Club History

The WIZARDS Home Brew club was founded in 1997 out the Stella Brewers when the Stella Brew Home Brew shop in Marlboro was sold. Our first meeting was at the Main Street Brewery in Worcester which sadly closed before our second meeting. From there we moved to the Vinotech Warehouse in Northboro for a few years then to our long-time home at Deja Brew in Shrewsbury. We met at Deja Brew from 2000 to 2023 with only a brief break for the COVID 19 pandemic when we met on Zoom. Following the unfortunate closing of Deja Brew, we met at various member’s homes until moving into our new permanent location at the First Baptist Church in Worcester, MA in early 2025.

Over the years we’ve had brewery visits, pub crawls, brewing and judging seminars, group brew days, an annual holiday party and countless other activities. Two of our longest running traditions are the annual Octoberfest Tasting and the Summer Swill-off, both held annually since 2000. We’ve also been participating in the New England Home Brew Jamboree since 2009.

For 15 years we held an annual home brew competition open to the public, complete with a brew day and awards ceremony on National Home Brew Day at Strange Brew. That’s been replaced by our inter-club only mini-comps which have been going on since 2012. As of 2025, we’ve brewed 40 different styles and themes for the mini-comp and had 18 different winners. In 2023 we hosted the inaugural Central Mass Challenge inter-club competition for us, the Strange Brewers, M4 and FOAM.

Over time approximately 150 members have passed through the club. Two from that first meeting at the Main Street Brewery are still with us. Fifteen members have gone into professional brewing: Keith A (Medusa), Dave T (Element), Greg G (Owen O’Leary’s), Dave H (3 Cross), Brian F (7th Wave), Brian M (unknown, Western Mass), Jamie S (Harpoon), John S (unknown), Damase O (Wormtown), Ben R (Murder Hill, Wormtown), Ron and Lisa G (Veterans Craft United), Jeremiah H (Cold Harbor), Brian P (Strange Brewery) and Matt G (KrafTea Kombucha).