Modernizing Brewnosers

[sheanhiggins]

Like many of you, I used to hit this page every day. At one point there was a constant flurry of activity. Great conversations, debates, etc.

I was rarely ever personally involved in the discussions (maybe a tad intimidated by some from time to time) but I seriously enjoyed lurking on the topics and getting the inside scoop on everything related to our local beer scene and homebrewers experiments/diy builds.

I learned a lot from this forum over the years, and I think many other folks have as well.
Brewnosers as a group is important. It should stay important but things have clearly died down.

Why?

Is it social media? Is there a decline in homebrewing in NS due to increased availabilty of decent and/or awesome craft beer?

Here are my questions:

1)How do we modernize Brewnosers? There is a Facebook page but it is never updated and lacks content/engagement. Who is in charge of that page? Is there anyone willing to take it over or help to create a new space for discussion? Twitter? Instagram? We all see pages like Milk The Funk blowing up, but no option for local talk on our reginal game.

2) Events: There is usually a brewnosers table at most festivals, but should this group maybe start focusing on throwing their own events again? A lot of work, yes... but are there people willing to jump in? Do they know that they have the option?

3) Who's in charge? Not placing the decline blame on the moderators or people running the page (You've clearly paid your dues and have worked your asses off) but is it maybe time we get some fresh blood at the helm? I certainly don't have the time to jump in myself... but surely there must be some of you with free time that are interested in stepping up.

Lets not watch brewnosers die like halifaxlocals did.

What can we do?

Long live brewnosers!
Long live homebrewing!
Long live posts you probably shouldn't make at 2AM!

-SH

[chalmers]

I've volunteered/set up the BN Facebook, Twitter, Instagram pages, and am the one who spearheads our inclusion at festivals and events and TV appearances. Oh, and the occasional non-beer stuff I do (rare!). But I only have so much time in the day, with a full-time job plus the blog, so the social media gets forgotten. Plus I'm not a "social Media Pro", so am not on the ball and don't have scheduled posts, or rarely venture beyond blog-related pages on FB.

I would love for someone to take over some or all of those pages, just let me know! Too bad you couldn't help out, because you are clearly interested in keeping it alive, but I understand you are busy with running your own small business. How about taking part in the monthly meetings, or piping up in the Hoptoberfest thread?

I'm all for having these discussions if it means revitalizing and reaching out to new/prospective homebrewers and beer fans. I'd rather keep the content on this site than FB, tho, because then someone else owns it and can monetize and whatever else they do. At least here we are ad-free and can keep discussions on topic.

To answer other question: It is true that I'm not brewing as much now because the access to beer has improved in our region, plus I live next door to the best homebrewer in the city. But I do sometimes have to resort to buying beer.

[mckay75]

I totally agree with keeping the website instead of moving to facebook. Not everyone has FB accounts, or want them. Plus I personally hate facebook haha.

[LiverDance]

I totally agree with keeping the website instead of moving to facebook. Not everyone has FB accounts, or want them. Plus I personally hate facebook haha.

agreed, and you can't search things as easy on FB either. I like the board, it has it's ups and downs depending on season and summer is usually slow.

[LeafMan66_67]

I'd rather keep the content on this site than FB, tho, because then someone else owns it and can monetize and whatever else they do. At least here we are ad-free and can keep discussions on topic.

I tend to agree with Chris. Content should stay on this site vs something like FB. That being said, FB, Instagram, Twitter, etc. could be used to direct people to the forum, generating more traffic and hopefully more discussion.

Personally I am brewing less, partly due to a busier home and work schedule (less time to brew, and also fewer opportunities to consume the brew that I've made), and also the fact that you can now purchase a wide range of craft beer locally. I still follow the forum, read 95% of the posts and provide responses born when appropriate and when I have time. If it was something other than a dedicated forum, that probably wouldn't happen for me.

My two cents worth!



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[sheanhiggins]

Chris,

I sincerely hope my post didn't come across as accusational, I am very aware and very thankful for all the work you and the crew have done. As a person who's only ever really been to a couple of meetings, it'd be pretty shitty to be claiming that others aren't working hard enough while I do nothing at all.

I guess my point was to see if there was help needed. Or if others are aware that they CAN help?

Totally agree with keeping things off facebook but as mentioned above: Could social media not be used to drive traffic?

[McGruff]

This is one of my morning HB sites I go to every day. Summer HB posts are always lower in my opinion. I am retired but summer is very busy around here. Brewing takes a back seat around here in the summer. Things always pick up in the fall and winter. I don't like FB beer forums in general, just put up with them if I have to.

[jeffsmith]

I tend to agree with Chris. Content should stay on this site vs something like FB. That being said, FB, Instagram, Twitter, etc. could be used to direct people to the forum, generating more traffic and hopefully more discussion.

Personally I am brewing less, partly due to a busier home and work schedule (less time to brew, and also fewer opportunities to consume the brew that I've made), and also the fact that you can now purchase a wide range of craft beer locally. I still follow the forum, read 95% of the posts and provide responses born when appropriate and when I have time. If it was something other than a dedicated forum, that probably wouldn't happen for me.

My two cents worth!

Third here as well on all counts. Three young kids (two pretty heavily involved in sports) and a very full time job mean I'm only able to brew a couple times a year now and my ability to be involved in beer-related events has declined.

[chalmers]

Chris,

I sincerely hope my post didn't come across as accusational, I am very aware and very thankful for all the work you and the crew have done. As a person who's only ever really been to a couple of meetings, it'd be pretty shitty to be claiming that others aren't working hard enough while I do nothing at all.

I guess my point was to see if there was help needed. Or if others are aware that they CAN help?

Totally agree with keeping things off facebook but as mentioned above: Could social media not be used to drive traffic?

Don't worry, I didn't take it as accusatory or against me personally. I too love the club and want to see it succeed, that's why I make sure that we're at every beer event we can be. But I don't have time for the day-to-day social media stuff, so I appreciate the call out/call to arms to maybe get a few others involved.

Would be seriously happy to pass the social media stuff to someone who has a bit more time to engage and send out tweets and posts on FB to garner interest in the group. At the very least, your post prompted me to pin a welcome post to our FB page.

No hard feelings, I promise!

[KB1138]

I think part of the issue is that home brewing is slowing down a little with the glut of great local beer available. Part of it is also the relaxed nature of brewnosers as a group. This is ultimately a social club with beer and brewing being the uniting topic. Our meeting s are very laid back and casual, there's no real structure or organisation to it. I think if we want to try to grow things, or at least keep them from dwindling into oblivion, a little bit more structure is needed. Perhaps picking a theme for a meeting, or smaller and more frequent bottle exchanges. Maybe we could organise off flavours tasting sessions. Or a beer style study night. There's lots of possibilities.

And Chris, I'd be more than happy to help out with the social media any way I can

[Hub Brewer]

I believe another reason there's not as much "activity" on the forum is that so many topics have already been so widely discussed on here. If you're new to brewing and looking for answers to basic questions, the questions have already been asked - you just need to search the previous threads. It's a credit to the experienced brewers who put in the time in the early days talking about every brewing-related topic under the sun that you don't see very many queries from new members on methodology, ingredients, etc.

[oceanic_brew]

It's so weird that I was thinking about all this kinda stuff just today.

I just got out of a band (Oceanic) that I played in for about 10 years where I held all promotional and management duties so I've been kinda thinking about brewing in the same way since getting out of that realm.

I haven't been to any meetings and really haven't taken part in many of the discussions on here but this forum is something I check almost daily.

I love the fact that some of you have put so much time into this and seeing the brewnosers booths at the events actually makes me feel proud. It's easy to just load this up on my phone but I realiZe the behind the scenes work that goes into something like this. Most people do not.

That being said..

There is a huge potential to get the general public more aware of Brewnosers. 7 years ago when I moved here and began homebrewing
I wasn't aware of Brewnosers but I spent hours (and still do) on Home Brew Talk and things have even slowed down there a bit, back then there were only a handful of breweries around and the first craft beer fest was yet to come. Now with the festivals pretty well selling out and the breweries having a hard time meeting demand I honestly think that Brewnosers could pull of our own event.

I know it's not legal for us to sell homebrew so it's really hard to have a a tasting event and without that it would never have much of a draw but if we could come up with some way around it I think we could make it happen.

One possibility is that if we picked say 25-30 Brewnoser members and each of us Brew at one of the breweries around as we do with Stillwell Open. Then look for sponsors to help promote it. It would be like craft beer fest but each booth would be sponsored by a brewery but feature a brewnoser.

If we actually had our own event and got some advertising sponsors people would become more familiar with Brewnosers. "Oh did you hear that the homebrew club Brewnosers is putting off a craft beer festival?"

I understand and personally enjoy how this forum/group is very modest and non-commercial and I would hate to see it lose that but there's definitely potential out there to establish Brewnosers as more of player in the craft beer scene. That inevitably would promote more homebrewing and support the business surrounding which we would all benefit from.

And Chalmers as understanding and modest as you are there's no way that this doesn't come across as "you guys aren't doing enough" and it's totally understandable. I really appreciate you taking it as just new ideas but if I had put as much work into this as some of you have and then people come out of nowhere who aren't involved at all saying "why does it seem like it dying a bit" I would be a little upset. Hahha

Anyway, we all have different visions for the way things could be.

I've decided I'm going to Hoptoberfest because I'm sick of this just being something on my phone, I've developed a few of my recipes that I'm gonna share on here with everyone, and I'm going to start tagging Brewnosers on some of my social media outlets for our old band that I actually use just for sharing brewing stuff.

After I actually take part in Brewnosers
A bit more I will definitely be interested in using some of my social media/promotional experience to perhaps even take over the Instgram Brewnosers page. Some time in the future perhaps I'll make a separate post about planning an actual Brewnosers festival to see what some of the great minds on here can come up with.

Sorry for the long post but it's too much of a coincidence that I was thinking about this all day.

[oceanic_brew]

It's so weird that I was thinking about all this kinda stuff just today.

I just got out of a band (Oceanic) that I played in for about 10 years where I held all promotional and management duties so I've been kinda thinking about brewing in the same way since getting out of that realm.

I haven't been to any meetings and really haven't taken part in many of the discussions on here but this forum is something I check almost daily.

I love the fact that some of you have put so much time into this and seeing the brewnosers booths at the events actually makes me feel proud. It's easy to just load this up on my phone but I realiZe the behind the scenes work that goes into something like this. Most people do not.

That being said..

There is a huge potential to get the general public more aware of Brewnosers. 7 years ago when I moved here and began homebrewing
I wasn't aware of Brewnosers but I spent hours (and still do) on Home Brew Talk and things have even slowed down there a bit, back then there were only a handful of breweries around and the first craft beer fest was yet to come. Now with the festivals pretty well selling out and the breweries having a hard time meeting demand I honestly think that Brewnosers could pull of our own event.

I know it's not legal for us to sell homebrew so it's really hard to have a a tasting event and without that it would never have much of a draw but if we could come up with some way around it I think we could make it happen.

One possibility is that if we picked say 25-30 Brewnoser members and each of us Brew at one of the breweries around as we do with Stillwell Open. Then look for sponsors to help promote it. It would be like craft beer fest but each booth would be sponsored by a brewery but feature a brewnoser.

If we actually had our own event and got some advertising sponsors people would become more familiar with Brewnosers. "Oh did you hear that the homebrew club Brewnosers is putting off a craft beer festival?"

I understand and personally enjoy how this forum/group is very modest and non-commercial and I would hate to see it lose that but there's definitely potential out there to establish Brewnosers as more of player in the craft beer scene. That inevitably would promote more homebrewing and support the business surrounding which we would all benefit from.

And Chalmers as understanding and modest as you are there's no way that this doesn't come across as "you guys aren't doing enough" and it's totally understandable. I really appreciate you taking it as just new ideas but if I had put as much work into this as some of you have and then people come out of nowhere who aren't involved at all saying "why does it seem like it dying a bit" I would be a little upset. Hahha

Anyway, we all have different visions for the way things could be.

I've decided I'm going to Hoptoberfest because I'm sick of this just being something on my phone, I've developed a few of my recipes that I'm gonna share on here with everyone, and I'm going to start tagging Brewnosers on some of my social media outlets for our old band that I actually use just for sharing brewing stuff.

After I actually take part in Brewnosers
A bit more I will definitely be interested in using some of my social media/promotional experience to perhaps even take over the Instgram Brewnosers page. Some time in the future perhaps I'll make a separate post about planning an actual Brewnosers festival to see what some of the great minds on here can come up with.

Sorry for the long post but it's too much of a coincidence that I was thinking about this all day.

[oceanic_brew]

Double post can't delete oh god!!

[KMcK]

I know it's not legal for us to sell homebrew so it's really hard to have a a tasting event and without that it would never have much of a draw but if we could come up with some way around it I think we could make it happen.

One possibility is that if we picked say 25-30 Brewnoser members and each of us Brew at one of the breweries around as we do with Stillwell Open. Then look for sponsors to help promote it. It would be like craft beer fest but each booth would be sponsored by a brewery but feature a brewnoser.

If we actually had our own event and got some advertising sponsors people would become more familiar with Brewnosers. "Oh did you hear that the homebrew club Brewnosers is putting off a craft beer festival?"

Hoptoberfest is the closest thing we have to what you've described. 20-30 homebrewers bring their best from the year in kegs, bottles, and growlers and we have several times more people come just to drink. It's an awesome night, although it's slowed down a bit in recent years. Many of us would like to see it pick up in attendance, if for no other reason than to connect all of us who frequent the forum with each other and new people who are interested in the hobby. See the hoptoberfest thread for more information about this year's event.

[oceanic_brew]

I know it's not legal for us to sell homebrew so it's really hard to have a a tasting event and without that it would never have much of a draw but if we could come up with some way around it I think we could make it happen.

One possibility is that if we picked say 25-30 Brewnoser members and each of us Brew at one of the breweries around as we do with Stillwell Open. Then look for sponsors to help promote it. It would be like craft beer fest but each booth would be sponsored by a brewery but feature a brewnoser.

If we actually had our own event and got some advertising sponsors people would become more familiar with Brewnosers. "Oh did you hear that the homebrew club Brewnosers is putting off a craft beer festival?"

Hoptoberfest is the closest thing we have to what you've described. 20-30 homebrewers bring their best from the year in kegs, bottles, and growlers and we have several times more people come just to drink. It's an awesome night, although it's slowed down a bit in recent years. Many of us would like to see it pick up in attendance, if for no other reason than to connect all of us who frequent the forum with each other and new people who are interested in the hobby. See the hoptoberfest thread for more information about this year's event.

Going for sure

[Fire821]

I don't post much or at all. This site and club have helped me greatly improve as a home brewer. I check it almost everyday. Id be happy to help out anyway I can.

[KB1138]

Start posting more often

[amartin]

I've thought about doing more exchanges, like the themed ones. I like how they push us to brew beer we might not otherwise. We have the December one coming up though, and if the big spruce one follows the same timeline and format as the last few years a lot of us will be brewing up to three beers each before November, and then boxing rock in January and garrison in February or March. At some point we're going to need time to just make the beer we want.


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[oceanic_brew]

I've thought about doing more exchanges, like the themed ones. I like how they push us to brew beer we might not otherwise. We have the December one coming up though, and if the big spruce one follows the same timeline and format as the last few years a lot of us will be brewing up to three beers each before November, and then boxing rock in January and garrison in February or March. At some point we're going to need time to just make the beer we want.


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It's hard to believe that comp is just around the corner brewing timewise. Is there anything posted yet about the December exchange would like to get involved In that.

[amartin]

Yeah, it's in the we changes section. There are still a few spots left.


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[danlatimer]

When I read the title I figured the idea was to move from a forum to a reddit / stackoverflow style where posts are threaded and float up/down

[Jimmy]

When I read the title I figured the idea was to move from a forum to a reddit / stackoverflow style where posts are threaded and float up/down

I despise that format. I use reddit on a daily basis, but can't get used to that.

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[danlatimer]

I think it's far better, you can have more than one conversation on a topic. In a forum style you're basically talking across the room if you start talking about another point while other people are in the middle of a conversation

[sleepyjamie]

In Calgary there is a lot more support from local breweries for Yeastwranglers club offering discounts etc. They also are involved with commercial events such as setting up booths at beer fest, etc..