Yankee Brew News Archive

New England Homebrew Clubs: The Underground Brewers of Connecticut

Originally Published: 06/96

By: Gregg Glaser

The Underground Brewers of Connecticut is one of the nation's oldest homebrew clubs, and probably the oldest homebrew club in New England. The club was founded in 1975 (before homebrewing was legal; thus the name Underground) by several homebrewers and lovers of good beer in southwestern Connecticut. In fact, the original name of the club was The Underground Brewers of Southeastern Connecticut. The "Southeastern" part of the name was intentionally used to throw off any of them darn Revenue Agents out to make a name for themselves by busting a group of beer-loving homebrewers. They could chase the club members as much as they wanted in the southeastern part of the state, 90-100 miles away from where the real action was taking place. (Homebrewers are a clever lot.)

The Underground Brewers are also known as the Y.A.H.O.O.S. - the Yankee Association of Homebrewers Objecting to Organized Societies. The club has no officers, governing board, committees or any of that nonsense. There is only one rule in the club: 1) No business is to be discussed at any meeting of The Underground Brewers.

Club meetings are held the third Wednesday of each month. Or possibly the third Friday, the fourth Wednesday, the fourth Friday, a Saturday ... whatever. Meetings are almost always held at members' homes. Absolutely no club business is ever brought up at a meeting. No one calls the meeting to order; no one reads the minutes of the last meeting (since no one took any minutes of the last meeting); no one engages in any organizational balderdash. If that's what the members wanted, they could have joined the VFW, for goodness sake.

Meetings generally start when someone says, "Let's sit down and get this show on the road, lads." The structure, such as it is, for each meeting is to hold a tasting according to a pre-determined style. (Alright, there is a little organization to the club, but it's all done safely behind closed doors in non-smoke-filled rooms.) The scheduled style for each month dictates the tasting and rating of homebrews and commercial beers for that meeting. One member takes notes as the beers are tasted and rated (according to the BJCP 50-point scale), and the notes are published in the club's monthly newsletter. (Yes, a bit more secret organization.)

Each member attending the meeting donates at least two bottles of each beer he or she has brought. The host for the evening supplies food, and the hat is passed at the end of the night to help pay for the eats.

The monthly newsletter of The Underground Brewers of Connecticut is The Brewers Bugle. Upcoming meeting dates, times and directions are published, along with styles to be tasted at upcoming meetings, ratings notes from the previous meeting, an Arts Column by Avon, Ramblings by the Naughty Nurse, occasional Ravings by the Anal Retent, Helpful Hints by "9", and anything of interest (or not) to homebrewers that the editors have stolen from other homebrew club newsletters, newspapers, magazines, the Net or whatever.

The Underground Brewers of Connecticut hold two club-only competitions each year: The Pale Face and Ale Competition in June, and The Silly Ale Competition in December. Some of last December's Silly Ale entries were Chocolate Covered Cherries Porter (porter injected by hypodermic needle into chocolate covered cherries from which the cherry juice was surgically removed), Cranberry Sauce Stout, Imperial Stout Pop (Imperial Stout frozen on popsicle sticks), Peanut Jelly & Mud Brown Ale, Fruitcake Porter, Apple Pie Barley Wine, Awful Indian Spices Ale, Gummi Beer and Coconut Porter (porter sipped out of a whole coconut from which the milk had been removed).

Once a year the club holds a family summer picnic at a member's home. That is, only if someone is bold enough to donate their home for the day.

There are no dues charged to be a member of The Underground Brewers of Connecticut, but a yearly subscription to The Brewers Bugle costs $15.00.

The Underground Brewers can be reached by calling 555-555-5555. Occasionally, calls to 203-834-0800 will result in an answer, but don't bank on it. Email messages to the club might be helpful ([email protected]), and the club now has its own World Wide Web page: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/konamon/homepage.htm

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THE UNDERGROUND BREWERS OF CONNECTICUT