Bubblings From the Fermenter
By Mark Tumarkin

The Holiday Season can be rough; most of us are way over programmed. So to help a bit; we change our December meeting from the regular last Friday of the month. We had our "December in January" meeting at Julie and Dave William's house in Newberry on the first Friday in January. We had a pretty good turnout of people - but we really needed more people to help out with all the beers we had for the Porter and Stout tasting. (See Sue's notes for a complete list of the beers we had for the tasting)

Our tasting/presentations have grown to awesome proportions. In fact juding by some of the comments I've heard, our recent tastings have been excessive. Though, it's been said that anything worth doing well is worth doing to excess. And I guess we're getting to that point; while we had 27 different beers at the last tasting, Robert has announced that he has 21 Belgian ales for the next tasting. Add to that the contributions some of our other Belgian loving members are sure to come up with and you can look forward to another awesome tasting! It's impossible to truly appreciate that large a number of beers at one setting. So we are going to pare down the presentation a little bit to make it more manageable. We can continue to bring as many style samples as we can to share, but we'll limit the formal part of the presentation to allow us to give a little more attention to each beer. Palate fatigue is one issue, and overindulgence is another. Just remember that Wayne brings the club's Breathalyzer to the meetings so you can check yourself before driving - take a little extra time and maybe some coffee before heading home if you need it. We all want to drink responsibly.

The main topic of business was the upcoming Medieval Faire (to be held on two successive weekends, Feb 3-4 and 10-11). The Faire is the major source of revenue for the club. It allows us to fund events like our Tasting/Presentations, the Road Trip/Pub Crawl, etc. This year promises to be even more profitable than last and I'd like some creative ideas on how to spend the moolah. Erin came up with the idea of subsidizing a club trip to Belgium. I suspect the logistics of picking a time that would work for everyone, getting all our own funds, coordcinating vacation time etc would make this difficult to do. Maybe we could start with a less ambitious trip - New Orleans? Atlanta?

Last year the participation by our members in staffing the booth at the Medieval Fair was fantastic. Almost everyone put in time, many people worked the entire weekend. This year the Faire has expanded to two weekends and I know that is going to put a strain on everyone. It's difficult to take two successive weekends out of our busy schedules. But I fully expect that we'll have the same kind of turnout as last year. I'd like to see some of the money spent to specifically reward that kind of effort. Maybe the Road Trip/Pub Crawl will be free for those that work at the Faire. What other creative ideas can you come up with?

We had been counting on supplemental staffing from volunteers; but Linda now tells me that so far we can't count on any volunteers (though we may get some last minute). So it's up to us and any friends, family, and other foolish folk we can talk into helping out. So please try to round up as many helpers as you can. Keep in mind that you need to have some sort of at least semi-Medieval looking costume - a simple robe or tunic does the trick. If you have any extra costumes from past years, please let us know.

Ray is in charge of scheduling, so please call or email him as soon as possible to let him know when you'll be available to help (if you tell him both days, both weekends; then the Beer Gods will smile on you and your brews will all be wondrous). Anyway, let him know ASAP. Ray's new phone # is 378-7911 (Ray and Selena have moved to a new place in Deer Run - soon to be re-named Beer Run) and his email is rayisbrewn@aol.com

January is also the start of the homebrew competition season. First up is the Big Bend Brew-Off in Tallahassee on Jan 20th. The following weekend is the Meadlennium in Orlando, on the 27th. You can find details on these and other upcoming competitions elsewhere on our website. I hope to see increased participation in competitions this year; both in entries and in those judging and stewarding. It's a lot of fun and you can also learn a lot that will help improve your brewing. It's also a great way to get to know others in the Florida home brewing community.

We will get back on track this month with our regular meeting schedule. It will be held at Fred's house on Friday, Jan. 26th (the last Friday of the month). Details, map, etc will be sent out by email, as we get closer to the date. This meeting is only a week before the Faire; so it will give us a chance to go over the details, assign tasks, etc. Fred is also planning the traditional pre-Faire screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In addition, Ray will be leading the Belgian Ales Tasting/Presentation. The monthly style competition will be on Category 11 (Eng & Scottish Strong Ales) and Category 12 (Barleywines & Imperial Stout). So there's something for everyone, I hope to see you all there. Until then, keep those fermenters bubbling.

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