Club for Lovers of Fuggles?

[davelew.livejournal.com]

The recent posts on hops have me thinking...

Is there a homebrewing club in the Davis Square area? Is anybody here a member of the Boston Wort Processors Guild? Is anybody interested in starting a group to deal with the current hop shortage (i.e. share minimum orders from distributors, plant different varietals and share harvests, etc)?

Comments

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

I happen to be an extreme amateur to homebrewing, and would be very interested in finding out answers to these questions.

Keep me posted?

Barry Squared (at) gmail

[afty.livejournal.com]

There are a number of Davis-area members on BeerAdvocate. You may want to post in the Boston forum there and see if there are any takers.

Also, you might want to check with Modern Homebrew on Mass Ave. You could post a note there and see if there are any takers.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Modern Brewer or whatever its name is used to have a bulletin board for people to connect with fellow brewers.

[warlord-mit.livejournal.com]

Dave, I know you already know about NERAX, but beyond that I think brewing tends to be "by friends". You're certainly welcome to join me when I brew next, but that wont happen until probably April.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

True, but there will likely be brewing in your house before that, and Dave is still welcome to join. :)

[davelew.livejournal.com]

That sounds great. My email address is my livejournal username at gmail.com, just let me know when you're free and planning to brew.

I'd be happy to bring my grain mill (I got sick of the one at the Modern Brewer and purchased/built my ow mill) or any other equipment. I'd offer ingredients from my stock as well, but my stash is a little small at the moment.

[komos.livejournal.com]

I don't think there is a formal club in this area, though I'd definitely be interested.

[inahandbasket]

ditto.

[jaypee.livejournal.com]

I would also be interested in this. A google group could be created very quickly if anyone would be up for such a thing. It gives you a free mailing list/message board, calendar, and documents. I'm sure most people on here have a google account as well.

[nhradar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a Davis Square homebrew club would be great, and the google group would be a good idea (hey, we can have an lj group, too ;)

I'm not doing anything next week, so I may set something up, if no one has already.


We're pretty screwed on hops, I think. One of the annoying things about Davis Square is that a lot of the land is pretty contaminated, and hop tap roots go down quite a ways...so growing is somewhat dicey.

Go-go british mild! :)

[charlwoo.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's a Davis Square specific homebrewing club, but there are a number of Boston area homebrew clubs -- the Boston Wort Processors and the South Shore Brew Club are the two that I can name off the top of my head. Most homebrewers I know are informally connected through word-of-mouth.
Unfortunately the prime time for ordering bulk hops has passed. Prices from hop farms tend to increase after the fall harvest and the diversity of cultivars available seems to diminish.
I place a bulk order every fall on behalf of myself and everyone I know who homebrews. I'd be happy to include anybody who'd like to go in on the bulk order next year; feel free to send me an e-mail at aaron at russellst dot com.
It takes 2-3 years for planted hops to have any significant yields; rhizomes are generally only available in the spring, so you wouldn't see any significant production until fall of 2009 (assuming perfect growing conditions) or fall 2010. Even then, the two established 30' Cascade vines I harvested this past fall, which were quite healthy, only yielded about a pound of hops total this past year.
I do happen to have some extra hops in the freezer from the 2007 bulk order, so if anybody wants Amarillo or Phoenix pellets, or Centennial, Sorachi Ace, or Willamette whole hops, send me an e-mail and I'll sell them at my cost (plus a fraction of the total order shipping charges) PLUS a bottle of homebrew.

[o0dano0o.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested in this too. I'm very new to the hobby - I've only made one batch of beer.

[natef.livejournal.com]

I might be interested too, though I only brew every couple months and brew extract (considering minimash).