We are in the process of forming a San Francisco Bay Area homebrew club. We’re starting to get names / emails of folks interested in being part of the club. If interested, please sign up at SanFermenters.com.
Our mission: To provide a fun, interactive and educational outlet for San Francisco Bay area home brewers. We provide an outlet for advice and feedback on what you brew from peers and professional brewers alike. We are a club that not only brews together, but hosts brewing challenges among the membership. We are a club that shares our love of home brewing through group ingredients purchases, club member only brewery tours, club competitions, group brews and other activities.
I tried contacting them a couple of times after I relocated back to SF in late 2009. I never heard back from a human being, though once in a while I would get a group email which suggested some people who had known one another a long long time were getting together for a time-honored tradition of some sort. The website seems to have not been updated since early 2007. The newsletter faded out in early 2003. The site does link out to a blog. but if you were a newcomer, the posts wouldn’t really suggest “we are a homebrew club.”
So I think it’s fair to say that some of the original members may still be around and may still get together from time to time, but the group as a homebrew club by any reasonable definition of the phrase is dormant.
There are definitely plenty of homebrewers in the city, including some who meet in a club-like manner, and I would wager the vast majority of them (and none of the newer/younger brewers) have never heard of the San Andreas Malts.
Yeah… one thing with small associations, when they fold, it can be hard for them to acknowledge that they ARE folding, so “succession planning” doesn’t happen. It would be great if the Malts’ history was passed along to the folks starting a new club so the new pioneers had some sense of what (and who) went before them.
Back in the 1970s I met someone who gave me a homebrew he had made. It was pretty good (though the last time I had homebrew for about 30 years, for no reason than I just never met another homebrewer). I wish I had a time machine to go back and see who that long-forgotten person was. Could have been one of the San Andreas Malts!
not sure if they are a homebrew club or a collection of homebrew clubs or both. i run the sirwisa brewing collective- its a collaborative of local brewers who put on events together, exchange ideas for beers, etc. we do regular beer garden home brew competitions at the brewtruc beer gardens. next up is april 14th!
Thanks, I haven’t seen that, I may check out the Elizabeth Street event if it’s not full. Have not heard a peep from the San Fermenters. Another thing about clubs: easy to dream up, harder to run…
The Guild is great. Chris is working hard to turn it to a complete club, memberships and everything. The tasting events at Pi Bar are amazing and the meet the brewer events look like they are going to be a blast.
