From: Mike Brown [mailto:brewmanator@gmail.com]

Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 10:13 PM

Subject: Call for Entries - 14th Annual Cascade Brewers Cup

 

On behalf of the Cascade Brewers Guild, I am happy to announce the 14th annual Cascade Brewers Cup!

 

The CBC is an AHA/BJCP sanctioned competition and the first Washington Homebrewer of the Year competition qualifier for 2010.

  

Check the competition website at www.cascadebrewersclub.org for the latest details.  Entries (three 10-12 oz brown bottles) are due March 3rd with an entry fee of $6 per beer, mead or cider submitted (several drop-off locations accepting entries beginning February 23rd).  Judging of individual flights will be held on March 6th at McKinstry Corporation in the Georgetown district of Seattle, WA.  If you are interested in judging, stewarding, or helping with event execution, contact Mike Brown at brewmanator@gmail.com .  The Best of Show round will take place on March 13th at the ExBEERience Festival held at Redhook Brewery in Woodinville, WA.  At the festival you will be able to witness live announcements of the winners plus all the 2009 Washington Homebrewers Association awards (Bert Grant, Golden Mash Paddle and Washington Homebrewer of the Year).

 

If you have any questions send me an email.

 

Cheers,

Mike Brown - CBC Competition Organizer

brewmanator@gmail.com

From: Mark Emiley [mailto:markemiley@earthlink.net]

Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 10:23 AM

Subject: 2010 Puget Sound Pro-Am Announcement - Best Chance to Get in GABF Pro-Am!

On behalf of BEWBC, the Impaling Alers, and WAHA, we are happy to announce the kick-off of the 2010 Puget Sound Pro-Am!  This is the country's largest GABF Pro-Am qualifying competition with 14+ breweries selecting homebrew recipes to scale up (more breweries still being added!)  Last year the PSPA sent 12 of the country's entries into the GABF Pro-Am and brought home the gold medal in 2008!

 

This is an AHA/BJCP sanctioned competition aimed at providing award winning homebrew recipes to be brewed by Puget Sound breweries with the goal of capturing a medal from the Great American Beer Festival's Pro-Am Competition.  The Puget Sound Pro-Am is unique in that it will have at least FOURTEEN breweries selecting their favorite homebrew beers from the best of show round to scale up and brew on their systems.  Winning beers of AHA members may be sent on to the GABF for a shot at national glory!  Not from the Puget Sound area?  Out of state entries are more than welcome (the 2008 GABF gold medal winning entry was from a Colorado brewer).  Non-AHA members can still enter the competition and win other awards and prizes (the Powerhouse Brewery will not be submitting to the GABF and will be free to pick any entry).

 

Start dreaming and brewing up your entries today!  We want you to have plenty of time to brew up that perfect beer!  The brewers are not just looking for stylistically accurate beers, but they will be looking for damn tasty beers.  This is a perfect shot for that hybrid beer you make.  You've got plenty of time to brew up entries specifically for one of the slots!

 

Check the competition website at http://www.bewbc.org/pro-am for the latest details including participating breweries, desired styles, contest rules, and links to online registration.  Entries (three 10-12 oz brown bottles) are due April 20th with an entry fee of $6 per beer submitted online (several drop-off locations accepting entries beginning in early April).  Judging will be held on April 24th at Larry's Brewing Supply in Kent (if you are interested in judging, stewarding, or helping with event execution, contact Mark Emiley at markemiley@earthlink.net or register online).  Winners will be selected in the weeks following.  Check the website frequently for updates on participating breweries and contest details as the competition grows.  If you are receiving Tech Talk, you already have met the AHA membership requirement for having your beer sent to the GABF so get your entries ready!  Invite your friends to join the AHA and submit beers as well (all beers will be judged and ranked regardless of AHA membership).  Good luck, and may your wildest brewing dreams come true!

 

Mark Emiley

PSPA Competition Organizer

www.bewbc.org/pro-am

If you don't have beer in the bottle ready to ship off to the National Homebrew Competition there is still time to brew something up before the April deadline. Entries for the first round will be accepted March 22 through April 1. First round judging for our region is taking place in Seattle this year on April 9th & 10th. The main drop-off and judging location will be Pyramid and there may be other drop-off locations around the state (likely organized by local clubs). If you are interested judging, stewarding, or helping out in some other way contact Tim Hayner at tim@bigalbrewing.com.

Here are the important dates to keep in mind. I'll get more info out as it becomes available:

• Entry Deadline: Monday, March 22 - 5 p.m. Thursday, April 1, 2010
• Online Registration: Available mid-February 2010
• First Round Competitions: April 3 - April 25, 2010
• Final Round Entries Due: Monday, May 24 - 5 p.m. Monday, June 7, 2010
• Final Round Competition: Thursday, June 17, 2010
• Awards Ceremony: Saturday, June 19, 2010 in Minneapolis, MN

Once again we sampled a ridiculous number of barleywines (and a few other beers) at the annual Barleywine Meeting, which was held on Sunday, January 17th.  Here is a nearly complete list of what we tried. If anyone who was there remembers anything else, let us know:

01. '94 Pyramid 10th Anniv.
02. '99? Pyramid 5,000 Year Ale
03. '99 Bridgeport Old Knucklehead (Alfa Zinkus)
04. '07 Aldergrove Auld Persnickety
05. '93 Rogue Old Crustacean
06. '97 Rogue Old Crustacean
07. '98 Rogue Old Crustacean
08. '99 Rogue Old Crustacean
09. '00 Rogue Old Crustacean
10. '01 Whitbread Gold Label
11. '02 Rogue Old Crustacean
12. '03 Rogue Old Crustacean
13. '04 Rogue Old Crustacean
14. Eggenberg Urbock 23 (nearly 10 years old)
15. Eggenberg Dunkel Eisbock (6-8 years old)
16. Alan Moum's 14% (circa '95) Barleywine
17. Mark Hood's '94 Barleywine
18. Brad Ginn's '07 I.H.A.D. Barleywine
19. Matt Riggs' Biere de Garde (bottled 10/23/09)
20. '78 Rainier Centennial Release
21. Todd Pulalie's '09
22. '10 Widmer W'10
23. John Altman's Big Balls Billy
24. '08 Ice Harbor
25. '10 Rainier Ale
26. '08 or '09?? Elysian Cyclops
27. '99 Hair of the Dog Fred #23
28. '00? Hair of the Dog Fred From the Wood #2
29. WSBBBBW WSB collaborative barrel BW '07?
30. WSBBBIS WSB collaborative barrel imperial stout '06?
31. '09 Dick's
32. '95 Samuel Adams Triple Bock
33. '08 Alaskan Barleywine
34. '09 Moylan's Old Blarney
35. '07 Firestone Walker 11th Anniversary
36. '99 Heads Up Millenium
37. '05 Midnight Sun Arctic Devil
38. '99 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
39. '05 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
40. Steve Moga's Old Ale
41. '06 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
42. '90 Eldridge & Pope Thomas Hardy's Ale
43. '09? Southern Tier Backburner
44. '90 Eldridge & Pope Thomas Hardy's Ale (some confusion here on the list, as we only had one bottle)
45. '92 Eldridge & Pope Thomas Hardy's Ale
46. '93 Eldridge & Pope Thomas Hardy's Ale
47. '94 Eldridge & Pope Thomas Hardy's Ale
48. '04 O'Hanlon's Thomas Hardy's Ale
49. '98 Silver City Old Scrooge
50. '99 Silver City Old Scrooge
51. '09 Silver City Old Scrooge
52. '08 Big Sky Old Blue Hair (barrel aged)
53. '06 Rogue Old Crustacean
54. '08 Rogue Old Crustacean
55. '07 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
56. '09 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
57. '09 Avery Hog Heaven
58. '07 Avery Collaboration Not Litigation
59. '01 Hale's Rudyard's Rare
60. '05 Hale's Rudyard's Rare
61. '07 Hale's Rudyard's Rare
62. '09? Deschutes Mirror Mirror

The January newsletter has been emailed out. This is the first newsletter since Alan turned over the responsibilities, so it came from a different email address. If you are on our mailing list and did not receive the newsletter on the 1st or 2nd of Jan, please check your spam or junk mail box. If you can't find it, drop me a line using the contact form here on the site or by sending an email to info@westsoundbrewers.org.

This month's meeting will be our annual Barleywine Meeting. Once again it will be held at Mary Earl's house on the Sunday of Martin Luther King Day weekend, which makes it the 17th this year. The meeting will go from Noon to 6 pm.

Bring any barleywines or strong/old ale type beers you'd like to share. As always home brewed beer of any style (but especially barleywines) are welcome.

Feel free to bring potluck type dishes that require minimal preparation/cleanup, and I'm sure Vic will be slaving away in the kitchen like he always does. At least I hope he will be.

If we are lucky, it will be 60° and sunny like last year and most of the meeting will be held outside. Remember that? Crazy.

Contact Us for directions

I installed a new feature on the website. It's a recipe calculator and recipe/brew log storage database called BrewBlogger. BrewBlogger is free, open source software developed by a homebrewer named Geoff Humphrey. The software is pretty feature-rich and includes customizable databases of grain, hops, adjuncts and other ingredients, a full recipe calculator and other tools/calculators (bitterness, brewhouse efficiency, alcohol, strike temp, etc.). It allows you to create and store recipes, then import the recipes into a brew log to keep track of your brew session.

Check out the WSB installation of BrewBlogger here. You'll have to register as a user to use the calculator and logging features, but you can view recipes and brew logs that are already in the database without an account. To register, just click "Join" in the menu bar and follow the directions.

If you have any problems with the software or have a feature request or suggestion for improvement, let me know. I've already customized it a little bit to (I think) make the navigation a little more intuitive and I wouldn't mind tweaking it more if required.

Hi All,
Saturday, Nov. 21, a date that will live in infamy, anyways, that's when the West Sound Brewers East Sound pub/brewery crawl will take place on Saturday, November 21, rain/snow/sleet/hail or shine. Wear layers, bring an umbrella or rain pants, sunglasses and sunblock, whatever it takes.

On Saturdays, it looks like the ferries from Bainbridge arrive downtown about 11AM and from Bremerton about 11:15AM. We can start near there and stay at pre-arranged places near there for stragglers to catch up before heading further afield. Then hopefully we'll have some crawlers' cell numbers to give out on Friday night for easier belated rendezvous. Do some research and if you're sure you're coming give me an idea what areas/places you're interested in.

Commuter Comforts in the ferry terminal has some decent beer and food, as does Ivar's, but just a block from Colman Dock the Pioneer Square Saloon has a much better beer selection but no food. Further north on the waterfront there's Elliott's Oyster House and Steamers which have waterfront views and plenty of beers on tap. Pike Brewery and The Collins Pub are just a few blocks from the ferry dock and would make good staging points or last stops for the crawl.

http://beermapping.com/maps/citymaps.php?m=seattle
http://ratebeer.com/Places/State/Cities/seattle/47.htm

If you check out the Seattle map on beermapping.com you'll notice some natural clusterings of pubs/breweries. Each is easy to get to via Metro and/or Sound Transit. Their map is a bit out of date as there are plenty of new places, and others have moved from where this map has them. Many of the newer small breweries are open very limited hours so check them out before requesting a stop there. For example, Fremont Brewing is only open to the public on Thursday and Friday nights. With enough people we might be able to get some places like that to make exceptions, esp. if we hit them earlier in the day while we're still all well behaved.

If you check out ratebeer.com and their list of Seattle's best beer places you might find some favorite spots that you'd like to visit.

If we get enough people we could split up into separate groups for the entire day or for parts of the day. Don't be afraid to go solo for a while then join up with the pack later.

On weekends we can get day passes for $4 aboard any bus (basically the price of two rides). These cover the whole Puget Sound region on Metro, Sound Transit, Community Transit, Pierce Transit, and Everett Transit. I'll try to have a reasonable assortment of bus schedules for the possible directions of this pub crawl.

The following were mostly dreamt up over a few minutes several months ago, for an earlier crawl. I've tried to update it for a few new places but I'm sure I've missed some.

Various bus/stumbling loops-
We've had at least one member vote for a West Seattle/White Center/Burien loop, which could be extended to Renton and Bellevue on Sound Transit #560:
Beveridge Place Pub, Prost! West Seattle, Elliott Bay Brewing (West Seattle), Prost! West Seattle, Circa, Big Al's, Elliott Bay (Burien), Bison Creek Pizza, Dog&Pony, Whistlestop, The Red House, Taphouse Grill, K's Beverage & Deli, Rock Bottom.

Ballard:
Maritime Pacific, Bad Albert's, Conor Byrnes, The Tractor, Hattie's Hat, The Old Town, Peoples' Pub, Old Pequliar, Copper Gate, The Dray, Reading Gaol, Barking Dog (outliers include Hale's to the east)

Fremont:
Brouwer's, The Red Door, The George&Dragon, The Triangle, Norm's, The Dubliner, McMenamins Dad Watsons (outliers include Hale's to the west, The Pacific Inn to the east)

Greenwood/Green Lake:
Uber, The Duck Island, Kangaroo&Kiwi, Park Pub, Sully's Snow Goose, Kort Haus, 74th St. Ale House, Prost!, Naked City, Pillagers Pub (outliers-The Latona, Elysian Tangletown, Piper's Creek)

Wallingford/U District:
Bottleworks (now a pub too), Murphy's, Blue Star, Big Time Brewing, College Inn, Die Bierstube, Pies&Pints, Teddy's (outliers-Pied Piper, Ravenna Ale House, Pub at Third Place, Wedgwood Ale House, Fiddler's Inn, The Buckaroo, The Latona, Hudson House, Cooper's Ale House, Maple Leaf Grill).

Downtown/Belltown/Capitol Hill:
Pike Brewery, Pyramid Brewery, Elysian Fields, Gordon Biersch, Rock Bottom, The White Horse, Hooverville, Collins Pub, Fado, Owl&Thistle, Central, J&M, Kell's, The Virginia Inn, Two Bells, Belltown Pub, FX McRory's, Elephant&Castle, Tap House Grill, McMenamins Six Arms, Pike Beer&Wine Store, The Summit, The Stumbling Monk, Deluxe Bar&Grill, Barca, Quinn's, Elysian Capital Hill, Linda's, The Hopvine (outliers Feierabend).

OK, I've left out entire neighborhoods here (e.g. Upper and Lower Queen Anne, South Lake Union, SoDo/Georgetown) so let me know if you're interested in them.

Skal, Alan

If you see Mark Hood, congratulate him for an excellent showing in the National Organic Homebrew Challenge. His "Organifest" took 1st place in the European Amber Lager category and was the Top Scoring Entry from the west region. His prize for top scoring entry is hands-on brewing experience at Uncommon Brewers in Santa Cruz, CA (if he can make it down there to collect).

Mark's "Bionator" Doppelbock took 2nd place in the Specialty & Other Beers category.

Way to go, Mark!! You can find all the results here.

Speaking of organic beer, it is a subject Mark is very passionate about. He wanted to pass along the following info:

It is important that people understand this issue. Our large commercial breweries have won on an issue that really effects the small organic breweries.

In the US, a brewer can label a beer as "Organic" even though it contains NON organiically grown hops. Hops farming using fungicides and pesticides, and should not be in products labeled as organic. Because the large brewers lobbied and used loopholes in our regs to do it, it means that our hop farmers do not find it commercially viable to grow organic hops, as brewers can label it as such using the cheaper hops that are grown with fungicides.

To me, it's just so wrong that I have to buy organically grown cascade hops from new zealand, or from local non commercial growers.

It's equally wrong that the label "Organic" has become a marketing gimmic in beer instead of a true label of contents, and that even if a brewer wanted to brew 100% totally organic they would be a huge cost disadvantage because no one would ever know the difference from the label.

Even if you don't care about drinking beer with pesticides and fungicides and putting it into our ecosystem, the very injustice of this should be worth the small amount of time to sign the petition and support the cause.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/471608186