I joined Dallas Homebrew Collective. We’re a little bit different than the old grumpy homebrewer folks. Wait a sec, let me re-phrase that snarky comment. Honestly, I cannot say that about them because I don’t know “those” other people. But I could imagine that they’re probably really serious and have formal meetings and do more “official” stuff. This group isn’t super organized, and I prefer it that way. The last thing I want to do at the end of a long work day is go to another meeting.
So our meetings don’t have a lot of what you’d think of when you think of a meeting. Don’t get me wrong – there’s an agenda, and someone will give a little talk. Each meeting there are a few pre-defined styles of beer that homebrewers can bring and enter in a more official taste-off. And the other category is a “people’s choice,” where it’s a free-for-all on beer style. There were 4 people’s choice entries at last month’s meeting. There were 13 this month, ranging from blond ales to rauchbiers – and most of them were pretty good. I entered a blonde ale (the matled extract kit said it was an American Wheat beer, but the product ended up more like a blonde) and it didn’t suck! I’m proud to have a decent first big batch (and I mean 5-gal) under my belt. Most of these people in this group are doing partial mash or all-grain beer. I’m not even close to being ready for that – and hey, that’s totally fine! Maybe I’ll catch the all-grain bug one of these days.
Last night’s meeting was most graciously hosted by Michael Peticolas at his brewery. He gave a little talk about getting started, his experience brewing, and carbonating beer with some geeky tools. The official judges did their thing with last night’s Brown, Irish, and Scotch Ales while the rest of us sipped on all the homebrews. Did I mention sipping on some Royal Scandal and Velvet Hammer?
