Starting a local homebrew group tips

[00Seven]

As best I can tell I'm 2 1/2 hours 1 way drive from the closest brewing group, that isn't feasible for me to do even every so often. I haven't run across many home brewers in my area but I know there have to be some around. So I think I want to start a club just to get folks together. I have never gone to a HB meeting, have no idea what kind of schedule they keep, ideas for gatherings, ideas for growth, etc. There are two craft brew pubs in the area, one of which I know has a brewer that runs it. My plan was to try to talk to him and see if we can start advertising a bit at those locations to get folks interested. But outside of that, that's all I got. Was hoping you guys could give me some info and some ideas on what your local groups do, meeting schedule, locations, basically anything and everything. Thanks

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

My group is fairly large and active. I would recommend your current course of action, establish a relationship with a friendly local brewpub (to hold meetings at possibly AND as you say to get a sense for the amount of interested people). If people bite you can take it from there, if only a couple come out with interest you can keep it simple, shared brew-days, grain-buys, etc. The brew pub brewer may know folks in your area brewing.

You may be surprised how much interest there is, I am not a very social/club type of person and home-brewing has turned me into a club member/event volunteer and more to come I am sure.

 

[mongoose33]

For starters, make it about tasting different beers, either homebrew that members have produced, or various commercial examples.

I joined a regional homebrew group in hopes I'd learn some things, but it turned out that places like Homebrewtalk were far superior in information. So far as I know, nobody except me and a buddy are on HBT. Many are brewers who do extract kits provided by the LHBS, and that's all they are interested in doing. No interest in growing, learning, or doing much. That's OK, but it's not what I wanted to get from them.

It's mostly a social thing. There are minor competitions every few months, but many of the people have known each other for years, and that factors in.

I think the first question you need to ask is what you're wanting it to do for you. Is it just to bring yourself into contact with other brewers? To try different things? To learn to improve?

I'm trying to start one here so I don't have to travel so far to that one (ring a bell? ). Going through the same things as you, but I don't think it'll be about trying to provide learning opportunities in a structured way. It'll be more about hanging with some buddies and drinking a few beers.

But I don't expect it to teach me much (I know how that sounds, but it's also true). I recently did a local beerfest where I took my keezer to serve my beers. The other brewers who were there had never seen one, didn't know what it was. They seemed mightily impressed, I thought. And I couldn't help but wonder how they couldn't know what a keezer was. Answer: none of them, apparently, do anything on the internet. Heck, maybe my role will be to teach instead of learn, though there always are tidbits one can pick up.

 

[bleme]

My club has 1 meeting a month and always starts with a social hour that is just trying each other's beers and talking about what we've been doing.

Then we have about an hour on business. We talk about how much money is in the bank, what events we want to donate beer to, how the last event went, what competitions are coming up, and a short 10-15 minute talk about some aspect of homebrewing. Last month someone brought a homemade RIMS tube. In August someone brought a STC-1000 temp controller that they built. In July someone talking about spunding.

When it first started, it was always at the local brewpub but we outgrew their balcony patio a few years ago so now it moves around to a different restaurant or pub or member's back yard every month. A few of the old-timers grumble about the 'business' portion of the meeting, so I am guessing it was all more relaxed when it first started.

 

[Jtk78]

The one I'm a member of has a similar structure to the one @blame is a member of, with the addition that we brew as a club at every meeting, so it's held at a members house. During the formal business part of the meeting, we will drink and dissect a beer we previously brewed. The club was formed by a group of teachers, so education is one of their core values. We have some pretty talented and serious brewers in the club, and I have learned a lot since joining.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Was hoping you guys could give me some info and some ideas on what your local groups do, meeting schedule, locations, basically anything and everything. Thanks

American Homebrewers Association will be a good resource. Start here: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/community/clubs/ and this may also be of interest: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/news/starting-homebrew-club-scratch/ .

 

[bleme]

I think you will discover the most fellow homebrewers by talking to staff at the brewpub.

There is also an app called Nextdoor that basically gathers posts from your town. When you are filling out your profile on it, one of the sections asks if you are a homebrewer. You might find some there.

You could also put an ad on Craiglist. I know I search 'homebrew' 'stainless' 'keg' and 'brewing' on there every once in a while, just to see if there is some amazing equipment deal. You could probably get a lot of attention with the right keywords.

Once you are started, contact the people who do beerfests in your area and see if you can set up a booth. We have gotten a lot of people to start brewing that way, and several of those became members.

BTW, my club charges $25 per year and significant others are automatically members too. That just takes care of the various expenses you inevitably run into.