So last week I got the urge to brew again. I wanted some redemption for Spike Ale. So I wanted to brew it again. But it was too late in the week to order from MoreBeer. So, I start looking around for homebrew shops near me. I noticed there was one in Bakersfield so I thought we should check it out. I called the brew shop on a Thursday and asked how late they would be open the next day. He said they would be open late due to a meeting of the homebrew club and that I should hang out. I called the next day to confirm because I had this feeling that I would get there and find nothingness.
So, after work on a Friday Ellie and I make our way there. We got a little lost but got here around 7 and I asked Ellie to hang for just a few minutes which she did. The shop was nice. There was about 15 people. A few of them struck up conversation with us right away. When it seemed that the club was not a bunch of a-holes I sent Ellie free. She wanted to go to Costco.
It turns out that night election night. They elected new officers by ballot and while they were tallied it was time for beer feedback. The main meeting was out in the back area of the store and it was slightly cool but wonderful night. I put my name on a list for feedback and was called up first. I did my best to explain the beer and my issues with it. I then passed it around the beer to ten or so people. While annoucements were being made a middle aged engineer type man began to chat with me. He seemed like my kind of guy. He offered up a suggestion to keep the fermentation at 64F for a day and bring it up a degree a day until 68F and this would yield a cleaner beer. I may try this.
After ten minutes or so, the president stood up and asked the crowd for feedback. At that point I began to address the crowd my issues and I noticed the only one really replying was the president. He seemed knowledgeable enough and said everything I figured he would except that a starter should go three days. I heard from the Wyeast scientist that it should be 24 hours. Now I've heard conflicting views on this before. It's not the first time. In fact I've heard conflicting things about yeast from the White Labs and Wyeast people from very successful homebrewers so this is nothing new. What matters to me is what works. So I am willing to try a three day starter just to see.
After that they passed out some other homebrew including a club barley wine that was amazing. At this point the meeting begins to unceremoniously devolve. I then went to get the grain and yeast. After everything was paid up I chatted with Seamus the owner until Ellie arrived.
We then went to dinner and Ellie talked about how we should open a homebrew shop. I didn't think there was enough people in Ridgecrest to support one as Bakersfield has only one. She said we could ship and that sort of resonated with me. Later I got to thinking maybe the best place is in Antelope Valley. There are no brew shops in Lancaster/Palmdale and there are about 300,000 people.
Later when I got home I looked into their website at bigbrewtheory.org and noticed some video clips they posted on the site. There was a nice one about yeast starters. Also, I read up a little on the officer bios. I noticed the president talk about building his own water and that started to make things click. I had heard a lot of people in the club ask me about water. Jamil talks about not caring so much about water and that if the water is drinkable, just move of with life. Doc always builds the water. He wins a lot of competitions. I will say all of their homebrew that was passed out was good. Maybe it's something I should get into.
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