Tell me about your club

[BamaPhil]

Hey everybody,

I'm part of a homebrew club in the Atlanta area that's been floundering for a couple years now. When I first went last spring the guys that had been doing it for a while were looking to pass the torch. To keep it going, a couple other guys and I have been doing our best to schedule meetings and keep people coming.

The problem is, its rarely been more than a few of us passing beers around. We had a good Oktoberfest and a couple meetings with some presentations, but little consistency. I feel like if its going to sustain itself and grow it needs to have some real value to people that are in it.

The good news is, we have over 150 people between email distribution and a facebook group and a busy LHBS to advertise at. So recruitment and numbers are almost taken care of already.

So tell me about your club. Whats a meeting like? What do you get out of it? What do you like and dislike?

If you started one, what were your first few steps?

 

[drksky]

We meet once a month in the back room of a local bar with a good tap list. We have a short club business discussion, upcoming events and the like, followed by a technical presentation by a club member. Topics vary from sanitation to brewing techniques to ingredient discussion.

There is then a style presentation where we focus in on a style and talk about ingredients, brewing methods, history and sample commercial examples (usually a $2-3 fee to cover the cost of the beer).

Then we sit around, BS and share homebrew.

 

[TheMadKing]

Hey everybody,

I'm part of a homebrew club in the Atlanta area that's been floundering for a couple years now. When I first went last spring the guys that had been doing it for a while were looking to pass the torch. To keep it going, a couple other guys and I have been doing our best to schedule meetings and keep people coming.

The problem is, its rarely been more than a few of us passing beers around. We had a good Oktoberfest and a couple meetings with some presentations, but little consistency. I feel like if its going to sustain itself and grow it needs to have some real value to people that are in it.

The good news is, we have over 150 people between email distribution and a facebook group and a busy LHBS to advertise at. So recruitment and numbers are almost taken care of already.

So tell me about your club. Whats a meeting like? What do you get out of it? What do you like and dislike?

If you started one, what were your first few steps?

Hey Phil, its Mat from the club. (I'm assuming you're talking about the gainesville one) I didn't know you were active on here! I agree that we can get more value out of our meetings as well.

I like the idea of making the meetings a little more formal, a few ideas I've had:

-having an evening discussion theme, such as a style/technique/experiment where one person leads the discussion and we share knowledge and experience.
-sensory training panel for off flavors
-clinics from pro or very experienced brewers
-learning different brewing systems

However, I do think it's important for us to dedicate a good portion of the meetings to tasting each other's homebrew and providing feedback, but it would be nice to formalize that a little more. Maybe we could have "score sheets" or something that we can all fill out for members looking for feedback on brews?

-It might also be good to pass around a single brew at a time, in an orderly fashion so that everyone is tasting the same thing. It might also help to order them from lightest to most pallet-stressing in flavor so that we don't suffer from pallet fatigue so quickly when we try an IPA right off the bat.

I would be happy bring this up at the next meeting as well, so we can all talk about it.

 

[Toga]

Camaraderie and a half dozen or more events per year is key. Once you have a core group that like to spend time with each other the rest is easy. Keep meetings simple. Keep people fired up on group events such as brew days (I recommend doing several per year). Events area a must. If you just do meetings and don't have brew days and such it gets stale and people disappear. To mix things up, the clubs I have been part of will meet at the home location (local brew pub) and ever other month or every couple months meet at another brewery. We are however lucky to have 20+ brew pubs within a 45 minute radius that love to have us show up in force on a Monday or Tuesday night when they are slow. :rockin:

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

We meet once a month in the back room of a local bar with a good tap list. We have a short club business discussion, upcoming events and the like, followed by a technical presentation by a club member. Topics vary from sanitation to brewing techniques to ingredient discussion.

There is then a style presentation where we focus in on a style and talk about ingredients, brewing methods, history and sample commercial examples (usually a $2-3 fee to cover the cost of the beer).

Then we sit around, BS and share homebrew.

All these are excellent ideas.

Our club has yearly dues which ends up covering the cost of beer for style presentations at meetings (and other uses through the year). So that's easier than asking people for a few bucks at the meeting.

I would also suggest having formal club officers. It's one thing to have a group of core guys who do the work, but it helps to have clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

As mentioned in another post below, events are key... Here's our club schedule:

Odd-numbered months: Club meeting. Usually at a bar or LHBS as mentioned above.

Even numbered months (except December): Club brew day. This rotates to club members' homes--voluntarily, of course--and is open to paying club members or personal guests. It's a time to see how other brewers do things, and just in general shoot the s**t and drink some beer. It's typically more laid-back than a club meeting.

December: Club Christmas party. Always a good time. We've done it at commercial restaurants but most of the past few years one of the members has been kind enough to host. We usually do a bottle exchange (everyone brings one 22 oz or 750 mL commercial beer and a similar amount of homebrew, wrapped, and you blindly pick from the group).

Generally if you have 150 people on email/facebook, you may not get more than 30-40 truly active members... But that's plenty to keep a club going.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

One more... The club has recently taken to doing off-month "meetings". Basically it's not really a club meeting/event, but on the months where we don't have a meeting we just pick a night to meet at a bar/brewery. It's a good time to have an extra unofficial event without requiring any real work to organize other than just picking a date and location.

 

[bleme]

My club meets once a month. We have a sign-up sheet for members to volunteer hosting a meeting at their house, then we fill in the rest with several restaurants that have invited us. We have formal club officers. The meetings always start with 1 hour of socializing and sharing homebrew, then a formal meeting where we discuss finances and activities, followed by some educational presentation.

We have arrangements with 2 local breweries to sell members bags of grain from their inventory at cost and we encourage participation in community events by offering a free bag of grain once a year to anyone who donates 5 gallons at one of the events sponsored by the club. We also make deals with the event coordinators that anyone who donates 5 gallons gets 2 free entries to the event. It's a win/win for everyone and a great way to promote homebrewing in your community.

We used to be involved with the County Fair. They had a homebrew competition, which we promoted and provided BJCP judges for. Feeding those judges was costing us around $300/year but when the Fair started charging for entries and still expected us to cover all the costs, we started our own competition. We just had our 2nd annual and it now adds funds to our coffer instead of depleting it.

 

[brewstergalVT]

We have a small club, usually about 10 folks at a meeting and we meet in the even months. At the annual meeting we vote on what styles we'll make for each meeting for the following year and to try and get out of our comfort zone but not pick anything that's too odd (though the time we all made roggenbier was quite memorable). What has been difficult is trying to find a format for tasting that works for everyone. We did the tastings as a blind competition but some were so into winning that they'd be able pick their own beer and score it highest while new folks didn't want to compete and didn't feel comfortable filling out score sheets. Then we tried having the brewers present their beers while we tasted them. No one gave good feedback, not wanting to offend anyone. Besides that it was boring. Currently we have all beers (usually 5-6 homebrews and a commercial ringer) all served up blind at the same time with the glasses just identified with a colored sticker. We all taste the beer and jot down notes about the beer, a little commenting goes on during this and we each try to figure out the ringer. Then we go around and all talk about each beer individually (what we liked or didn't like, what we picked up in the aroma/flavor) and we get into some good discussion. Once all the beers have been tasted then we reveal the brewer of each beer and ask questions of the brewers.

In the odd months we've recently taken up having a blind tasting of commercial beers of the variety we're homebrewing for the next meeting. Not only does this help us narrow down the flavor profile but also gives us a chance to pick out the best ringer for the next meeting. We have a list of what commercial beers are in the blind tasting and some of us will try to guess which beer belongs to which brewery. Very fun and educational!!

 

[xCSx]

I find it hard enough to find brew days for myself, i couldnt imagine also doing it for a club.

 

[RiverCityBrewer]

I am the past president and currently sit on the board of directors for a fairly large club (200 active/400 paid members) in the SW Ohio area. In my opinion, there are four keys to growing and sustaining your club.

1) General membership meetings at a dedicated (or semi-dedicated space). Depending on your size, having a permanent "home" is very important. When you are small, meeting at someone's house works, but can be off putting for potential new members who don't know anyone. We rent a local community hall and meet on the same day every month (3rd Friday). This keeps it consistent for everyone and when a new member is referred to us, we are easy to find. At these meetings we typically have a social hour while everyone is arriving, then a quick general meeting (go over finances, event schedule, upcoming competitions, etc), a presentation (pro-brewer talks, organized tasting, technical topic), then we provide dinner off the grill and spend the rest of the evening socializing, sharing homebrew/commercial beer, and engaging experienced judges for feedback. To support these items, we have a yearly membership charge of $30.

2) Membership engagement - this is crucial for keeping your members active in the club beyond monthly meetings. We have an email mailing list, social media accounts, and a website to keep our members informed of what is going on. Our members regularly use the email list and social media to connect with other members in their area to organize brew days or "meet up" events at local bars/breweries. Having open brew days with experienced brewers tends to attract people looking to learn, and is a good way to introduce new membership into your club. We have found that new brewers tend to stick around and become active in the club when they have been introduced to more veteran members in a smaller or 1 on 1 setting. We also organize several BJCP sanctioned competitions every year, as well as provide a BJCP training program to get more judges certified. We also organize camp outs, bus trips, and other social events, all of which we have found to be very fun and rewarding.

3) Organize - Have a clearly defined operating structure and roles (president, VP, treasurer, etc) and have regular board meetings to organize club business. Have clearly defined rules and regulations, and incorporate your club to protect it. Club insurance is a must (see #4). Open a bank account for the club and have a treasurer provide at a minimum quarterly finance reports for transparency. Work with local homebrew supply stores and breweries to see if you can secure a discount for your members. I'm sure this seems lame and too business like, but its important.

4) Get support - the AHA is a great resource for your club (https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/community/clubs/club-information/) to get ideas for meeting topics, brew day events, AHA rallies, and most importantly insurance. Their club insurance program is affordable and, in my opinion, critical to protect not only yourself and board members, but your general membership as well. You have already reached out on here for suggestions, you might also try connecting with other local clubs and see what works and doesn't work in your region.

Good luck to you and your club, and please feel free to PM me if you would like to have a more detailed conversation.

Cheers,

Joe

 

[mongoose33]

My club has throwdowns about every 2 or 3 months. A couple of styles are announced well in advance so those who wish to compete can brew them up. Those who want bring 2 or 3 bottles (or a growler) of their beer, and it's $1 per entry to cover a small prize.

Club members are recruited at the meeting to judge. They are provided with style guidelines to assist them.

At other meetings we just share each others' beers and gab.

Something new this year is a sort of brew-off day where everybody will brew the same recipe, either all-grain or extract.

There also is a brew day where a large all-grain brew is done at the LHBS.

We don't do any presentations or such, and there are no dues.