About Us

The State of Franklin Homebrewers meet on the second Monday of each month at Depot Street Brewing Company, 904 Depot St., Jonesborough, TN. Members begin arriving about 6pm with their latest concoctions and snacks to share, and business begins at 7pm. Our monthly competition happens at 7:30, and afterward is an informal tasting and sharing session. The meeting ends around 9pm. Stop by for a visit if you are ever in the area. Directions to Depot St can be found here.

Meeting schedule, 2007

Jan 8^th Feb 12^th Mar 12^th Apr 9^th

May 14^th Jun 11^th Jul 9^th Aug 13^th

Sep 10^th Oct 8^th Nov 12^th Dec 17^th

We also have informal gatherings once a month on the Wednesday 12 days before the meeting. We gather at the Acoustic Coffeehouse, W. Walnut St, Johnson City beginning around 6:30 pm. Sometimes we will get into discussions about club concerns or event planning, and other times it will just be a social gathering. No RSVP is necessary - just drop by if you feel like it.

Hump Day schedule, 2007

Dec 27^th Jan 31^th Feb 28^th Mar 28^th

May 2^th May 30^th Jun 27^th Aug 1^th

Aug 29^th Sep 26^th Oct 31^th Dec 5^th

Club Officers

Our officers are elected each year at the December meeting from nominations made in November. The officers make up the Executive Committee, and will meet at least once yearly outside of regular meetings to develop strategies and policies. Here are our current officers:

State of Franklin Homebrewers Officers

Primary Fermenter
Joe Fleming
joe.fleming at franklinbrew.org Secondary Fermenter
Patti Mehaffey
patti.mehaffey at franklinbrew.org Treasurer
Glenda O'Neal
glenda.oneal at franklinbrew.org

Editor
John Flanagan
john.flanagan at franklinbrew.org Librarian
Scott Williams
scott.williams at franklinbrew.org

Membership Benefits

We have annual club dues of $20 per person due in January. Family memberships are $25. Non members are welcome for a fee of $3 per visit (first time is FREE). Dues are pro-rated for new members who join during the course of the year. Following are some of the benefits of membership:

Club Library

Access to a library of brewing literature. It includes many issues of Zymurgy and Brewing Techniques, several of the Styles book series, and several other books contributed by members. Anyone wishing to check out an item from the library should contact the Librarian (VP) and it will be brought to the next meeting. You can go to our library page and select the item you want. Click on the Request Checkout button to send an email to the librarian. There is a wealth of information available online that we have either copied to our site or have created links to them.

Club Competition

Free entries into the club's competitions. We have two separate homebrew contests and the winner of each will receive a trophy to possess for a year. The trophy will have a new tag added each year with the winners' name on it. Additionally, we have a New Brewer of the Year award, which goes to the new brewer that accumulates the moste points in the open competition. You can get all the details you want here.

Flavor/Aroma learning sessions

Beginning in late 2001 we did a series of Doctored beer sessions, featuring one specific flavor/aroma component every month for about 15 months. We repeated it in 2004 sincewe had some new members come along. This event features samples of doctored beers in an effort to educate our palate on flavor/aroma components. Some are considered off-flavors, others are considered desirable flavor components in some cases, but at any rate we do a different one every other month. Now we are halfway thru 2007, and it might be time to do it again.

We use a light standard American lager to feature the flavor. These beers have very little flavor of their own to get in the way, and so it is easier to perceive the flavor adulterant. These adulterants are made of food grade products, such as artificial butter flavoring, mixed with ethanol. The beers are doctored by opening them, adding the adulterant, and re-capping them. Other flavors are achieved with other methods. For example, to feature oxidation, beers are opened, a spurt of oxygen is blown into the bottle, then it is recapped and stored at 90-100 degrees for a few days to accelerate aging. These are very informative sessions, and when coupled with the Commercial Challenge (blind sampling of several commercial examples of the same style) on alternating months it is a very good basis for training to become a judge.

Club Campout

Our premier event of the year is by far our club campout, usually in mid-August. We camp at the Riverpark Campground on the banks of the Nolichucky River, the finest whitewater rafting river in the southeast. This event runs from Friday afternoon till Sunday noon, and Friday night is usually Big Beer night, where everyone brings some Strong/Old Ales, Imperial Stouts, Belgian Strong Ales, or Barleywines to share, both homebrews and commercial brews. We rent half of the campground, then divide the cost by the number of person nights to determine the fee. This ranges from $7 to $12 per person per night depending on how many attend. We have had as many as 40 campers, with up to 60 total for our Saturday evening dinner (something special - often a Low country boil).

Annual member parties

2 of the biggest events every year are a St. Patrick's Day party and an Oktoberfest party hosted by a couple of avid members. I won't tell you who or where - you've got to join to be able to reap the benefits!

Brewing Knowledge

If you want to learn how to brew, or advance your existing brewing knowledge, then you've come to the right place. We did a member survey a few years back when we had about 15 members, and between us we had about 75 years of brewing experience, 30 or more of which was all-grain experience. We have several medal winners amongst ourselves, and we ocassionally hold beginner brewing classes. We also encourage members wishing to increase their knowledge to pair up with some more experienced brewers during their brewing sessions to experience more advanced techniques. Just ask one of the more experienced members if you can participate in their next brew session - most likely you will be very welcome as we love to brew with friends.

And just plain fun

Yep, that's what our ultimate goal is - to enjoy the camaraderie among friends, brewing beer, discussing beer, sharing beer, get the picture? Come on out to a meeting - I'm sure you will enjoy it and want to come back.

Club Bylaws

Click here to view our bylaws