Blow off from the Prez
Welcome to the second “Blow off from the Prez” of the New Year. As I thought of something to start this edition with, I thought to myself, “Gee, I hardly introduced myself to the membership in the last newsletter.” So, here goes…
I started brewing in the summer of 2008. My “crazy” neighbor at the time (our second VP, Joe Kintyhtt) came bck from a trip to Ohio with a homebrewing equipment kit and a dunkelweizen kit. With much skepticism, I helped him make the kit, wondering if this stuff was going to produce alcohol, make me blind, or possibly both. Turns out, after a night of drinking several of the bottles, we were successful in fermenting sugars into alcohol, and it tasted pretty good. A few weeks later, I got my own kit for my birthday present.
My first SAAZ meeting was the SAAZtoberfest that fall. I showed up with some bottles of the most recent extract batches I had made that I thought didn’t taste too bad. After about 10 minutes, several pieces of the Bennett’s venison, and even more beer, I decided this homebrew club wasn’t too bad of an idea. My wife and I joined on the spot. We stuck around for the raffle and even went home with a case of hombrew from the previous month’s Commander SAAZ Interplanetary Homebrew Blastoff.
The following year I managed to earn quite the reputation as a brewer of “chick beers,” (thanks, Glenn!) earning a couple medals in the Fruit Beer and Spice, Herb, Vegetable categories. I made the hike up to Gainesville for my first homebrew competition at the Hogtown Brew-off. My wife and I were stewards there, and after that I knew this homebrewing thing was one of those hobbies that was here to stay.
As many of you know, I volunteered to be secretary the following fall, and here I am now, president. I hope to do my best at encouraging the membership to brew, ask questions, get involved, and share the knowledge that you have learned along the way on your brewing experiences.
I will see you all at the February meeting at Broken Barrel Tavern in Palm Bay!
Cheers!
Sean
February Meeting
This month’s meeting will be held at The Broken Barrel Tavern in Palm Bay.
Sunday February 21, 2010 at 2:00 pm.
4700 Babcock Street Northeast
Palm Bay, FL 32905-2838
(321) 728-4755
The education will be presented by Sean Gregg and will be on American Ales, Category 10.
Notes on the meeting:
This is the second time we have had a meeting at the Broken Barrel Tavern. For those of you who may not have been there before, Kevin has done an excellent job in selecting over 40 beers on draft and just about every bottle you can get in the area. Therefore, let’s leave the commercial beer at home for this meeting and only bring homebrew. The Broken Barrel is a great place, for meetings and in general, so let’s make sure we show them the courtesy and support of the great club sponsor they are.
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
T-Shirts
Will be ready to order at the Feb. meeting Please bring money to pre pay if you are interested in buying a SAAZ T-Shirt.
Commander SAAZ 2010
The date has been confirmed for Commander SAAZ this year. It will be October 8-9 2010 at the International Palms Resort
Local events
Coaster Belgian Beer Fest is happening on February 26-28 2010.
All 35 taps will be poring Belgian beers. This is a great opportunity to try some rare Belgian beers and support a great beer bar.
Here is a link with tap list and more info.
http://www.coastersbrewpub.com/belgianfest.html
Spring Part
Just a reminder that our March meeting will be our annual Spring Party at Rotary Park in
Suntree just off US-1, on Saturday March 20th. The party will start at 1:00 pm with set up being a few hours earlier.
Coconut Cup
Coconut Cup, Miami Area Society of Homebrewers (MASH) in Miami, FL.
It is almost time for this year’s Coconut Cup homebrew competition. They are accepting all of the BJCP categories, as well as the special COCONUT BREW category.
Entries are due between February 22nd and March 5th, 2010. Please use the on-line entry form available at the Coconut Cup website, http://www.miami-homebrew.org/coconut.html . We are working on getting the homebrew railroad in order to help get the entries down there with having to pay postage
Final judging will take place on March 12th and 13th. They will have some fun activities planned for out-of-town judges.
***Beer News Beer News Beer News***
There are some great new beers in Florida and some great seasonal beers back in Florida right now, so check your local craft beer provider for these great beers.
First MORE HOPSLAM is in. If you missed this the first time around a few weeks ago try and get it now. I know Sunseed has 8 cases, but it will go fast.
Second Bigfoot has been released for 2010 so go find it before it is all gone. Many stores and bars should have this. There was plenty to go around.
Third Is Terrapin’s newest beer Hopsicutioner. A fantastic new IPA from a great brewery this is not that limited so should be pretty easy to find and try.
Now some great news about beer. We have a new brewery in town from California.
The Bruery a great brewery that makes some awesome new beers in interesting styles and some great classics that are hard to find like Berliner Weiss. There are 5 beers being released from them right now so ask for them where ever you go and try them out.
Well that should pretty much be it for this month’s newsletter hope everyone enjoyed it and it was helpful. I will see you all at the next meeting