Happy New Year Everyone!!!
Well it is a new year and we have a new President to celebrate with.
Sean Gregg is our new elect President for the year of 2010. So here is our first Blow Off from Sean.
Blow off from the Prez
Welcome to the first “Blow off from the Prez” of the New Year. For those who may not be familiar, each newsletter starts off with an article from the president, named “Blow off.” The title is in reference to the blow off tubes used in fermentation of beer to allow carbon dioxide and krausen to blow out of the vessel (carboy) without the risk of clogging a bubbler. If you’ve never clogged a bubbler with krausen, knock on wood; if you have, then you know what kind of mess it can cause.
In case you may have been busy with life, work, family, or just a little out of the loop of e-blasts and meetings, let me catch you up on a few of the changes that will be implemented in the near or immediate future.
Newsletter and e-blast. The e-blasts that I did as secretary were well received and easier to get out to the masses than a newsletter as an attached file. This year we will be combining the two as a (hopefully) monthly e-newsletter. This means there will be no attachments to download. This also means, you will need to add our new newsletter editor to any email filters you may have (as in accept, not reject emails from him).
Membership cards. At our last officer’s meeting we talked about membership cards, and we are actively encouraging our sponsors to extend discounts to our SAAZ members. Currently, SAAZ members get a 15% discount at the World of Beer that just opened up in the Avenues in Viera. Hopefully I will have more information on this at or January meeting.
I’d like to take a minute to share some of my goals and ambitions as your SAAZ president. First and foremost, I’d like to call on each and every one of our members to share your knowledge and help each other grow. This means having the more experienced brewers share tips, trips, and lessons learned with our newer members. This also means asking our newer brewers to share what they learn with the club (you can teach an old dog new tricks!). I’d like to gear our monthly educational topics to upcoming competitions or brewing events. I hope this will encourage our active members to brew more, and maybe our members who haven’t brewed in a while to dust off their equipment and get a batch fermenting. We have a lot of fun brewing events coming up (AHA club only competitions, AHA Big Brew Day, and the National Homebrew Competition too name a few), and I hope we are able to proudly represent our club and the state of Florida
I will see you all at the January meeting at Cocoa Beach Brewing Company!
Cheers!
Sean
January Meeting:
This month’s meeting will be held at Cocoa Beach Brewing Company.
150 North Atlantic Avenue
Cocoa Beach, FL 32931-2960
(321) 613-2941
Chris is happy to have us back, and this should be a good time.
As always the meeting will be Sunday on January 17th at 2:00 pm
Chris does not serve food at the brewery, so if everyone could please bring a dish to pass and share with the club for food that would be great.
Sean Gregg will be presenting an education on stouts. Charlie and Jakes would like to brew a stout soon and ask if we could help with a recipe, so Sean will present the style with some recipe ideas so we all can brew a stout for the next meeting to be judged.
Also if anyone has an English Brown Ale: Category 11 A Mild, 11B Southern English Brown, or 11C Northern English Brown, please bring 3 bottles to the meeting, one to be judged, and two more if you are selected for the AHA Only Competition for that style.
Dues:
Yep it is a new year so that means your dues are due. Please pay these as soon as you can. If you would like you can use Paypal at SAAZ.org
Meadlennium:
It is time for Meadlennium again so if you have any enteries they can be dropped off at Coasters Pub in Melbourne by NOON on January 18th, BUT please contact Sean first at srgregg@earthlink.net.
The entries can also be brought to the January meeting in Cocoa Beach.
Saaz.org
Hey everyone just wanted to let you know that there is a terrific forum on our website. It can be used to ask questions about the club, recipes, brewing, beers, and to just have fun. The forum is a great way to communicate and learn about brewing and beer. It was been real slow in there last year, but maybe it will pick up this year if we all try.
Well that is the first newsletter of 2010 and my first try at it. I am sure they will get better and more entertaining as we go along this year, but that is all I have to say this month. SO enjoy some great beer and brew some even better beer this year.
P.S. Sunseed now has Fresh Hopslam in, come and get while it last.