Just registered for an All-Grain brewing class. I'm really excited about it. It made sense to check out what great minds are already out there doing instead of trying to muddle through it myself. I
had gone to the meeting for the Oregon Brew Crew on January 14th. I was astonished by the turn out. There had to have been at least 50 people there, maybe even more. It was a potluck, with the theme of comfort food and not prepared to do anything but shyly sit in a corner some place, I was too nervous to eat or drink the homebrew going around.
I know I must have looked like a deer in headlights and I appreciated the gesture made by this really nice guy named Craig who was the first person to come up and speak to me. If that was an indication of the level of friendliness I could expect I was off to a better start than anything I had witnessed in Minneapolis. People were cacrrying around cupware and bottles and everyone was urged to try a little of this, while the brewer would proudly regale you stories of its origins, the mishaps and triumphs as well as the ingredients. That is what I love most about this culture of homebrewing, every beer has a story and even if some sound similar you can always see the ways that their differences make them unique to the creator...kind of like kids...only waaaay better than children.
I met another first-timer, a chiropractor by the name of Ryan, who was wanting to get back into brewing. Not knowing anyone there we kin of glommed onto each other. I believe we shared more than just our experiences with beer, we ended up talking about his teaching and mine and why he moved out here and I moved back. I probably shared more with a stranger that night than I had with any other at any time. If I thought that among 50+ people I could disappear I was wrong.
They had a portion of the meeting where they take the sign-in sheet and asked that new members come on up to the front and introduce themselves. Yeah, not fun because I stand out enough, I don't need to be pointed out in a crowd. At the end of the meeting I was stopped by another man, whose son lived in Minneapolis.
Highlights: The first person to greet me was Julie, who it turns out handles volunteering for the spring beer and wine fest. She also does AG and likes to do as much of the work herself as she can even though she has problem with her hands. I was not the only person of color there, which was awesome. I was certainly not one of a handful of women either. Though of course men outnumbered the women, the number of women I did see was significant, out of 50 I'd say that there were at least 15 to 20 women. These are good signs for me.
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