Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

Hey guys!

I was turned onto this group recently and it sounds like just my type of people!

A little about me:
I'm a 25 year old (well, I turn 25 in 1 week) Rockwell engineer. I do drink all different types of beer (Stouts and Porters to IPAs and Sours) and frequent Bricks and White Star quite often. People commonly get annoyed with me because I complain about going to places like Mulligans who have 40 beers to choose from, but I find all of them awful. I have recently brewed my first 2 batches of beer, an American Light and a Coffee Porter. I am very pleased with how they have both turned out! I am hoping to learn a lot about different brewing ideas and techniques through meeting people in this club.

Derrek

Welcome to the club, new member as of last month here also.

Welcome new member are awesome

Welcome! You should come hang out at a meeting some time. March meeting is going to be at the new Lions Bridge Brewery in the Czech Villiage.

brownbeard wrote:Welcome! You should come hang out at a meeting some time. March meeting is going to be at the new Lions Bridge Brewery in the Czech Villiage.

I hope to make it and meet more people to get involved. I should be in town that week. March is crazy with being gone for me.

FYI, to current long time members, I know clubs are "clicky" and I have noticed it with this club. I have a hard time just butting in and trying to meet everyone, but when I joined in January I hardly got a hello before during or after I paid my dues. My point is, I want to meet everyone and hope to develop a friendship(s), but it's hard when nobody seems to want to step out of their comfort zone. I am just a guilty trust me

Just jump in and talk to people! That's what I did. I've only been coming to meetings since August and everyone is really friendly but I understand effete you are coming from! The first meeting was a little overwhelming for me since I knew no one.

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I've run into this before in other organizations, and yeah it's kind of intimidating standing on the outside and looking in. Did you bring a beer that you made? Did you walk up to a group and introduce yourself and ask what they were talking about? Did you ask people what they were drinking? Did you meet Steven or Tony? 'Cuz if you met them I don't know how you could've thought people weren't inviting enough! These are all things I did at my first meeting. I met a bunch of great people and I still don't know them all or remember all of their names, but I've had a lot of great conversations with them and have even managed to friend a few on facebook!

Remember that like a wallflower at a big party, if you just stand there you'll never have fun!

Hang in there. You make it to enough meetings you will get to know more of us. I have been with the club since before it was the Beer Nuts when it was four dudes around a kitchen table. I know I am one of those guys. I try to make the rounds and offer up some beers I have. I can only usually make meetings late though and stay for 2 hours or less. Demanding job, a wife and four kids will do that to you. I will continue to try to get to know the new guys but it will take some time. Doesn't help I didn't make February and can't do the March meeting. Look forward to meeting some folks in April.

Bear wrote:I've run into this before in other organizations, and yeah it's kind of intimidating standing on the outside and looking in. Did you bring a beer that you made? Did you walk up to a group and introduce yourself and ask what they were talking about? Did you ask people what they were drinking? Did you meet Steven or Tony? 'Cuz if you met them I don't know how you could've thought people weren't inviting enough! These are all things I did at my first meeting. I met a bunch of great people and I still don't know them all or remember all of their names, but I've had a lot of great conversations with them and have even managed to friend a few on facebook!

Remember that like a wallflower at a big party, if you just stand there you'll never have fun!

No I did not bring beer I made, I was unsure how it all worked at Bricks. I talked to a handful of people, I also stayed towards the back of the crowd. I sat right next to Tony on the lower level before the meeting started and for lack of a better term was ignored until another new/potential member and his wife came in and we started talking.

It all goes both ways, I am not knocking the club or people at all.

My only advice would be to be assertive with introducing yourself. Because everyone is really friendly that I've met in the club so far. It's a pretty big club and it's easy to get lost in the shuffle if you're just standing off to the side.

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With that being said, Hope to see you at the next meeting and share some beer with you!

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I should make March between vacation and then to MN for a conference.

czubak wrote:

Bear wrote:I've run into this before in other organizations, and yeah it's kind of intimidating standing on the outside and looking in. Did you bring a beer that you made? Did you walk up to a group and introduce yourself and ask what they were talking about? Did you ask people what they were drinking? Did you meet Steven or Tony? 'Cuz if you met them I don't know how you could've thought people weren't inviting enough! These are all things I did at my first meeting. I met a bunch of great people and I still don't know them all or remember all of their names, but I've had a lot of great conversations with them and have even managed to friend a few on facebook!

Remember that like a wallflower at a big party, if you just stand there you'll never have fun!

No I did not bring beer I made, I was unsure how it all worked at Bricks. I talked to a handful of people, I also stayed towards the back of the crowd. I sat right next to Tony on the lower level before the meeting started and for lack of a better term was ignored until another new/potential member and his wife came in and we started talking.

It all goes both ways, I am not knocking the club or people at all.

Sorry that I didn't reach out, but there were a lot of people there that night sitting around us who weren't with the Club, so not knowing you yet, I didn't realize you were there for the meeting. Like you said, goes both ways, I had on both my Beer Nuts hat and shirt, so It was kind of obvious why I was there. So, a simple "Hello, I'm here for the meeting." would have been a good icebreaker. Most of the Officers (and ex-ones like me) try to be "welcoming" as we've struggled with that "cliquey" problem. Almost all of us (except maybe Matt) have been the "newbie" at one time. My first meeting was in a member's basement. Talk about intimidating - going to someone's house, you don't know, with a bunch of other people, you don't know, with some pretty bad homebrew (old), was seriously intimidating. So, I know exactly how you felt. Again, give us another chance, we're actually a pretty decent group of folks!

By no means am I writing the club off.

czubak wrote:

brownbeard wrote:Welcome! You should come hang out at a meeting some time. March meeting is going to be at the new Lions Bridge Brewery in the Czech Villiage.

FYI, to current long time members, I know clubs are "clicky" and I have noticed it with this club. I have a hard time just butting in and trying to meet everyone, but when I joined in January I hardly got a hello before during or after I paid my dues. My point is, I want to meet everyone and hope to develop a friendship(s), but it's hard when nobody seems to want to step out of their comfort zone. I am just a guilty trust me

For me, it is less about being cliquey than it is about keeping track of all the new people coming. Our membership has increased significantly in the last few years. Couple that with being far more public than before, and we are seeing a lot of people who are just checking us out. I really try to recognize new faces, and at the very least welcome them. It does seem to be an unfortunate side effect of our success. Before, a new person was obvious, and easy to spot.