I hope everyone is having a fun and safe Independence Day. I wanted to take a moment to let you all know we will be having another club bar night this coming Tuesday, July 8th. We will be meeting at Bravo in Portage which is on Portage Road near the airport:

http://www.bravokalamazoo.com/
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=5402+Portage+Rd,+Portag...

Again, this is a casual get-together from 5:30-7:30pm and all members, friends and family are welcome. Hope you can make it.

We made a switch to our new hosting provider, Host Gator.  Check out the site and let us know if you have any problems.

Are you planning on attending this year's Michigan Brewer's Guild Summer Beer Festival on July 26th? Would you like to but have trouble making it out to Ypsilanti? We have just the thing for you.

There will be a bus tour leaving Kalamazoo the day of the event and will return later that evening. Here are all the details:

• Bus leaving from Gil's Market (8005 Douglas Ave.) at 11am
• Bus returning at 8pm
• Tickets are $60 and include the $30 festival ticket
• Must be 21 years of age or over

Interested? Visit www.michiganbrewsguild.org for more information on the festival and contact Chet at (269-649-1802 or stilltriking@sbcglobal.net) for more on the bus tour.

Hey, for those of you who don't get the Kalamazoo Gazette, there was a pretty cool edition of "Ticket - Your Entertainment Guide" this week that had a pretty extensive story about local summertime beers. It is great to see how many there are to choose from in our relatively small area of Michigan. There was also a picture of yours truly -- huge mop and all -- pouring a pint of our Olde Peninsula Tornado Ale brewed to commemorate the tornado of 1980 that actually took out part of the building we occupy.

http://www.mlive.com/kalamabrew/index.ssf/2008/05/the_beers_of_summer.html

Have a great Memorial Day and don't forget to pick up some local summertime beer and pass buy the boring mega-brews for flavor that can't be beat! Even if you aren't in Michigan!

Our next Bar Night will be Thursday, May 8th. This time around we will be meeting at Big T's in Lawton. We will again be meeting casually between 5:30 and 7:30. Check the following links for directions and details:

155 N Main Street Lawton, MI (Google Maps)
http://bigtrestaurant.com

We have finalized our plans for Big Brew '08 which will be on May 3rd this year. We will be meeting at Scott Sebastian's home in Three Rivers, approximately 20 minutes south of downtown Kalamazoo. Many of you will remember this as the location for several past roast events.

See our discussion board or contact us for more details.

This is a friendly reminder that on Monday, April 21st we will be having our monthly club meeting. This month will be Gadget Night: a sort of "Show and Tell" of brewing tips, tricks and tools you have designed or stumbled upon. If the item is large, feel free to bring pictures or plans you used.

Looking forward to seeing all of you on the 21st.

From a representative of the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild:

We're doing a workshop on ancient brewing practices here at Circle Pines Center in Barry Co. Michigan (close to Hastings). Attached is the flier. We have miles of hiking trails, 300 acres of forest and prairie and a lake, so the whole family could come, have fun and keep busy! Hope any of you at KLOB can make it out.

Thanks!

For more information, see the post on our discussion board.

This is a friendly reminder that this Wednesday, April 9th, we will be having our monthly bar night. We will be meeting at Zeb's Trading Company in Texas Township. Again, this is an informal gathering and an opportunity for members to interact outside of our normal meeting environment. Stop by any time between 5:30pm and 7:30pm.

7990 S 8th St, Kalamazoo, MI 49009 (map)
http://www.eatatzebs.com/