1) Great turnout again with several new faces. Special thanks to Craig Bryant for bringing two great beers from Troegs.
2) If you ordered a CRABS work shirt and don’t have it yet, contact Joe at jfo363@verizon.net . He also has T-shirts if you want them
3) Big Brew at Maryland Homebrew was a bit smaller than usual because there were events at 5 other locations, so the overall Maryland turnout was quite high. A total of roughly 300 gallons was brewed (93 of it at Maryland Homebrew).
4) For the National Homebrewers Conference:
- Registration is still open – go to http://www.homebrewcon.org/
- More than 3000 people signed up so far.
- There will be many extracurricular events before, during, and after the conference. See http://www.homebrewcon.org/events/conference-week-events/
- CRABS has 26 people going, and is bringing 16 kegs.
- CRABS (and most of the Guild clubs) will pour on Thursday night during the Craft Beer Kickoff because so many clubs signed up for Friday’s Club Night (88 club max). We can set up as early as Thursday morning.
- If you’re bringing beer, get a label for each keg/cooler if you haven’t already done so at http://ahaconferencelabels.org. Order by 5/25. You will then pick up your label(s) at the conference. They are free.
- According to http://www.homebrewcon.org/events/club-night/guidelines/ instructions are forthcoming as to exactly where/when to drop your beer off. It will be stored cold.
- After pouring Thursday, take your kegs/coolers with you unless you will be pouring from the same kegs/coolers at Social Club.
- CRABS will pour at Social Club from 11 AM to 1 PM on Friday and will have 12 taps available.
- If you’re serving from a cask and you want your beer to warm up, let the beer handlers know; they will drop off your cask at 9 AM instead of right before the event.
- If you would like to split hotel costs with someone, see the Google doc at https://goo.gl/6cy1r9 and put your name and email address under one of the Guest columns.
- If you haven’t done so, see Google doc https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XMTGVhw9a5k2EbPcfkiTgFaqqe9dhcHaowDiBEyZ8XY/edit#gid=0 to let everyone know that you’re going, where you’re staying, and what you’re bringing.
5) The CRABS food-beer pairing will be at Rob Farrell’s. It is scheduled for this Saturday May 21. However, it might rain, so the event might be moved to Sunday. Of course, it might rain Sunday too, so we might even move the event to another weekend. To coordinate for these possibilities, first go to the Google doc at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pvQxf12gOCIBIexGGDy5pTjade5d0DRq8cdBKkq9PQs/edit
Once there, next to your name list the date(s) you will be available for the next few weekends. A decision will be made most likely Friday night and a message will be sent to everyone.
6) The Guild picnic will be on May 28 at Patapsco State Park, Hollofield Area, shelter 300 (the one with the sink). There will be a wheat beer contest so bring your best wheat beer. Entries due by 2 PM.
7) Upcoming events:
- SAVOR: June 3-4. See http://www.savorcraftbeer.com/
- Milkhouse Brewery’s Brewfest at the Farm: June 4. See http://www.milkhousebrewery.com/pec-events/brewfest-on-the-farm/
- MASHOUT: August 18-21.
- Union Mills fest: September 24.
- Baltimore Beer Week: October 7-16.
- Das Best Oktoberfest: October 8.
- Guild holiday party: December 3.
8) This month’s competition was session beers. There were 14 entries. Winners were:
5th – Don Zwach
4th – Marty Mengele
3rd – Tim Paulin
2nd (tie) – John Jester
2nd (tie) – Zach Keim
1st – Rob Farrell
(a ringer, Pilsner Urquell, got the most votes)
9) Go to http://crabsbrew.org for CRABS-related information. The 2016 CRABS competition schedule is at http://crabsbrew.org/competition_schedule
meeting_date:
May, 2016