CT Home brew clubs

I have recently been looking for information about home brew clubs in CT. I have looked on the AHA website for information regarding local clubs but it doesn't list much more than contact information. Feel free to post information about your local club regarding how often you meet and what kinds of things your club does.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ryan Galligan on February 12, 2011 at 12:53pm

I brew fairly often, maybe a couple of times a month. I think that joining a club is a great idea to share brewing ideas and tips with fellow brewers. Are there any clubs out there that are accepting new members?

Permalink Reply by Kevin Sullivan on September 3, 2011 at 8:44am

I'm in Manchester, and I'd be interested in joining/forming a club in Northern Central CT. I don't brew as often as Ryan (I can't drink it fast enough), but I'd like to talk about it and learn from other, more experienced brewers.

Permalink Reply by Paul Hayslett on September 4, 2011 at 8:39am

Closest club to you would probably be the Knights of the Mashing Fork (http://kotmf.com/). A couple of those guys judge at SNERHC every year and I've found them to be fun and very knowledgeable. Contact them and see if they are accepting new members.

Permalink Reply by Bryan Peretto on November 14, 2011 at 2:02pm

Thanks for the plug Paul!

Our "Big" meeting is coming up where we're going to decide on the future direction of the Knights and how many people we can reasonably accomodate. Some clubs are open-membership & no rules; and while that can be fun, it's virtually impossible to coordinate anything meaningful among the members.

We have traditionally kept membership to the size that our club system can handle (40-45 gallons) so that everyone can take home 5 gallons of wort. But not everyone can always make it, so we may have room for new members.

Regardless, we are and have always been open to guests coming to our club brews and we also do a bulk grain buy once or twice a year that anyone can join in on. We just received 2 pallets of grain last month and had people as far away as Cape Cod participate.

Kevin G, the brews are in NW Coventry, so we're about 10 minutes from you.

Permalink Reply by Bryan Peretto on February 10, 2012 at 9:27am

FYI: we have approved opening up the club to new members. Details are at:

http://kotmf.com/articles/membership.php

We also currently have one spot open in Tier2.

Permalink Reply by MOJO on February 12, 2011 at 6:31pm

I am the President of the Tarbenders Beer and Home Brew club. We meet once a month for different events such as brewing days, tasting events (both home brew and craft as well), we have had educational seminars, and will hopefully be planning a pub crawl soon. Although a bunch of us beer appreciators have been calling ourselves the Tarbenders since "04", we have made this an officail club this past November. We have annual dues and a simple set of by laws for our members. So far we have had 4 meetings (December was cancelled) and with each one have had an extremly fantastic time. Good beer, good friends, good fun, is our motto. We encourage any one who is interested in home brewing or supports good craft beer to check us out. Our Next meeting is in March and the theme is Irish red ales and Irish stouts. In April we hope to have our first pub crawl, and in May we will be hosting an all grain brew day for our members. You can check us out on face book and look at some of the pics we have posted.

CHEERS!

Permalink Reply by MOJO on February 12, 2011 at 7:54pm

Hey Ryan...just added some photos of our first official club meeting, and one we had at Plan B recently. I hope to add more soon. Check it out!

CHEERS

Permalink Reply by John O'Rourke on February 12, 2011 at 9:33pm

I'm not aware of any active homebrew clubs local to the New Haven area, but would be interested in meeting up with people, or starting a club. I've only attended one homebrew club meeting up in MA last year, where a buddy of mine lives.

I know that the Underground Brewers of CT are based out of the Newtown area. They host the Southern New England Regional Homebrew Comp in the fall of each year. They seem to be well organized and a good group of people.

Permalink Reply by timmaybrew on June 8, 2011 at 1:10pm

Hey Ryan, I'm the president of the Krausen Commandos of Northwest CT. We're based out of Torrington, but we have members from North Haven, Newtown, Barkhamstead, Wallingford and S. Windsor. We have a group page on here and a website if you want to check us out. www.krausencommandos.com. We meet once a month and we have 2 brew-offs per year.

let me know if you have any questions.

Tim

Permalink Reply by Michael Higgins on June 24, 2011 at 8:12am

Hey Tim! Im from torrington and didny know about you guys! Count me in- ive been trying to find someone else in the area who home brews!!

Permalink Reply by timmaybrew on June 28, 2011 at 9:18am

Michael, send me an email and I will give you details on joining and our next meeting.

phelps_tim@yahoo.com

Thanks,

Tim

Permalink Reply by Paul Hayslett on July 28, 2011 at 9:59am

I am a member of the Underground Brewers of CT, the 2nd oldest homebrew club in the US. Our club has no rules, by-laws, elections, officers, or any of that stuff. Dues are nominal and serve mostly to cover refreshments at parties. The only membership criterion is that you brew your own beer. We are ALWAYS accepting new members -- just show up to meetings.

Our membership area has no defined boundaries but is sort of limited by driving distance to monthly meetings, which rotate among members' homes. Most members live between New Haven and Rt 7, from the shore to I-84. But I'm in Branford and Marian is in Sherman. There is a whole clutch of new members from New Haven.

We don't do a lot of normal club things: no lectures, no big group brews, no official pub crawls. We judge each others' beers, blind, according to BJCP criteria; we have parties; we organize informal co-brews amongst ourselves; we share brewing tips; and we run a couple of competitions each year, one in-house and one public. More info can be found at http://www.undergroundbrewers.org.

I was also privileged to attend the inaugural meeting of a new club forming around Stomp n Crush in Clinton last month. That first meeting was very well-attended by people who seemed quite eager. It looks to me like it will be a very active club, mostly for people along the Shoreline from New Haven to Old Saybrook. It also looks like it will be on the laid-back side in terms of rules and membership, but will do some lectures and group brews. I think that the SnC owners will be posting info about future meetings on their website. Definitely worth a look if you live in that area.