Winnipeg Brew Bombers

Hey Everyone,

The results of the polls are in and the winner for the topic is Designing Beer, with BeerSmith as a very close second.

I talked with Brad Smith about this and options and he suggested to do two meetings. So we’re going to do the Designing Beer topic this Saturday (April 18th) and then two weeks afterwards (May 2nd) he’ll do another presentation on BeerSmith.

So don’t forget, the first topic will be this Saturday (April 18th) at 1pm CST. We will be switching back to Google Meet. I’ll send out the link the night before.

See you all there!

Cheers,
Sean.

Hey Girls and Boys!

The next instalment of the Virtual Brew Day, Part Deux is here! The fun starts at 11:30am and you can join at this link: https://meetingsamer7.webex.com/meet/president4

Remember, you don’t have to be a club member to join, and you don’t even have to be brewing something! C’mon down (online, of course, haha) and socialize!

Cheers!
Sean.

Hey Everyone,

Since the virtual meetings / brew days have been well received I’ve been trying to expand on that as much as I can.

So we’re still on for the Virtual Brew Day – Part Deux this Friday (April 10th). But I’d also like to have a club meeting on Saturday April 18th at 1 pm CDT.

I’ve been in contact with Brad Smith (creator of Beer Smith) and he’s agreed to be a Guest speaker. He’s got a few topics ready to go, so the presentation would be 45 mins with about 15 mins or so of a Q&A session afterwards. We’ll be using webex for the gathering.

He’s given the following choices for the presentation, please let me know by Sunday morning which one you’d like to see:

– Designing Beer
– Troubleshooting off flavors
– Beer Clarity
– BeerSmith
– Several presentations focused on ingredients (Hops, Malt, Water)

Cheers,
Sean.

Hey Everyone,

The Virtual Brew Day this past Sunday was a success. I had a great time, and I’m told that others did as well. So much fun was had that it was said that we should do this again.

So this Friday since it’s a holiday and we’ve got no where to be, we’re doing it again! I’ve now got my grains on order, and from talking with Paul, many others do too! If you haven’t, better get yours in soon so that you can have it before Friday.

I propose the same start time, 11:30 am. I’ll send out the link the day before. This time we’ll be using Webex as our account was finally approved (two hours after our event was done on Sunday). But we’ll give that one a shot. If not, we can go back to GSuite’s Meet. They both work the same.

Friday’s brew will be a Kolsch. 🙂

Hope to see everyone there!

Cheers!
Sean.

Hey Everyone,

The day is here! We’ll be starting at 11:30 am.

To join visit https://meet.google.com/tpr-tnvu-mvz in your browser. I haven’t done this before with Google Meet, but I believe when you join I’ll need to approve your join request.

See you all there!

Cheers,
Sean.

Hey Everyone,

I’m excited to see everyone at the virtual brew day on Sunday. We’ll be using google meet (the GSuite version of google hangouts). It will allow up to 250 in the view meetup.

So far the plan is simple…

• We’ll be starting the brew day at 11:30am this coming Sunday (April 5th).
• I’ll have a laptop setup that will be setup so that it tries to show a decently wide view of the brewing area (my kitchen), we’ll see how that works.
• I encourage others to setup a laptop/tablet/phone? to capture them brewing as well.
• We brew, chat, ask questions, etc…

I’ve never done something like this before (well, not on a large scale anyways). So this may turn out to be pure chaos… but either way it’ll be fun.

Once I get the Meetup officially setup I’ll email a link and post it online on our website, facebook and anywhere else I can think of. In theory, you should be able to follow that link and join the meeting.

The invite is open to everyone, you don’t have to be brewing something in order to participate.

Cheers,
Sean.

Hey Everyone,

It’s obvious, but just in case it isn’t, the club meetings are cancelled until further notice.

I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now. Since most things and events are shutdown and we’re keeping up with social distancing I’d like to invite everyone for a Virtual Brew Day on Sunday April 5th.

I will be brewing up the Scotch Ale kit that we were going to do for the Big Brew and live broadcasting to google hangouts for anyone to view/participate. I encourage others to do a brew at home and join in the hangouts video chat. We may have to keep isolated, but we can still brew together – online.

You don’t have to brew the same thing it can be whatever you want, you can just watch and chat, heck, you don’t even have to be a member. Just log in and say hi.

I’ll post the link to the hangout online sometime mid next week.

Hopefully I’ll see you there. I miss my fellow beer nerds. 🙂

Cheers,
Sean.

Hey Everyone,

I’ve been following the COVID-19 situation very closely and have been considering cancelling the event for a few days now. This isn’t a decision I’m making lightly. I’m basing it on the recommended practices by the WHO and the Canadian Government.

In many cases the general recommendation has been for cancellation of events with 250+ attendee’s. However there is more to it than just that one number. There have been many recommendations of social distancing by the WHO and Canadian government sites. It’s important to note that there are many criteria that play into implementing social distancing for events.

There are many resources that assist in determining what the appropriate action should be. When I run our event through those guidelines there are a few key points that indicate that we should cancel the event. I’ve listed the top three below.

1. “Event Duration”. We will be spending a prolonged period of time within this close proximity.
2. “Crowding”. Under this section we have two issues:
   1. We will be indoors.
   2. We be within 2 metres of each other (Note the WHO guideline is 1 metre).
3. “Can the event be configured to maintain a 2 metre distance between participants?” No. There just isn’t enough room.

Given we’ll be in close quarters for such a lengthy time without being able to maintain the recommended separation increases the risk by our event.

You can find more information here: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/health-professionals/mass-gatherings-risk-assesment.html

So given this information, I’ve decided to cancel the Big Brew event. At this time rescheduling the event is not possible. The COVID-19 issue will likely take a few months to sort out and that will put us into the busy season for all the breweries.

I know this is an event that many (including myself) look forward to all year. However, there is always next year. In the meantime, let’s all be safe.

Cheers,
Sean.

Winnipeg Brew Bombers President, Sean Ali, will be doing a talk on hops quality and bringing some examples of good and bad hops. The meeting will take place tomorrow at 7pm at Torque. Due to circumstances beyond our control, the sensory training had to be rescheduled to May. This has been updated in the Calendar of Events page.

On another note, if you’re a paid member and you haven’t been receiving emails (and you’ve checked your junk/spam folder), please contact us to let us know.

To keep our Instagram account active and interesting, we’re looking to collect some great photos of our members brew days, beer, equipment, etc!
If you’d like a chance to show off, email your pictures to secretary@winnipegbrewbombers.ca for a chance to be highlighted in future posts. Be sure to include your your Instagram username to receive proper credit.