Reflections and Transition

This time of year always seems to be such a crazy, hectic rush of various activities and events. Deck the halls! Shop for gifts! Bake cookies for Santa (make sure you have a couple in the name of quality control)! I think it’s also a great time to try and slow down for some more important things. Reflection on what you’re grateful for this past year. Connecting with family and friends over a homebrew. Thinking ahead to goals you have for next year. It’s a time of transition, and that’s what I’ve got on the brain this month.

December 2022 is my last month as BCBS President after a 3-year stint in the role. I have a binder of notes from Board and Club Meetings during that time, and it’s quite interesting leafing through it. I never really wrote down a list of targeted or identifiable accomplishments for my tenure. However, I do very clearly recall in my head what I wanted to do:

I wanted BCBS to be a legit, full-fledged, “major league” Homebrew Club. Not in the sense of membership numbers or budget, but in what we do and how we do it.

I had previously participated in the Minnesota Homebrewers Association and various competitions starting in 2013, and then attended HomebrewCon for the first time in 2017. Those experiences gave me a broader perspective of what clubs can do, and I so BADLY wanted for our group of brewers based here in Butler County to do some of them and do them really well. But we had to build up to it, and I had to figure out what the Club would be interested in doing.

Most of 2020 and 2021 was about operational rigor for the club – better meeting organization, better attendance records, more consistent communication, bylaws that don’t reference Philadelphia, etc. It’s boring to talk about and do. But you can’t pull off barrel projects or external competitions or attend HomebrewCons as a club without it, and those were the things in my head that I wanted for the Club. It took us 2+ years to accomplish some of them, which is why 2022 has been a blast for me. The Frenzy competition at Butler County Fair and HomebrewCon in Pittsburgh went REALLY well by any measure.

Speaking of measures, you’d think an engineer and IT guy would drop a bunch of numbers to show. Lord knows you saw enough PowerPoint presentations from me over the last several years. But the growth I’m thinking of was done by people – the membership – so let’s frame a couple things with people.

Barrel Aging: Go back to 2019, and we had maybe two people that had aged beer in a barrel. Now we’ve got 10-12 folks that have done it, and there’s a group of 4 executing a solera that could run on for years. A few members are talking about making another go of it on their own, and any members that haven’t tried before have many possible mentors on the process now.

Homebrew Quality: Again, go back 3-4 years. The offerings during the club social time at meetings had a wide distribution of quality. Many of us were seeking critical feedback (myself included as a new lager brewer). Since then, the offerings have gotten much better on average across all styles – and make no mistake, there are a lot more styles making an appearance on the second Sunday of the month at MBW. Take a gander at some of our Best in Show winners and the styles since then: Cory for a Cherry-Smoked Porter, Jeff Weeks for a Black IPA, Spencer for his English Dark Mild, Kevin and Lance for wine/mead and last but not least, Dave Ward, your incoming President, for his Belgian Trappist Single.

Dave and I first met in Minneapolis, MN, at the 2017 HomebrewCon in an education session by random chance. Shortly after I joined BCBS that year, he and I talked a few times about wanting to do more for the club. So, we started doing KART, and it turns out the club was hungry thirsty for education. We did more KART and bada-boom, bada-bing – I got elected President a couple years later. I admit I was disappointed Dave didn’t get to join the Board at that time. He’s the one that told me BCBS existed, and we had both invested equal time in those early KARTs. We talked on more than one occasion as early as the Fall of 2017 just how awesome it would be to take BCBS as a club to HomebrewCon. I wanted our members to see just how big the brewing community is – expand your understanding of what’s out there. The work preparing for Club Night was a passion project for Dave. The pride and satisfaction I have for what BCBS accomplished that night is my most cherished Presidential moment, and Dave was a big part of making that happen. The Club is in good hands. I wish him well for his time as President.

I would like to thank our other departing Board members, Travis Taylor and Jeff Frechtling. Travis got our Happy Hour series going over the past year, which has enabled a few of our members a chance to connect with the club where Sundays are a challenge. Jeff helped spearhead the first legit club charity event with the River Cleanup in 2021 and has been a heavy backer of mead making and gluten free brewing. Many thanks as well to our returning Board members, Matt Cutter, Cory Aldrich and Lance Clayton. Matt and Cory have anchored the club from its first Board through to the third iteration starting in 2023. Matt and Cory played big roles executing the goals I had for adding rigor to the club – attendance, finances, communication, bylaws, etc. Lance stepped forward to organize and lead competitions, and we now have a sound revenue stream outside of membership dues that will buy the club a lot of flexibility going forward. One last thank you and good luck to Dave Pfirrman who is joining the Board as VP. Dave has done a fantastic job the past year managing the IT facets of our competitions and driving the booth build for HomebrewCon. I’m looking forward to seeing his contributions to the club in his new role.

I think that wraps things up for me. I plan on making as many meetings as I can, and I’ll contribute where I can between growing work obligations over the next couple of years. I’m looking forward to spending more time just being a part of our community of homebrewers – connecting with friends, welcoming new ones and continuing to share my passion for this craft with all of you!

Cheers!

Chuck Beardslee, BCBS President 2020-2022