​This month's attendance was 13, welcoming new member AJ. We sampled 10 beers including a deliberate sample of an off-flavor with a discussion of the causes. Beer Smith and Brewers Friend were recommended for recipes. Other information shared included an invitation to run for President and VP, as the current officers are stepping down. Save dates for the Brewer's Ball at Waterside Park in Tampa 3/3, the AHA Regional Competition 3/31 & 4/5-4/7, and the annual Homebrew Con in RI in June! See ReggieBeer.com to enter your beers in competitions and get expert feedback.

​Our regular meeting is back after a Thanksgiving meetup at my house and our annual holiday gathering at Bootleggers Brewing Co., with 15 members present. I was officially named our Equipment Manager, succeeding George who's going to be busy with a couple more years of work and a second job opening his own brewery! We're going to need a new President and VP in April.  Apply now!

Put Feb 16 on your calendar for Fergs' Hops for Heros, a club pouring event not to be missed!  Should we use the "Beer Booth"?! (weather permitting) Also, I've made reservations at the Omni in RI for the annual AHA Convention, thinking of driving up with the Beer Booth for that one too! Save a date (tba) in April for the AHA Regional competition.  Enter a beer and plan on helping out with stewarding for some or all of the 5 sessions.  This is the best opportunity of the year to enjoy beer with like minded enthusiasts!

The Coconut Cup competition is open as is the Dunedin IPA smashdown and a Feb pro/am at Coppertail, and while you're at it, the AHA competition. Sign up online at https://reggiebeer.com.

Did you know there are about 80 breweries in the area now? The top 10 in sales include Cigar City, Coppertail, Big Storm, and Tampa Bay Brewing to name a few.

We had a round table discussion on wort aeration, which is important to the 
percent dissolved oxygen for yeast health.  It's especially important for high gravity beers and 5 gal or more batches. Fermentation time, attenuation, and sweetness can all be affected by aeration. The full study is available in our Facebook files. Pictured is my wort stirring device, designed for quicker wort cooling, and may also aid aeration.

Beer Tastings included Rye Wheat, Spiced Holiday Ale, Pale Lager, IPA, Weizenbock, Dunkles Bock, Starfruit Gueuze, and a Meed. Prost!

The pouring event at Cajun Cafe, St. Pete, for Paws for a Cause was a big success! We enjoyed pouring our beer for a large crowd of enthusiastic beer drinkers.  Two outside buildings provided ample space for both a collection of clubs and a number of local breweries.  A generous lunch and appetizers were included.  And the beer... YUM!  So many styles, all excellent!  Members are encouraged to attend these events.  It is always a good time with friends new and old to mingle, see the variety of serving setups, and swap stories with brewers  from all over the Tampa Bay area.

​Tastings:
Dominic's Hard Seltzer "Ghost", Rob's IPA, Dean's IPA, Brian's NE IPA, Lee and Katie’s Pumpkin saison, Mary’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Berliner and a Coconut Stout for desert.

Event:
Nov 3 at Cajun cafe in Pinellas Park. Pour your beer. Or just attend, tickets are $55. Includes food. This is also the AHA National Homebrew Day! Celebrate with us! Sign up w/President Joe.

Meeds special interest group:
SIG sign up and pick possible days. First Wed?, Sun afternoon...? Contact Ray.

Intraclub Competition:
Nov. is last entry for this year. Contact Joe Hirtz for info.

Pouring Events:
Rap’s 2019 pour, Hops for Heroes at Fergs. Contact Mary and George for info

Convention:
The Annual AHA is in Rhode Island, June 27-29, 2019. Contact Mary if you're interested in attending.

​Calendar Items
==============
Oct 5 at Winthrop 7pm-10pm
Oct wknds Best FL Beer help
Oct 13 Octobeerfest at Southern 5pm
Nov 18? at Rapp’s
Feb 16 at Fergs, St. Pete

Intraclub Competition
=====================
1 bottle/month for feedback from qualified judges
3 per quarter to place for awards
Up to 2 per month, 6 per quarter maximum
Contact Joe Hirtz

Dual-tap Cooler Demo by Pete
============================
Self-contained server for two 2 1/2 gal kegs. Includes quick connect for CO2 and wheels. Excellent for tailgate parties and club serving events!

Water-base Comparison Presentation by Brian 
===========================================
Served softened v well water versions of the same beer. Discussed the importance of pH in the mash, especially for pale beers. He shared a well water analysis ($30 by Ward Labs) and a spreadsheet by BrewWater.com. Pool or aquarium test kits could be used too, but with less detail.

Homebrews!
==========
Mary & George’s spiced cider (apple juice and Nottingham yeast, added some sugar, cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg extracts fermented for 1-month) and their starfruit gose. Joe’s wheat and saison. Dom’s blond and robust porter. Pete’s marzen octoberfest. Lee’s IPA Brewdog-clone recipe, and Wes’s peanut butter cocoa imperial stout.

Mary told us about her recent trip to Portland for the annual American Homebrewers conference. She displayed several of the freebies she picked up which she says were in such plentiful supply that you could probably come away with enough to equal the cost of your registration!  There were many informative sessions on brewing, tours of area breweries, tasting parties, and LOTS of BEER!  Next year's conference is in Rhode Island in June. It would be fun to get a group of members to attend. We could even have a decorated booth!

President Joe talked to us about his experiences with wort chilling, from his early days with a copper coil to his latest plate-chiller. Other members added comments about their efforts to build their own coils including using a keg as a form, ways to add fittings and connecting to pumps and ice chests.

We had four homebrews to taste. A couple of our newest members participated with glowing reviews from the rest of the members. We had a cream ale, blonde ale, pilsner, and an imperial stout. Prost!

Pouring events, stewarding contests, judging are just a few more of the many ways to enjoy this hobby we all love. Look for links here and on our Facebook page.  Here's a BIG one you might want to consider.  Best Florida Beers is looking for participation in the annual statewide event in Tampa. Get details on the website, https://bestfloridabeer.squarespace.com/homebrew-teir-1/.

Some other links to check out, recommended at this meeting...
https://www.themadfermentationist.com
https://beersmith.com
http://www.mrmalty.com

Remember to check back with this website to keep up-to-date with club announcements, calendar items, and contests.

​We had a well attended meeting this month with 6 new beers to try. New members in attendance included Paul, returning; Katie and Lee, new. Welcome!

Mary announced upcoming events Septembeerfest for home brewers and the Tampa Bay Homebrew Invitational at Rapp’s in November. Some of our members are entered into outsided Competitions, Wilds is finishing up this month. See the beer_calendar list on this website's Calendar page.

Rob, Pete, and Dean earned intra-club competition wins. Just submit 3 beers for judging over the next three months to participate.  Get some expert feedback on your brews and who knows, you might even win a prize, like a gift card to Stein & Vine!

Obrien's, our meetings host, is having a beer dinner featuring Coppertail, Monday at  7pm for $45 per person. It's a multiple course meal with beer samples for each course!

Ryan presented his Munich brew and showed us his 2-cooler/pump brewing system. This is yet another excellent example of how inventive our club members are at designing, building, and brewing!

The six beers we tasted included Marys sours; a lingonberry berliner made with Good Belly, and a Guava gose with pink salt. My Fergalicious London Brown was well received with suggestions for minor changes in fermentation temperature. Robs American Porter made with a Grainfather was a treat! Andrew's Porter was just his  3rd batch and he's off to a great start! Joes American Stout was true to style. Yum!

Special invitation from Barley's Angels to join them Sun, July 15 on the Brew Bus at noon. Come along for a fun afternoon!

We had about 15 members in attendance this month. It was a good meeting with a presentation by Mary about the care and feeding of our favorite friend - Yeast!  She talked about how to save it, reuse it and rehydrate it.  It's good to know how to take care of our yeasties because in return they will turn our wort to beer!  There were nine beers to taste; sours, ales, APA's and more!  Yum!

To keep in touch don't forget to visit our closed Facebook group page, take a look at the NEW calendar document on this website, visit our Groupspaces page via the link on the calendar page too, and try our new Web App for beer taste scoring at onscreen.us.com/beer/app.htm.

Welcome new members!  Thank you for attending your first meeting.  We hope you enjoyed meeting our brew club members and learning about our various brewing activities. And the seven beer tastings were pretty good too. We hope you join in on all the fun!  Just go to the contact page on this website to join.

Mary, George and Mike were congratulated for their recent winning brews at the Hurricane competition.  Thanks to Mary for coordinating the stewards for last weekend's regionals of the annual National Homebrew competition. Several members helped out to make the three day competition go smoothly.  It was a lot of fun and we always learn so much more about brewers, brewing, and brews!

Dean did an excellent presentation on his favorite topic, HOPS!  He talked about all the ways you can add hops before, during and after brewing.  There's even something called "smoother bitterness"?! Who knew? Someone suggested that we use our marbles when hopping. That's always a good idea, right?

See the link on the bottom of the calendar page of this website to get to our list of brew events like Movies in the Park, Best Florida Beer, Septembeerfest, and more! The more you participate, the more you'll learn about and enjoy this hobby!