2014 Midwinter Homebrew Competition

[russki]

Good luck to you Russki. I'm in two categories if I can get a beer ready in time. I may have to free up one of my place holders. I'm probably going to be working five flights (Friday afternoon and all day Saturday). Let me know if you're going to be there and I'll look for you.

I don't think I'll be able to make it there - it's a bit of a hike for me, but it's cool that you're working this competition! Are you judging or stewarding?

[oly]

I'll be judging. Several club mates and I are carpooling up from Crystal Lake. I'm hoping it will be a bit more relaxed than the last time I worked a Milwaukee event. That was the AHA nationals (also put on by the Beer Baron's), and they were swamped with beer and short of judges, so we were under the gun to get finished before a dinner party that had the room reserved (at Rock Bottom Brewery) came in. It was fun though, and interesting to meet one of the people whose beer blogs I had been referring to and posting to the the "other" site almost from the beginning of my brewing days (his was a great explanation of mash and brew house efficiency). Although now that I think of it, he's a member of the Brewers of South Suburbia down around the Joliet area. I'm pretty sure he was the only one from there. As you know, it's a bit of a haul. They put on a good competition in March called the Charlie Orr Memorial Competition if you're interested. If you look at the area competition results pages, you'll see names from their club on the winners list a LOT, including a guy who took a second place in the nationals a couple years ago whose recipe was featured by the AHA for the 2013 Big Brew day. They're a good bunch. Sorry, I'm wandering....

[russki]

I'll be judging. Several club mates and I are carpooling up from Crystal Lake. I'm hoping it will be a bit more relaxed than the last time I worked a Milwaukee event. That was the AHA nationals (also put on by the Beer Baron's), and they were swamped with beer and short of judges, so we were under the gun to get finished before a dinner party that had the room reserved (at Rock Bottom Brewery) came in. It was fun though, and interesting to meet one of the people whose beer blogs I had been referring to and posting to the the "other" site almost from the beginning of my brewing days (his was a great explanation of mash and brew house efficiency). Although now that I think of it, he's a member of the Brewers of South Suburbia down around the Joliet area. I'm pretty sure he was the only one from there. As you know, it's a bit of a haul. They put on a good competition in March called the Charlie Orr Memorial Competition if you're interested. If you look at the area competition results pages, you'll see names from their club on the winners list a LOT, including a guy who took a second place in the nationals a couple years ago whose recipe was featured by the AHA for the 2013 Big Brew day. They're a good bunch. Sorry, I'm wandering....

You should take some pictures and do write-up on the inner workings of a competition for the Borg! I was looking at Charlie Orr Memorial as well - I may enter depending on what I have ready to go.

My brew club is Club Wort - we meet at Durtie Nellies in Palatine. It's a smaller group, and we're not as advanced as some of the other clubs, but I like it. If you're in the area, you should stop by a meeting one of these days.

[Inkleg]

None of those photos in Club Wort are tagged. How are we too know who you are? Looks like a fun club though.

[Beer-lord]

Now that my friends are leaving and we won't have our Wednesday night 'band and beer' night, I've been thinking our joining the Crescent City Homebrewers Club which meets the first Wednesday of every month. I already know some guys there and after looking at russki's club, I think it would be very helpful and a learning experience. But, their website sucks. I'd say something but then I'd end up having to make one for them.

russki, I like the idea of it not being advanced. That way you can learn as you go and then pass it on. While the great majority of home brewers I've met are the nicest people in the world, sometimes the mega experienced don't like to listen to anyone but themselves. I've got no time for that crap.

[russki]

None of those photos in Club Wort are tagged. How are we too know who you are? Looks like a fun club though.

I guess you'd have to come to a meeting to find out!

russki, I like the idea of it not being advanced. That way you can learn as you go and then pass it on. While the great majority of home brewers I've met are the nicest people in the world, sometimes the mega experienced don't like to listen to anyone but themselves. I've got no time for that crap.

It's not that our club is not advanced; we have a lot of very experienced brewers, a couple certified BJCP judges, and a 60 gallon system for club brews, but compared to the likes of Beer Barons, we are small fish. It seems that most club members are not all that interested in competitions - we used to enter the AHA club only comps, but those have been discontinued, and I think there are only a few members that compete individually.

I highly recommend anyone who's not a member of a brew club to join (or start) one!

P.S. Dropping off my entries at Brew and Grow in Crystal Lake this afternoon!

[Inkleg]

Come see you. Have you seen it down here. I can't even get out of my driveway.

Good luck again with your beers.

PS, does this look infected.

P1020116.JPG (54.08 KiB) Viewed 1009 times

This was taken an hour ago.

[russki]

Come see you. Have you seen it down here. I can't even get out of my driveway.

Good luck again with your beers.

PS, does this look infected.

P1020116.JPG

This was taken an hour ago.

Ha, you think you have it bad? Chi-beria has just gotten back into positive temps after 3 days of deep freeze... It's a balmy 2F right now.

P.S. Mmm... pellicle...

[oly]

You should take some pictures and do write-up on the inner workings of a competition for the Borg! I was looking at Charlie Orr Memorial as well - I may enter depending on what I have ready to go.

My brew club is Club Wort - we meet at Durtie Nellies in Palatine. It's a smaller group, and we're not as advanced as some of the other clubs, but I like it. If you're in the area, you should stop by a meeting one of these days.

I'll do that. I have some pics of the judging at Spooky Brew at Revolution Brewing in Chicago. I'll try and figure out how to post them later. I think I looked at the Club Wort web site a while back; will check it out again to see when you meet. I'm in the Midnight Carboys in Crystal Lake (ours is definitely one that could use a more involved website too), meeting every second Thursday of the month at 7:30 at Dukes (upstairs). We probably have around 60 members, but quite a few are in and out. Generally anywhere from 20 to 40 show up for the meetings. I think around 10 or 12 of us are BJCP now. There's been talk of doing a competition, but so far it's only talk. We have some top notch brewers, but like any club (I suspect), some meetings are like seminars in off flavors. In a way that's a good thing though. We're all there to learn from each other, and drink beer of course.

It's kind of funny to see how some people are sheepish about admitting getting started with MB or another simple kit, but there are a lot more of them than you might think, so anyone thinking of checking out a club shouldn't be shy on that account.