1) Great showing tonight. Lots of folks, food, and beer. We donated more than a case of beer to the Heavy Seas folks. Also, Les brought lots of glassware for folks to take home.
2) Get your 2019 dues to Don Zwach. $25 for individuals and $40 for couples.
3) CRABS took 3rd at the Guild holiday party club table competition out of 11 participating clubs. We were only a few points away from winning. We always make a great showing. Thanks to Jeff Adelsberger for taking the lead, and Joel Gallihue for bringing his band.
1) Six CRABSters poured beer at this year’s Homebrew Extravaganza, which was held at Checkerspot Brewing for the first time ever. There were more than 30 beers, and three CRABSters were in the top half of the popular vote. Rob Kiernan was 12th, Ben Schwalb was 10th, and Jason Heinen was 4th.
2) Fire sale on CRABS T-shirts. Only $5 each. For available sizes and designs, contact Joe O’Keefe at jfo363@verizon.net
1) Due to Heavy Seas construction, we met in a quiet back room.
2) Several CRABSters went to HomebrewCon in Portland. Some of them visited 20+ breweries before the conference. They brought several commercial Oregon beers to share. See Ben Schwalb’s write-up of the conference and also his two-week trip leading up to it at http://www.benbrew.com/WestCoast/westcoast.html. In 2019 the conference will be in Providence RI on June 27-29.
1) Congratulations to Rob Farrell for a 1st place and John Jester for a 3rd place in FOAM’s Battle of the Bubbles. See http://bob.brewcomp.com/ for full results.
1) Congratulations to the following folks for winning categories in some recent homebrew contests:
·Tom Pagano and Reed Ulrich won the Brown British category in the DC Homebrewers’ Cherry Blossom competition. See http://www.dchbcompetition.com/ for full results.
·Rachel and Craig Szczesiul won the Mead category in BURP’s Spirit of Free Beer. See http://sofb.brewcomp.com/ for full results.
1) Heavy Seas is in the process of installing a pilot brewery and a new bottling line.
2) The DC Brewer’s Ball to benefit cystic fibrosis was held on March 3rd in Washington DC. CRABS poured 6 beers. The website is https://www.dcbrewersball.org/ but the EVENT PHOTOS link doesn’t seem to have any photos. Photos of last year’s event, where CRABS also poured, are at https://ontaponline.com/photos/brewers-ball-2017/
1) 2018 dues are due. $25 for individuals and $40 for families. Please pay Don if you haven’t already.
2) 2017 Brewer of the Year awards were given out.
3) Some Maryland legislative bills will be debated this Friday 2/23. A few CRABSters will be going to the hearing. If you’d like to go, contact Ed at ed@thesheas.org. Here are the bills to be discussed:
1) The Guild holiday party will be on Saturday December 2 at Heavy Seas. The CRABS table theme will be “Summer in December”, with beach-themed décor, hamburgers, hot dogs, sliders, and other stuff. There is a Google doc where you can write what you’re bringing and see what others are bringing at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FqJhohv6sHo4jvVFbpMM_NzzhnlNoxKCKWCc2NIrfDs/edit#gid=0 . Tickets are on sale at this link:
