Jason Tsitso, of One Way Brewing, of Longmeadow, left, chats with Kenneth Fellows, of Westfield, at the 4th annual Whip City Brewfest in Westfield. Tsitso is among the members of SPARGE, the Springfield-area Practitioners of Ales with Regal Grand Esters. The group is looking for new members. (THE REPUBLICAN FILE PHOTO)

The brewing term “sparge” would make a great band name, and seems to be in use as such by an Escondido, California, group.

But SPARGE is also the name of a Western Massachusetts homebrewing organization. The letters stand for “Springfield-area Practitioners of Ales with Regal Grand Esters.” Members meet at various breweries and private homes.

The group just elected a new president, my old pal Rikk Desgres, so I interviewed him about what’s been going on with SPARGE and what he hopes to accomplish as head of the organization.

Give me some general background on SPARGE. Do you have a main focus right now?

SPARGE has been around since 2008. It’s changed and morphed over the years reflected by its current members. We had a pretty vibrant group before the pandemic, but having meetings via Zoom was not the same, and we lost a lot of members. A big part of what we do at meetings is taste one another’s homebrew. We critique it and discuss how it was brewed. Online meetings can’t replicate that.

We are back to in-person monthly meetings. This year we have started pouring at festivals that allow homebrewers to participate. Our first festival was the Vermont Homebrew Fest back in April. In addition to that, we have done Worthy Fest, Brew at the Zoo, Patty’s and Oktoberfest at the Springfield Museums. We are also set to do Brews, Bids and Bites at the Log Cabin in Holyoke on Nov. 3.

What do you do at meetings?

Besides tasting one another’s homebrew, we organize brewing events like our popular Thumbprint Brew. (That’s) where we all brew exactly the same recipe and then have a tasting to see how similar or different they are. It’s surprising how different each person’s turns out. It’s because of the different ways people brew.

Part of what’s fun about the hobby is there is not a single way to brew or only one type of equipment. People can get into it as deep or as little as they want. Expensive setup or cheap, you still can make really good beer.

We also have themes at meetings, so we can do a deep dive on a topic. Sometimes members present, other times it’s industry people.

How many members are there and is this part of a larger group regionally, nationally or even worldwide?

Over the pandemic there was just a handful of members participating. We are slowly getting legacy members back to meetings. We are also looking for new members, even people who have never brewed but want to brew. Part of what we want to do is on the education side. We want to share our knowledge with new or prospective homebrewers and get them into the hobby.

SPARGE is a Pioneer Valley-based organization. There are many homebrew clubs all over the country and world. Some of us are also members of the national American Homebrewers Association, which lobbies for better homebrew laws and has events and competitions.

How did you become president and what are you looking to achieve now that you’re in the top spot?

When it was time to pick a new president, everyone pointed at me, and I pointed at other people, but I only had two hands. So I lost; I mean I became president. When my time is up there are some great people to take over.

Our goals are to increase membership, do more educational components, club brew days, continue to pour at festivals, and assist the homebrew community as much as we can.

Why are groups like this important to the brewing world?

Sharing ideas and processes and the social aspect are the top reasons for me. Drinking beer is usually a shared or group experience. Brewing beer can be, too.

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