Are you a beerocrat, beer aficionado, or a homebrewer looking to brew, share and drink great beer with others who are just as passionate about beer as you are?
Half Moon Bay resident Steve Travis has written a few articles about this for his Half Moon Brewer blog on homebrew clubs, lamenting the fact that there's not a regular club here on the Coast.
He also wrote about El Granada resident Dan Littlefield, an avid homebrewer for years who is about to officially open with friend Ethan Martini, Hop Dogma Brewing Company, a nano-brewery in El Granada.
Littlefield 's father-on-law had an empty space in the building at 30 Avenue Portola in El Granada and leased it to Littlefield and Martini to use as their tasting room and brewing facility.
“After going through loads of paperwork and an amazing remodel of the space, they are within a few months of officially opening to the public,” said Travis.
A few months ago Littlefield invited Travis to check out Hop Dogma’s tasting room and brewing facility to see if the space could double as a homebrew clubhouse.
“After that it was an absolute no-brainer, and I put the word out to the brewers we know around the area to get some buzz going about the new club,” said Travis.
In January the group had 12 people attend the first meeting, “and hope to see a few more this time around,” said Travis, who adds that the key to making this club successful is consistency so they’ve set their regular meeting time to 7:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month at the tasting room.
“We’ll be tasting a few of Hop Dogma's ‘preview’ beers as well as any homebrew the club members are willing to bring by,” he said.
A typical meeting agenda looks something like this:
- Welcome
- Social/Brew tasting time
- Club business
- Tech talk/Brewing tips
- Q/A
- Ideas for next meeting
- Wrap-up and more social time
Members have to be 21 years or older and there’s currently no cost to join the club.
“As we become more established, we'll set some dues to help pay for events and T-shirts and such," said Travis. "However in the short term, we're really just looking to build the club up and see where our members want to go with it.”
The upcoming March 14 meeting is a critical one for the club as they will choose their official club name.
IF YOU GO
March 14
7:30p at the Hop Dogma tasting room
30 Avenue Portola, Suite 1B
El Granada
For more information:
The Yet-to-be-named Coastside Homebrewer's Club
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