[Liquidpoets] Education ..fallen by the wayside

[Nick Chase]

Hey y'all,
I wanted to respond to this because I thought I might have some interesting insight to the Poets.  I recently moved here from Brooklyn.  I have only recently been getting serious about brewing and this club is the first one I have been an active participant in.  Being new to the club, and coming from outside Colorado, I feel that the club has been a great asset in my quest to learn more about beer and brewing.  I love the 'style of the month' table, the club-only competitions, and the iron brewer contests.  I really enjoyed the hop talks, the Big Brew Day, and the clubs "best of show" (I won it at the meeting in March, although that was the only time I ever saw anyone voting...I may have missed the other votes, but I would like to see this more.)  I feel that, however the club operated in the past, it seems to be on the right track as far as education.  
 
That being said, if the club is going to get better, and we are going to learn more, it is up to the members to get involved.  Joe (et. al.) do a great job, but there is only so much they can organize.  I have some ideas that I would like to implement.  
 
I want to create a table with different malts (raw and mashed) so people can taste them individually and understand what they bring to the beers, and do the same with hops. 
 
I also am going to sponsor a BJCP certification test in June of 2013.  I would like to start a table at the club meetings to review material and discuss styles and flavors.  I am doing this to help further my own education about beer and I hope there will be others who want to join me.  I'll send out another email with more details soon.  
 
I would love to see more talks from professional brewers, or anyone smarter than me.  We have such a huge resource of brewers in the area.  We should take advantage of it more.  
 
Doc,
Thanks for bringing up this topic. These discussions are how we keep the club from becoming a drunk-fest.  However, it's up to the members to speak up and talk about what they want to learn and help organize how to get it done.  
 
Cheers,
Nick
 
 
 
  

________________________________
 From: "bestbrew at comcast.net" <bestbrew at comcast.net>
To: Liquid Poets <LiquidPoets at lists.robsims.com> 
Sent: Monday, May 7, 2012 8:27 AM
Subject: [Liquidpoets] Education ..fallen by the wayside
  

Hello my friends: 
  
 An Open Letter to the Liquid Poets.....   from  Jim  “Doc” Damon 
  
  
Caution: Education
has fallen into a very low priority in our club!! 
  
There always seems to be a  reason why we can’t have any educational
talks. 
  
“The meeting place is poorly equipped for a talk” 
  
“We got to dispose of all this beer “ 
  
“That’s the way we have done it in the past.” 
  
“We don’t have the time” 
  
Truth of the matter is that we have only had two 15 min
talks in the past 10 months. 
  
What do we need to do to improve this? 
  
Select meeting places where we can have a private meeting; 
 if this means renting
a semi-permanent meeting place , so be it 
  
Schedule some topics in advance...We could do styles of the month; pour beer for all
and have a discussion open to all about that style and even discuss the members
examples 
  
Have panel discussions, on broad topics such as “My favorite
Yeast”   “how I ferment” 
Or  “my favorite
gadget” 
  
Have an open forum where members can ask Brewing Questions 
  
Invite guest speakers to speak on Topics we choose...of
interest to all 
We certainly have tons of  expertise in our local area.

Truth is there are tons of way to improve our brewing knowledge;
 
 But in order to make it work WE MUST PLAN to do it IN
ADVANCE,  
and take some time and dedicate it to EDUCATION. 


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