Category Archives: Events
The regular Baltibrew meeting for March is this Thursday 3-3-2011. Same brew-time, same brew-channel, Muggsy's @ 8 p.m.
Our dues vote resulted in a popular decision of $20 per member per year. This can (and should) be paid to the treasurer, Greg Slack, at the meeting.
Remember: Payment of dues gives you the right to vote on the future of the club, a 10% discount at MDHB or the Thirsty Brewer, the right to take home club brewed beer from club brews, and — eventually — the ability to rent starter kits from the club, among other privileges.
Agenda items include:
- What to do with dues? Kits or volume expansion? What's the priority?
- April Brew — At this point tentatively scheduled for 4-10 with Brian "Stillwater" Strumke at the home of Kevin Berry. More on that at the meeting.
- Chilibrew III — Ian will fill us in on details, and help us help HIM prepare for the event.
- Clone Wars entries: We'll taste the beers produced for our entry into the Pratt Street Ale House Clone Wars competition, as well as the genuine article, and decide how to proceed.
If you've got anything you need to add to the agenda, post it in the comments.
We've got some events coming up on the horizon, and it's going to be a busy Spring. Hope you're all ready for it.
- Max's Belgian Beer Fest: Starts tomorrow at 11 a.m. and runs through Sunday. Might want to get there early as a line is usually formed by 10 a.m. There are various ancillary events happening throughout. Check out the current "final" draft list.
- March 3rd — Monthly Meeting/Dues Collection: Our usual monthly meeting falls on 3/3 and will happen as always at Muggsy's Mughouse in Federal Hill. Greg Slack will be collecting dues at this event. At this point it looks like the amount to bring will be $20, but there will be a formal announcement of the official dues cost on 2/24. Additionally, we will be tasting the results of the February brew in preparation for submission to the Clone Wars competition. We will taste all four versions (all-grain open ferment, all-grain closed ferment, extract open, and extract closed) that we brewed, as well as a genuine Steve Jones version for comparison. Other items to discuss may include a workday/demonstration related to building mash tuns, and fitting keggles to expand our brewing capacity.
- March 11th — Pratt Street Ale House Clone Wars submission: The club will be submitting its 3 Lions Ale clone.
- April 7th — Monthly Meeting: Our usual monthly meeting falls on 4/7 and will happen as always at Muggsy's Mughouse in Federal Hill. Items to discuss might include the aforementioned workday/demo, Summer events, and any other pressing club business.
- April something? — Club Brew with Stillwater Artisanal Ales brewer, Brian Strumke: Not 100% sure when in April, but we hope to brew a saison with Brian Strumke of Stillwater Artisanal Ales. Gotta' get dates squared with Brian. Hopefully by then we'll have an expanded brew capacity allowing us to send beer home with some lucky folks who show up.
- April 17th-ish? — ChilbrewIII: Ian is working on the upcoming spring Chilibrew event. Details to come.
- May 7th— AHA Big Brew Day: Annual homebrew day.
- June 4th — Guild Picnic & Wheat Beer Comp: The Free State Homebrewer's Guild holds an annual picnic at Patapsco State Park. Every year I've been to it, there's been a wheat beer competition, unsanctioned, but judged in the BJCP style. There's a big BBQ and it's a great opportunity to meet other brewers in the state as well as to show off our skills as great brewers despite being a "beginner's" club.
- June 16th– 18th — AHA Conference in San Diego: It's the biggest homebrew event of the year, and this year it's in San Diego. Hotels are pretty solidly booked already, but that doesn't mean you can't commute.
And that's pretty much it for Springtime events to my mind. If you have other events you'd like to see posted to the club's public Google calendar, suggest them in the comments.
Great brew today at Slack's house. Two extract batches of 3 Lions, and a supplement boil for Ian's stout. Good times. Meeting minutes below. Dues vote to be up soon. Safe travels Boddy. God Speed. Continue reading
I've heard from a number of people who have expressed trepidation about meeting tonight when we will also be meeting to brew on Saturday, and just met a few weeks ago. Admittedly, this makes the week pretty Baltibrew-centric for some of us, but there are a number of reasons why meeting times should remain as regular as possible — and more importantly — as separate from brew days as possible.
So Why?
Regularity of meetings do a number of things for the club:
- They allow what we say on the website about meeting dates to remain mostly true, which means casual, prospective members who find us via the Internet are more likely to show up to a meeting without having to contact us, or us having to contact them.
- They help us to support Muggsy's which is important if we want to continue to have a regular meeting place at which we can bring our homebrewed efforts. Without a regular meeting place, we similarly affect the likelihood of new arrivals.
- They get us on a schedule. The more lax we are about meeting regularly, the more likely we are to just let them fall to the wayside in favor of lackadaisically doing business at brews when we should be focused on brewing.
Doing business at brews breaks our focus on brewing at the brew, and reduces time at the brews that could be better spent instructing members about what we're doing. It also limits our ability to do style and technical presentations during down times at brews since we have decided not to do these at meetings.
There will be times when we have to move or cancel meetings to accommodate other events — like Opening Tap of BBW/Chilibrew II, this past year — but it makes sense to minimize this as much as possible moving forward to ensure that we don't lose the privilege to meet at Muggsy's, and to make certain we get the important business of running the club done.
So show up if you can. If you can't, comment on this post if there is business you want done at the meeting.
Current agenda after the jump. Updates if we see comments. Continue reading
This week:
- Tuesday 2/1 6 p.m. at Pratt St. Ale House — 3 Lions Clone War event.
This was an RSVP event, but I know a number of Baltibrew members inlcuding John Jester, and myself will be in attendance. Hope to see some of the rest of you there. - Thursday 2/3 8 p.m. at Muggsy's in Federal Hill — Regular Monthly meeting.
We'll go over last month's business and prepare for a vote on dues. - Saturday 2/5 after 9 a.m. Greg Slack's house — February Brew day.
Being that we did not have any other nominations for a brew, we'll be cloning 3 Lions as part of the Clone War competition mentioned above.
Bring something to eat, and beer to share.
Hope to see you all there. If you've got questions, or comments to make, here's your thread.
Baltibrew holds its rescheduled January meeting at Muggsy's beginning at 8 p.m. this evening, 1-13-2011.
Lots of stuff on the docket to be discussed.
Tonight is our rescheduled regular December meeting at Muggsy's.
There are a few topics to discuss:
- What/Where to brew in January
- Last week's Guild Holiday Party — outcomes & opinions — plus! what about next year?
- Next month's regular meeting — January 6th work for everyone? Everyone back from holiday?
- How does Baltibrew proceed in 2011? Elections? Treasuries? — You tell us
The thought is that we'll try to take care of these items quickly, and then move on to some revelry.
Thereafter, let's hang out and share some holiday cheer against the frigid onslaught outside.
Bring your significant other and we'll all do our best to avoid alienating them with too much beer geekery. As usual, we are privileged, and welcome to bring homebrew to be shared upstairs — Holiday beers preferred! — but of course, don't forget Muggsy's fine selection of beers and eats!
Baltibrewers:
Got the official word that Guild Holiday Party Tickets are ON SALE NOW. Buy them here: http://www.mdhomebrewers.org/holiday
Tickets are only available online, cost $25, and proceeds go to charity.
If you are interested in going, get on this ASAP. Tickets ALWAYS sell out.
Our theme for "Club Hour" is "Griswold Family Christmas." We have a subcommittee that should get going soon to help get this in order. Individual emails about this will go out on Monday-ish.
Further details about the party after the jump.
Our November meeting will be this Thursday 11/4, 8 p.m. upstairs @ Muggsy's
At the meeting we'll be discussing the following:
- When/What will be our November brew (for submission into the guild xmas party competition)
- Guild Holiday Party 12/5 @ Heavy Seas Brewery (Tickets, what we're brewing and pairing the resultant brew with, etc.)
- Options for the December meeting (Comp? Food and Beer Pairing? White Elephant? Secret Santa? — You tell us.)
- Next year's BJCP class (Who wants in?)
- What to brew in January
As always, you are welcome to bring homebrew.
Join us every 2nd Sunday @ 3PM
Visit us on Instagram
