5 replies to this topic

[EWW]

So, I took the helm of my local HB club earlier this month and I'm looking for some ideas to reinvigerate the membership. Over the course of the past year or so most meetings have become purely social. People bring beer and food to meetings and some limitted feedback is given on a 1:1 basis, but for the most part it has become a group of people who get together to drink and shoot the shit. In the last year we did 3 brew outs, but only a handful of the 20-30 members who come to mtgs actually brewed (and it is the same people every time). We've also had a couple commercial tasting night ... Including a really enjoyable American swill and malt beverage blind tasting nite. So I ask you this:what means for feedback on people's beer does your club use?Do you have formal tech topics you discuss at mtgs and is so, how do you bridge the gap between extract, AG, and level of interest?What has your club done to increase member participation and ownership in the club?I sent out a mass email looking for feedback on where people wanted the direction of the club to go in the next year and got a total of 2 responses. 1 simply said it was a well written email and the other was from a guy who hasn't brewed a batch yet and has not attended a meeting because he is intimidated that he doesn't know enough about brewing to come out. This guy wanted an intro to brewing mtg. I am working with th lhbs to do an intro to hb class on a semi regular basis which may help to bring new blood and energy into the mix.Any and all thoughts appreciated. Thanks!

[Stout_fan]

Well, as a member of CRABS I can say we're a competition club.Just about every month we (about 30 members) sit down and judge 12-20 entries by members in a certain style, or styles.The truth is, I've noticed the older members in the club (myself included, about another 10) just sitting on the sidelines, bored.The new members are actively involved in judging. Most aren't BJCP and are hopheads.So that tells you what kind of beers will do well.Which is why most of us have stopped entering beers in our club competition.Having a beer shoved in front of me and having 5 minutes to write a score does not benefit my skills, or help the brewer IMHO.I can't tell you the number of times I had a review 'This beer sucks' with no explanation.The last time it was a mild. From folks I know and respect, I got good scores. I did find the guy who gave me the low score. This guy was a hophead. Everything had to be an IIPA. Mine was not (like a lot of others that night), therefore it sucked.If it weren't for all the really cool guys I know here, I'd quit.I had this talk with Drew and although I may be suffering from "the grass is greener.." syndrome, I think the Maltose Falcons got it right.From what I remember and analyze about what I'd like to see in a meeting, here it is:If I've said anything wrong about the Falcon's meetings Drew, please correct me.But so far I think it is the ideal format for a club night and what I wish we at CRABS were pursuing.A style is chosen for a month.The club holds a competition which is judged by club BJCP members using the full BJCP evaluation form. IIRC the standard three bottles are required since they have 100+ members at a meeting.This comp may or may not take place at the meeting or on the meeting premises, depending upon what the judges find personally convenient.The membership present at the meeting is not part of this except in that it is their entries. This gives you real honest feedback on your beers. Not what a bunch of uninformed hop heads think. In addition a meeting is held.After business is concluded the brewer of the particular style of beer passes around his work. A 10-20 minute Q&A session ensues per brewer.Gravity, hops, boil time, equipment, and other items are discussed.In particular I would like to know the types of malt and hops used. That expands my knowledge.This is repeated for as many brewers wish to present their beer to the group.Then non style beers are reviewed in this manner, benefiting both the brewer and the drinker in knowledge exchange.In addition special speakers can give talks on breweries, or tech topics.At CRABS we do have a gadget session every once in a while where the guys bring in things that help them in brewing and talk about them.One member of our club is an experienced TIG welder and brought in some examples of his kettle/ fitting modifications. I found that very informative.IMHO the purpose of a home brew club is to expanding our collective understanding of brewing. If I only show up to drink beer and hang out, I'm missing on what the group can offer to enrich its membership.

[EWW]

Thanks for the reply stout, and I agree with everything you said. We are not a competition type group of brewers, but restructuring the mtg may help. Right now people start to arrive around 6:30, set up tables and chairs, and begin their informal sampling of the hb people brought. If we were to wait to sample until the beginning of the official meeting it may help. I like the idea of presenting your beer to the group and having a discussion about each individual beer. It may be a huge stretch at first, but it may work for us.To give you all some more info, here is the email I sent out:Big howdy all,We had a whole lot of great beer, food, and a great turn out at our last meeting.  Thank you for everyone for coming out.  It was mostly a social gathering, but a new leadership was welcomed in.The 2010 officers are as follows:President – Eric Vice President – Traci Treasurer – BillCommunications – GarryEvents – Rick Member at Large – Bruce A big thanks to Todd and Bill for all there energy and effort over the years.  Although I think we all realize that they got a little burned out in the recent months, it is their dedication and enthusiasm that got H.O.P.S to the point it is.  I think I speak for the club in publicly thanking them for their efforts over the years and years and years....Prost!We haven't had the chance to sit down and hammer out a plan of action for the year to come, but I think I speak for all the aforementioned officers in saying that we are looking forward to bringing in some new energy and innovation to the club.  It is my personal hope that we will find a dynamic means to continue growing and developing our common passion of making the highest quality beer, wine, and mead the way we like it ... in the comfort of our own home.  Some ideas that have been thrown out are to alternate between content meetings (i.e. technical topics to improve our craft), tastings (commercial or home brewed style nights), social/out meetings, and brew ins (or outs).  I would like to hear your thoughts on what you want this club to become, and how you can help actualize that vision.  A club is not represented by the strength of it's leadership, but rather the interest and enthusiasm of the collective who become active participants working towards a common goal.  So, on behalf of the other officers I invite you to let us know what you want to learn, what you want to taste, and what you want to do to expand your skills and abilities?  We have a lot of very talented brewers in our ream that can work with the newer ranks of our club and the home brew community to help avoid some of the rookie mistakes that we have all made (more then once).  Likewise, those of us that are comfortable with our brewing process can always continue to learn from each other and improve our craft as we continue in our pursuit of that elusive "perfect beer."  Considering this, my guiding principle for this year as president is to find new ways to motivate you as brewers to expand your brewing horizons, and continue to grow in our hobby.  To me this is not a selfless act.  I know that I have had a few brewing mentors over the years that have exponentially helped me to improve my understanding of mashing, sparging, yeast pitching, and recipe formulation.  Without them I would not be brewing near the caliber of beer that I am today, and to them, I am indebted.  I'm sure many of you have similar stories.  With that in mind, Robert and Bruce have suggested to me that we as a club work with them to find new ways to help brewers gain additional information and experience.  So I ask you, how can we as a dedicated group of experienced brewers better support all the brewers of Pierce Co. that come to the shop? Personally I feel this is our debt of gratitude for everything that Robert, The Beer Essentials, and others have done for us as individual brewers and as a club.   So, how and where do you want to grow as a brewer?  Please feel free to let me know your thoughts about this email or the future of the club directly via email & phone Next Month is an out meeting.  Traci and I will be working with Rick to hash out the details so expect more details in the days and weeks to come.To make up for my lengthy email and my verbosity, below you will find the recipe for the late hopped IPA that you all enjoyed at the last meeting.Eric_______________________________________________Homebrews of Parkland / SpanawayMeet the 2nd Friday of every Monthat The Beer Essentials at 6:30pm.2624 112th St. #E-1Lakewood, WA. 98499[/quote]

Edited by EWW, 20 February 2010 - 03:04 PM.

[MakeMeHoppy]

Our club is also ready for a re-birth. Same thing, no real learning or discussion at meetings. We are at a good point where it looks like change is welcomed and relatively new members, myself included, are starting to get involved. At a minimum I would like to see each meeting at least focus on a style and hopefully with some notice members can bring in samples of that style. Our current tastings are just people wandering around offering up whatever they brought. I would like to see the same sample go out to everyone and then we can discuss what we are tasting. Experienced judges can help make suggestions on how to improve the beer. We at least now have a full line of officers in place so there is real hope for a change.

[EWW]

so here is what i proposed to my fellow officers tonight;1. I like to see more of a venue for brewers to get feedback on their beers. Do you think it would fly with the club if we were to postpone some/all tasting until after the meeting starts? What I envision is that a beer is poured and each brewer gives a 5ish minute mini presentation on their recipe, process, and what feedback they are looking for followed by verbal or written feedback given to the brewer on each beer they bring (or just the few they want feedback on). If you don't see that working do you think people would provide written feedback if we have something as simple as a piece of paper on the beer table? If we just put out a piece of paper I'm afraid that people won't get the feedback they deserve. Thoughts?2. Do you think that there would be interest in having a commercial tasting and discussion of how to brew a that style one month, and encourage members to go home and brew that style for a similar discussion and club comp. of the same style in 2 months? This might provide us an avenue to focus conversations on recipe creation and brewing for competitions (or just brewing better beer).3. The Siebel Institute puts together a great sensory training kit that we could incorporate into our meetings if we wanted to. The only issue is that it runs about $180 for about 20 samples of each flavor component. It is designed to help refine brewers pallets to taste 20 core flavors and faults in beer by mixing prepared files into a neutral American lager. I could see us spreading this out over 4-5 meetings throughout the year if we have money in the budget for it and interest. The kit covers; Acetaldehyde, acetic, almond, butyric, diacetyl, DMS, earthy, mercaptan, ethyl acetate, ethyl hexanoate, spicy, metallic, geraniol, indole, isoamyl acetate, grainy, isovaleric, lactic, caprylic, papery, vanilla, bitter, infection, and hefeweizen.4. The HOPS website hasn't been updated since sometime around 2007 or 2008. I have no knowledge of internet stuff. What can we do with it to update it and use it as a resource for members? Does anyone have the skill set to take the lead on this?5. Finally, brew outs. I know we typically do teach a friend, Iron brewer, and Mead day, but do you think there would be interest in doing a series of barrel aged projects in a used whiskey/wine barrel or brewing demonstrations at local pubs like the Parkway, Harmon, Ram, E9, etc to help draw new people into brewing and the club?

[MakeMeHoppy]

I like your ideas and will bring some of these to my club. I like the idea of discussing a style in one meeting and even providing an extract and all grain recipe as a guide. 2 months is the right time to have members bring in a homebrew or commercial sample of the style for at least an informal organized tasting. Experienced judges can help give constructive feedback while inexperienced judges can learn more about tasting in the process. The goal of the club should be to increase the quality of the beers brewed by members and the ability of members to judge/taste and understand beer styles. I think all of the social aspects of the club will remain and likely increase as pre and post meeting discussions will likely focus on the meeting topics. Our club is spread across 2 counties and it is not often that members get together to brew other than the AHA organized events. I would at least like to see a section on our webpage for people to post their brewing schedules and invite others to join them. No better way to learn to brew than to watch someone do it.