Author: brewpres

Virtual Meeting Oct. 5th 2021

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Hey Everyone,

October’s meeting will be a virtual meeting. We’re still getting our ducks in a row so that we can feel comfortable holding an in-person meeting. I’ll elaborate more at the meeting.

To kick the season off, Steph will be giving her presentation about mead that she did for the CHA Summit called: “The Bee is Back: The Rise and Return of Mead”.

For this meeting, we’re following the CHA’s (Canadian Homebrewer’s Association) lead and trying out a new style of online gathering software. This one is called Topia. You will have a “character” that you can move around a virtual room. As you approach another character their audio and video will fade in, and out as you move away. This will allow groups of people to have multiple conversations without having to talk over everyone. It was a neat concept that worked very well. No special software is required. Just a browser.

Steph will send out a link to the meeting just before the meeting.

Cheers,
Sean.

2021 / 2022 Season

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Hey Everyone!

I hope everyone has been making the most of this summer and had a chance to brew some really cool stuff! I just wanted to give a quick update as to our plans for the start of this year.

We’ve decided to start the season in October this year. So our first meeting will be Tuesday October 5th 2021.

The executive team has met, as usual, to discuss what the coming year looks like. The short answer: It’s complicated.

So what are we going to do? Ideally, we’d love to start having in-person meetings again. However, restrictions can change at any time and with little to no notice. So we’ll need to remain flexible. We’re hoping to have a hybrid model of in person and online. We’d have a laptop setup and the event streaming with an interactive chat going on. This way everyone can still take part. More details for that will be solidified as we get closer to the meeting date. 

To be more specific, right now we’re leaning towards an in-person meeting, but we’re not 100% sure yet. We’ll send more updates as we get closer to the date.

One of the biggest changes we’ll be making is the creation of an official membership program. To be a Winnipeg Brew Bomber you will need to have a membership account. We will still offer free membership level, however, you will need to ensure you have signed up for an account online. Creation of your membership account will require acceptance of our new Code of Conduct. 

The craft beer industry is very near and dear to my heart but it hasn’t been great and equal to everyone. Since I’ve become President I’ve been working to ensure we provide education in brewing as well as a safe place to welcome beginners and experts alike. The Canadian Homebrewers Association (https://canadahomebrews.ca) hosts a quarterly presidents meeting where club Presidents across Canada gather to discuss and share thoughts and ideas and what they do. It was there that I learned about the importance of having a Code of Conduct and its important role in showing commitment to a more inclusive and safe environment for everyone.

Over the next few weeks I will be updating our website and setting up the membership software. Once that is done, the Code of Conduct will be publicly viewable and membership signup will be online. Club dues will be handled through the website as well.

Thanks everyone, I’m looking forward to the new season!

Cheers,
Sean.

End of the 2020/21 Season

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Hey Everyone,

Thank you all for a great season despite the pandemic. Your support and encouragement has made it easy for me to want to continue to keep the club rolling. We’ve had many great guests and some great announcements along the way!

As promised (and if you missed last nights meeting, which happened to end at 1:20am) here are the details for the CMBTC competition. 

We will be pushing back the date of the club kit (Porter) competition to the start of the new season. We still encourage you to brew your club kit sooner than later (especially for the freshness of the ingredients). Porter is a style that will age well. So be sure to brew it soon and reserve at least 3 bottles for the start of the next season.

The CMBTC will run and judge a competition for our club using their malt! Here are the rules:

Rules

  • Must use 50-55% of CMBTC malt as a base malt (~2kg for a 5 gallon brew)
  • Beer styles that utilize 100% pale malt must be supplemented with an outsourced pale malt (Briess, Rahr, Canada Malting). This may be subject to change*
  • Beer styles that utilize adjuncts or specialty malts will not be provided by the CMBTC.
  • Choose your beer style, hops, adjuncts, malts. Sky is the limit.
  • Beers must be bottled for submission (two bottles must be provided).
  • 1 entry per person (due to the limited quantity of malt available).

Information

  • Last day to sign up for the competition is June 8, 2021.
  • CMBTC malt can be picked up at Grain to Glass (579 St. Mary’s Rd)
  • Finished entries will be dropped off at Grain to Glass with the proper entry information (will be provided in the next week or two)
  • Beers will be judged by CMBTC staff on the following criteria:
    • 50% by True to style
    • 50% by judges personal enjoyment
  • Brewers will receive feedback on their beers (off-flavours and possible causes)
  • Winners will be announced at a virtual awards ceremony! We encourage all Brew Bombers to attend, even if you didn’t enter the competition!
  • There will be prizes! 1st, 2nd, 3rd place and Honourable mentions!
    • The prizes are still TBD but both CMBTC and Grain to Glass will be providing the prize packs.
    • We do know that 1st place will be getting free malt for a year (1 bag of malt/month while supplies last) + an invite to the CMBTC Christmas open house (when it is possible).

This is an all grain competition, extract will not be allowed. The CMBTC wants to encourage all grain brewing for those that have not tried it. Also, they’re hoping to entice some home brewers to try their hand a home malting. I know that some on this list already have!

With that being said, if you are new to all grain, or have not done that yet and don’t know where to start then please feel free to reach out to myself or others in the club. We’ll be happy to help. Over the next week or so I will post some recipe baselines for those that are unsure where to start.

This is a creative competition. Any styles are welcome. Only the malt from the CMBTC is provided, you will provide the remaining ingredients.

We will email everyone when the malt is ready to pick up from Grain to Glass. At that time we’ll also have some timelines for when to have the brew completed and submitted by and when the virtual award ceremony will be. Right now, roughly, we’re thinking having the brew complete by the end of June/early July and the awards ceremony mid-July’ish.

We highly encourage members to apply. If you don’t have the proper equipment we can help you work out a small batch recipe that you can do a Brew In A Bag (BIAB) format using the biggest pot you have at home. You may need to pick up a $15 BIAB bag. 

First things first though, we need to know how many people are participating. So we need you to sign up by filling out the online form. You should have received a link via email. If not, then please contact the club president (president @ winnipegbrewbombers . ca) This will let the CMBTC know how much malt to divide up amongst everyone.

You have until June 8th to enter. Don’t delay, enter today! 

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,
Sean.