Plans for 2016

[Quiet_Man]

OK Belfast Homebrew Club......

What activities should we put on the calendar for 2016? (after hosting the first leg of the Nationals)

[Ciaran]

Reckon we need to

- increase our numbers : we could throw some incentives out there like brewery tours, various kit building sessions (stir plate, stc1000, kegs etc), brewdays etc

if we are going to be involved in regular competitions I'd add to that
- at least pushing ahead with your off flavour kit andy - we had 10 interested people at one point no?
- if anyone is interested, maybe getting some people through BJCP this year (could we even justify running something given our current numbers?)

[Roo]

Regular meets. Oh and a set agenda that will last past "introductions". Or maybe that should be a tradition that's continued.

[Bazza]

Regular meets. Oh and a set agenda that will last past "introductions". Or maybe that should be a tradition that's continued.

Soap Box time:

Don't get me wrong; I'm still in favour of the regular meets, and have had several people ask in recent weeks when the next one will be.
Problem is, the attendance was so piss-poor last few outings, I seriously questioned their desirability amongst the members and I, personally, would need to see a veritable deluge of interest before I'd consider organising another one.

I used to organise weekly 4-a-side football in work and used the following model, which evolved through time and bitter experience:
- The day before, get solid commitment from AT LEAST 8 players (and 1 or 2 reserves), before booking anything.
- If someone drops out on the day with a less than genuine reason:
   > If it's the first time - benefit of the doubt.
   > If it's not the first time - never f*****g ask them again.
Note: 'I was playing at the weekend and took a wee knock', 'I was out last night and am feeling a bit ropey', 'I'm totally wrecked', 'Shit; I forgot my stuff',  etc
all translated to these ears as 'I just can't be arsed now'

Extreme, facetious example, I know. However, it very quickly made folk consider what went on in the background before a ball was ever kicked, as they were deciding whether or not to pack their kit that morning
(come to think of it, just asking someone else to organise it one week had a similar effect)

I think our approach towards organising meets should be revisited. Maybe try some of the following:
- Less lead time for a meet. No one truly knows what they'll be doing in 6 weeks' time.
- Use the voting poll more as a measure of commitment as opposed to a measure of passing interest
- Get list of definites on the forum the day before. If the count of definites is under a minimum of, say, 5 then don't go ahead with it
or
- Have the meet set to a fixed time every month (e.g. every 1st Thursday) and get a list of definites the day before as above.

Maybe the turnout issues will be solved by Ciaran's first point above i.e. increase our numbers.
Maybe there's just a plain lack of interest in meets amongst the Belfast folk, which is fine also.
Maybe I'm just too old and whiney 

Thoughts?

-Barry

[Ciaran]

Come on, you're definitely too old and whiney but hey you're in good company

I'll start by saying I don't think it's fair for yourself and Chris to continuously be the ones to chair meetings and do all the heavy lifting around brew days etc.  I've never been to a brew day though, so I have to own up there (If I remember rightly I played the weekend before it and took a knock ).  Seriously though regarding the meetings etc I suspect a few are like me and wary of stepping on toes or coming across like "taking control" of anything.  You guys are (and rightly so), the backbone of the club, but I'm sure if push came to shove there'd be others who would be happy to help there if there was a night you couldn't make it.  We need to keep the momentum going after the english ales comp as the nationals are rolling into belfast in 10 weeks time - scary

So feck it, i'll jump on the soapbox while I'm at it.

Maybe the turnout issues will be solved by Ciaran's first point above i.e. increase our numbers.

I think getting the numbers up is the most important thing. The more members we get the more likely we'd get enough critical mass who are free on the night of a meet up or a brew day.  The trouble is there's more than one home brewing club in belfast, but the other one doesn't seem to want to affiliate with the NHC and seems happy to stay off the forum thus far.  Maybe we should approach them - would it work if they absorbed us rather than scare them away by coming across like we're looking to steal their members away? Not sure but might be worth chatting about.

If there's nothing we could do there, then how we get numbers up for our own meets is speculative.  My feeling is if someone is going to give up an evening it has to me about more than sinking a few dodgy homebrews, you can do that with your mates in the comfort of your own home.  If you are meeting up with the club you're gonna want to leave there at the end of the night feeling like you've learned something.  It doesn't always have to be learning about something big like building a system or a a fermentation controller etc.  Something Evin O'Riordain from the kernel said, he started out in a homebrew club where you weren't allowed to say anything nice about someones beer.  Sometimes we need to be more critical in a constructive way - at least that way you'll leave with an idea of what to change for the next iteration.  If it's unconditional praise you want, ask your mum, she'll tell you it's lovely It's no use spending two hours blowing hot air up someones arse if their beer could be improved and they leave none the wiser.  It's a fine line as you want people to come back but from my own experience I've enjoyed learning about what causes astringency recently and am really looking forward to fixing this issue in my next brews.  Personally I'm happy to get constructive criticism.

Other ways we could try to attract people to the club is by arranging things like
- brewery tours
- set up a book library
- off flavour kit tasting nights (which we already have thanks to Andy)
- having some bcjp people in the club - would add weight to any critique of peoples beer
- a brew day where members brew a collaborative beer to be entered into the nationals
- a barrel project (maybe need more members first though)
- push the twitter/facebook/webpage hard
- have a fixed night for it e.g first thurs every month, same location, same time every month.  If it happens that the main chair person(s) can't make it on a particular night,  then some of the rest of us have to step up

Thoughts again?

[Quiet_Man]

Soooo..................to the wider audience. Those who do not yet attend, or those who haven't been for a while.......

What activities would attract you to attend a meet / bring you back?

I know a lot of you read the forum regularly, but we need your input...........or we'll all end up bitter n' twisted!

We are hosting the first leg of the Nationals soon........what a chance to take part and meet your fellow brewers. Learn the secrets of the dark arts!

As a club, we should take this opportunity and use the social media pull of the likes of Brewbot and Boundary to get ourselves noticed.

[Will_D]

Execuse a 'But-in-skee' but about meetings:

If you leave the "when to have the next meeting" descisions to the last minute or worse stick up a poll then its too late. People have agendas and family committments.  So what to do?

Simples:
Pick a day of the month and state weeks in advance that this is our meeting day, every month its the same day. That way people know 4 weeks in advance that e.g. the 3rd Wedsday of the month is the Belfast HB meet!

It works for the North county ( and has done for the last 3 years)

[Quiet_Man]

You are excused Will. Many thanks for the butt- in....I do hope Santa brings you that special pint glass!

We have tried this, but without some commitments from the wider NI brewer community, we struggle to attract more than half a dozen. Brew days vary. A brew day in a brewery, with free beer!!!! Attracted three! So, of course the in-joke is, we couldn't organise a pi## up in a brewery!

We need to know what it is that the wider community want?

Is it a leadership issue? A content issue? A venue issue? Too many awful beers? What?

[molc]

6 - 8 is actually the perfect size for a meet. When it goes bigger than that, you end up with beers passing you like ships in the night, wondering what it is and who made it.

Sorry, I'll stop the Northside invasion now

[Bazza]

Will/Molc - any input and suggestions are always appreciated; thanks 

Like Andy says, we've tried the long notice thing and it just didn't work. We'd get maybe 6 or 7 people voting for a certain date 4 or 5 weeks ahead but when the day arrived, only 2 or 3 of these folk would turn up. I guarantee you I'd have gotten the same turnout if I'd just posted 'Meet. Spoons. Tomorrow. 8pm'

On more than one occasion when the wife was giving me a lift down to a meet her question 'Who all's going tonight, then?'
was met with 'well, apart from the usual X, Y and Z, not a f*****g clue'
which was countered with 'there's kids in the car; you're teaching them to curse'
'nothing worse than they hear in the playground every day'
'well if you want a family of potty-mouths then go ahead'
'left lane! left lane! Balls! Take a right up at the lights; we can swing back round'
'There you go again with the gutter language'
'I'll walk from here'
...

The point I was trying to make, whilst throwing the toys out of the pram, yesterday was that if there's not enough interest from the forum then fair enough; no point flogging a dead horse. There's plenty of us who can go ahead and do organise stuff outside of the forum.

But all I'll say is that I learned a hell of a lot at these meets. The first brewday I went to was a revelation and I changed my methods of brewing for the better as a result. So, I was, and still am, keen to continue the tradition so that other homebrewers can reap the benefits.

Ciaran; you've hit the nail on the head - if you want to use the forum for something, do it and don't be afraid of stepping on toes. It's everyone's forum to use as you like.

I also agree with you that sitting round being nice about someone's kack swill helps no one. One of the last meets I brought 2 beers that I knew were shite but needed some help in understanding why. Again; that's what these meets are for: friendly advice and help.

Yeah, Andy - a chance to have a brewday in an actual brewery. To me that's like getting a golden ticket to Willie Wonka's factory (the Gene Wilder one) - 3 of us turned up!! I couldn't look Matthew in the eye, I was that embarrassed. Andy was so disheartened he just put his Oompa Loompa suit back in the bag.

Barrel project, off-flavours, tours, brewday, etc, all great ideas and TBH, if there's no interest from the forum, I still want to do all of them anyway

Okay, maybe for starters we state the first Thursday of every month and take it from there.

Also, thoughts on venue. We still happy with Spoons? I have to admit I'm kinda half tempted to approach BrewBot...


-Barry

[Bubbles]

6 - 8 is actually the perfect size for a meet. When it goes bigger than that, you end up with beers passing you like ships in the night, wondering what it is and who made it.

In addition, even if you have about 8 people, I find the meets need a little bit of management to ensure beers get opened in a sensible order (light to dark, low ABV to high ABV etc.) I hate to sound like a "meet nazi", but I think people get more out of the meets when they're managed like this. People just turning up and opening their beers before passing them around doesn't work. This is even more important when you have large numbers.

[banjobrew]

I've been a member for nearly a year now and it was the overall activity and enthusiasm of the forum that attracted me to the National Homebrew Club. As far as the Belfast Homebrewers go I would've liked more opportunity to cover the fundamentals of brewing like yeast and water at the meets. I like giving/receiving feedback on our own brews but this should be a filler during a more informative discussion. I think these predetermined topics would attract new brewers who want to take their experience from extract and a bucket to the next level as well as those just wanting to fine-tune their process. Supplementing this with brewdays or brewery tours would add even more value to the club.

[sub82]

Haha Barry!

Sorry for the lack of input on this but 100% agree on starting with a regular date and see what happens. Up for spoons but Brewbot is a good shout - they're really keen to stay involved after our comp.

Ciaran - definitely don't worry about stepping on toes. It's always been a collaborative effort and no one's precious about roles.

Would be good to get involved with HOH - I'm sure both clubs could mutually benefit.

[Roo]

I have to agree with Bazza about how you learn from these meets. I live at the edge of the world and try to get up to as many as possible at times these are less frequent than what I want. Anyone who hasn't been don't be afraid. I still know F all about brewing and I've been doing it a few years. No one is a pro....well Quiet Man has pulled a few clinkers out to be fair.

I also agree that too much is asked of the main players in the club. I hate the responsibility of organising shit but know how much of a pain in the arse it is.

I'm happy to stick with a date like 3rd Thursday in the month then spend the weeks before looking to nail down a specific topic.

As an as side how about touring the greater Belfast area on occasion....say for example Ballymena lol

[belfastjacko]

I'm relatively new, I've posted a few times on the different forums on here but haven't made it to a meet of any description. I'm sure I've met a couple of you at "meet the brewer" or "tap takeover" events or whatever. I work shifts so can't be certain that the 2nd Tuesday or whatever of every month will suit, I've bugger all knowledge really to bring to the party, but I'd like to meet some like minded people from time to time. I've favourite-ed this sub forum on tappytalk so I'll be able to keep an eye on the meets etc. hope to meet some of you soon!!!