We're having Zoom meetings until it is safe to gather as a group again. This month we enjoyed a presentation by Gary Glass, Director of The American Homebrewers Assoc. from Boulder, Colorado. He talked about the history of home brewing and listened to some of our stories. Now we know some of the real history behind our name - Bootleggers!  Turns out there was a boom in home brewing during prohibition.  There's been a spike in online searches on the subject now with bars closed and people staying at home to help stop the spread of the Corona virus. Even our website has seen a little more activity.

While we're all practicing stay-at-home we were able to have our monthly meeting via Zoom this month.  The American Homebrewers Association offered to provide a program, but it was unavailable on our usual club meeting day/time. They will attempt to schedule it on another day.  Meanwhile, we put together a quick Zoom meeting and a few of us popped in to talk about what we're brewing and how we are attempting to continue to support our local craft breweries.  Still hoping that the national BrewCon will happen in June, but it's too early to say if that will be able to happen safely. Prost!

We cancelled our March meeting, which would have been a tour of the new Bootleggers Brewing Co. facility on Causeway Blvd., in an effort to slow the spread of the pandemic virus. Be safe.

​Thanks first of all to Lee Branham for stepping up to become our VP, and for providing our program with his lovely wife Katie!  They provided us with a virtual tour of Belgium, Northern Belgium that is, sorry about the monk music, which would have been more appropriate for a tour of Southern Belgium.  Didn't we taste a Trappist ale?

Anyway, we had lots of information to share along with tasting 9 or more beers. I lost count, LOL.  IPA, Berliner, Belgians, Stout, Pils, Cider and Meed!  Some of us will be tasting statewide winners of Best Florida Beers at the Brewers Ball March 8 in Waterworks Park, YUM!

We recapped our latest serving event Almost There in Safety Harbor and we're looking forward to serving next at the National Homebrew Con in Nashville in June. We'll be doing a Star Wars theme. I've got a crazy idea for our taps. Members will get a sneak peak on our private Facebook group page.

Don't forget to sign up to judge or steward the regional homebrew competition in April at 7venth Sun in Tampa.  See https://www.brewingcompetition.com.

Bring a favorite recipe to the next meeting.  We'll share all our tips and tricks for making better beer!

​This was our best meeting in months!  Good attendance, two A-B taste tests, and new members!  Welcome, Joseph, Daryl, Mark and Lisa! And a special thanks to Mike from 4 Stacks Brewing for his beer tasting contribution.

Brian tested our tastebuds with a hops method comparison; whirlpool v. dry hopping. It was hard to decide which we liked better.  Then he topped it off later with his hazelnut porter, YUM!  Dean's IPA was also an excellent addition to this tasting experience. I'm still learning from all these amazing home brewers!

Ray also provided a bit of a taste test with his two meads.  This will be a long-term study for us as we try one of these meads every other month to see how time has an important mellowing effect on meads.  Thank you for this exceptional opportunity, Ray!

Lee and Katie entered a contest for brewing with a mystery ingredient.  Thyme in a bitter, yes please. Do you have any pizza to go with that?!

Our newest members also contributed two very tasty beers to this meeting; a British brown and a porter. They may be new to brewing, but their beers are already good enough for competition. I hope they enjoyed the meeting and will look forward to continued participation in our club activities.

We'll be pouring at Almost There in Safety Harbor January 26, part of Tampa Bay Beer Week. Join us for a good cause and BEER!

​Our Beersgiving Bottle Share included some very tasty brews!

Monday Night Brewing, Atlanta, GA
Han Brolo, pale ale, 4.7%

Cigar City, Tampa, FL
Good Gourd, imperial pumpkin ale

Zwanzigz, Columbus, IN
S'mores Porter

SixTen Brewery, Tampa, FL
Horchata oatmeal stout, 8.5%

Competition Suggestion:
Pasco Brewers Guild
Iron Homebrewer Contest, $5 per entry, 5 gal., by Jan. 18

REMEMBER:
Our December meeting will be at (location changed) Bootleggers BrewWorx, Brandon, FL
Bring some food to share and a gift if you'd like to participate in the exchange.

Thanks to Jen Glencer for presenting Beer-Gift Ideas and sharing some sweet meeds! We talked about past, present and future events.  We tasted 7 beers, 2 meeds, and a cider!  We'll be at Bootleggers Brewing Saturday, Nov. 2 to demo the brewing process.  Interested?  Come see!  And consider joining the club.

Thirteen members were present for last night's club meeting.  ​We sampled 6 beers and meeds ranging from experimental to exceptional!  Katie and Lee gave us a PowerPoint presentation of a brew day at their home.  They make very tasty beer with a pot, a stovetop, a sink, and the usual ingredients. They've been bottling, and now have a keg!  Jen showed us a time-lapse video of a brew day in her garage.  Check it out... https://youtu.be/mhOwg5AceQM.

Some Recommended Reading from members at the meeting...
Brewing Classic Styles by John Palmer
The Flavor Bible by Karen Page