They are a bunch of ordinary guys, the kind of folks who just might just be living next door to you. They have families and day jobs. Nothing to make them seem out of the ordinary.

However, take these guys and add their abiding passion, home brewing beer. Combine with the Internet, and blend in a seemingly innocent chat room and something remarkable happens. There, in front of their eerily glowing computer terminals, utterly without warning, they change into completely different creatures. By a strange and twisted kind of magic, they are transformed from their sober and industrious selves into new and bizarre alter egos.

They turn into BrewRats. Something just seems to happen to these guys to make them just not quite right when they get to discussing their avocation. To call their home brewing activities a hobby is to call the Mississippi River a creek; to call the Pacific Ocean a pond. For these characters, brewing isn't merely a hobby. It's a way of life. It's an abiding religion that draws them moth-like to the chat day and night, to worship the fine beer they brew.

During services, they drink their sacred beer, perchance to share communion, pub-like, with fellow devotees of The Church of the Holy Malt who may be hundreds or thousands of miles away. The Brew Rat Chat is their cathedral, and they are all high priests whose irreverence and intelligently raffish sense of humor sets theirs apart from any run-of-the-mill chatline. They share a sense of comradery and joi-de-vive as well as a great love of beer. They are chivalrous knights who rescue newbie home brewers from the pits of confusion and despair, gun slinging soldiers of fortune whose main weapon is the brewpot and the keg as they compete to determine who the top-gun brewer is. They are bald-headed gnomes, twisting the tails of a stodgy homebrew establishment, a band of merry pranksters with beer mugs in their hands and a thirst for fun on a quest for the holy grail of the perfect beer.

The Brew Rat Chat was first born in the fertile imagination of the King Rat, Skotrat, a.k.a. Scott Abene "I always thought when I was having brewing problems that I wished there was somewhere I could go to get assistance right away," Abene said recently. "In retrospect it turned into something completely different. I thought it was just going to be a brew chat. It turned into something much cooler."

"Something Cooler" is in fact a virtual tavern. A watering hole in cyberspace where home brewers come to talk beer, tell lies, tease each other with good-natured humor and support and console each other when a brew goes bad or a wife or girlfriend gives them a hard time. Sometimes newcomers are surprised that there is so much else going on other than strictly brew talk.

But rest assured, no one forgets the primary purpose of the BRC- BEER! Let a puzzled new brewer ask a question and immediately, the decades of brewing experience represented in the BRC swings into action and many a brewing problem is solved. This is the spirit of the BRC, a collegiality of helping fellow brothers of the brew.

The Brew Rat Chat first saw the light of day on May 5, 1996. The first Brew Rats were Skotrat, RoundBoy, The Andinator and Trub. Zymie and Phail Ale (Afrikaans for "Foul Owl") soon followed. Your author Strange Brewer followed shortly thereafter. It wasn't long before a small community were on line virtually every evening, drinking beer, discussing beer, talking dirty and posting pictures of naked women.

The Chat has seen many innovations. One of the first was the on-line tasting, the first of which took place on December 9, 1996. The tastings led to innovations of their own, such as the "toob" the near indestructible PVC shipping tube that neatly accommodates two bottles of beer in near-bullet-proof safety. "The toob is so tough, that it could survive re-entry from orbit," said the toob's inventor, Zymie, inventor of the world's most sophisticated RIMS system, IGOR. On-line tastings also evolved into the BOMBED Club-within-a-club. 12 members of the BRC (mostly guys from the day shift) decided to exchange beers with each other, one brewer a month over the course of a year—"Beer of the Month Buddies Exchanging Drink". The semi-legal exchange of beers via UPS, FED EX and (gasp) the U.S. Postal Service also led to the to the first ever in the history of the world, on-line brew competition. Using American Homebrewer Association guidelines and certified beer judges, the event was organized by Skotrat. There were 31 entries into the competition, and the judging was watched by many members as it happened on Skot's webcam. Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1997 was the day which will live in infamy as the day the world's first online tasting took place.

The success the BRC enjoys now didn't happen overnight. "I watched this place so closely for the first few months, convinced that I made a mistake by not listing it in all the search engines. I remember Z was one of the first night-timers. I remember that sometimes it was just him and me… Wow. Now I'm getting all teary-eyed." In the beginning, some days would go by when there were no posts at all made to the BRC. It averaged one to five a day, and never at the same time. "I thought it was doomed for failure," said Skot.

The BRC has come a long way since those early days. In a good 24 hour period from three to five thousand posts to the chat will be made. It didn't happen overnight, but the growth has been steady and the loyalty of BRC regulars is nothing short of incredible. "I used to have a life. Now I'm a BRC regular," said one member recently. The growth of the chat is illustrated by the development of divergent BRC cultures, the Dayshift and the Nightshift. Dayshift guys are mostly at work, in jobs where they have access to the Internet. They appear to be caffeine driven, while the night crew is definitely a place where spiritous fermenti reigns supreme.

Strange things can happen at night. Like the time Strange and Piper and a couple of other Warren Zevon Fans typed out the entire lyrics to "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner!" "Night shifts are a bit more lose, and easy....most of us are at work on the day..so we always have the boss looking over the shoulder..night...is when we drink, and type at the same time...and see Ace post porno pic's!" says Lothar, a cross-shifter."Hell at work I am LOTHAR MILD MANNERED SALES REP....now I am Lothar..drunk-bastard-listening-to-Iron Maiden (2 Minutes to Midnight.)"

The BRC is a culture with its own language. To "Torque" is to misspell something so badly that it makes no sense at all, or (better yet) to change its meaning completely. Extra style points are given for any vulgar connotations. To "Ace" something is to take something that is working and render it completely inoperible in one swell foop. (TORQUE!) Certain terms seem to creep into peoples vocabulary: "What a putz" when someone "Torques" for example. "Passing out" is an alarmingly common one. "Nytol," and variations… Nite all, Nightawl, Knightall and others when signing off. Then there is "Moparing" which describes the state of affairs when someone rambles on ad infinitum about nothing in particular.

"3319" is a term that deserves special mention. The tale of 3319 starts with a real woman. A REAL UGLY woman! In spite of repeated civilized warnings and gentle hints this errrr… female (?) insisted on trying to achieve sexual gratification through dirty talk with BRC members. This might not have been so bad, but she made the major tactical error of posting her picture to the chat. Oh my! Her name was "Beer Bitch". "BB was so ugly, sweat wouldn't cling to her face," says Tall Dave. "She would turn a freight train down a gravel road," says Piper. "I still can't figure out if she was for real or some kind of mass hallucination," says Real Ale. "She made Eleanor Roosevelt look appealing," Piper adds. "She was so ugly you couldn't tell what lips she ate with," notes Skot. "If you took her to a wife swapping party, You'd have to throw in some cash," said Piper, one of her greatest fans. At any rate, there she is, becoming an increasing annoyance on the chat and Finally Brau Dude and Mikeweiser have the beginnings of a brilliant, evil scheme. Stunning in its audacity and smashing in its impact.

But let one of the main conspirators tell the tale. The saga of BB and 3319: "I've always tried to live up to my reputation in the Chat as the resident trouble maker. Mike and I were alone in the chat talking about BB and the fun that Skot and I were having with her the day before, when we decided that if she came into the chat that day, we were going to have some fun. I decided that I would engage her in the secret chat room while everyone could only imagine what we would be talking about. Obviously, there is no secret chat, but she didn't know that. When she came in, I asked her if I could speak to her in private. I told her that when she saw my posts blinking, she would know that she was the only one who could see it. And in order for her to respond in private, she would have to post "3319" at the beginning of each post. Within minutes, I had her name, phone number, sexual position favorites. It was beyond me how she could believe no one was seeing her posts. The day crew were joking about it right in front of her, and she didn't catch on. The best part was when a couple of regulars came into the chat, saw my blinking type and began to inquire about why my type was blinking. Still, BB had no clue. When Magoo asked why my type was blinking, I started my blinking post with 'shut up Magoo'. Still, BB had no clue. I think I could have gone on for hours, but it was quitting time. I have never had such a great time on the chat as I had that day."

When they are not abusing obnoxious women, the Brew Rats are busy working on each other. Once a beer-influenced conversation was taking place and one beery participant made the mistake of saying he thought another atom bomb should be dropped on Japan. Skot (who has never been west of Long Beach) came back with the straight-faced comment "My family died at Hiroshima." Stunned silence ensued. "Mal and Pete almost shit their pants!" recalled a witness. "I kept looking at his picture and thinking "That SOB don't LOOK Japanese." Of course there are many memorable incidents. Like the time Strange Brewer passed out on the keyboard, ending a seemingly endless stream of meaningless characters as he drooled on the keyboard:

"diopxiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii[jaffffp[[[[[[[[ [[[[[;;lk;anjkkffffffffffffffffffffffffff;afdnssssssssssp qrepi[jhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh9 q[[[[[[[[[[[[[fddddddddddddddddooo[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[iiiii"

"That's about the most intelligent thing he's said all evening." remarked one regular.

Strange comes in for a lot of abuse, most of it richly deserved. One of the favorites is to get creative with Photoshop and a mug shot of him stolen from his company's home page. All manner of "Strange" pics have shown up from time to time. Mostly XXX rated, like Strange as a nude Santa. A Nude Strange in the body of an 80 year old woman. Strange in a wedding dress, and others too vile to mention.

The Earliest BRC memories: The Andinator has is being nagged by good Friend Skot to visit the newly created BRC in the spring of 1996. "I was working at Medelam and Skot had his pages up for a few months but the chat was a very new thing. He was on my case to check it out. So I did, but at first it was just me and Skot and RB looking at our navels, cuz no one knew about it yet. So it was kinda boring and I lost interest for a couple of months. Then around June Trub showed up and he's such a conservative Republican type that I was always getting into political fights. And then that South African guy started showing up a lot. Phail Ale. He was a riot. I think he was totally drunk off his butt when he was in the chat."

Phail Ale was the first international member of the BRC. A South African rancher, he had a penchant for building (and wrecking) expensive cars and building microbreweries. His Brew-Rat name is Afrikkans for "Foul Owl" and his participation was only limited by the fact that there was an eight hour time difference between his part of the world and the midwest, where most BRC members were on at the time. When we were ready to chat, he was sound asleep. When he was partying and having a good time, we were generally at work. Phail is still an occasional visitor to the BRC.

One of the most traumatic events was the infamous "wive's night," when several of the BRC member's wives came on and started comparing notes. It was a disastrous experiment, hopefully never to be repeated. One wife even posted an animated "kitty" gif, which nearly drove Skot beyond the point of mental stability. Many BRC members shared his sense of horror when they saw the cute, fuzzy kitty picture. Some may never recover from the trauma. As Ace later noted, "Now that was nasty."

It hasn't always been peaceful. Along with several near-cyber lynching of obnoxious jerks, even the usually harmonious BRC family has had falling outs. One really great knock-down drag out battle occurred between Round Boy and Trub. For whatever reason they were going at it tooth and claw. They wanted to kick each other's asses in the worst way. The only thing that prevented them was that RB was near Chicago and Trub was in Oklahoma City. Fortunately they managed to sort out their differences, and life on the BRC returned to riding on greased groves, as Steinbeck would say.

Ace is the BRC's master scrounge and procurer of semi-legitimate items. He is the past master of sweet-talking Pepsi drivers out of their Corny Kegs. He has also added his name to the BRC language - 'To Ace', which Skot defines as "To buy cheap computer equipment that only works once. To permanently borrow something that doesn't belong to you, to ruin whatever you try to fix. To generally fuck up what already works correctly."

One person who had a rather startling introduction to the Brew Rat chat was famed homebrew author Karl Lutzen, a.k.a. Squonk, whose Brewery pages are considered GODLY (another BRC term) buy all net home brewers. In one comment on the homebrew digest, he described the BRC crew lightly as "reprobates". He was immediately deluged with e-mails protesting in no uncertain terms the label. (The truth hurts.) Fortunately, Karl has a well-developed sense of humor (a mandatary requirement for the BRC) and he came to visit. After some rather tense initial moments, his charm and grace under fire won over the crew, and he is now a valued member of the collective, tossing in his erudite barbs just as frequently as anyone else.

One of the most enduring themes of the BRC are the "Baldies" sported by all of the regulars. It started out as silliness, but has evolved into a semi-serious protest against the American Homebrew Association founder Charlie Papazian. Papazian, who makes over $100,000 a year as president of the Association, which allegedly represents the interests of home brewers as well as publishing the magazine Zymurgy. Many of the members believe the AHA is really more of a cash cow for Papazian than the real grassroots homebrew organization it claims to be. It should be noted members of AHA's board are hand-picked by Papazian, rather than the membership. AHA does little politically to advance homebrewing, and ignores input form just regular home brewers. So if you look closely on the various members "baldies" you will note AHA has been "struck out" on most of them. When we are in a particularly vicious anti-AHA mood, Skot will break out his gif of Charlie as "da debil!"

It's only been two years since it started, but the BRC has become something no one ever foresaw. "When I first put the chat on line, I really wanted it to be a technical brewer's chat that could answer everybody's brewing questions at a moment's notice. Well, I got that, but what I really got was a bunch of friends that all brew and a sort of neighborhood pub type thing. It isn't what I really going for, but it's far, far better than what I wanted..."

As the BRC approaches its second year, bigger and better things are in the works - several members have traveled great distances to meet in person the friends they have met here. Ace has visited Strange, and the two brewed a batch of extra special bitter that wound up being an IPA before it was thinned down to an American ale. Andy met Zymie in Long Beach on a business trip; Skot, Round Boy and Andy drove From Chicago to visit Strange Brewer in Ashland. They plan a return trip in July along with Lothar and Tall Dave, (God help us all), and a trip to Baltimore is being planned by a number of BRC regulars who plan a BRC hospitality room, with on-line coverage of the madness. "There should be thousands of stories from that," said one regular who plans to attend the event. It looks as though the best is yet to come. And in conclusion, to quote RB — "ALL HAIL THE BRC!!!"