Author: Daniel Molinski

Club Updates & November Meeting

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Hello Brew Bombers!

A bunch of updates for you all.  As usual I’ll try to keep things to the point.

CMBTC Competition Winner

Congratulations to Chuck Mackenzie for winning the CMBTC competition. Sherwin and Aaron really loved his American Porter “The Night Porter”.  The main prize is a brew day on the CMBTC brewing system using his recipe, and the beer will be served at the CMBTC Christmas Open House. Thanks again to everyone who participated!

Pro/Am Brew Challenge Registration is OPEN!   

If you have any homebrew ready, you’re highly encouraged to enter.  Even if you don’t think it’s a particularly good brew, enter it anyway!  You’ll still get valuable feedback from BJCP certified judges.  All details found at https://beerawardsplatform.com/2024-pro-am-brew-challenge.

Judging is November 2-5.  If you’d like to volunteer as a steward or a judge, even for just a day, please reach out! This is the 10th Pro/Am, so let’s make it a great one!

Tap Handles

You have one more week to pre-order your tap handles.  Click Here to place your order before October 15th.  We currently have 16 pre-orders, but we need to hit 25 to make sure we get our discount. It might be a while before we do this again so don’t miss your chance!

Creative Competition

We’re still working on finalizing the location for the creative competition, but you should start planning your brews now as judging will be happening during the January meeting.

This year’s creative competition is all Spice, Herb, Vegetable Beers.  Since the style is inherently creative we’ve decided not to have rules around dollar/spend limits and no restrictions on where you shop.  Just make sure you understand and follow the BJCP style guide – have a base style and provide a description of added SHV.  If you have debatable ingredients, be prepared to defend them (i.e.: you used a fruit, but there are more dominant spices).

Club Kit

The votes are in and this year’s club kit will be a German Weissbier!  If you have a recipe you’d like to share as a starting point, please let me know.  Steve will be hosting the rest of the exec to do a test brew at his place in a couple of weeks.

Once we have done a test batch and make final decisions on the recipe we’ll place our order. If all goes well we hope to have the kits ready for pickup shortly after the holidays.

November Meeting

Our next meeting is on Tuesday November 5th at Oxus.  Since we have the Pro/Am permit, If you have some homebrew you think is great and you want to share, or if you’re just looking to get feedback and advice from others, plan to bring some samples! The meeting will be all about “evaluating homebrew” so we’ll be going through the five main areas of assessment found on typical judge scoresheets: appearance, aroma, flavor, mouthfeel, and general impressions.

Cheers!

Dan Molinski

October Meeting, Tap Handles, Club kit & More

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Hello Brew Bombers!

It’s time for another monthly update chock full of awesome news.  I’ll try to keep everything brief but informative.

September Recap

Our season opening meeting went well with 22 people in attendance.  Steve did a great job presenting on “how to do beer competitions good”.  His presentation and template spreadsheet for tracking your competition entries are available HERE.  Our club is currently in 6th place nationally on the Brewer of the Year circuit, which is the best we’ve ever been (so far).  Let’s keep it up!  If you have any beers laying around, consider entering them into some of the remaining competitions this year.

October Meeting

Our next meeting will be 7pm, Tuesday October 1st at the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC), 303 Main St.  They’ll be announcing the winner of their competition at this meeting, and we’re looking at changing things up from the usual “talk and tour” they do, and instead doing some kind of “testing tour” where we focus on their lab equipment and the kinds of tests they do.

As a reminder, they’re in a secured government building so make sure to arrive at 7pm SHARP because they have to meet us at the door and escort us up to their space.

Pro/Am Brew Challenge

Dave Cole, Steph Barten, and team are busy preparing for this year’s Pro/Am and are always looking for people to volunteer.  In particular, they need judges, stewards, and auditors from November 2-5.  If you can help out, even for just a day, visit proam.beer to contact them. Oh, and definitely enter some beers into this competition!

Club Branded Tap Handles

We’re taking orders for club branded tap handles!  The folks at Tap Handles To Go are giving us a discount (provided we order at least 25 tap handles).  There are 4 designs to choose from, two full-color, and two back & white.  Each with or without a chalkboard space.  Since we don’t want to have a bunch of inventory sitting around this is how it will work:

  1. From now until October 15th, CLICK HERE to place your order
  2. Pay us for your order before Oct.15. If your payment is not received you won’t get your tap handles.
  3. We’ll place the bulk order with Tap Handles To Go on October 16th.
  4. Pick them up when they arrive!

Facebook Group

Last year we set up a new Facebook Group for club members as an alternate means of connecting and having discussions (because long email threads can get pretty annoying). We only allowed active members at first, but now we’re opening it up to everyone.  Post pictures, ask questions, engage with each other.  There’s also an associated group chat on Facebook Messenger you can join.

Club Kit Survey

If you’re a fully paid member, you’re entitled to vote for this season’s club kit.  The options are:

  • Irish Red Ale
  • Scottish Ale
  • German Weissbier
  • Tropical/Juicy Hazy IPA

Go HERE to submit your preferences.  We’ll announce the winner at the October meeting.

Creative Competition

This season’s club creative competition is all about Spice, Herb, and Vegetable Beers.  As with last year we plan to get a permit so that we can sample and evaluate your beers during our January 14th meeting.  Time flies, so start planning!

Cheers!

Dan Molinski

September Meeting & Other News

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Nonsuch Big Brew

The American Brown Ale we brewed at Nonsuch, officially name “Bush League” will be on tap at The Common as of September 1st.

The official release party will be on Saturday September 7th at 2pm on the patio at Nonsuch. 

They’ve asked for a rough headcount so they can prepare for the influx of beer and food orders, so if you plan to attend, please RSVP here.  Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. Bring all your friends and family!

September Meeting

We kick off the new season at 7pm, Tuesday September 10th at Sookram’s.

Steve Shaw will be presenting about homebrew competitions: What you should know

The vote for this season’s club kit style will kick off (on the website).

CMBTC Competition

If you haven’t registered yet and want to take part, there’s still time to brew something before the Sept. 14th drop off deadline. Register here!

2024-2025 Season Calendar

We’ve tentatively nailed down all the monthly meeting topics for the upcoming season. The Calendar of Events page has been updated.  Note that these are subject to change as we iron out the details of each meeting and event.  Also, this calendar is not an exhaustive list.  We can still plan some ancillary events or field trips, depending on opportunity and level of interest. Some ideas: visit Prairie Gem Hops, field trip to Scythe or Dakotah, group brewing experiment, taproom crawl, etc. If you have any ideas or are willing to spearhead a “side quest” of some sort, please let the club executive know! 

Memberships

A reminder that membership terms are 1-year long.  If you haven’t set your membership to an auto-renewing subscription, then please remember to take some time to review your membership and take care of any pending renewals before they expire. You can manage your membership / subscription on the Account page under the Member Area of the website.

See you all in September!

Cheers!

Dan Molinski

Summer Updates: Big Brew, CMBTC Competition & More

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Good morning Brew Bombers! We have some updates for you regarding the Big Brew, CMBTC Competition, and more!

This is just a summary, see your email for full details. If you haven’t been getting club emails, see #4 below.

1. Executives

Marc has transitioned everything to me and I’ve effectively taken over the President role. Thanks to all who voted for me. I look forward to making the upcoming season a great one for all of you.

Marc is still involved until the Big Brew and CMBTC competitions.

The Secretary role has been filled by Ryan Gren. Congratulations Ryan!

2. Big Brew at Nonsuch

Please sign up Before Friday as we need to give a final number to Nonsuch so they can order the ingredients. If you don’t remember if you signed up already or not, just sign up again and we’ll remove duplicates. This is an event for active, paid members.

https://forms.gle/mmDRyTFK889jPjW9A

3. CMBTC Competition

Registration is open!

https://beerawardsplatform.com/2024-cmbtc-brew-bombers-competition

As with the Big Brew, this is a special event for active, paid members.

4. Emails

I’ve been hearing that some folks aren’t getting the all-member emails. If you know of anyone affected, please report to the president email directly.

5. Social Media

I encourage you all to tag the club on your posts. If you’re not on social media, but want to help the club, send me some pictures of your beer, brewing, and related stuff and we can highlight it on the club accounts! This isn’t a club without it’s members so we should try to highlight you a lot more.

That’s all for now!

Cheers!

Dan Molinski

Windup Potluck & Info

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Howdy Brew Bombers,

It’s that time of year where we wrap up the season with a Windup BBQ. Please check your emails for the link to sign-up for the potluck.

Hot dogs and burgers are on the menu with the club supplying plates, napkins and utensils as well as buns and basic condiments. Feel free to bring other more exotic condiments.

The Windup itself is taking place at Half Pints Brewing on Saturday June 8th (there will be no meeting on Tuesday June 4th!). Windup festivities will begin once Half Pints closes at 6pm but feel free to arrive early to support them by enjoying a taproom beverage.

Bring any outdoor games for the competition and merriment.

The club will also be purchasing a keg for members to enjoy as we can’t have any home brew at this event – though you may bring bottles to share/exchange with others as long as they remain unopened.

Rain or shine. BYO Chair.

Thanks,

Your Brew Bombers Executive

2024-25 Club Election Call for Candidates

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Club elections for next season’s exec will kick off during the season windup BBQ at Half-Pints on Saturday June 8th.  Whether you’re at the BBQ or not, please make the time to review the candidates and submit your vote (the page is only visible to registered members).

Below is a short writeup of the current exec roles, as well as an estimate of monthly time commitment outside of club meetings and events.  If you are interested, message Marc with the position you would like to run for and a brief write up about your ideas/goals for the upcoming year.

President:

Typical Activities / Responsibilities:

  • Lead meetings
  • Planning Club meeting agenda and content
  • Arrange meeting locations
  • Plan and coordinate field trips for members
  • Answer emails from Club members
  • Plan the Club Kit, organize voting, and coordinate with Grain to Glass for kit building
  • Arrange Creative Comp
  • Apply for Special Sale permit via LGCA for competitions
  • Set up BJCP connections for competitions
  • Arrange Big Brew and coordinate with host brewery for brew date, aid in selling beer produced
  • Plan and arrange Club Wind-Up party
  • Keep mailing list up-to-date
  • Monthly meetings (first Tuesday) and executive meetings (second Tuesday)
  • Attend quarterly Canadian Homebrews meetings
  • Maintain relationship with LGCA regarding sampling homebrew in meetings
  • Assist other Executive members when/where needed

Average monthly time commitment:

  • 4-7 hours excluding Club & Executive meetings

Vice President:

Typical Activities / Responsibilities:

  • Lead meetings in absence of President
  • Assist in coordinating club activities
  • Assist in planning meeting content
  • Manage merchandise 
  • Fill in for other Exec members as required

Average monthly time commitment:

  • 2 – 3 hours

Treasurer:

Typical Activities / Responsibilities:

  • Working with the Club Executive to ensure that the Club is on sound financial setting by ensuring that Club activities can be funded based on Club resources
  • Working with the Pro/Am competition committee to ensure the competition is financial self-sufficient  
  • Managing and tracking the cash flows of the Club and Competition including their respective bank accounts and payment of Club and Competition expenses. 
  • Running the monthly raffle draw including purchasing beers

Average monthly time commitment:

  • 1 – 2 hours

Secretary:

Typical Activities / Responsibilities:

  • Record keeper
  • Agendas for club meetings
  • Notes/Minutes for exec meetings
  • Track/update action items throughout the season
  • Assistant to other executives
  • Help out as required
  • Draft/send communications to members
  • Set up surveys/forms
  • Updates to the club website
  • etc.

Average monthly time commitment:

  • 3 – 6 hours