April Meeting
This is a friendly reminder that we will be having our monthly meeting this coming Monday, April 15th. As usual, we will be meeting at 7pm at Old Dog Tavern in downtown Kalamazoo. This month's topic is packaging which will cover bottling and kegging presented by Geoff Groff.
NHC Intra-Club Competition
KLOB will be sending a number of representatives to the National Homebrew Conference in Philadelphia from June 27th to 29th. While there, we will be teaming up with other clubs from around the state as a "Michigan Coalition". That group will be hosting a table at the club-night and various shifts in the hospitality suite.
The biggest components of those duties will of course be OUR BEER! We're looking to take several kegs from our club to best represent our club. To that end, we will be having a competition at the April meeting to choose the top three beers our group has to offer. We will brew the winning recipes at the club Big Brew event in May so we can take a full batch of each to Philadelphia. We will not be targeting specific styles; it will be open to anything and everything you want to bring.
There is no limit to how many different beers you can bring but just make sure to bring enough for people to sample and judge. We suggest six 12 oz. bottles, three 22 oz. bottles or a 64 oz. growler of each beer. Also, it would be helpful to do a small write up about your beer including intended style (if applicable), ABV and any unique or remarkable ingredients.
Spring Bus Trip Wrap Up
A big thanks to everyone who came out to the brewery bus tour last weekend. We made 5 amazing stops at The Livery, Greenbush, Round Barn, Bare Hands and Paw Paw. If you have any photos from the trip, please let us know so we can post them on our website and Facebook page. We consider the whole event a great success and we look forward to organizing another either later this year or next.
Brad's Brew-a-Thon: Part III
Member Brad Wyant is hosting another brewing event at his home.
Date: April 20th starting at 10am and going til whenever
Who: Brewers and spectators
Location: 3209 Jacobs Circle, Kalamazoo (NE corner of Stadium and 8th)
Purpose: To brew as much as we can in one location!
Contact: Brad Wyant (269-599-6447)
Brad also recommends that everyone who intends to brew should bring their own water. Oshtemo will be doing a system flush that day.
Big Brew 2013
We will once again be partnering with the Bell's General Store in downtown Kalamazoo for our annual National Homebrew Day Big Brew event on May 4th. As always, we are looking for volunteers to do a variety of techniques (all-grain, partial, extract) and styles to give everyone a peak into the full spectrum of homebrewing. We hope to get all of our all-grain brewers started around 10am and stagger in our partial and extract brewers throughout the morning. If you're interested, let one of the officers know.
Homebrew for a Charity
Member Bill Crocker wants to assist his friend Paul Weninger on the board of the local chapter of JDRF which raises funds to find a cure for Type 1 Diabetes. Each year they hold a Gala with an auction as one of their primary fund raising activities. This year’s event is on April 19th in Grand Rapids. Since Bill and Paul both love homebrew, they are seeking donations of bottled brews which they would package homebrew with items from one of the local brew supply shops. They are looking for variety over quantity so if you even just a handful of beers you can share, they'd love to have them. Check out all the details of the event here: