ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 opens with several stories of brewers who began as homebrewers and then became craft brewers. The movement from homebrewer to craft brewer is an important model of how knowledge is shared in the craft beer community. The chapter then goes on to discuss how the idea of the “invisible college” can be a useful way of thinking about how learning and knowledge is shared in the homebrewing and craft brewing world. Further, the concepts of a community of practice (CoP) and an affinity group are discussed. The chapter shows how each of these models, while often contrasted, can explain aspects of the craft beer community and how knowledge is produced and shared in the community. The chapter then goes deeper into the ways that the homebrewing community is the “invisible college” of craft brewing by discussing aspects of the homebrewing community including the National Homebrew Conference (Homebrew Con), homebrewing clubs and their relationship to craft breweries, and homebrew shops as sites of informal education. The chapter also discusses how various online social media sites are also sites of informal education for brewers and consumers alike. Finally, the chapter ends with a discussion of how craft beer is a knowledge industry and how thinking about how knowledge is produced and disseminated is an important part of understanding the craft beer movement.
