Their beer is one of the best around.

Members of the East Bay Homebrew Club, which meets monthly at Brickyard Wine and Spirits in Barrington, learned last month that their creation — dubbed "New England Breakfast Brown" — was selected as one of the top beers in a nationwide homebrew competition.

Brian Buongiovanni, who started the club in 2012, said members were surprised to hear the good news, as this was the club's first time ever entering a competition. 

"It was very surreal. None of us expected it," Mr. Buongiovanni said. "We're all dumbfounded."

Mr. Buongiovanni said one of the members, Stephen Amaral, approached the rest of the club about entering the competition. Mr. Amaral suggested the club do a "group brew" and send the creation to the contest judges. 

"We do group brews at Stephen's, he's got a beautiful set-up," said Mr. Buongiovanni. "So we picked a date, we got all the ingredients and picked a Saturday morning to get together at his house, and we brewed this beer."

The creation was a brown ale with coffee and maple syrup in it, "And we called it New England Breakfast Brown."

Mr. Amaral handled much of the logistical requirements for the competition — he registered the club for the contest, and after the brew was finished, he shipped a six-pack out to California. The day before the contest results were announced, the club met and had a chance to try their Breakfast Brown.

"We were like 'Hey, this is great. It actually came out really good. It would be cool if we cracked the top 20," he said. 

The next day Mr. Amaral texted the other group members with the news. 

"We got a text the next day from Steve — We made the top 6! Which are the six finalists from the 200 nationwide," said Mr. Buongiovanni. "We were just like no, are you sure? Double-check the email. He said, 'No, we're in the top six, we're going to California.'"

Mr. Buongiovanni said the clubs who brewed the top six beers in the competition will fly out to California in August. Their beer will be brewed at the Melvin Brewing Company in San Diego, Calif. 

"They're going to brew our batch. They're going to keg it and can it and they're going to distribute it in the Rhode Island market in October," said Mr. Buongiovanni. "We brew in August and it's distributed in October."

Meanwhile, the top six homebrews will square off at the National American Homebrew Convention, which will actually be held in Providence this year. The winner of the finals will be crowned national champion and will be distributed to retailers across the United States.

"It's bigger than I realized," added Mr. Buongiovanni. "This is a one-in-a-million."

Other styles of beer that will be represented in the finals are IPAs (India pale ales), a Vienna lager, and a caved beer, which is brewed with a special kind of yeast. 

"We're the only malty brown ale," said Mr. Buongiovanni. "IPAs tend to win these things because it's a more popular style, but just to go in the top six is an honor. And if we win nationals, even better."

East Bay Homebrew Club members are now brainstorming on what their beer's label should look like. 

"One guy was saying, have the Maple spigot on the tree, and instead of a pale put a coffee cup under it," he said. "We're throwing ideas around. I like the visual on that one. It's a great idea. One guy was saying a stack of pancakes, pouring a beer on it. The possibilities are endless, and beer art has come such a long way. It's fun. We can have a lot of fun with it."

How it started

Mr. Buongiovanni and Brickyard Wine and Spirits founder Gio Cicione own Brew It Yourself New England, which sells homebrew equipment and is located inside Brickyard. 

In 2012, Mr. Buongiovanni formed the East Bay Homebrew Club.

"The whole reason behind the club was to get like-minded people — some make beer, some make wine, some make mead — and get them all together," said Mr. Buongiovanni. "It's just a loosely-affiliated group of men and women, and the whole idea was just to trade tips because everybody brought their own experience level to the table. Some people had never brewed before, some have been brewing for 20 years."

Mr. Buongiovanni said he was pleasantly surprised with the turnout when the club first started meeting. 

"I had six or seven people show up for the first meeting, and it grew from there, it snowballed from there," he said. 

Mr. Buongiovanni said homebrewing has grown in popularity over the years: "Its a great hobby, and you get beer at the end of it."

He said homebrewing has become easier in recent years.

"I have kits on the shelves here at Brickyard, where if you can follow the instructions on a box of brownies, you can make a batch of beer. Or you can upgrade your equipment and get really into it, and really control the final product."

Mr. Buongiovanni said when he first started the club he invited beer brewers from some of the local craft brewing companies. Club members learned more about brewing from the folks at Revival and Foolproof and Tilted Barn. The club even had a field trip to the Ocean State Hop Farm (which is now Tilted Barn brewery), where members picked hops for Newport Storm's IPA.

"Derek (Luke from Newport Storm) shows up that day with a keg of beer for us," said Mr. Buongiovanni. "And we're hanging out in this hop farm with Derek from Newport Storm, picking hops and the guys from the club are just peppering Derek because Derek is very mechanically-minded, they're peppering Derek with home brew questions and he's fielding everything. That was just dumb luck. It was phenomenal."

Mr. Buongiovanni said the East Bay Homebrew Club is open to all local residents, even people who are interested in brewing their own beer or cider or mead, but have not yet started.

"We have always had an open door policy," he said. 

Homebrew heroes

The East Bay Homebrew Club includes about 20 members. Nine of the members participated in the recent homebrew competition, they are: 

Brian Buongiovanni

Charles Lavendier

Chuck Croteau

Stephen Amaral

Chris Darling

Josh Bublitz

Mike Seward

Matt Blood

Mark McMahon