September 2004
“News About Brews”
A New Club Year, a New
Newsletter Look, but What About New Members???
Well, it's a brand new club year so I decided to make some long-planned changes to the basic format of the newsletter. The information is still arranged in the same way, but I'm now doing it using a tool which makes it easier for me to publish it up to the web, and provides me with better ways to deal with pictures. You'll now find a separate 'Pitcher' Gallery page where I'll post pictures from our meetings and events. In future issues you should also notice a link for previous newsletters.
The Steering Committee meeting at Eaglebrook Saloon on Sept. 1st went well, with 8 members attending. Plans for the new club year were discussed, including meeting topics, competitions, club events and the officers. Details can be found below as part of the September meeting minutes (in 'Sip by Sip').
Now, most importantly, the topic of membership was discussed at the September meeting at Dan Kahn's house (thanks Dan for hosting). We realized that some members are not able to remain really active due to scheduling conflicts and other circumstances, but we're not bringing in new members at the same rate.
Given this, it was decided that we should make concerted efforts to bring in some new members to the club. Steve at The Witches Brew is willing to help us out by posting/distributing a flier for us, and other homebrew shops are going to be contacted as well. In addition, it might be a good idea to try to bring in new members by getting 'out and about' and talking to homebrewers or prospective homebrewers. One possible venue for this would be at The Witches Brew's annual Fall Sale to be held in mid-October. If we could make sure we had members there the whole time the store was open and setup a table (or better yet, a cooker and brewpot and brew up a batch) then we might be able to 'stir up' some interest among the many people who visit Steve's store during these events.
Anyway, we'll need to discuss it over e-mail before the next meeting (since the Sale is going to be right around then) but I just wanted to get you thinking about the topic and any ways we could give our membership a little boost. This is a great bunch of brewers, beer lovers and friends so let's not allow the spirit of the club to dwindle by not rejuvenating the membership base.
Brew On!
Jimmy B
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At
A Glance…
Things
You May Want To Know, Or Not
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Club EventsOct. 13th – Monthly meeting at Kevin Farrell's (directions) Nov. 9th – Nov. Meeting, possibly at Buzzard's Bay if Steve can arrange it. Check the club calendar for more details on these and other upcoming events. |
Area EventsOct. 1 & 2 – Harpoon Octoberfest (http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/) Oct.
2 – Blues'N'Brews festival in Westford, MA (http://www.bluesnbrews.com) Oct.
9th & 10th – Harpoon Octoberfest in
Vermont (http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/)
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Next MeetingDate: Oct. 13th, 2004 @ 7:30 Location: Kevin Farrell’s house Directions:
Weymouth, MA (click here for
directions) Agenda: Food and beer pairings by Kevin. Real ale on-tap (gotta love those engines) |
Beer Quote and Trivia"They who drink beer will think beer" — Washington Irving
What
beer was packaged in camouflage-colored cans during World-War II?
Answer
at end of newsletter… |
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Sip
by Sip
Minutes
of the Previous Meeting
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Date: Sept. 15, 2004
Location: Dan Kahn's house, Seekonk MA
Number of Members Attending: 7
Business
 |
Bill brought up the topic of needing a membership drive of some sort because we seem to be losing some active members and gaining few new members. Everyone agreed and Steve pointed out that we are losing people to circumstances and not replenishing our member base. Ideas included posting fliers at local homebrew shops (Witches Brew, Hoppy Brewer and others) and trying to take advantage of any other opportunities we can to attract new members. Roger said he could format a flier if someone could provide him with the text. |
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Reviewed the next year's calendar as discussed at the Steering Committee meeting:
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Wheat Beer Presentation by Roger (yes, he was there!)
Roger explained the characteristics of wheat beers and the differences between the BJCP-recognized styles. He supplied samples of Paulaner Hefeweizen, Julius Echter Hefe-weiss-dunkel and Aventinus Weizen Bock (which we decided was not technically a bock, but it was good anyway).
Wheat Beer Competition
There were
4 entries for the wheat beer competition - 2 dunkel-weizen's, a raspberry Weizen
and a raspberry hefe-weizen. The judging results were:
1st place: Jim Blanchette - dunkel-weizen
2nd place: Bill Tredo - raspberry weizen
3rd place: Bill Tredo - raspberry hefe-weizen
Honorable
mention: Steve - dunkel-weizen
Decision Point: All of the beers were very good and there were no real flaws. Discussion turned to the fact that the 1-10 scale is extremely subjective and doesn't break down and weight the characteristics of the beer like BJCP score sheets do, as would have been a good idea in this tight competition. It was decided that we will attempt to use BJCP sheets in the future (except maybe when time and the number of entries don't permit). This is a good exercise anyway, to improve judging skills for those who aren't certified judges and keep the judging skills sharp for those who are.
Bill also put
forth the theory that wheat beers are not as susceptible to infection or flaws,
given that he's never run into a bad wheat beer. There may be something to
that...
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It’s
All in the De-t-Ales…
Articles,
Reviews and Information
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Pub Crawl to England
Here is a link to the England Pub Crawl report provided by Steve G. Steve, Bill, Paul and Len spent a week on a canal boat and the rest of the time touring by car. Read all about it here:
Beer
Trivia Answer
What beer was packaged in camouflage-colored cans during World-War II?
Answer:
Schaefer
Contact Information
If there are any updates or changes to the information posted here, please contact: