Hello all and how is everyone today in AHA Forum Land? Wanted to invite everyone to today’s Zymurgy Live with AHA’s new Founding Board. This webinar has been opened up to both AHA members and non-members (normally Zym Live is exclusive for members).
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/zymurgy-live/town-hall-what-an-independent-aha-means-for-you/
Cheers, Julia (AHA Executive Director and fellow homebrewer)
GREAT job to AHA Founding Board and AHA Events & Education Subcommittee Chiar Doug Piper. Listen or watch the recording! AHA has momentum and the move to independence is a great thing for all homebrewers.
It was good to hear from the board. Thanks for being so accessible and answering both my questions. Exciting times.
The event was very well done. Given the nature of the topic (association structure and governance) it was fascinating to see the turnout! Do we know how many people logged in?
Booyah Dwain and thanks so much for attending and participating. Here is to the future of homebrewing.
We had 262 people registered with more to come on the replays. Thank you for joining us!
It was an honor to share the screen with such an amazing bunch of homebrewers!
After watching the live stream, I got to thinking about how to help introduce new brewers into the hobby.
I think there could be some use for a bit of standardization. There’s been a lot of advancement in homebrewing equipment, and I think there should be a discussion on a new “universal” home brewing starter kit.
I think it can be quite overwhelming for new homebrewers to get in the hobby, because it can be expensive but mainly they don’t exactly know where to start. I think there should be a big “start here” message where people are guided through what they need and what is important. Where the content could be blogs, long form video, or short form reels.
It could help promote retailers, equipment brands, and also provide a little hand holding to new brewers.
I like your thinking and I know we can do more to build on what we have here. https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/
I think Homebrew_kev may have a good idea there. When I got started a few years ago, I noticed that there was a great deal of information, but there were differences in almost everything I read. In a lot of ways, it would’ve been more comforting to see a single “this is how you do it” from some authoritative source.
I mean, I get it… there’s more than one way to skin a cat. In brewing, it’s probably more like a billion. 
But for my first brew, it felt like there was too much information / options available, and I’m sure I made things far more complicated than they had to be.
Yep, I was thinking of super basic information. Could connect with some retailers to facilitate the equipment side, and they could point to the AHA for the how to. Then, you could encourage people to join the AHA for the “rabbit hole” part of the hobby.
I have a lot of thoughts here, but the one that is top of mind is to have the starter kit be as simple, accessible, and achievable as possible, with the understanding that if the bug bites you, there’s a lot more you can do (and buy 
). A 2.5-gallon BIAB (or extract option), for example. Dry yeast, carbonation drops, maybe even PET bottles with screwtops, a small bottle of sanitizer, a small fermenter with a spigot and airlock, a metal stirring spoon, a hydrometer, a follow-along video online. Maybe a card encouraging local club and AHA membership and inviting them to “post your questions to the new-brewer category in the AHA Forum.” Focus on recipes that can be done in a morning or afternoon using basic kitchen equipment (borrowed if need be) and do not require an extra pair of arms or two to maneuver huge quantities of saturated grain or liquid. Think like a cooking instructor working with first-time bakers: snickerdoodles, not a three-tiered wedding cake.
but the three tier cake is fun and sexy to talk about! It’s attention grabbing!
And that’s the heart and soul of the problem with the always on content creation environment of today. No one wants to talk about a pale ale because it’s not nearly as “oohh, cool” to talk about as the latest IPA with 50 different hop products and 10 different hop techniques including my nice new spiffy low ox hop dropper that makes dry hopping a cinch after 15 minutes of breaking the thing apart and cleaning and sanitizing it.
If it isn’t clear - I absolutely agree with you - the big message, the one that should be constantly pulsing with a big whirring red light is “look at easy and fun this is! Don’t worry about that other stuff until you want to!”
1000% !!
Some day I want to try to write a Brew-A-Beer-Using-Only-Equipment-that’s-Already-In-Your-Kitchen guide.
That sounds like a fun one-off piece for some future National Homebrew Day!
Love that. Here is where to pitch Zymurgy Magazine content if you are game. https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/magazine/content-submission/
