Hi, Y'all,
The holiday season is upon us and it's conflicting with our meeting schedule. It's so easy to get over-programmed this time of year, and the last Friday of November is the day after Thanksgiving. So in an effort to simplify things, we are not having a meeting this month. We had thought about having a brief meeting at Wayne & Sue's party but decided against it. The last Friday of December is New Year's Eve, so we'll be delaying the December meeting one week, until the 7th of January.
Even though we won't be holding a formal meeting till then; there are a few things that I'd like to pass on, have you think about, etc. The following may not be organized real well, but here goes...
Any Volunteers for office ?? It's the end of the year and time to think about that. The crew of usual suspects is willing to carry on for another year, but if you'd like to volunteer to run for office let me know and we'll hold an election, declare you king, or whatever's appropriate. We also need volunteers to head (or work on) the various committees -- so jump on in, there's plenty to do (and plenty of room for improvement, too).
We will be holding the in-club Stout competition at the January 7th meeting, so I hope you've got those fermenters bubbling.
Following is the list of our in-club Beer of the Month styles calendar and also the AHA Club-only competitions for the year 2000. I have plugged the AHA styles into our monthly style competition calendar - a month ahead of the AHA competitions so that the winners can be sent on to the appropriate AHA comps. This still leaves seven months and styles open. So we need to choose some additional styles. Now's your chance to choose your favorite styles, styles that you always brew, or would like to brew. Any suggestions? Also, if you've got a barley wine that you think is good enough to represent the club at the AHA club-only in Feb, let me know. I don't think we've got any Lambic brewers since Ed Wolfe left, but if you've got a lambic for the March AHA competition, let me know also.
Email mangled it. Sorry --cbd.
Our Beer of the Month Styles AHA Club-only Comps January -- Stout February -- early Feb -- Barley-Wine March -- late March -- Belgian Style Lambic April- Weiss is Nice
May- mid-May -- Weiss June- July -- Pale Ale August -- end of August -- Pale Ale September -- Best of Fest October -- Mid-October --Best of Fest November -- Historical Beers December -- Early Dec -- Historical Beers
Other competition stuff -- The Big Bend Brew-Off in Tallahassee is being held Jan 22nd, and the State Fair Beer Competition is being held in Tampa Feb, 19th.
I'd like to see a good showing from Hogtown Brewers -- both in entries and judges. So plan your brewing accordingly. And judges, keep those weekends open. We can make plans to ship our entries together as the time gets closer.
Remember the club T-shirts during the holiday season, they make great, inexpensive gifts. What else can you get this nice for only $10? Give me a call if you want some.
Also, another reminder that we need Newsletter articles. If you go away during the holidays, I'm sure you'll visit a brewpub or two -- write a review! Any brewing adventures, or mis-adventures? Write about your favorite style, or brewing techniques & tips. Come on folks, it ain't that hard.
No sooner will we get through the Holiday Season than the time for the Medieval Faire will be upon us. The dates are Feb 11-12-13. As I'm sure you know, Hogtown Brewers will actually be SELLING beer this year for the City. The whole thing should be easier than in the past because the City will provide and put up the booth, bring in the beer and ice, etc. All we will need to do is show up on Saturday the 12th and Sunday the 13th and take in money and pour beer. Well, all right, I guess we have to drink some beer too. But we can handle that ok. Of course, Fred will have to setup the Viking mead boat, but then he'll disappear into his music for the rest of the weekend leaving us to man his boat, pillage his cases of mead, collect the tips, etc.
The Faire should prove to be a big source of funds for the club treasury. We'll need everyone's help, so please mark the dates on your calendar and plan to be there. And don't forget, period costumes are required, so start thinking about it now. It should be a lot of fun. Not to mention that we stand to make a bunch of money that we can use for all kinds of fun things.
Speaking of fun things, start thinking about what kind of events you'd like to see next year. If things go as well as I expect at the Faire, we should have a fat treasury to fund some fun and educational events. Can you say Road Trip? Where're we gonna go ??? What other kinds of things would you like to see happening. We'll do another BJCP study group, Erin's investigating sites for a Spring camping trip, we'll do a big multi-system boil party out at Dave William's, maybe a 4th of July River Party. What else? Which events that we've done before would you like to see repeated? Canoe trip, pig roast, whatever? Start coming up with some great, imaginative ideas now so we can plan out things ahead of time for next year.
Also, think about the format of the meetings. What did you like, what would you like to change? Do you like the style presentations & tastings, would you like to see more technical brewing presentations, do you want to do more group judgings using the style guidelines and judging sheets, what would you like to see more of, less of?
Anyhow, those are just a few of the items that we might have talked about at a November meeting. Just a little food for thought, as it were. Say, how come no one says a little drink for thought? It might be more productive, I know I do some of my best thinking with a glass of homebrew in hand. Anyhow, please think about this stuff and give me some feedback.
Hope to see you all out at the party at Wayne & Sue's this Saturday, and I hope you all have a Hoppy Thanksgiving,
Mark
| Hogtown Brewers Newsletter © 1999 Hogtown Brewers
November - December 1999 |
hogtown@hbd.org
Last modified 1 Dec 99 |