Hello folks,
I think you’ll agree that we had a great meeting last night.A few announcements were made at the start of the meeting including:
- First comp of the year is our ANZAC styles comp – details are on our members Facebook group. Drop-off and Peoples’ Choice will be at our March meeting
- Details of other comps are to be confirmed, but will include a red themed comp and a sours comp (replacing the Meads, Ciders etc. comp this year)
- We are in the initial stages of working out an inter-club comp with Northern Brewers which is currently planned to happen in May and be IPA themed. Each club will likely enter 6 beers representing their club, with West Coast Brewers most likely having a Peoples’ Choice style to choose our best entries
- We want to see more members get involved in our comp judging days this year and our “beer of the month” is one way we are planning to achieve that. Having more people feel comfortable with the judging process should mean more people putting their hand up for stewarding or judging. All judges started somewhere!
- Fees are due this month (by end of January). Please visit our website and make payment via PayPal or direct deposit into our back account. There will be a raffle/incentive for those paying on time (see our FB post on that).
We kicked off the year with a “beer of the month” and had all members get involved in a BJCP “tick and flick” judging sessions of a couple of beers – a Vienna Lager from Bryson and a Pale Corny Thing* from Paul Hutton. General consensus around the room was that it was a really helpful exercise and one that I am sure we will repeat in the future. Thanks to Andrew Abercromby, Allan Fraser Aitken, Clinton Brookes, Craig Hill and Paul Hutton for assisting with some judging coaching for the less experienced (sorry if I missed anybody). Also thanks to Paul Hutton for his beer, and of course Ed Wilcox for organising.
Following the “beer of the month”, we also had a sneak preview of our latest barrel beer project – a Baltic Porter. Paul Hutton brought down a small sample for club members to try and give feedback. Bottling of the beer is planned for late February where we will need some hands. Details to follow. All members will receive an allocation of the beer. We also tend to use the beer as prizes/thankyous throughout the year.
Next meeting is once again at Dutch Trading Company on Tuesday 11 February.
If you have any questions on the above or anything else, just drop a line to president@westcoastbrewers.com
Did anybody take any photos during the evening that can be posted here?Regards
Bryson
President West Coast Brewers
* was pale, used corn and was beer (actually an international pale lager)