The Hogtown Brewers, established in 1985, is an American Homebrew Association sanctioned homebrew club. We are dedicated to promoting a better understanding of the art of brewing and also to the appreciation of the many and varied styles of beer from around the world. A secondary purpose (but one near and dear to our hearts) is to stimulate the economy by providing a healthy and growing market for the US hops crop (all right, we do our bit for the economy of Europe as well). Perhaps you got a clue about this sentiment, if you noticed the statement at the top of our home page -- "Since 1985, more hops than our lawyers advise." You didn't think that was chosen at random did you?

We meet the second Saturday of each month. Like most homebrewers, we're a fairly sociable group of folks. If you are a homebrewer (or think you'd like to be) we'd like to invite you to come to one of our meetings and see what we're all about. At a typical meeting we try to blow through the business section as quickly as possible, so we can get to the fun stuff, the crux of the matter, the purpose of the whole deal.... BEER.

Each month we have a beer related presentation. Usually, we will do a presentation on a particular style of beer (as well as a tasting of the best available examples of that style). We also have technical presentations on various aspects of the brewing art. And of course, we bring our homebrews to share and compare. We also encourage members to bring back beer from their travels to share with the club. After all, we live here in the hot, humid southern beer wasteland. So we have to do all we can to raise the level of quality in the beer we brew and drink.

We hope we're not giving you the impression that we live for beer alone (although that might be true). We do try to promote responsible drinking habits. We are not Coneheads. Our purpose is not to consume mass quantities, but rather to learn as much as we can about this wonderful beverage. After all, as Benjamin Franklin said, "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

We have put a lot of effort into making this website a worthwhile stop on your tour of CyBeerSpace. It is best viewed with a glass of beer in hand. If you find any typos or mistakes, you can attribute it to the fact that editing is also done with a glass of homebrew in hand. Not to mention the fact that our newsletter editor is a grad student in English, with a uniquely relaxed and anarchistic attitude towards spelling and grammar. Although it doesn't always work, a glass of homebrew sometimes seems to self-correct errors caused by drunken editing. So, get yourself a glass of beer (go ahead, we'll wait--we've got plenty of time) and come on in. Check out the Hogtown Brewers back in the day... Ocala Star-Banner, Oct 17, 1991