As noted in the previous post, there is a wheat beer competition the day of the picnic, and apparently there are CASH PRIZES.The comp is BJCP judged, but not sanctioned; sorry, no points. That said, if you are taking the BJCP course, this is an excellent opportunity for you to get some off the grid tasting/judging experience.

This is a kid friendly/family friendly event, so please bring out significant others, and/or offspring.

I expect that I'll brew something this weekend — probably Sunday — for this event specifically. Not sure exactly what, but I may do two different ten gallon batches.

I want to reiterate that this event is one of the Guild's bigger parties, and having as many Baltibrewers in attendance as possible is pretty important. We owe the Guild big ups for hooking all of our dues paying members up with our discount at the participating homebrew shops, and promoting homebrewing throughout the state in such an effective way.

If you haven't been to Patapsco Valley State Park, it's even more reason to attend. It's a beautiful park, not far from the City, and it's always a good time. The picnic is held in the Hollofield Area off Rt. 40 at Shelter 300, and you should bring food and beer as the event is basically one big potluck picnic. The shelter features a massive grill, so bring grillables if that's your thing.

I will probably send my beer(s) over by car with a friend or the wife, as I intend to bike out to the park which also features some pretty awesome trails — get some ride in between rounds of judging.

Hope to see a lot of you out there!

The post Guild Summer Picnic 6-4 appeared first on Baltibrew.

We'll get minutes up soon, but for the moment, I wanted to remind club members that the Spring Real Ale Festival is this weekend at Pratt Street Ale House.

Details after the jump.

Additionally, mark your calendars for June 4th's Guild Holiday Picnic and Wheat Beer Comp at Patapsco State Park out on 40.

Our regular meeting falls on June 2nd, and we'll be brewing at John Jester's house on June 25th with Rob Perry from Brewer's Art.

There are still tickets available for the spring real ale fest at Pratt Street Ale House next Saturday (May 14th).

$40 gets you in for 5 hours of unlimited sampling (1pm-6pm) from over 35 casks, which is much cheaper than a 5 hour bar tab would be...

The post Weekend and Upcoming Events appeared first on Baltibrew.

• 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 16^th– 18^th — 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.

The post Coming Soon… Baltibrew’s Springtime Events appeared first on Baltibrew.