December’s meeting – And some personal thoughts

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Hey Everyone,

Just a reminder that December’s meeting has been moved to next week (Tuesday December 8th @ 7pm). Originally we had moved the date to give our members a bit more time to get their creative comp brew completed. However, with the lock-down situation we all thought it was best to just move it into January instead. This will also give anyone who didn’t have time to get their brew done a chance to get their brew in after-all.

Since we’ve moved the creative comp & discussion to January’s meeting, we’ve moved January’s guest speaker to December’s meeting.

I’m excited to announce that Andrew Sookram, a Winnipeg Brew Bomber turned Pro, will be giving a presentation to the club! He will be talking about brewing sours as well as talking about his journey through the creation and evolution of his widely successful Cosmos series! Then a bit of a Q&A afterwards. You will not want to miss this meeting.

On a more personal note, I was reflecting on how 2020 affected the club. This year has certainly been a hard one all around and in almost every facet of life for so many people and businesses, especially front-line workers. As it relates to the club, we had to make some really tough calls and some really big plans had to be postponed/cancelled. This was supposed to be a big year for the club, especially since it’s our 20th year. But we knew we had a role to play in keeping people safe so that the work of the front-line wasn’t for nothing.

Looking at the positives though, despite all that, we got creative and we pivoted the best we could. We discovered some new ways to connect. The virtual meetings have had great feedback. The virtual brews allowed many members a window to see how others brew. I’ve had many comments that the virtual meetings facilitated conversations between people that don’t normally talk to each other. We’ve had some great guest speakers, Brad Smith who did 2 presentations, and Maker’s Malt who gave a malt presentation and a virtual tour of their facilities. As well as some “virtual beers” hangouts (after the club meetings or virtual brews) that went to the wee hours of the morning. And we aren’t done yet, there’s more stuff is in the works.

So, even though it isn’t easy, I must say that I truly felt supported by our community this whole time. I consider myself lucky to be President of a club that represents such an amazing community of people.

Thinking about the COVID situation I hold onto the phrase “This too shall pass”. Because when this finally does, and it will, we will work hard on resuming those “big plans”. I assure you, it’ll be worth the wait.

So, thank you to all our awesome members for your support. Thanks for showing the club love, and thanks for showing our local breweries love. Your support is appreciated by all.

Cheers,
Sean Ali.