Decreased Membership in Homebrew Club....

[TheBluePhantom]

I may be getting old, but nothing improves a brewer's skill and understanding like in person brewing clubs. You get access to BJCP judges that can confirm that "this" beer has a high level of DMS, Acetaldehyde, Diacetyl, etc....and hand you a cup of it to calibrate to. It's the difference between reading a book or hearing a lecture and performing a lab.

But how many clubs are doing that? And once the club members have done that a few times, it becomes boring to them. I am not disagreeing with you, I just doubt many clubs offer that. And how many of the existing members just go to kick back and "sample"? What does the average club currently offer that potential members want? If they have evolved into a buddy's drinking club, most people would rather drink with their own buddies...

 

[Skeeter686]

But how many clubs are doing that? And once the club members have done that a few times, it becomes boring to them. I am not disagreeing with you, I just doubt many clubs offer that. And how many of the existing members just go to kick back and "sample"? What does the average club currently offer that potential members want? If they have evolved into a buddy's drinking club, most people would rather drink with their own buddies...

The club that I joined is more or less a small group of friends who like drinking together. I mean, they've got a great deal of knowledge and are happy to provide advice or answer my questions, but there's not much critical judging of our homebrews. I've read about some clubs that operate at a very high level, but this one is definitely more casual. Still, it's better than nothing, and the members are cool... just not really structured or into a lot of formal, prepared presentations.

 

[Airborneguy]

I’m a member of the club Bobby used to run, WHALES. Membership is WAY down, but we still treat meetings as learning experiences.

Recently we’ve done wort and hop tea tastings, yeast biology lectures, various process informational sessions, and we always do the Big Brew and teach a friend to brew days on the club equipment.

Wednesday we met at an amazing local brewery and got one of the best lectures on brewing that I have ever heard. I went back alone yesterday and spent another hour and a half talking Ph and various other specifics with the head brewer. All because of the club.

In two weeks, and once a month ongoing after that, rotating members are going to give a brewing class every Saturday morning at one of the local LHBS. I can’t unfortunately, my other big hobby is every Saturday morning.

So there’s still merit to clubs. If anything, be the catalyst. Steer it in the direction you think you’ll best benefit from.

 

[Steveruch]

Not in Fort Wayne. This week there were two postings welcoming a total of seven new members.

 

[mashpaddled]

Homebrewing is down as is craft beer generally. There are lots of reasons for it. The rise of craft beer made it accessible so people like myself who got serious about brewing due to limited access have less incentive to keep brewing. The craft beer swell in the mid-2010s got a lot of people to try it out and got out when it wasn't for them or life happened and couldn't dedicate a weekend day to brewing. Alcohol is on somewhat of a downturn at the moment and where's popular right now is the spirits and cocktail sector. People are also still on the swing away from spending as much time at home after covid. Craft beer may never be as big as it was at the peak but these trends will go the other way and beer will become popular again.

Homebrewing clubs are victims of all these trends plus other social trends. A lot of the interaction and information sharing clubs provide is replaced by forums, social media and video sharing sites. It's not necessarily a bad thing that information has become so democratized that you don't need to seek out the two or three guys in a club who know the answer to your questions. Club meetings in my experience serve as an excuse to drink and talk about beer but it's easier to do that at your leisure at a taproom which are easier to find than a monthly club meeting. Also, during the rise of homebrewing and craft beer, homebrew shops became a substitute for a place to go for your in-person questions. A lot of shops were running learn to brew courses to get people in the door. They've replaced that function of clubs to some extent.

 

[whoaru99]

From time to time I scour the Marketplace searching for a good homebrew deal and I think this is offered as a reason more times than is really the case. Beginner's kits and even BIAB aren't that space intensive and if it is a hobby you enjoy would really part with your stuff? If I fell on hard times, I would definitely keep a working homebrew setup. They don't want to say anything that could be interpreted as a negative as they are trying to get rid of their gear.

Maybe, but frankly I don't really care what reason is given. I don't wish ill will or health issues or whatever but end of the day, they're selling and it's something I want at a price I'm willing to pay, or not.

 

[Bobby_M]

But how many clubs are doing that? And once the club members have done that a few times, it becomes boring to them. I am not disagreeing with you, I just doubt many clubs offer that. And how many of the existing members just go to kick back and "sample"? What does the average club currently offer that potential members want? If they have evolved into a buddy's drinking club, most people would rather drink with their own buddies...

I wouldn't know how many clubs do it. I just know that competition/judge culture is pretty prevalent at most of the clubs I've been in and/or visited. None of the clubs I've ever been physically exposed to could be described as a drinking club. All the clubs I've been a part of have guest speakers (hop farm owners, head brewers, malt house supervisors, etc), technical presentations, beer tasting classes, off flavor calibration events, group brews, competitions, etc.. AND there's beer sampling. Not a single member would argue this statement to be false; "joining a club was the fastest improvement to my beer since I started brewing".

 

[julia_1]

You may want to contact American Homebrewers Association. @julia_1 was active here a while back (and apparently logs in from time to time), so maybe PM her as well.

IIRC, there is clubs section over at their web site as well as in the forum (which is open to all).

Hi Scott and everyone and thank you Brewn for tagging me.
scottstribling.96096/

• At Homebrew Con 2023 we discussed this very topic in a first ever 2 hour workshop where 50+ club officers discussed their roadblocks and opportunities. The .pdf of what the panel presented is here: Homebrew Club Officer Bootcamp
• I am looking to do this bootcamp again at GABF in October for AHA's annual event and a volunteer leader to coordinate. Here is where AHA members can apply to volunteer: AHA Committee
• We at the AHA still house the most robust directory of clubs and shops. Find a Homebrew Club
• Also, we offer Homebrew Club Insurance, and more than 300 clubs take advantage of that (and if 75% of the club are AHA members, it's free/if not very low cost per). Liability protection is important. Enrollment opens Feb 1. Homebrew Club Insurance
• My two cents: Some clubs are up and some are down in numbers. COVID created challenges beyond cultural/marketplace challenges being experienced. Some clubs also have evolved into social drinking clubs/education vs. brewing too. Clubs that actively recruit beyond the circle of already brewers are showing success.
• The #1 question I get from clubs is how do we grow our ranks. To consider is this post with some ideas (not comprehensive and focus is diversity so please keep that in mind.) Are We Doing Enough? Inviting All Walks of Life to Homebrew

Cheers, and I hope it was/is ok with HomebrewTalk moderators to have shared the above links. The goal is to be helpful and show the resources available. Happy homebrewing,
Julia

 

[MaxStout]

I'm just spitballing, but I suspect many clubs incorporate some kind of learning element into their mission. Plenty of homebrewers want to hone their craft and I would think that if they are taking the time to go to meetings and events, they would like to get more out of it than a bunch of drinking buddies hanging out.

I don't doubt that a few clubs are more like drinking clubs. NTTAWWT.

I was in one that had lots of educational activities. Guest speakers, taproom visits, blind-tastings, BJCP-cert members giving feedback for beers brought in, a few field trips. We even took a tour of Rahr once. The pandemic put the kibosh on it and since then I just never drifted back.

 

[odie]

our club has seen a notable membership decline over the past couple/year years.

No clue what is driving that.

More local breweries?
More craft beer on the shelves?
Closing of LHBS?

 

[Miraculix]

People are drinking less alcohol. The ones that still do are moving on to lower carb options like hard seltzer and canned mixed drinks. The homestead and "maker" revolution is waning. It's kind of the perfect storm. Fostering the hobby first requires marketing so that everyone knows that making beer at home is a thing. Once everyone knows you can make beer at home, now you get the .001% of those people to take the next step.

I remember our club (around 2011) used to set up a station at local beer festivals to do a demo brew and we'd pick up maybe one member on average from that. It's a lot of outreach work.

I'm tempted to say "lower caloric alternativs....pffff....." while secretly thinking about how to eliminate carbs in a beer without making it taste like these commercially available drinks that are labeled "beer" but do not taste like one.

Slightly off-topic, I know, but helloooooo belle saison. Nice seeing you again.

 

[McMullan]

Perhaps related, I've noticed a big increase in used home-brew equipment over the last year. Could be related to stuff people purchased during lockdowns, etc., but at least three LHBS, including one of the biggest, have gone over the same period and those remaining have upped prices quite considerably. The new price of my BM50, for example, has gone up by about $500. In fact, I might get more for mine now than I paid for it considering how little they depreciate and being the latest model.

 

[Barzahl]

I think it's largely the inconvenience of a physical club compared to posting on a forum or doing an Internet search but the fact they tend to focus on beer could certainly be a factor, as someone who never brewed beer but has been looking into it it seems really complicated with its diacetyl and protein rests and mineral and acid adjustments not to mention the fermenting temperature sensitivity of some recipes many of which also require a keg for carbonation.

If you're trying to grow your homebrew club you might try doing a simple entry level demo with a tasting, probably an extract brew or BIAB or maybe ginger beer something bottle carbonated that people will watch and think "I could do that". The hard part will probably be getting people to go, maybe host a demo quarterly. Growth will likely still be slow because you're fighting uphill against the Internet where people can effortlessly connect with fellow homebrewers anytime they want, but getting new people into the hobby seems like the best way since they're likely to share their brews with friends some of which will want to try making it themselves and might end up joining your club because as has already been pointed out having a seasoned brewer taste your brew and advise you isn't something the internet can replace.

To give a little relevant information I'm 23 live in NJ and brew mead I had been thinking about trying it because the couple of commercial meads I had were cloyingly sweet and then I watched mead making 101 by manmademead on YouTube, I ordered the supplies that night and started my first batch within the week. Aside from mead(which I don't drink a lot of because it needs aging and I don't have a good pipeline going yet) I mostly drink spirits mostly whiskey(formerly bourbon but a few months back I discovered rye) but also a fair amount of rum, I don't drink a lot of beer not for any particular reason it just took longer to find a style of beer I really liked(stout) but with spirits I found things I liked very quickly