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The Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild is a nonprofit organization, located in Madison Wisconsin, which was created “to aid and educate members in the appreciation and legal production of fermented malt beverages, including those brewed at home and those brewed commercially.”
This mission statement does not, of course, truly reflect the many nuances of our group. Our members come from very diverse backgrounds and have interests just as diverse. One thing we all agree on is that we appreciate quality fermented beverages. The list of these beverages has grown to include tasty concoctions such as mead, cider, cyser, and melomel. The processes are similar, and complementary. The results are often nothing short of spectacular! It’s this diversity that makes ours such a vibrant club.
A lot of our effort throughout the year goes into producing The Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival. We are justifiably proud of this event. It is a massive undertaking, and is a highlight of the summer for many of the brewers attending. Only 6400 tickets are sold, and the number of brewers is usually a little over 190. Each summer, we look forward to sampling some of the approximately 1400 beers that are usually displayed.
Beer education is also a large part of what we’re about. We love beer, we love to learn about it and we love to teach about it. We tour breweries to see how people are making the great commercial beer that’s driving the current brewing revival. We organize The Great Taste of the Midwest so you, the beer consumer, can learn about styles and breweries with which you’re unfamiliar. We help other groups with their beer festivals for the same reason. We hold brew-ins so homebrewers can learn from each other. There’s nothing like brewing a batch as a group to foster the exchange of techniques! Many of our members are BJCP-certified beer judges. We hold competitions and informal judging sessions so that we all can learn more about the many nuances of flavor, aroma, and other characteristics of our favorite beverage.