Just a quick note to say that the homebrewing club I helped found, the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale (CAMRA), celebrated its first year birthday last week. What began as an idea hatched amongst three friends who loved to make beer, grew in the first couple of meetings to standing room only crowds at a local bar. Since those first meetings, we have contracted into a core group of about 15 to 20 people. Meeting attendance varies some what, but we usually have a dozen people come out to talk beer styles and brewing.
Tastings have proven the most popular events, and so to celebrate our birthday, we had a combination homebrew tasting and a tour of the largest brewery in the area, Starr Hill (http://www.starrhill.com). We had a blast touring the brewery and talking with Master Brewer Mark Thompson. The difference in scale at a professional brewery is truly staggering. Equally impressive, though, was watching one of his brewers take a starting gravity reading before pumping the wort into a 50-barrel fermentation tank. While the scale is truly different, that act is one I have done on every brew day of my homebrewing journey. Watching this one step really hit home for me both the similarities and differences between homebrewers and professional brewers.
All of the CAMRA people who turned out for the tour and tasting had a great time. I hope we get to do it again sometime.
Cheers, CAMRA, and I wish you many more birthdays as rewarding as this first year has been for me.
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