The 151 Brew Club was once again featured in the Nelson County Times!
151 Brew club mixes beverages and friendships in third year
Emily Barber, Nelson County Times
September 18, 2024
The 151 Brew club is celebrating its third birthday in October. The club was created by Dan Tartaka, owner of WildManDan’s Brewery in Afton, who fell in love with brewing through a Roanoke brew club.
Tartaka learned about brewing and fell in love with it through a brew club in Roanoke called Star City Brewers. He loved home brewing to the point that he established his own brewery in Nelson.
Doug Floyd, president of the 151 Brew Club, said that Tartaka mentioned starting a brew club to patrons who came into his brewery to see if there was any interest and there was.
“Most of us started brewing after the club began and only a couple of members of the club now actually brew,” Floyd said.
According to Floyd, the club had 45 members 10 are regular brewers.
“Now our club is probably more of a social club than it is a brew club,” Floyd said in jest.
According to Floyd, a lot of the club members are not Nelson natives, they are people who have moved to the county from other areas and want to establish new friendships.
“The brew club has also spun into other groups like a book club, golf club, running club and a wine club,” Prendergrass said.
If members have an interest in brewing, there is always an open invitation to come over while someone is brewing to watch the process.
“If anyone’s interested in brewing, definitely come on over. If you don’t have equipment, no problem, we’ll bring our equipment and go through the whole thing to get you started,” Floyd said.
Tim Ketchmark, a member of the 151 Brew Club, said that if you like beer and want to learn more about brewing, this is the club for you.
“You’ll want to come to a home brewers club because you’re not going to learn by going to one of the micro breweries but we’ll teach you,” Ketchmark said.
Mike Johnson, Member and former president of the 151 Brew Club, said that the club has exposed him to all the different varieties of beers.
“I used to go to the bar before I joined the club and just get IPAs. But now, the club has exposed me to so many other styles where now I’m more informed when I go to look at a menu in a bar or restaurant and I can choose other things,” Johnson said.
“If you’re a non-beer drinker and you walk into a craft brewery, there’s going to be so many beers and you’re not going to have any idea what they are. That’s the beauty in a club like this, you get involved and we’ll end up tasting all the different styles of beers in a year or two,” Floyd said.
The club meets on the fourth Sunday of each month. Floyd said that on club day, brewers will bring beer to sample.
“Every month, we have a signature style that we’re trying. Next club meeting, we’re trying Belgian Dubbel and we will have commercial samples of that beer. We get little one ounce cups and hand them out to each member and we’ll go through a reading,” Floyd said.
According to craftbeer.com, a Belgian Dubbel is a strong, dark beer that has a malty flavor and can have hints of chocolate or caramel.
Floyd said the reading will include the beer notes, color, aroma, flavors and aftertaste.
“It’s pretty cool because each month we get to learn about one style of beer that we might not be familiar with and that’s the educational aspect of the club. We learn about the beer, its history, what it should taste like, and then you go through a very systematic tasting process to enjoy it,” Johnson said.
The club teaches about the process of brewing and how to spot when something has gone wrong in the brewing process.
“The most important thing in the process is sanitation. If you don’t meet that, then everything you brew is going to be gross,” Ketchmark said.
Tartaka said another crucial step is the yeast.
“The other thing is keeping your yeast happy. If you don’t allow your yeast to ferment the beer properly, the beer will have lots of flaws,” Tartaka said.
Johnson explained that the four ingredients in beer are yeast, water, a sugar source and hops.
Floyd said that hops is one of the most important ingredients.
Hops is a flower that is a member of the pine tree family and it looks like a small green pinecone. This will add flavor and bitterness to the beer.
“When you brew, it’s basically an hour of boiling all these ingredients together and everything varies by recipe,” Ketchmark said.
The club also hosts quarterly brewing competitions with its members.
“We have established a quarterly contest amongst club members, a certain style of beer will be picked and all the brewers in the club will make that beer and bring in their samples here on judging day,” Floyd said.
Members of the club are picked to judge and some of the members have a beer judging certificate. These members amongst other random club members will blind taste the beers.
“We have two tables of judges and each table will push two beers forward to the final round of different judges where they will pick the best first, second, and third place beers out of the four,” Floyd said.
Everyone in the competition will get score sheets and those who got first, second or third get bonus points. This will accumulate over the year and at the end of the year the brewer with the most points will win Brewer of the Year.
Floyd said that each year, Katchmark will make a wooden tap handle and there will be a medallion for the winner.
The club also takes part in field trips to other breweries.
According to Floyd, recently the club went to a brewery in Charlottesville called Murphy and Rude Malting Company where it went through the malting process.
To join the club, go to 151brewsclub.org and sign up.
“You can also come to a meeting or two and decide if you want to join,” Tartaka said.
For a single person, it’s $30 per year for membership and $40 for a family membership.
For the club’s third anniversary, the brewers did a collaborative brew with Tartaka.
“We did a 45-gallon brew and since it’s in October, we decided to go with a German beer. We did a hefeweizen beer,” Floyd said.
A hefeweizen beer is a light german wheat beer.
The beer will be on tap at WildManDan’s Brewery in October for customers and visitors to try. A third anniversary party at the brewery, a date and time to be determined, is planned.
For more information on the 151 Brew Club, go to its website at https://151brewclub.org/.