1) Heavy Seas is in the process of installing a pilot brewery and a new bottling line.

 

2) The DC Brewer’s Ball to benefit cystic fibrosis was held on March 3^rd in Washington DC.  CRABS poured 6 beers.  The website is  https://www.dcbrewersball.org/ but the EVENT PHOTOS link doesn’t seem to have any photos.  Photos of last year’s event, where CRABS also poured, are at https://ontaponline.com/photos/brewers-ball-2017/

 

3) Registration for the 2018 HomebrewCon is open.  The conference website is https://www.homebrewcon.org/.  You *must* be an AHA member to register.  Go to https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/ to join or login and check your membership expiration date.

 

4) The Baltimore Beer Babes calendar will be released at Mahaffey's on Saturday April 7.  The event benefits the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Kennedy Krieger Institute.  As part of the fund-raising activities, men will be auctioned off for dates.  If you'd like to be one of the auctionees, contact Alice Kistner at kistneralice@gmail.com.  See the event website at http://baltimore.carpediem.cd/events/6155948-the-release-of-the-2019-baltimore-beer-babes-calendar-at-mahaffeys-pub/

 

5) CRABS has organized a Light Rail pub crawl for Sunday April 8.  Here is the itinerary:

 

From the north: get on at Timonium/FallsRd/Mt. Washington at 10:45/10:50/10:55.
From the south: get on at Cromwell/Ferndale/North Linthicum at 10:58/11:03/11:06.

Get off at Hamburg St. at 11:20-11:25 and walk 3 minutes to Checkerspot, arriving by 11:30.

At 12:45, walk 20 minutes (or Uber) to Suspended, which opens at 1 PM.

At 2:00, walk 15 minutes to Pratt Street / Convention Center stop, get on a northbound train.

At 2:30, arrive at the Woodberry stop and walk 5 minutes to Waverly.

At 3:45, each person decides:
  1) Stay at Waverly and take the Light Rail home or to Brewer's Art at leisure; or
  2) Walk 2 minutes to Union, which closes at 5:00.  Then two more options:
     a) Take the Light Rail home; or
     b) Take the Light Rail to Brewer's Art, then home.

 

Walking maps to the various breweries are in a Word document at http://benbrew.com/pubcrawl.docx

 

 

6) This month’s competition was Belgian and Trappist.  There were 9 entries.  Winners were:

 

5^th – Craig Bryant

4^th – Marty Mengele

3^rd – Joe O’Keefe

2^nd – Rob Farrell

1^st – Bob Mosier

 

 

7) Upcoming events:

·4/5: Sours, Farmhouse, & Wild Beers w/ Right Proper, at Brewer’s Cask, 1236 Light St., 6-9 PM.

·4/7: Baltimore Beer Babes fundraiser.  See item #4 above.

·4/8: CRABS Light Rail pub crawl.  See item #5 above

·4/13 – 4/14: BURP’s Spirit of Free Beer.  Entries due by 4/5.  They need judges.  Register beer or to be a judge/steward at http://sofb.brewcomp.com/

·4/14: B.C. Brewery grand opening.  See http://baltcountybrewing.com/

·4/21: DC Beer Fest.  See https://www.dcbeerfestival.com/

·4/21: Bluegrass, Brew, and BBQ Festival at Red Shedman Farm Brewery.  See http://redshedman.com/events/2018-bluegrass-brew-and-bbq-festival/

·4/22: BaltiBrew’s Brubakes, at De Kleine Duvel. https://www.facebook.com/events/729957173875059/

·5/5: Big Brew at Maryland Homebrew.  Drive around the left side of the building, all the way around to the back.  Brew or just observe.

·5/6 and 5/14: FOAM’s Battle of the Bubbles.  Best of Show will be brewed at Barley and Hops.  Register beer or to be a judge/steward at http://bob.brewcomp.com/

·5/12: Maryland Craft Beer Festival in Frederick.  See http://www.mdcraftbeerfestival.com/

·5/19: CRABS Food and Beer Competition.  Hosted by Rob Kiernan in Catonsville.  Pair with another CRABS member or your significant other.  Sign-up sheet is at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rM_aOqWNkZuuyWT-HpX1HfpVH1-s4-5dvkQFI0nfJTs/edit?usp=sharing

·6/2: Guild summer picnic at Patapsco State Park, Hollofield area, shelter 301, noon to dusk.  Homebrew competition will be raspberry wheat, to commemorate the first Guild beer competition held at Oxford Brewing in March 1998.  Cash prizes!

 

 

8) Next meeting: Wednesday April 18.  Competition will be IPAs.

 

9) Go to http://crabsbrew.org for CRABS-related information.  See the 2018 competition schedule at http://crabsbrew.org/competition_schedule

 

10) See http://crabsbrew.org/Other_Competitions for a list of upcoming local homebrew competitions.