Beer Club at One: A Reflection

Our beloved Dirty South Beer Club will soon be celebrating its one year anniversary. Actually, I have no clue when that anniversary is, and it may be that we already celebrated it. But it’s been a joyous year for us, for sure.

Yeah, sure, we’ve gone through the usual growing pains in trying to manage the wild excitement about our club (see a recent conversation on beer club guest policy), but we’ve come out of it stronger. And though we still don’t really have a formal rating system, we’re getting there and moving to a 1-5 pint system instead of our thumbs up/thumbs down policy. We have set monthly meetings (third Thursdays) with hosts and a monthly theme. Meetings are generally accompanied by delicious and sometimes beer inspired food (see: Chocolate Stout Cake—divine). We have a very active e-mail listserv and blog. And now a facebook group.

Katy's Beer Club Highlights
1. At number one, I have to pub the Unforgettable Teach’s Chocolate Stout. Sits in my mind (and the minds’ of others) as possibly the worst beer on the planet. I include the pilsners, which I really hate (in spite of Brennan’s post). :)
2. The Mountain Beers North Georgia Getaway: Yes, we escaped to the mountains to drink and rate beer. And yes, it was amazing.
3. Pairings: a Valentine’s Day beer club. This was one of my favorite beer clubs, hosted at Christout’s. We had some funky cheeses, homemade pretzels, chocolate, ice cream, you name it, stunningly paired with beers.

But there’s more in store for this beer club. Here’s what’s up(coming):

1. A guest lecturer from the Creative Loafing beer reviewer (my attempts to get the beer purchaser from Cook’s Warehouse massively failed)
2. DSBC Info session slash graduation party. That’s right…we’ll be doing an info session for all y’all out there interested in beer club. More on that one soon (or contact your local DSBC representative for info if we never get around to posting it).
3. Cans & camping: an event to be held at a farm in the summer featuring the finest beers available in cans.

Lots more is in the pipeline, but still in the idea phase: a trip to Asheville, a beer club festival attended en masse, and a world takeover. I am trying to nix the Viet Cong / Tet Offensive beer club night but it may just squeak on trhough.

DSBC has been an amazing journey for us all, I’m sure. And not just because we’ve sampled tens (hundreds?!) of good beers. We’ve made amazing friends of our fellow beer club members, and imagined to expand our beer palates beyond what I thought possible.

So there’s more where that came from. Ya heard?!