We're participating in AHA's National Learn to Homebrew Day on November 1
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Bringing this topic to the general forum to help keep things moving forward. Matt and Jim, I know you guys have been discussing some ideas including last night.
My suggestion (discussed on some other threads) was to get batches going on each brew bay, lead by members and providing hands-on Brewing 101 instruction to new brewers, brewing 4 batches of the same for the Woodshop menu at Stout Night.
What do you think? Other ideas?
I was envisioning this as a conference of sorts where we'd have different demos/talks at different times.
Have the four brew bays brewing a different beer, extract v. AG; a kegging demo at a certain time, a tasting/style talk at a certain time, etc.
I like the idea of spacing things out throughout the day. It can get kind of crowded in there with just four brewers doing their thing: adding a bunch of spectators will make things real tight. Having two going at a time seems like it would be about right.
I still like my idea of getting four CHAOS members who have gone on to brew professionally as lead brewers at each bay; if feasable.
There are three and a half weeks to make this happen and we happen to have Harvest Fest in a week and a half.
I think we need to hand over the reins to Jamie at this point and let him keep moving forward with this event.
We can always expand on this next year, but at this point we need to pick a direction and go with it. Jamie has definitely put the most amount of time and energy on this contacting multiple local media sources and set-up a rough framework for the day.
Thanks Ken, I'm happy to lead on this as much as needed. I don't want to step on Matt's education toes, or other board/members who have ideas and want to contribute, and I think there's room to combine some of these ideas.
- Matt, you mentioned a few ideas at the meeting about making this thing bigger and better. Can you lay some of those out here so that we can get things rolling?
- Jim, I also think having some more stuff going on throughout the day would strengthen. Could you map out a hypothetical schedule of what you have in mind?
- Jeff, I'd be happy to have those pro brewers involved with this. Are you willing to contact them and get them on board? If there are four who want to lead brew sessions, I'm happy to cede to their expertise. In the meantime though, as contingency I'll plan on leading a brew, or at least working with one of them to do so.
I don't think your idea, Jeff, and the rest of the ideas are mutually exclusive.
We can have the different brewers (honestly, I think only David Williams would come back) brew at different times.
What I was envisioning was brewing happening on the brew bays with different types (at least one extract, at least one AG) with posted start/end times so people can stop by for whichever kind of batch they want (hell, we could even purchase one of those Brooklyn brewery kits to get real basic); we can have a kegging demo going on at two times during the day with just water (doesn't have to be beer); we can have a bottling demo going on two times during the day with just water and people can even practice this (we can then open the bottles, dump the water, and use them for the other session); there could be a really basic tasting session and a tasting 102 later in the day if people can stick around for both; we can just have a sit-and-chat session about how to get into homebrewing (how to choose ingredient kits and equipment - for some people they can jump right into AG, some need a real basic kit, others can do a combo - we'll talk with people and suggest the right course of action). We could even do this with brewing equipment: take a walk around teh berwhouse and introduce people to brewing equipment and then have photos for the rest of the equipment we may not have.
I was envisioning a bunch of different things at a bunch of different sessions at a bunch of different times with a bunch of different levels/topics so everyone could learn something.
Jamie also mentioned that we're the only AHA registered Learn to Homebrew day in IL (or maybe just Chicago). Either way, we could extend an invitation to other brew clubs to come to CHAOS to do their learn to homebrew presentatiosn.
Jim, those are a lot of great ideas. Are there any of those that you could plan to take charge of and Lead?
Matt, what do you have in mind for the event?
Also, there are events registered now in Normal and Palatine, but we are still the only Chicago event listed on the National site
Yeah, sure! I can probably do one (it's 7 days before my wedding and we'll already have guests from out of town - out-of-country, actually - staying with us so I shouldn't commit to much).
Let me get back to you later when I'm in front of my desktop. I hate not being able to access our site at work and having to use my phone..
I'll bet someone is on this already, but just in case: AHA just sent out an email about the 2014 Introduction to Homebrewing issue of Zymurgy. Physical copies can be ordered here: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/business-tools/publication-sales/r...
@Jeff Can you reach out to the members-turned-pro you had in mind to see if they can even come that day?
@Jamie I'll definitely do the hands-on bottling demonstration.
What about, as a rough schedule:
Additional ideas:
Just bumping this up.
I think we really need to knock this out of the ballpark next year but for this year, let's definitely have people brewing (which it looks like we already have) and I'll be posting up a couple quick "workshops" if people want to stop by (bottling; kegging; tasting).
Six first-time brewers (or first-time all-grain brewers) participated with Matt and I yesterday in brewing 10 gallons of Stour for our Learn to Homebrew Day brew session. We had 13 first-time visitors for the open house who signed up for our email list, plus a bachelor party, several recent new members stopping in and some vets hanging out for about 40 people in total throughout the day. 7 batches of beer were brewed for a 40-gallon total for the day. Thanks to everyone who was around for helping out!
Fantastic!
Great work!!!
Yesterdays event was awesome and the brewhouse was every inch in chaos!
Great Job Guys!
This is awesome!
Why, though, are they just signing up for the newsletter and not signing up as a Web-member (which not only gets the newsletter but also access to the site)?
And I brewed my first batch at the brewhouse - what a fun day, having the new brewers made it really interesting! Thanks to everyone who showed me where stuff is, how the chiller works, etc!.
www.singingboysbrewing.com