| Hogtown Brewers Newsletter | March 1999 |
Mark Tumarkin
I'm sure you're all aware of the Internet, at least to some degree … if not, it's time to get your head out of the sand! (How the heck can you read this newsletter without being on the Web? Uh...) The Web is a tremendous resource for information on many diverse topics, not to mention beer. Well, all right, I will mention beer. The Web is a tremendous resource for information on beer. For this article, I am going to assume that you are familiar with the Internet and how to use the Web. If you aren't and you have questions, or need help, feel free to give me a call. The purpose of this piece is to acquaint you with a few of the beer-oriented sites that are out there.
The HBD or HomeBrew Digest is my favorite site. It is actually a newsgroup (an on-going series of posted letters, questions and replies) concerning all aspects of homebrewing. It has been going on for years, and the posters include some of the leading homebrew authors, judges, brewers, and brewshop owners in the country, no actually in the world. Recent posts have come from such diverse places as England, Belgium, Australia, Venezuela, and South Africa. It is a true community of homebrewers, with both experts and beginners, all trying to learn to brew and appreciate better beer. It is a phenomenal resource for the homebrewing community and you should really check it out.
You can subscribe to the Digest at request@hbd.org by sending an e-mail with the word subscribe in the message. You will then get a copy of the HBD in your e-mail almost every weekday. Posts are made to homebrew@hbd.org. A post is a question you have regarding brewing, or a response to a previous question.
You can also see the HBD without subscribing by going to the HBD homepage at http://hbd.org. You will find back issues of the Digest going back a number of years. There is also a search engine so that you can find previous posts on any topic or issue. There is also a Cider Digest, a Mead Digest, and a Lambic Digest, to mention a few.
Many homebrewers and beer geeks have their own web pages. Some of them can be quite informative and/or amusing. Here are some pages from contributors to the HBD.
| site | address |
|---|---|
| Spencer's Beer Page | http://www.realbeer.com/spencer/ |
| Gak's Beer Is My Life | http://www.beerismylife.com/ |
| Ken Schwartz's Index of Stuff | http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/ |
| Al K's BrewInfo Page | http://www.brewinfo.com/brewinfo/ |
| Zymurgy of Scott Murman | http://www.best.com/~smurman/zymurgy/ |
| C.D. Pritchard's Page | http://chattanooga.net/~cdp/index.html |
| Jean-Sebastien & Melanie's Brewery | http://www.axess.com/users/jsm-mv/brasseurs-mv/ |
And so many more, too numerous to mention here…. So check out the HBD to get better acquainted with these and other members of the CyBeer Space brewing community.
One last note, a great way of finding interesting sites is to look for links. These are often at the bottom of a web page. Following links to related sites, and following the links from those links to other links and so on can occupy hours and hours, but with a beer in hand it is time well spent. So, get online and surf the Web to some great brewing adventures. See you in CyBeer Space!
Hogtown Brewers Newsletter
March 1999
http://hbd.org/hogtown/news/9903/surfing.html