Any interest in a brew club to the north of Melbourne?

[TimT]

I like Merri Mashers very much.

 

[surly]

Merri Mashers?

Yeah, this is a pretty good suggestion.

 

[beermeupscotty]

I'm liking it too. It's got a bit more colour than NBC and it summarises Melbourne's northern suburbs cleverly and with the double-meaning. It's also got the alliteration and the chance to get the acronym MMM when referred to as Melbourne's Merri Mashers, and maybe 'MMM Beer' for club brew.

 

[carniebrew]

Sounds like we might have a winner. Does that mean technobabble and I get life membership right off the bat? :kooi:

 

[technobabble66]

Hells yeah!!

... Though I should probably point out it was zeggie who brainstormed the "merri mashers" title. I just added the Melbourne bit. .. If that's where you're life membership suggestion's coming from, carniebrew.

 

[carniebrew]

Crap it was too, my bad. Sorry zeggie! TB you can have provisional rights. First beer free only.

 

[Spiesy]

Northern Brewers?

Merri is a bit, umm, effeminate...

 

[TimT]

Just think of Robin Hood and his Merry Men.

Brew clubs never seem to have a problem attracting blokes. Pretty sure 'Merri' won't put them off.

 

[technobabble66]

The Manly Merri Mashers, then?
Not to be confused with those tossers in the Merry Manly Mashers from Sydney.
Maybe the Butch Merri Mashers is a bit better?
Sounds a bit hairy & leathery though. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Also, isn't there the slim chance there might be a girl or 2 that wants to get into brewing? So maybe tone down the macho thing.
I personally like NBC, but there is the minor technicality that roughly 95% of Australia is more northerly than the region our proposed club will cover.
So subsequently the Merri Mashers currently wins my vote

 

[TimT]

The Majestically Metro Merry Merri Mashers of Melbourne.

Have extended conversation about this drastic - DRASTIC - name change over to the facebook group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/232561926926124/permalink/233291606853156/?stream_ref=2

 

[zeggie]

Glad everyone likes my suggestion.

Taking aboard what others have said, maybe another idea would be 'Melbourne Mashers' as pretty sure technically we would be the closest club to the city

 

[technobabble66]

Yeah, maybe Melbourne Mashers is a bit more neutral & accommodating. I appreciate Merri, even with special cunning spelling, may sound a little, um, jolly for some.

 

[beermeupscotty]

I too thought Merri was perhaps a little effeminate or jolly but it otherwise has so much going for it... And 'merry' has the informal meaning "slightly and good-humouredly drunk" - not that we want to promote drunkenness but it's not a bad fit. Also keeping in mind we had at least two gals at the meet on Tuesday, we should perhaps not be too defensive of the manliness of the group.

But yeah, something less jolly would be good. However, the other names so far, while perfectly reasonable and fitting, have been rather plain. It'd be nice to get the same kind of colour and wit of Merri...

Should we start putting a shortlist together for an eventual AHB poll?

(Also, could we keep the discussion here instead of facebook? Not everyone use it...)

 

[TimT]

I like the pun in Merri/Merry. And what's wrong with jollity? Do we want to be the Morbidly Melancholic Mashers? Plus, nothing wrong with being effeminate, just as there's nothing wrong with being masculine.

There could be some confusion with Melbourne Brewers if we go with Melbourne Mashers.

So far the shortlist appears to be
Northern Brew Club (or a variant thereof)
Merri Mashers (or variant thereof)
Or Melbourne Mashers

I wanted to extend the conversation to Facebook as some folks there don't have AHB accounts, including several who came on the night or wanted to come. Guess a poll at some point would work, in the meantime just want to get a lot of feedback.

 

[Wolfman]

Melbourne Mashers for me.

 

[New_guy]

The Melbourne Mash Crew?

 

[zeggie]

I reckon since we are inner suburbs we should integrate Melbourne into the name...

Melbourne Brewers would be at fault if there's confusion....they're in ferntree gully ie. woop woop lol

Will definitely require a vote/poll

 

[TimT]

A lot of interested brewers come from further out than Brunswick though - Pascoe Vale, Reservoir, and us out in Lalor. The initial idea was just for a brew club for people in the north of Melbourne, so it makes sense to suggest this area without limiting it to one locality. Hence the attraction of the idea of the creek.

Sam, who was there on the night, was a member of an inner-city brew club - though I don't think Melbourne is in their title.

I also like Merri because it's distinctive. You could think of the train station or the creek. And because we're all hippy public transport nature lovers now, referencing the creek or the station wouldn't go too far astray In fact I think it could attract a lot of people who do activities around there, go to CERES, etc. Finally, this is a small thing, but some name confusion with 'Melbourne Brewers' or 'Northern Beaches Homebrew Club' could occur if we go with either 'Melbourne Mashers' or 'Northern Brew Club'. I only noticed this when I started thinking about a sub-forum for the club two days ago.

 

[carniebrew]

I tend to agree with Tim. A lot of (most) clubs use their region in their name. Westgate brewers is a great example. Other clubs use funny names (I reckon Worthogs is brilliant). Some do both (How good is "Too SOBA"?)
Merri Mashers kind of does both. Merri gives both a locational aspect, as well as having the jovial/happy meaning. I think having the spelling as Merri distances it from being too juvenile. Mashers even makes it a bit Gen Y given the whole "mash up" thing those young interwebby whippersnappers are into. Northern Brew Club sounded too generic for me (north of what?), same for using Melbourne in there.

I tried to come up with some kind of mash up (see what I did there kiddies?) of our local councils, Darebin and Moreland. But Morebin sounds like what you do with a bad batch, and Dareland sounds like somewhere you go to buy sex toys, so I gave that up pretty quick. The only other name that struck me was Bell Street Brewers/Brew Club.

But the guys are right, the whole thing needs to go to a vote. Let's not get too bogged down on it, the fact we're even on the verge of a viable club is a lot more important than a name.

 

[TimT]

Let's not get too bogged down on it, the fact we're evenon the verge of a viable club is a lot more important than a name.

Very true. But first we need to organise a good time to meet, and after that we can get a place to meet up - so if you haven't participated in the poll as to meet up times yet, please do at
http://whenisgood.net/9m9bfjj