Who are the best run homebrew clubs in America?

[olllllo]

The Arizona Society of Homebrewers (ASH) has over 450 paid members.
Of those, I would say 250 are brewers and the rest are beer appreciation people. ASH is a 501c(3), so we are OK with beer appreciation and we maintain our charter though education.

We outreach through twitter, facebook, our social media site and a listserv to approximately 200 more individuals that are not paid members.

Our monthly meetings bring 50 - 100 people with 30-40 different brews to sample and talk about.

Our Oktoberfest draws about 400 people.

We have money in the bank.

Everything works.

Still, we are just as vulnerable as we were 16 years ago when the club was started by a handful of individuals.

Essentially we are still structured for an ideal club size of 30-40. There are some other issues, but I'll save them for another time.

I'm interested in having a discussion about who the best run clubs are and what their practices are.
How did they manage growth?
Do they own the space they meet in?
How are the By Laws written and the board structured?

This not the place to discuss this, we'll figure that out if this gains any traction.

I know there is an area in the AHA's site for this, but it's a wiki format.


So. Tell me about your club.

 

[olllllo]

Wow. Lots of looks but no bites.

Just an FYI, I did learn that BURP is around 300 members.
Chicago Beer Society has over 500, but most are not brewers.

 

[Yankeehillbrewer]

I belong to the Chico Homebrew Club and it seems to be managed pretty well. I've only been a member since March or so but I really look forward to our meetings. I don't have actual numbers but I would say the club is about 55-60 members & Most meetings are around 40 people. Though things usually are a little sparse around this time of year, so I'm told. We have a set of by laws and we just held our elections in September. We have a President, VP, Treasurer, Secretary, Cellar Master & Competition Organizer. We typically hold our meetings at Sierra Nevada on the mezzanine above the gift shop. Sometimes it gets booked, but there are a number of other local businesses that love to have us. As far as I know we always have Money in the bank, and I believe most of it comes from our Yearly competition. We've also won Best Club Beers at NCHF for 5 years in a row, which I think is pretty awesome.

 

[Shooter]

I know that I had several clubs here in the bay area to choose from, including some pretty big ones like DOZE. In the end I went with a smaller, but still well known club in my area that was close to home. I think membership is around 50 members, but only about half that at most meetings. It seems to have a fairly regular core group. The club is financially very sound. There is a pretty standard structure of Pres., VP, Treasurer and Secretary that are elected yearly. To join the club I was required to read and sign a copy of the membership rules. Communication is handled through mass email as well as a message board that is linked through the club website. For the size of the club I think the setup works right.

We normally meet in a local HBS, restaurant or member home. If the club were to grow much larger I could maybe see the need for something more structured. In the time I've been attending meetings, about four months, they've already added four or five new official members, including myself, and all of them have, so far, been pretty active participants.

 

[Andrea]

Wow. Lots of looks but no bites.

I have looked in a few times to compare and get ideas.

Like-- what makes a great homebrew club?

Sure lots of people and money in the bank are both good.

Our little club in the middle of nowhere has a great division-- are we a drinking and social club or are we a brewing club?

The answer to this question calls for when we have our meeting, who are members are, what our dues are, and what we do-- and as of yet we have not resolved it to anyone's satisfaction
Example: We had a meeting on water with a representative of our Water Treatment Plant and I thought it was great. Our iron levels vary widely during the year! He gave us regents for choloramine!

But I am still getting complaints (three years later) not to have such a boring meeting ever again. And when are we going to do a brewery tour again....

Sigh...

 

[Flomaster]

I live to far out in the sticks to belong to (AHS) a 2 hour plus drive each way is kinda out of the question for me

-=Jason=-

 

[Airborneguy]

My homebrew club is small - 10-15 members - and probably only 5-8 are real homebrewers and regular attendees.

Personally, I like it that way. I don't need a million new friends at this point in my life, so being a member of a huge group would be pointless. Having a tight, core group, along with the internet and books, gives me all of the brewing information I'll ever need.

We don't pay a dime, we meet at each other's homes or at local bars, and we are close enough for me to consider the core guys actual friends.

I guess organization would be important when you are talking about managing a group of 100+ people, but it is a non-issue with a small, tight group.

Oh, and we earned quickly to jettison the "beer lovers". After a few meetings we realized that they weren't interested in helping with ingredients and actual labor, and were basically just freeloaders looking for craft beer. One of these "former" members, after being spoken to, started a craft beer club in the area which relieved much of the pressure. Now we might get an "enthusiast" or two at each meeting, but no where near 5-10 like in the past.

 

[Joker]

Oregon Brew Crew
Headquartered in Portland, the Oregon Brew Crew is one of the oldest and largest home brewing clubs in the US.

Not sure on the rest of the stats.

 

[EdWort]

Austin Zealots - No Rules - No Dues

Winner of the 2010 Lone Star Circuit

The Austin ZEALOTS is a loose group of members that have a common interest in brewing and/or drinking great beer. "ZEALOTS" stands for Zymurgic Enthusiasts of Austin Loosely Organized Through Suds. The club has been around since about 1994 and was started by some of Austin's homebrewers, the owners of Live Oak Brewing Co., the early owners of Austin Homebrew Supply, and employees at Celis Brewery. There is a weekly roaming happy hour at the various breweries in and around Austin (sign up for the yahoo email group). No dues or office of the CEO exist. However, we do *have pseudo officials: Primary Fermenter, Secondary Fermenter and Conditioning Tank(s), just for grins. Monthly meetings are the 2nd Saturday of the month at 5 PM. We meet in downtown Austin, TX at the Gingerman (near 3rd & Lavaca). On occasion, we change this to get around holidays or other monkey business and are sure to announce these changes on our yahoo email group and on our calendar of events on the right side of the page. Our meetings usually consist of about 40 or more people who share their creations (bring a tasting glass and please tip the waitstaff). We have a style of the month, but if you have homebrew that isn't in that style, bring it on! *If you don't have any homebrew handy, feel free to bring a commercial example of the style of the month that you enjoy. Bear in mind that to give each person a sample, you will need to bring at least 2 twelve ounce bottles. Each year we host a Homebrew Competition called the Inquisition. It is certified and sanctioned by no one. It is unique in that judging is not to determine if you can emulate a particular classic style, but can you make quality beer.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I have nothing to compare my homebrew club to (my first club, only a member ~6 months) and don't know the details (# of members, etc). They have been around at least since I started brewing in the mid-90s and is still run by many of those same people. They've been meeting at the same pizza joint (with great beer selection, many on tap) since at least then as well. I'd guess most meetings are ~40 people and ~15 different brews including meads. One guy wheels in what we call the Beastmaster which is just a big multi-tap/multi-reg serving station and members can bring in kegs. There is a donation pitcher on top of the beastmaster. I think there is a small amount of money saved. When people from other clubs visit a meeting they often comment on how good our raffle items are (we have a raffle every meeting) but I have no baseline to compare. Our BJCP-sanctioned competition this year (Sunshine Challenge) had just under 600 entries and went very smoothly, it was held at a hotel (yay no driving!).

The club is Central Florida Homebrewers.

 

[Andrea]

... how do you fund events?

Do you just not do events or make them self supporting like a beer competition with $ 6.00 entries?

I would love not to have to worry on the money-- but we need seed money for Oktoberfest and our Beer Competition is at County Fair with a $1 entry. So we need some money to do events.

When we did not take money, a person had to buy what they needed. I was funding $100/yearly in thank yous

Of course I am not in the social/drinking club section, but I don't make the meetings that are just drinking.

 

[Airborneguy]

We don't do competitions. Actually only one of our members even enters competitions.

Any party we have is hosted by one of the members. And we all bring something (beer, food, desserts), just like a regular party amongst friends.

I guess with us its because we keep the club to the size where its similar to friends hanging out, rather than some huge group of people I could personally careless about. Like I said, we dumped all the "beer enthusiasts" for that exact reason. I don't really see any benefit to being a part of a group large enough to need money, officers, rules, etc.

I already have that at my job.

 

[skeeordye11]

I'm the president of one of the local HB clubs here TRUB http://trubclub.com/. We have around 25-40 members per meeting, with about the same number of beers to sample. We meet once a month at a local restaurant and mostly just share beers and recipes for each. We no longer do a competition as there is no one to take on the majority of the work to do one. We are always talking about doing a limited comp in the future however. One of the few events we have is a big brew day at one of the local breweries where we make a 10bbl batch on a commercial system and people can get an up close look at how it's done. One of our members hosts a mead day at his house in August. And then we have an end of year Christmas party where the club buys pizzas for our members and we just hang out and enjoy some libations. We're pretty laid back and just enjoy getting together to share some brews and chat about them. Every once in a while we have someone talk about a certain style or something, but for the most part we just drink beer.

 

[olllllo]

Why collect dues?

Let me start by saying that it seems to me that if you are able to maintain a club of less than 20, dues and by laws seem to be less important. With that size you can meet in homes and perhaps under-the-radar in a licensed facility or maybe your LLC turns a blind eye or you somehow have favorable laws,

Above that size and you might have to consider renting a location for meetings. With an average of 80 members per meeting, finding free meeting space is impossible. Right now we're paying about $300/month for a meeting.

Our dues are $30/year and haven't changed in over a decade.

Small things get expensive at our scale.

Things that I can think of generically
Website,
Newsletter materials
PO BOX
Incorporation fees
Consumables at meetings, cups clean-up
Meeting rentals
Event permits/rental

Liability insurance?

 

[Airborneguy]

That's not a club, that's an organization. It's like joining the NRA or something. When there's that many members, it becomes impersonal because there are just too many people. Serious question, what's the point of being that large? To me it doesn't serve any added purpose. If our club became an organization, I'd leave it.

 

[olllllo]

Well, read what I wrote in the first sentence.

We are the size that we are because people want to join.

On top of that, we are a 501c3.

Mission:
To preserve and promote the time-honored tradition of homebrewing, and to recognize it as a true art form through information, education, and dedicated practice.

The Arizona Society of Homebrewers is a homebrew club based in the east valley of Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1995, the club promotes homebrewing appreciation and knowledge through its monthly meetings and festivals.

Our mission is to affect change. We want to have the power to influence having a great beer culture. At some point we want to change the laws to make them more favorable to homebrewing and craft beer.

Structured as we are over 15 years, we don't have the basis to deny membership because we want to remain quaint.

 

[Andrea]

Our mission is to affect change. We want to have the power to influence having a great beer culture. At some point we want to change the laws to make them more favorable to homebrewing and craft beer.

Structured as we are over 15 years, we don't have the basis to deny membership because we want to remain quaint.

We want the same thing about affecting change. There would not be a beer festival in Montrose without our club making it happen.
The beer competition at Fair had two categories-- yep light and dark!
So we are making changes-- it just takes some money.

I guess though we are trying to be like a hybrid club. You can get all our emails and come to all our meetings and do just about everything and not pay dues. In fact we have one who wants to say he is a founder and he has never paid dues (and not really our founder at all, but I digress) You just can't vote on spending of money or vote for officers. And you don't get your 10% discount at the LHBS's. Though we had to talk to just one person in six years that was not a dues paying member and still taking the 10% discount by pretending he was a member.

Some members even miss every meeting and still send in a check for dues. Some make just about every meeting and volunteer for Fair and Oktoberfest but don't pay dues. It is like a vote for the events we do if you sign up to be member. But really no one other than the secretary that makes the cards and list and the treasurer who took your money really knows who is a real "member"

I guess I wish I know a way that everyone was happy to pay and participate in a meaningful way-- but we are not there yet.

 

[Airborneguy]

Our mission is to affect change. We want to have the power to influence having a great beer culture. At some point we want to change the laws to make them more favorable to homebrewing and craft beer.

Structured as we are over 15 years, we don't have the basis to deny membership because we want to remain quaint.

I guess I understand your point, and I'm not knocking it at all, but I joined the AHA to covers those aspects for me. In my club, I am more looking for a group of people who I want to hang out with and participate in the hobby. I'm not looking for lectures, procedural meetings, rules, dues, etc. Maybe its because we enjoy fairly liberal laws regarding homebrew here in NY and don't have worries other states may have, but I just don't see the point of being a member of any organization with 500+ people that doesn't involve a paycheck for me.

 

[Airborneguy]

I guess though we are trying to be like a hybrid club. You can get all our emails and come to all our meetings and do just about everything and not pay dues.

This is even worse, IMO. My only incentive to pay dues is a 10% LHBS discount? But on top of that, I'll be surrounded by people who don't pay and enjoy most of the benefits I do? I think this is probably why more people don't pay, because they don't have to. While I wouldn't join a club with set dues, I definitely wouldn't pay the dues if other people weren't. If you really want to increase dues paying membership, make it a requirement. But of course the "officers" and "board" have to approve all that don't they... sorry, just had to reiterate exactly why I would never get involved in a group like that, takes the fun out of the hobby when you are worried about stupid stuff, like money

 

[Andrea]

This is even worse, IMO. My only incentive to pay dues is a 10% LHBS discount? But on top of that, I'll be surrounded by people who don't pay and enjoy most of the benefits I do? I think this is probably why more people don't pay, because they don't have to.

The hybrid club is a difficulty
We live in a town of 15,000 people so we take beer geeks and homebrewers and wanna be homebrewers and beer oriented folks that just want to hang out with us. And then try to make everyone happy! Like I said-- I look at people kicking in their 15 bucks as a vote for us doing the right things that they want us to do. No one does it for the incentives but they all like the discounts and the stickers and the thank you notes

And in a small town, people bring all other kinds of benefits like supplies, sponsorship, friendship and fellowship, volunteering, labor, etc... So we don't even want it to be about the money.

I wish I had funding seperate from members. I also wish we had a place to meet. I wish we had meeting that got more than half our members . And so on

We are cool though because it is a great collection of people (even 20% female!) and we all help each other out in emergency and in fun and we are known to throw the best party in Montrose at Oktoberfest. Before Oktoberfest was Coors Light and bratwursts left from Saint Pat's Day. Yep-- our Saint Patrick's Downtown celebration is Coors and bratwurst. So we feel there is a need for us!

Viva la revolution!

 

[Airborneguy]

Are you talking about Montrose, Colorado? I've driven through there a bunch. I used to live in the Springs and my cousin lived in Telluride, so I was driving that way a lot. Its possible I may retire there, but I hear bad things about how "newcomers" are treated.

Edit: I am retiring to Colorado, we just can't decide on where. And before you check my profile, yes, I am only 32, but retirement is only 11 years away for me.

 

[olllllo]

I know the 500 members thing is hard to fathom. It is for me too. But from a purely economic standpoint, we provide a product that has value. Since we have those numbers, we need to direct our resources toward achieving a lager goal. To so otherwise is somewhat irresponsible,

Honestly, I don't pretend to know all 500 members. I probably know by name 50. I generally run with about 25 of them. I some measure, it's like this site.

 

[bob1852]

I'm a member of ASH. But the only homebrew club meeting I've been to is Austin Zealots

 

[Andrea]

Are you talking about Montrose, Colorado? I've driven through there a bunch. I used to live in the Springs and my cousin lived in Telluride, so I was driving that way a lot. Its possible I may retire there, but I hear bad things about how "newcomers" are treated.

Edit: I am retiring to Colorado, we just can't decide on where. And before you check my profile, yes, I am only 32, but retirement is only 11 years away for me.

Great when you retire we can make you a BCHA officer-- what do we pay you for then? To be a BCHA!

I would like to address the newcomer thing like this-- newcomers move in and then wonder why we don't have every g@!!@^* thing they left behind and they complain. But Montrose is also very cliqueish -- where it is who you are related to or who you know. All and all though so many new folks have moved in that we have alot of places to shop now and more people to hang out with that are not good ole boys. They don't know how to drive though.

If you want a little town you may have to look around at Ridgway or Ouray or Paonia etc.

Colorado is a beautiful place to live. I love Montrose (except for the brats and coors at Saint Pat's)

 

[bob1852]

Colorado is a beautiful place to live. I love Montrose (except for the brats and coors at Saint Pat's)

Haven't spent time in Montrose - but love the Gunnison Brewery

 

[Bobby_M]

I hope to become the president of the WHALES tomorrow night so I guess I can talk a little bit about the club. I've been the secretary for a year and on the steering committee for 2 years.

The club goals:

* Engage in activities that promote the virtues of the homebrewing/fermented beverage hobby.
* Act as both teachers and students in the effort to brew better beer, mead, and cider through activities and presentations.
* Expand our palettes by tasting, discussing, and comparing to BJCP descriptions of styles.
* Deter irresponsible use of alcohol.
* Have fun and build social relationships with those who share these goals.


Club size is a really funny animal. If you're trying to do the righteous thing and promote the hobby, limiting the club size is actually counter productive. Before the twitternet became so ubiquitous and Discovery didn't put 3 beer shows on, keeping the club afloat is harder than keeping people out.

We have been averaging 55-60 dues paying members for the past 3 years and saw about 300% growth in the 4 years previous to that. The club started and stayed at a casual 10-20 members for the first 10 years. Due to our meeting space, which the majority do not want to give up, we're forced to impose a membership cap.

Dues... Why collect dues? I think there are a few reasons, and they escalate as you get over the 10-member threshold. First and foremost, it weeds out the tourists and casual drinkers. It's a commitment for sure. Holding an account makes it easier to get club permission to spend the money on things that support the club mission. For example, we went through the Siebel sensory training kits and spent a pretty penny on it. If we asked membership to anti-in when it was time to sample, many people would probably opt out. When we asked to spend the money they already put into the kitty, everyone said it was a great idea. See, they already invested in the idea of such activities so it's sunk money. Tasting cups, commercial calibration beers, the club pays for the shipping and entry fee of the "club choice" for the club only comps. We also started buying/building a club-owned brew system. A small portion of the money subsidizes food for club social events so it's another incentive to show up.

I agree that larger clubs are harder to manage, organize, and enjoy but there are benefits..
Group Buys - The Whales are settling in to a full pallet of malt from NCM a few times a year. We bought something like 100 corny kegs this year as a club. Anything from refractometers to pumps come cheaper in bulk.
Club Projects - We just filled two barrels with lambic (113 gallons total between 22 members) and this is the 4th year we've done it. How about 150 gallons of various cider projects each fall? You could do this stuff with 10-member clubs but what percentage of brewers even like Lambics? In our case, about 1/3rd of our member are interested. That would be 3 members in a 10 member club.

I know I jumped around a lot and rambled but the bottom line is that I think the best run clubs offer a ton of variety for their membership from supporting competitions to providing friendly feedback and mentoring. The biggest struggle we have right now is keeping the requisite red tape of managing a large club from taking away from the fun.

 

[Andrea]

Haven't spent time in Montrose - but love the Gunnison Brewery

And they love you!

I know I jumped around a lot and rambled but the bottom line is that I think the best run clubs offer a ton of variety for their membership from supporting competitions to providing friendly feedback and mentoring. The biggest struggle we have right now is keeping the requisite red tape of managing a large club from taking away from the fun.

Totally agree! We are just trying to find the way.

 

[Bobby_M]

I'm surprised this thread didn't get more traction. I'd love to hear what activities are most well received in your clubs. I'm sure we can all learn something. I would be more willing to share bylaws and stuff if the thread was in fight club.

 

[olllllo]

I hear you Bobby, It's no surprise to me that you and I have similar views on the bigger picture for what a club can do.

When we get into specifics we can start a conversation in the members area.

One thing we can talk about is guest speakers. We try and strike a balance between homebrew speakers and professionals. The professional brewers/ industry speakers are popular, but sometimes it's not very related to homebrewing and in some circumstances the info from a pro brewer is either wrong or very specific to their brewhouse.

On the flip side, some of our homebrewers aren't able to put together a compelling discussion, even though the knowledge is there. I mean, who want to hear Arnie talk for 20 minutes on decoction, when you can just ask him at a meeting etc, etc.