May Meeting

This is a friendly reminder that we will be having our normal monthly meeting this coming Monday, May 19th.  The month's topic will be fruit beers complete with club provided samples.  If you have any fruit beers of your own you would like to share, this meeting would be a perfect time to bring them.

As has been the case this year, this month's meeting will be held at Boatyard Brewing Company.  They have improved seating in their tap room but make sure to get their early for the best spot or bring a chair if you will be late.  They have also expanded their parking in the area towards the corner of Paterson and Porter.  We still encourage car pooling when possible.

Many of you have commented about having a food option available at meetings.  We are excited to announcement that local food truck phenomenon The Gorilla Gourmet will be bringing his fine cuisine on Monday.  He will be offering Oberon Brats, Killer Tacos and several other tasty treats.  There is a $10 minimum for credit cards so bring cash if you think you'll need it.

Growlers Outing

Kalamazoo is once again home to our very own minor league baseball team: The Kalamazoo Growlers.  We are currently organizing a club outing for their home game on Saturday, May 31st at 7pm.  We we have reserved an area in the grandstand specifically for our club.  Tickets are for sale in advance for $12 which includes admission as well as your choice of a hot dog, chips and drink OR Growlers hat.  You can sign up at this month's meeting or at Tempo Vino Winery in downtown Kalamazoo.  This is a family-friendly event so we're welcoming spouses, children, friends and co-workers to join all the fun!

Great Taste of the Midwest

As some of you may be aware, fellow homebrew club The Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild put on one of the best beer festivals in the country every year in August in Madison, WI.  This year the date is Saturday, August 9th.  Tickets for this event are extremely hard to come by and there is a lottery system to keep it fair.  However, we are lucky enough to once again have a set of 25 tickets set aside for our members.  We will be doing our own internal lottery at this month's meeting.  You must be a member in good standing prior to the lottery.  The cost of each ticket is $60 and you must have cash, check or credit card ready at the meeting or you ticket will go to someone else.  If fewer than 25 members are interested in tickets, we will have a secondary lottery for any remaining tickets.  We still strongly recommend attempting to acquire tickets through the general lottery as there is no guarantee you will get one through KLOB.  If there are extra tickets, we will work with you to help find them a good home to a fellow member or their family.

National Homebrew Conference

We have set up a special newsletter strictly for NHC business.  If are attending the event but you have not already signed up, please to do so ASAP.  As we come into the home strech, we are looking for volunteers to help us organize and work at our Social Well and Club Night sessions.  Let us know if you are interested in lending a hand.

NHC First Round Winners

Congrats to KLOB National Homebrew Competition Winners Elijah Eversole (2nd place with an American Brown) and David Curtis (2nd place with a Mead) in Chicago Regional.  You can see the full list of winners at the AHA's website. Cheers to all KLOB 2014 entrants!

20th Annual KLOB Roast

Mark your calendars for Saturday, September 20th.  That date for this year's KLOB Roast: a celebration of BBQ and homebrew!  This is the 20th anniversary of the event so we are hoping to put together something special to commemorate the milestone.  If you are interested in volunteering to help organize, please let us know.  We are also looking creative individuals to help with this year's artwork.  If you or someone you know has ideas, please send them our way.