Ah, it’s that time of the year again. Time to break out your mash paddle, fire up the burners and teach someone how to homebrew! According to the American Homebrewers Association, “Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day is an international event to introduce people to the homebrewing hobby and establish relationships with local homebrew supply shops.”

Each year on the first Saturday in November homebrewers get together and gather up some friends and teach them how to brew beer. It could be possible that your friends may not ever brew a beer again, but I think it’s very important that if you love beer, you understand how beer is made.

But what if you don’t know a friend that homebrews? Well, you always have a friend in Drew Huerter, Jerid Saffell and Mattingly Brewing, as they’re hosting a homebrewing demonstration on November 7th starting at 8AM:

Anyone who would like to come down and brew or learn how to brew, Mattingly will be hosting again this year. This upcoming Saturday 11/7. I will be doing an all grain demo. If you plan to brew, please try to be there and set up between 8-10 am. I will have plenty of hot filtered water and cold chilling water around. Depending on our brew cycle I may have some yeast available as well. I can also mill your grain if you need such service.

I received two press releases this week from breweries that announced that in the near future we would no longer be seeing their beers with twist off bottlecaps and would be moving to a pry off bottlecap.

It got me to thinking, does it really matter that much?  I mean, the obvious benefit of the pry off is that they can be reused for homebrewing.  There is even talk that pry off caps provide more of a barrier against oxygen.

But according to Steve Harrison, vice president of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, in the tests they’ve done “they found a slight difference, but not enough to have a significant effect on the beer.”

One of the other big benefits for pry offs is that the equipment is cheaper for craft brewers to purchase, and with the price of beer nowadays, cheaper equipment is always better for the overall cost of beer.

Ask a group of beer nerds for a bottle opener and I’m sure they’re going to produce three or four openers so fast it’ll make your head spin.  But what if you forgot your opener that day?  How then do you open your bottle?

Then there are twist off caps.  Their biggest benefit is that they can be opened at any time without an opener.  But do twist off caps hurt the image for a craft beer?

What are your thoughts?

If you’re one of those people who’s always wanted to get their homebrew on, but never knew where to start tomorrow is your best opportunity to learn how to turn grains and hops into beer. May 7rd marked the 30th anniversary of National Homebrew Day and to celebrate homebrewers are going to do what the do best, brew beer!

Each year on the first Saturday in May, homebrewers unite non-brewing and brewing friends and family to celebrate National Homebrew Day, joining with thousands of homebrewers from around the world in brewing the same recipes and sharing a simultaneous toast at noon Central Time.

You may be asking yourself, “Hey Mike, we’ve already passed the first weekend of May!”  And you’re right, but with Microfest going on last weekend, the St. Louis homebrewing clubs decided that they were going to hold off a week to make sure there wasn’t competing events on the same weekend.  So, National Homebrewing Day will take place this Saturday, May 9th in St. Louis.

Locally the two biggest homebrew clubs will be celebrating in two different locations. The Garage Brewers Society will be celebrating the event at O’Fallon Brewery while the St. Louis Brews will be brewing up a storm at Worm’s Way. Both locations will be offering up great food, great discussion and of course plenty of homebrew.

This past January, the Garage Brewers Society held a Chili and Homebrew Competition and Bryan Clauser won Best of Show with his hopped-up American Amber.  As part of the Best of Show win,  Dave Johnson took Bryan’s recipe and scaled it up to brew at  Buffalo Brewing Company.

The beer is now available to enjoy over at BBC and to celebrate the GBS is having a release party at Buffalo Brewing Company tonight, Thursday April 23rd from 7 – 9. Make sure to stop by and congratulate Bryan for his accomplishment.

For those of you that don’t know, Dave Miller is probably most famous for writing one of the most referenced and influential homebrewing books in the past 30 years, Dave Miller’s Guide to Homebrewing.  But Dave, who had been instrumental in getting Missouri’s laws changed to allow microbreweries to exist, was also Schlafly’s first Brewmaster.

Time moves on and now Dave has decided to reitre from brewing.  Knowing that, Dan Kopman and Stephen Hale conspired to throw Dave a surprise retirement party using the guise of the Pre-Prohibition Festival Party.  Using this opportunity, they had a chance to roast Dave and also retire his signature plaid shirt.  I’m sure hombrewers will know what the numbers mean.

If you weren’t able to attend, please enjoy some photos from the evening.

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Unfortunately I was sick as a dog, so I wasn’t able to attend the inaugural meeting of the newest homebrewing club, the East Side Brewers.  But luckily Mike Dawson and Rob Handshy were on hand to photograph the occasion.  If you’re interested in reading the minutes for the meeting, I’ve included them after the jump.

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One of my wishes for 2009 was for more homebrewing, not just for me but for everyone, including people who haven’t brewed before.  One way to get more people homebrewing is to have more clubs.  STL Hops reader Greg Bridwell, has decided to fill a great need in the local homebrewing community, a homebrew club for our neighbors to the east.

Greg has started up the East Side Brewers, a homebrew club that will have their first meeting on Sunday, January 25th at Bigelo’s Bistro in Edwardsville, IL starting at 2PM. Some of the topics for the inaugural meeting include:

• What our goals are as a home brew club
• Collaboration with local clubs
• Dues
• Meeting locations
• Web site
• Joint brew days
• Teach a friend to home brew
• Sponsorship

While at the meeting, Mark from Bigelo’s will be providing some appetizers and samples from his new 12 draft system ($1.00 per 8oz pour). Also, donations for the food will be accepted, but, not required. As this is a homebrew meeting, please feel free to bring your beer to share.

To help Mark and Greg anticipate how many people will show up to the first meeting, a RSVP to Greg would be appreciated. Be sure to check out the STL Hops forum for more information about the ESBs and to contact Greg or Mark from Bigelo’s.