Club Posts

Our February brew — a clone of Oliver Ales 3 Lions strong brown ale — came off pretty well. So well that we swept the top spots in CRABS/Oliver Ales Clone Wars Comp; with Kevin Berry's winning closed ferment all-grain version, and Greg Slack's second place closed ferment extract version.

Kevin wins a gift certificate to Pratt St. Ale House, a sixtel of 3 Lions Ale, a brew day with Steve Jones — head brewer at Oliver Ales, and last but not least, the awesome tap handle trophy in the picture!

Greg won a growler of 3 Lions, and a gift certificate to Pratt St. Ale House.

This is a big achievement for Baltibrew. It's also proof that extract brews can compete head-to-head with all-grain brews. Greg started brewing about a year ago, hosted our first big extract brew at his house, and has progressed from a relative newbie to having a three keg system, and moving up to all-grain brewing after our workday this Sunday. This is a great success for Greg, and a great success for the club and its mission of helping people with an interest in beer become great brewers.

Let's keep up the good work, Baltibrewers!

After a further review of the weather forecast for Saturday (wintry mix/snow), and discussion with Treasurer, Greg Slack — who is building a 150 qt. mash tun and can't make Saturday, we will be moving our work day to Sunday (partly sunny, warmer) since we'll need the tun for 4/10's big brew with Brian Strumke.

Starts at 1 p.m. at SoYeahDood HQ, likely to end by 6.

Once again, bring grillables, beer to share, and any equipment projects you may need assistance with.

Sorry to create any possible confusion, and hope to see you Sunday.

Upcoming Competitions:

• DuClaw Brewing: H.E.R.O Homebrew Competition.  Info @ http://www.duclawbeer.com/hero/.  N0t a BJCP-sanctioned comp.  DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES: April 18, 2011
• Baltibrew:  Chilibrew #3 - homemade chili & homebrew competition to benefit the Baltimore Free School and the Velocipede Project - being held at the at Baltimore Free Farm (http://www.baltimorefreefarm.org) - Sunday, April 17, 2011.  For more info:  http://bmorecharmin.intuitwebsites.com/ or email Ian MacDonald.
• Ellicott Mills Brewing Company - pale ale competition - Saturday, April 23, 2011 @ 1 p.m. - register in advance by calling the brewery 410-313-8141. Limited to 12. Winner gets to help brew, name the beer and design tap handle.
• Zymernauts Inter Center competition - Saturday, April 30, 2011 -  Judges may be needed, possibly for mead.
• FOAM Battle of Bubbles in conjunction with the 1^st annual Frederick Beer Week - entries accepted between April 15-30, 2011 - judging May 1 and BOS on May 10 - judges and stewards are needed - more info:  http://bob.brewcompetition.com/
• 98 Rock King of Baltimore Homebrew contest - entries must be ready by May 12, 2011 for pre-qualifier - winner announced May 15, 2011 - grand prize is tickets to GABF - lots of details @:http://98online.com/promos/SamAdams/homebrew.htm
• BURP’s Spirit of Free Beer (entries due 5/7). Judge and steward registration on website soon.
• Heavy Seas Letter of Marque homebrew contest - entries due between June 6-17 at the brewery - winner announced July 1, 2011.  For more information:  http://www.hsbeer.com/heavy-seas-letter-marque-homebrew-contest
• More events to be announced soon

3 Lions Winner Announcement Party

It's time to find out how we did with our February brew, a clone of Oliver Ale's 3 Lions Ale. We entered 4 different versions — one each open and closed fermentation of an extract and all-grain clone of Steve Jones' Strong Brown Ale. Our versions turned out pretty nice, here's hoping we get the win with one of our beers.

Party at Pratt Street Ale House starts at 6, with the winner announced around 7. They've know for about two weeks now who won, let's find out ourselves and have a few pints. It's the least we can do to help support local brewpubs that are involved with the homebrew community.

Equipment Build

Baltibrew will be hosting a club work day to prep new equipment for our April 10th brew day with Brian Strumke. We'll be completing a second 60 quart mash tun, putting together the fittings for two new keggles (keg kettles), and generally getting everything cleaned and prepped for the following week's big event.

Work day starts at 1 p.m. at SoYeahDood HQ, and we should be finished by 6. Come hang out, learn how to build a mash tun, and help us double our brew day capacity.

Bring beer to share, and something to throw on the grill.

March meeting was a success. 13 members in attendance, and we took care of a goodly bit of business, all of which can be read about in the detailed meeting minutes.

We tasted the results of our February, 3 Lions brew, and decided to enter all four versions this past Friday, March 11th. We should hear about the results of the comp later this week.

Coming up fast we have our — still tentative — April 10th brew with Brian "Stillwater" Strumke, and the following week — April 17th — we have Chilibrew 3.0 at the Ash Street Farm in Hampden.

We'll also be having a work day before our April brew to get keggles, mash tuns, and burners built, as well as getting a basic fermentation kit set up.