BrewView: The Brewins: Homebrewers Celebrate All Brews!

BrewView: The Brewins: Homebrewers Celebrate All Brews!
By Christopher Mitchell and Brandilyn Brown

If you are interested in homebrew beer, cider, wine or mead, the Brewins HomeBrew Club is the place to be! Get out of the house and come hang out with a fun group of people, at various restaurants and locations around the Central Valley. A group of homebrew enthusiasts established the club a year ago, and meet monthly to share tips, recipes, bottle swap their concoctions, and have an educational talk on a topic that changes monthly. Past topics have included German styles, Seasonals, IPAs, and have also challenged club members by randomly selecting ingredients that the club member then has to brew into a (hopefully drinkable) beverage! The motto of the club is, “To promote and enjoy the hobby of Home Brewing within the Central Valley region of California” and although that sounds basic, they do this very well.

Their current schedule is the third Friday of the month at 7pm, but the location changes every month to be accessible to both Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties. Like them on facebook for news and updates on not only their monthly meetings, but also club events such as the annual Chili Cook Off, and group events like Central Valley Brew Fest and most recently, a full, behind-the-scenes tour of Dust Bowl Brewing Company’s Fulkerth location in Turlock by headmaster brewer, Don Oliver.

Meetings are simple: After some discussion about how to make the style of the month and the history of it, there is a time for bottle swapping and a raffle, where you can win various brewing items. Many of the items are purchased from the local brewing equipment shop, Barley and Wine, who host meetings from time to time. They sell everything you need from grain to bottle, and have a wide variety of beer and cider kits, for the newbie brewer. All experience levels are welcome to join the meetings. Whether it’s your first brew or your 50^th, there is always something to learn and something new to try!

Not only does the group of over 20 people meet to discuss what they’ve got fermenting currently, they love to give back to the community. Last year they participated in several fundraisers, such as the Sips ‘n Suds Ripon High Fundraiser, the Manteca K9 PD fundraiser, and coming up on Feb. 18^th, they’ll be at Ripon’s bi-annual Elegant Edibles, an event similar to the Center for Human Services of Modesto’s Edible Extravaganza.

If you make it yourself or enjoy it from a local brewery, just remember to, “Sip on, friends”!