The date of "Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day" has been changed from September 18, 1999 to November 13, 1999. The change was made to take advantage of the holiday brewing season. "For many brewers, mid-November kicks off the holiday brewing season," says Paul Gatza, director of the American Homebrewers Association (AHA). " We feel that 'Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day' will experience greater success if scheduled for November."
Most of us started homebrewing at the urging of a friend. Can you recall your excitement of making your first batch of homebrew? How about the anticipation of waiting to crack that first beer after you bottled it? I brewed my first batch alone, except for several calls to George and Nancy at Home Sweet Homebrew in Philadelphia. I learned in my homebrew supply shop days that no brewing questions are dumb ones. Do you keep the red cap on the airlock during fermentation or do you take it off? Can you reuse bottle caps? We were all newbies once. I am sure many of my beginner mistakes could have been corrected and problems solved if another brewer was there to help guide me into the hobby. Most of the advances in my brewing are directly the result of learning the techniques first-hand from other brewers.
I would like to encourage all brewers to put in a day of service to the industry by teaching a friend how to brew on September 18th, 1999. For many brewers, mid-September kicks off the fall brewing season, where all over the country brewers are dusting off equipment and gearing up for several batches. Instead of just hopping on down to the local homebrew supply shop on your own, grab a buddy and show her or him the ropes of what equipment is used and how to select ingredients. Your service to the industry will not only be fun, but brewing is always easier when more than one person does the cleaning and work part of brewing.
Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day is a joint project of the AHA and the Home Wine and Beer Trade Association (HWBTA). AHA represents homebrewers; HWBTA represents retailers and wholesalers. Your participation in Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day benefits all homebrewers, as well as the people who make their business in homebrewing. The more brewers we have across the country, means wholesalers can stock a wider variety of products, retailers will have the customers needed to order in bulk, maintain a business and be able to diversify their product lines, the AHA has more potential members to become a stronger advocate for the hobby, homebrew clubs also get more potential members and homebrewers get more help around the brew kettle and the beer fridge. Everybody wins.
My Stanley Cup bet with my neighbor Rose was that if the Sabres won, I
would teach her to make beer. Since the Stars won, I will be teaching
her to make mead. Using the model of the Big Brew, we will be signing
up participants and cataloguing the information on
http://www.beertown.org. We will also make a press release template for
anyone wanting to generate local media awareness about homebrewing.
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Paul Gatza
Director
American Homebrewers Association (303) 447-0816 x 122 736 Pearl Street (303) 447-2825 -- FAX PO Box 1679 paulg@aob.org -- E-MAIL Boulder, CO 80306-1679 info@aob.org -- AOB INFO U.S.A. http://www.beertown.org -- WEB