General Info

Who are the Bay Area Mashers (BAM) ?

BAM is a homebrewing club with a membership based primarily in the Northern California East Bay (Oakland, Berkeley area) that was formed in June 1990. As homebrew clubs go these days, we are pretty small with about 30-40 active members. Our membership is open to brewers and wanna-be-brewers alike. Each member is expected to contribute to the same extent that they derive club benefits.

Our main goal is to promote the practice of better brewing and to have fun while doing it. The vast majority of it's members are all-grain brewers. The club is small, but there is a wealth of knowledge within its membership. Several members own brew supply shops, and many have gone on to become professionally involved with beer and beer brewing (Oak Barrel Winecraft in Berkeley, Coast Range Brewing in Gilroy, Buffalo Bill's in Hayward, 21st Amendment in San Francisco, Rock Bottom in Long Beach.) In 1997 Ray Francisco, BAM brewer excellent, was distinguished to receive California Home Brewer of the Year Award at the Stern Grove celebration put on by the Malts.

BAM started out as a pretty anarchistic club, with no real president or officers. This worked well until the membership grew to over 20 members. In order to run the meetings and organize events more smoothly, we now have officers that hold the following positions:

• President

• Treasurer

• World Cup Coordinator

• Webmaster

The officers hold their position for a twelve month period, until a meeting to elect new officers is held. See the Clubs Organizing Document for a complete description of each position.

Club Meetings

Club meetings are usually held at Linden Street Brewery, Oak Barrel Winecraft or one of the members homes, on a rotating schedule of the second Tuesday or Thursday of the month. Because the club membership is small, we are able to invade a members house without inflicting too much damage. Because we do not wish to publish the address or phone numbers of members homes on the net, you must contact us here if you wish to attend a meeting. Usually, meeting turnouts don't exceed 30 members and are typically around 20. If a special event coincides with a meetings within a week or two, the meeting is conducted at the event. The meetings usually follow the format:

1. Technical - Technical talks are sometimes scheduled to address a specific aspect of the brewing process. This is usually limited to 30 minutes.

2. Kickoff - Club business and upcoming events are discussed and sign up lists for attendees and organizers are distributed.

3. Election - New officers are elected if terms are up.

4. SOQ - Style of the Quarter. At the beginning of the year, members vote for styles that will be evaluated each quarter. Members can then brew to style and bring samples to the appropriate meeting. The samples and calibration beers are then evaluated by all members using the standard 50 point BJCP scoring method. First, second and third place winners receive gift certificates for Oak Barrel Winecraft, paid for from the club treasury.

5. Enjoy - This is the time to sample other brewers' efforts and basic BS.

Bulk Purchases

Way back when, our club arranged for bulk purchases of top quality Grains and Hops. This resulted in greatly reduced costs to our members. We were able to set aside most of our bulk purchase efforts when the Oak Barrel, local brewshop to our brewing community, was able to respond to our rigorous quality demands. Our members tend to enjoy a special, if informal, relationship at the Oak Barrel (which endeavors to stock the malts and grains we think are among the best.) In the past, we had about one hop purchase and two grain purchases during the year. Bulk purchases are still a possibility for the Mashers, but they are arranged less frequently than before.

Membership

If you are a homebrewer or are interested in becoming one and live in the Bay area, you should contact us to find out where the next meeting is. We welcome anyone with a true desire to brew better beer. You also must be willing to host meetings, or help with organizing club functions. Club dues are $20 per year. Membership entitles you to attend all club functions, purchase bulk ingredients and receive special member discounts.

You can contact us by email or you can contact: Jim Files @ (415) 456-6212