January 2014

Date: Wednesday January 15
Place: Heavy Seas
  1. BOTY (brewer of the year) awards were handed out. The winners were:
    • 5th place: Rob Kiernan
    • 4th place (tie): Jarrod Salvestrini
    • 4th place (tie): Mike Stuppy
    • 3rd place: Craig Bryant
    • 2nd place (tie): Tim Brown
    • 2nd place (tie): Jeff Adelsberger
    • 1st place: Joe O’Keefe
  2. Dues for 2014 are $20 for individual and $30 for family. Some folks paid at the party; the rest of you deadbeats need to pay Don.
  3. We will have our Iron Brewers competition in March. You can brew any style of beer, but it must include 2 out of 3 of the following ingredients:
    • rosemary
    • cucumber
    • sour cherries
  4. BaltiBrew wil be having a gruit contest at Liam Flynn’s on 2/1. Go to their Web page at http://baltibrew.org for more info.
  5. Wootown’s Barley Legal competition is coming up. Entries are due on 2/1 with the judging to take place on 3/1. See http://www.wootown.org/comp/ for more info.
  6. Max’s Belgian Beer Fest will take place 2/14 to 2/17.
  7. A BJCP class will start on 2/23 or 3/2 and go until May. All classes will be held at MDHB on Sundays. CRABS gets two guaranteed slots. If you are interested, let your request be known.
  8. We got a new rum barrel. If you are interested in brewing some beer to put in it, speak up.
  9. Speaking of barrels, Heavy Seas will be slashing prices on bourbon barrels. Their prices are in?SANE! If you are interested in buying one, go to http://www.hsbeer.com/contact-directions/ and fill out the form.
  10. Big Brew will be held in the rear (heh heh) of MDHB on 5/3. There will be the usual array of brewing set-ups and food, and there might possibly be beer.
  11. There will be an AHA rally at Heavy Seas on 5/18. See http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/events/heavy-seas-beer-aha-rally/ for information.
  12. The Guild picnic will be held on 6/7, noon-dusk, at Patapsco State Park, Hollofield Area, Shelter 301,
  13. The National Homebrewers Conference and competition will be in Grand Rapids MI on 6/12 – 6/14.
    • The competition will have open registration from 1/27 – 2/2. Only AHA members can register. Limit is 6 entries. You may choose your judging site. Once the limit of 750 entries per judging site is reached, no one else may enter. Registrants that participated as 2013 NHC judges, stewards or competition organizers will be given priority over other entrants. AHA will notify registrants of entry status by e?mail between 2/10 and 2/19. Registrants will then have 3 days to pay for the entries. See http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/news/2014-national-homebrew-competition-registration for more information about the competition.
    • To register for the conference itself, there will be a week-long registration request period in late February for AHA members only. Registration dates are not set yet. See http://www.ahaconference.org/conference/register for more information about conference registration.
    • There will be no Pro Brewers Night this year.
  14. This month’s competition was brown ales. The winners were:
    • 5th place: Brent Machado
    • 4th place: Mike Stuppy
    • 3rd place: Don Zwach
    • 2nd place: Rob Kiernan
    • 1st place: Kevin Rimlinger
  15. The next meeting will be on 2/19 at Heavy Seas. Competition will be American and English IPAs (categories 14a and 14B).

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January, 2014