February 2010
WSB February 2010 Newsletter
In this issue:
- February Meeting
- Upcoming Competitions
- Cuisine à la Bière
- BJCP Exam
- Cask Beer Fest
- WAHA Educational Speaker
- Miscellaneous
The February meeting - the "WSB Presidents' Birthday Bash" will be Saturday February 20th starting at 4pm, at Marti & Ernie Gwaltney's home, aka "Gwaltney's Tavern." Co-president Mark Hood turns 50 and the other Co-President, Marti, turns 49. The theme will be anniversary, birthday or special occassion beers. As always, homebrews of any type, style, and quality are welcome and encouraged. Bring any snacks or other foodstuffs you'd like to share.
Contact Us for directions
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. The main drop-off location will probably be Pyramid and there may be other locations around the state. Also, I'm sure any help judging or stewarding will be needed. If you are interested contact Tim Hayner at tim@bigalbrewing.com.
Here are the important dates to keep in mind. I'll get more info out, such as drop-off locations, 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
The Puget Sound Pro-Am is your opportunity to have your beer brewed at a professional brewery from the Puget Sound Region, and advance to the Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am. Last year the Puget Sound Pro-Am submitted 12 beers to the GABF and in 2008 a Puget Sound Pro-Am entry brought home the gold medal from GABF. The organizers are shooting for at least 15 participating breweries. Entries are due April 20th. All the information is on the BEWBC website here, and here.
Kitsap County Fair Homebrew Competition
Not a lot of info about this yet, but we need to get started on planning. The fair is in late August and we've typically accepted entries around the last week of July. Plan ahead for your entries and stay tuned for all the details. If you are interested in helping with organizing the competition this year, let me know (info@westsoundbrewers.org)!
Mary Earl and Vic Keranen are hosting another Cuisine à la Bière dinner on Valentines Day, February 14. They have a wonderful sounding menu planned with selection of beers paired with each course:
Course One
Ancho-spiced Cocoa Meatballs
Chocolate Malt Pretzels with Apricot Mustard
Sam Adams Chocolate Bock
Lambic Something
Course Two
Lobster, Shrimp & White Chocolate Ravioli
Hair of the Dog?
Course Three
Flank Steak in a Chocolate Coffee Sauce
Winter Solstice?
Course Respite
Pear Salad with Vanilla Vinaigrette & Chocolate Nibs
Only Vic knows…
Course Piece de Resistance
Really Chocolate Desert
Samiclaus or Framboise
For all the details, you can download a pdf of the invitation from our website, and for any more info please contact Mary at ggrapex@yahoo.com.
BJCP Exam (shamelessly copied and pasted from the WAHA website)
Seattle BJCP Exam Scheduled for Sunday, March 21st, 2010
The WAHA wants to keep bringing new judges into our ranks and also make sure that our existing judges can continue to advance in rank. To help keep the advancement cycle going, we have scheduled a BJCP exam for Sunday, March 21st, 2010. Take out the books and beers and start studying today!
It will likely be held at Big Al Brewing in White Center. Due to the new BJCP policy of only 20 examinees per exam, space is limited and full payment in advance may be required to secure your seat if we come close to the limit (we will post final details on the WAHA site). The cost is $50 for first time takers, $30 for the whole exam for existing BJCP members, or $15 for a partial retake (written or tasting).
If you would like to reserve a seat, please contact Mark Emiley and indicate if you will be taking the test for the first time and if you will be taking the written, tasting, or both.
Registered members on the WAHA site can access the "Brewing & WAHA Files" section on the left and get access to some study materials. We'll post anything we can find in that folder.
Good luck and study hard!
Editor's Note: I got in touch with Mark Emiley and he says there are just a few slots left. Contact Mark (markemiley@earthlink.net) right away if you want to take the exam.
Saturday, March 27th, 2010
Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion
305 Harrison Street
Seattle, WA 98109
Directions
Area Map
Seattle Center Map
Session 1: 12-4pm
Session 2: 6-10pm
Separate tickets required for each session.
Taps close 30 minutes before closing of each session.
$35 advance/$40 at door
Admission includes a commemorative tasting cup and 25 3-oz beer tastes. Separate tickets required for each session.
Designated driver admission is $5 and is available at the door only.
This is a 21-and-over only event. Photo ID’s required.
Advance tickets are available via Brown Paper Tickets now or at select outlets.
Washington Hombrewers Association is working on organizing an educational speaker for the Friday evening before Cask Beer Fest (March 26). Last year they sponsored a very informative lecture from Brian Perkey from Wyeast and this year they plan to expand on that theme. From the WAHA website:
Educational Speaker - Wyeast-Advanced Yeast - March 27th
We are preparing details for the folks from Wyeast to come back and give another speech on yeast right before the Cask Beer Festival. We'll have details coming shortly on the WAHA site but start thinking of your questions now! We hope to see you there for the continuation of the WAHA Educational Speaker Program.
I'm still working the kinks out of the mailing list software. The biggest hangup is that some of the bigger ISPs are randomly blocking mailings from the westsoundbrewers.org server because they think it is spam. Comcast has been the worst culprit; one mailing will go through with no bounces and the next time all Comcast addresses will bounce as spam. I've also had similar problems with Earthlink and Juno. The other issue I know for sure is happening is that Gmail is sending mailings to the spam box for several people. With that in mind, I'm going to ask Alan to send a short note to the entire mailing list from his Yahoo account letting people know that the newsletter has been sent and to check their spam boxes if they didn't receive it. That won't help for the bounces because they are blocked at the server and don't even make it into a spam box. If you use one of the big ISPs (Comcast, Earthlink, Juno, etc) and haven't been consistently receiving newsletters, meeting reminders, and event notices since January 1, and you have an alternative email address (gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc), you can use the "update your preferences" link at the bottom of this newsletter to change your address on the mailing list. Just enter your new email address in the appropriate fields and click on "Update." Future mailings will go to the new address.
Speaking of the newsletter, if anyone is interested in helping provide content for the newsletter and/or the website, let me know. I can create an account on the website for anyone who wants to provide content and you'll be able to log in and create posts, add pictures, add events to the calendar, etc. We want the website to be useful and user-driven, so if you want to help out we'd love to have the help.
