I entered the home brewing game late, (2015). Seems like I missed out on all the excitement. 90% of the stuff I find online about home brewing was posted 10 or 15 years ago. I looked up home brew clubs in my area back when I first got started. There was probably 10 or 12 that popped up and upon further investigation only 2 or 3 were still in existence - the others hadn't been active in years. Now I think there's only 1 in Phoenix, (the 6th largest city in the US), and if you click on the link to their web page it takes you to some SPAM page. So whether that club is still active or not remains to be seen. This is from the American Homebrews Association page:
Like I said, I've only been brewing 3 years so I never gave much thought to entering competitions. Now I've worked most of the bugs out of my system and I'm brewing better beer with more consistency, so I'd like to enter a few just to say I did it more than anything. Maybe a ribbon or two would be nice as well.
One of the unforeseen downsides of adopting our 4 year old granddaughter is that we have become social outcasts and hermits. We don't fit in with the group we used to hang out with because they don't have small kids. The group who does have small kids are in their 20's and 30's - so we don't fit in with them either.
Of the extremely small number of people we do associate with now . . . ocassionally . . . they either don't drink at all, (most of them), or they drink wine. Of the one or two we know who drink beer - they drink Bud Light and ONLY Bud Light and won't even consider try anything else.
So as much as I love brewing beer - the brewing for myself and myself alone aspect has gotten somewhat mundane. I try to be as objective as is humanly possible - but how humanly possible is it. Beer is meant to be shared. Not being able to share it takes a lot of the joy out of making it.
As a "Gytaryst" I played in bands most of my adult life. Suffice to say I never had a problem finding anyone to share beer with. In fact I'm sure my wife has said more than once, "Don't you know anyone who's primary reason for existence ISN'T beer?" But back then I didn't brew it - I just slammed it... the cheaper the better.
Anyway. I was wondering if it's possible to enter competitions in other states since the home brew scene here in Arizona seems to have dried up like a tumbleweed.
Like I said, I've only been brewing 3 years so I never gave much thought to entering competitions. Now I've worked most of the bugs out of my system and I'm brewing better beer with more consistency, so I'd like to enter a few just to say I did it more than anything. Maybe a ribbon or two would be nice as well.
One of the unforeseen downsides of adopting our 4 year old granddaughter is that we have become social outcasts and hermits. We don't fit in with the group we used to hang out with because they don't have small kids. The group who does have small kids are in their 20's and 30's - so we don't fit in with them either.
Of the extremely small number of people we do associate with now . . . ocassionally . . . they either don't drink at all, (most of them), or they drink wine. Of the one or two we know who drink beer - they drink Bud Light and ONLY Bud Light and won't even consider try anything else.
So as much as I love brewing beer - the brewing for myself and myself alone aspect has gotten somewhat mundane. I try to be as objective as is humanly possible - but how humanly possible is it. Beer is meant to be shared. Not being able to share it takes a lot of the joy out of making it.
As a "Gytaryst" I played in bands most of my adult life. Suffice to say I never had a problem finding anyone to share beer with. In fact I'm sure my wife has said more than once, "Don't you know anyone who's primary reason for existence ISN'T beer?" But back then I didn't brew it - I just slammed it... the cheaper the better.
Anyway. I was wondering if it's possible to enter competitions in other states since the home brew scene here in Arizona seems to have dried up like a tumbleweed.
