" in the middle that you can pour out leftovers that you don't want to finish. We've had a few meetings that there were so many beers that some people just passed on tasting them.

We added in a second meeting in some months when we know there are a lot of beers to be shared. That way, some people share the first meeting, and others the next. Worked for us when we started getting higher attendance.

 

[deflagratio]

Ours is more of a private supper club. The host has 1-2 beers on tap and someone volunteers to make a Real Ale. We have these with appetizers and the meal. Afterwards we do the tasting. Lots of water available for everyone. Dump cups are around and are actively encouraged to prevent anyone from getting their feelings hurt. We use small glasses all night long so by the time dinner is done we've only had maybe 2-3 beers.

 

[lostcheesehead]

This is all good info - thanks! Because we are small and new, everyone has been bringing their own glasses to meetings, but now I'm thinking it's time to make a change to that. I'm thinking that part of member dues will go toward club tasting glasses that members get for free. Keeping the samples to 2-3 ounces will help, I'm sure.

It seems that there's a several different tasting procedures that you all have hinted at. Can you be a little more descriptive of how the tasting at your club works? For us, we go over club business and then as a group taste people's beers one at a time, offering comments and suggestions as we go along. I'm sure there are other ways to do it, so I'd like to hear what works for different clubs.