Forming a virtual brewing club?

[DocAnna]

Sorry if this has been asked before. From the recent UK homebrew competition, I noted that various national brewing clubs were listed to register under. This forum wasn't one of them, so a few questions:

• What are the merits of being part of a registered homebrew club?
• Would it be possible to register this forum as a recognised homebrew club - after all we share beers, views, opinions, and our own monthly 'club' competitions?
• How would we go about registering as a homebrew club
• Would anyone else be interested in being part of this forum as a registered virtual brewing club?

Thing is that there are several central Scotland home brewing clubs, but I work daft hours and am rarely around on the evenings that the clubs are held, and I'd have to travel. I reckon we are a pretty incredible group here and it wouldn't be a bad thing to have more national recognition of the value of those here?

 

[Pennine]

I would join

 

[Rodcx500z]

Hi Anna i think it is a great idea, you could have several virtual clubs in an online tasting, were you send beers out for tasting with each club being the judges in rotation, am i getting to far ahead here

 

[samale]

Personally I think it's a great idea, currently we have the group swap that @Alastair70 organises. This could be expanded to become a brewing club. Leon, hoddy, Dan and Dave do some virtual tasting and brew offs (private club) .

 

[JockyBrewer]

There’s no official UK club registration, you can just enter any name as a club.

I’d definitely encourage joining a club though - sharing your brews with likeminded people, getting honest feedback, and doing the same for others will push your brewing to a higher level.

Attending a homebrew meeting in person is ideal for this purpose, but it’s not possible for everyone, so if you can do some kind of online meet then that works well, particularly if you can mail each other beers.

With that in mind I have to plug my own club - London Amateur Brewers. We have online meetings once a month, with anyone welcome. We have members in Ireland, France, Australia, USA, even Scotland. Just attend a meeting to join us!

 

[DocAnna]

Ok I appreciate there are already clubs out there, and while thanks to the offer above from @JockyBrewer, I think it might be better to aim for something a bit more inclusive than London for the UK - and please don't take that as SNP sentiment cos really it isn't . So answers on a postcard please (showing my age).. what would a 'thehomebrewforum' homebrew club involve that we don't have already?? An online video chatroom to join each week maybe?
As arbiters of all things permitted and not :@Chippy_Tea and @the baron can you let us know 'the mod view' on such things?

A x

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I have asked @THBF to look at the thread as she is in contact with the forum owners.

 

[JockyBrewer]

Ok I appreciate there are already clubs out there, and while thanks to the offer above from @JockyBrewer, I think it might be better to aim for something a bit more inclusive than London for the UK - and please don't take that as SNP sentiment cos really it isn't

No offence taken at all! I totally encourage people to do their own thing.

If there’s any help you need, please do say!

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

I think that's a great idea Anna and I'd definitely join.

Coincidentally I have just paid for my LAB entry for May and was staring blankly at the 'no club entered' box and wishing I could put something in it!


I think I might now!

 

[Sadfield]

So answers on a postcard please (showing my age).. what would a 'thehomebrewforum' homebrew club involve that we don't have already??

I think the real, primary benefit of a homebrew club is enjoying tasting beer, wine, cider etc, socially with others. Secondary to this, everyone tastes their creations within the context of homebrewing, where quality and variety can be higher and broader than the commercial brewing they may be exposed to. Likewise, exposed to a wider range of common faults, or people better at identifing and communicating off-flavours. Forums are good, but being able to taste what is being discussed, adds a whole new level of context, joining many dots. I think 'a rising tide raises all ships' sums up my experience of being in a homebrew club.

I think the logistics of getting all the brews to all the members is the real hurdle to overcome. Then it's just cracking open some brews on zoom.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

To give @THBF some idea on what this is about.

What is the difference between "a registered virtual brewing club" swapping beers and the bottle swaps and competition we already have in the forum -

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/competition-schedule-2023.100773/

 

[The Baron]

Hi Anna
Is a requirement of said exterior competitions that you have to be a member of a recognised Homebrew club or do they allow you to enter as a individual?
Also as Chippy has said are you suggesting that we just add a virtual meeting for the beer assessments that we do by members by using a platform like Zoom so that members can talk and discuss in real time? or use it as lets say monthly meets online
Just trying to clarify for THBC to see if they deem it OK

 

[DocAnna]

To give @THBF some idea on what this is about.

What is the difference between "a registered virtual brewing club" swapping beers and the bottle swaps and competition we already have in the forum -

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/competition-schedule-2023.100773/

This was what I was wondering as well, and at least from my perspective it comes down to:

• Association with the forum as a brewing club in national competitions - similarly to @Tess Tickle's Brewery I would like to list the forum as a 'club' for national competition entries.
• Expansion of the ability to share beers either nationally or locally.
• My thoughts are that we could have a couple of times a week (or just monthly at first) when there'd be a Zoom room open for people to drop in, and try the beers they've been sent or shared. Given that there are already brew clubs, the value proposition here is for those that can't easily get to a local meeting due to timings or location. We'd rarely be able to all share the same beer, but I'm sure we could be imaginative about how we shared within a group.
• It might even reduce the server load for hosting pictures if 'what are you drinking tonight' had a shared Zoom room.
• There's also a safeguarding and confidentiality element, in that a virtual zoom room or similar video platform allows meeting with less risk than in person, and no need to share address except once comfortable to do so with a few people to share a drink with.

I would value other's thoughts on this as well.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Apologies if I'm going off on one, but I love the idea of the zoom thing, and I think more interaction with forum members would really be beneficial for me and many others too. The downside for me though is, I can't bear to have my ugly ass on camera

If we could have audio without visual, that would be better for me personally.

Don't wish to complicate things and feel free to ignore this, but just wanted to share my take on it.

We don't have a homebrew club anywhere near us in Yorkshire unfortunately.

 

[thepatchworkdoll]

I am a member of another brewing forum which will remain nameless. We have a skype meeting every Friday night. Our meetings have been going for many years and are very successfull for sharing views, ideas and beers which we send between members. We also have 2 to 3 competitions yearly where generally 20 members will take part. Each brewer sends off twenty of the same beers and receives twenty different beers back. The competitions are judged on the Friday night meets with usually two beers being judged each week until completion. There is only a small core of members who actually take part in the metings but it is open to all. Possibly worth thinking about.
Regards
Patch

 

[dave_77]

I think it's most beneficial when you can talk through your beer with the people tasting in person/video.
The homebrew club I go to monthly and the swap and zoom tastings I take part in are more beneficial than just sending for people to try and then messaging thoughts.
I think it's easier to talk through the beer, make comments and intial sensory thoughts, talk through the process to reach a conclusion on aspects of the beer.

The forum comps are good, I have judged a few and it definitely opens your eyes to the challenges of competition and scoring. I don't find it as useful as swapping beers and talking them through in person in the moment. As you get to know people better by regularly talking beers through it's easier to give constructive thoughts and feedback which you might not give if you had only just swapped beers for the first time.

 

[thepatchworkdoll]

Totally agree Dave
Regards
Patch

 

[Chippy_Tea]

It might even reduce the server load for hosting pictures if 'what are you drinking tonight' had a shared Zoom room.

The only downside i can see about using a zoom room is it would reduce posts in one of the most frequently used threads on the whole forum especially at the weekend when it is very busy this would in turn reduce income and less content for the search engine bots to pick up, those not interested in video meetings would lose out because members in the video would not be posting the aforementioned pictures and descriptions in the thread.

 

[DocAnna]

The only downside i can see about using a zoom room is it would reduce posts in one of the most frequently used threads on the whole forum especially at the weekend when it is very busy this would in turn reduce income and also those not interested in video meetings would lose out because those in the video would not be posting the aforementioned pictures etc.

Realistically I was gilding the lily on that one, I really doubt it would reduce the number of posts on the what are you drinking thread. I think there are options for the members area that might balance it out anyway. As with all good 'test of change' planning, there would need to be quality improvement measurable process criteria agreed prior to change with a review period and collaborative stakeholder engagement...maybe even a Gannt chart..... . Oops not at work at the moment Anna!

Being a bit more pragmatic about this, I'd like to look into how to at least get the forum listed as a club in competitions, and keep this thread open for ideas on how a virtual homebrew club could work without exorbitant postal charges for sending beer to lots of people. I'm wondering about having a local hub person we could send a box or 6 pack to and they could then have the beers collected from them ... just a thought.

 

[Stu's Brews]

My two cents...

I think it's a great idea to 'formalise' the forum as a homebrew club so it can be listed in competitions. It's also potentially beneficial for the forum as it would be good publicity.

A monthly zoom call would probably be a sensible balance. If there were big numbers of attendees you could perhaps regionalise it and then have a wider 'national' session every now and then.

On a potentially more negative note; do we need to consider 'entry criteria'? If we're doing zoom calls, sharing addresses, etc. then there may be some privacy concerns if it's open to anyone that creates a forum account.