1) A great turnout tonight – about 30 people. Lots of different beers too.
2) We had a visit from Katherine Porter-Drapeau of the AHA. She flew into Baltimore with 8 other AHA folks to scope out the Convention Center for next year’s NHC in Baltimore on June 9-11. She gave us the following info:
·There will be accommodations for up to 88 clubs on Club Night (7-11 p.m. on Friday the 10th).
·The Hospitality Suite (aka Social Club) will have 36 taps for us to put beers on (clubs get 2-hour slots).
·They’re expecting 3000-4000 attendees. There is space for 4000 people.
·Registration to attend the conference will open on 3/8/2016. There will be no lottery.
·Registration for Club Night and Social Club will open in late January.
·Judging for the National Homebrew Contest 2nd round will happen on the morning of Thursday June 9.
·There will be a pre-conference reception for the contest judges.
·There will be pre-conference events for everyone including brewery tours, happy hours, and the Brewing Network party.
·Go to http://www.ahaconference.org/ for more info.
2) Guild holiday party Club Hour:
·The party will be Saturday 12/5, 6-10 p.m. Club Hour goes from 6 to about 7:30 p.m.
·Our theme is crabbers/watermen.
·An e-mail will be sent soliciting input on which food we will serve.
·Our jockey boxes have room for 8 kegs to be served. Speak up if you want one of them to be yours.
·We can set up our table the night before at 7:30 (or show up at 7:00 to help set up Guild tables too).
·We can bring cold food and beer Friday night and store it in Heavy Seas cold spaces.
·We can arrive as early as 4 p.m. on Saturday to set up.
·This will make a good dry run for Club Night at the NHC next June.
3) Congratulations to Michael Stuppy, Joe O’Keeke, and Ben Schwalb for category wins at last weekend’s Turkey Shoot. See all results at http://turkeyshoot.brewcompetition.com/
4) Get your 2016 club dues to Don. Due to adding club insurance a few years ago and the increase in crab prices, dues are being increased to $25 for individuals and $40 for families.
5) The 20th anniversary of Heavy Seas is coming up. They will be celebrating with special events in the Baltimore area December 7-9. On December 9, starting at 7 p.m., CRABSters Les White and Chris Anderson will be guest bartenders at the Heavy Seas tap room! See http://www.craftbeer.com/news/brewery-news/heavy-seas-celebrates-20th-anniversary-with-20-year-storm-and-special-events for information on all events and their special beer release.
6) Ben Schwalb will be running a free homebrew contest early next year. If interested, see http://benbrew.com/BS/bs.html for all information, including how/when to enter.
7) This month’s club competition was porters and stouts. There were 11 entries. Winners were:
5th (tie) – Ed Shea
5th (tie) – Rick Croup
4th – Joe O’Keefe
3rd – Brian England
2nd – Greg Thompson
1st (tie) – Tim and Daniel Paulin
1st (tie) – Don Zwach
This year’s Homebrewer of the Year was Craig Bryant, who edged out 2nd place winner Brian England by a single point. Congratulations to both!
8) Next meeting: Wednesday 12/16. It will be a holiday party, with food, beer, and a bottle swap (bring a gift-wrapped bomber or 750). Please also bring beer to donate to the Heavy Seas folks. No competition in December. Next competition will be brown ales at the January meeting.
9) Go to http://crabsbrew.org for CRABS-related information. The 2015 CRABS competition schedule is at http://crabsbrew.org/2015_competition_schedule
meeting_date:
November, 2015