Posted: 11/5/2024 11:55:33 PM EDT
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I'm the VP of a local homebrewers guild. 4 years ago, we had a homebrew store and a thriving community. Probably 20 people a meeting, tons of brewing, compititions. After COVID, the homebrew store closed, no one wanted to show up. So after COVID settled, we decided to host a meeting again at someone's apartment complex community space. I was elected VP, another guy that just moved into our area and new to the hobby without a wife and kids got voted as President. We are struggling to get more than 4 people to show up a month. How do we bring back homebrewing to our local county? |
Among our chief weapons are...
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Do you have any craft breweries around you that you could meet at? Around here, some of the brew clubs host a "learn to brew" day, which is facilitated by the brewery/tap room.. They have fliers and advertise it a month or so before the event. It provides exposure to how to brew, and you can generate extra foot traffic by people just coming in for a cold beer, and decide to hang around and see what it's all about. I see it as a win/win for the club, as well as the brewery, which exposes people to different beers they otherwise wouldn't try. A lot of the breweries host brew club meetings around here.. they usually hit a different place every month. https://www.redearthbrewers.com/ Good luck! |
Among our chief weapons are...
Joined:
Nov 2012
Posts:
17439
EE: 100% (1)
VA, USA
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Originally Posted By SpanishInquisition: I'm a mead guy. Where? @SpanishInquisition Winchester City is where 90% of our meetings are held. https://www.svhg.org/home PM me if you want to know more. We have people that make other fermented beverages other than beer, from cider to "food grade ethanol". |
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Originally Posted By Mp40Gunner: May just be where you live. Our home brew community out here is alive and well. By the way, how was the hop harvest this year? Mine was down from last year by about 20%. @Mp40Gunner This year i was so occupied overseeing a $200k renovation on my 1926 farm house that I honestly strung the field and let them just do their own thing and never harvested. It was hard to judge as I never irritated or wasted money on fertilizers, so it was hard to tell, as i severely limited their cellular growth, especially with the lack of irrigation. Big plants need big water to make all that growth happen. Next year, I'm slotted to deploy to CENTCOM during the growth season too, so sadly, it will be another lackluster year. My hope is when I get back to have enough "medical evidence" to file with the VA, retire, and finally move on to my farm brewery project! How many hops do you farm again? |
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Originally Posted By Skunkape71: Do you have any craft breweries around you that you could meet at? Around here, some of the brew clubs host a "learn to brew" day, which is facilitated by the brewery/tap room.. They have fliers and advertise it a month or so before the event. It provides exposure to how to brew, and you can generate extra foot traffic by people just coming in for a cold beer, and decide to hang around and see what it's all about. I see it as a win/win for the club, as well as the brewery, which exposes people to different beers they otherwise wouldn't try. A lot of the breweries host brew club meetings around here.. they usually hit a different place every month. https://www.redearthbrewers.com/ Good luck! @Skunkape71 I want to further a relationship with a local nano brewery to have a tap on that's reserved for just the homebrew guild. So it will always give us constant exposure. I'm trying to think of the logistics of it all and how maybe if the brewery buys the ingredients, we do the labor, it would be a far trade for the exposure |
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Originally Posted By Mp40Gunner: My commercial yard is 250 plants divided between Zeus, Nugget, and Chinook. My personal little setup is a 6 Tettnang, 6 Hallertau, and a few Saaz. @Mp40Gunner Do you own a picking machine yet? If so, which? I think my yard is 8 rows, each row is a different varietys, of 108 plants per row. My goal was to have enough diversity that my future farm brewery could rely 100% on estate hops. |
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Yep. Hopster 5P. I was lucky and got a screaming deal from a gal in Iowa who only used it for one season. I will tell you, I applied for and received an Ag grant from the state of Missouri. That pretty much funded all of my materials, rhizomes, harvester, etc. If that hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't be in the position I am in. I have the room and money to expand, just not the manpower. Yet. I am going to apply for another to try and fund a pelletizer. Attached File Attached File Attached File |