PRESIDENT'S CORNER
By Scott Caul
A lot has been going on lately, the pub crawl, the upcoming festival, RIMS demo, and, before we know it ,it will be time for our annual picnic in August.
First we all owe Lee Smith a debt of gratitude. Noticing how messy our adopted stretch of Hwy.20 had become, Lee set up a highway clean-up. Frightful weather caused it to be cancelled last minute. But Lee, determined to do the job, spent the better part of two days picking it up himself. Thanks Lee, but if you ever do that again, we'll take away your orange vest and tongs!!
The 21st annual Homebrew and Microbrew festival is shaping up nicely thanks to the hard work of Joel Rea and Ron Hall. Keep an eye out for volunteer requests, we'll need all the help we can get. Don't forget to get the word out too, we need to get as many enthusiasts and beer lovers as we can to make it successful.
So that's it this time, keep brewing. Hope to see you at the next meeting.
PUB CRAWL - SPRING 2003
By Scott Caul
If you missed the pub crawl this year, you missed a good one! Twenty-two crawlers loaded on the bus St.Paddy's Day eve for a day we won't easily forget (or is that remember?).
After I got us lost right off the bat, we found John's Market. Several of us took advantage of the huge selection of bottled beers present. Widmer Brothers was next. After enjoying a couple glasses of Widmer's finest, as well as the Collaborator beers, Eric Wager took us on a very thorough tour of the brewery. What a fancy joint! After the tour (over an hour long) we all enjoyed lunch at the Widmer Gasthaus.
We had to cancel our stop at the Rock Bottom because of time, so we headed off to Old Lompoc. We were met with a pitcher of everything they brew (except the barleywine) and our own space on the patio out back. Tours of the brewing area proved you don't need a 25 million dollar facility to make great beer. The patio out back, although getting some repairs, shows great potential for a summertime hangout.
Our last stop, Tuck's brewery, proved to be hard to find as I got us lost again. Eventually we found it with new head brewer Max Teiger waiting. We all enjoyed his hospitality, free tasters, and a quick tour of the brewery.
Back to the mid-valley we went. Through the day, we gave away a bunch of goodies in the on-board raffle, laughed ourselves silly at the Limerick contest, and consumed a lot of beer. Matt Arsenault was the big winner of the day with his limerick about "A man named Lee...", and also the lucky winner of the Nitro-tap system we used to serve the Mt. Hood cask-conditioned oatmeal stout. Thanks to all who so bravely went out drinkin' on a Sunday, it was a blast. Next year we will do it on a Saturday...
HOTV FESTIVAL UPDATE
By Joel Rea
21st Annual Oregon Homebrew and Microbrew Festival: Events and
hoppenings for the big event are coming together! If you have not
visited our club's website www.hotv.org, anytime soon I would suggest
that you do so! Beto has done a great job in getting information
posted in an easy to read format and quite sparky to boot as well!
Good job Beto! Our next festival meeting will be April 7th (get some
blank tapes to record the basketball game) at Scott Caul's house. One
of the big issues we will be talking about is comp tickets...who gets
em and who does not. I believe that we will come to a conclusion that
those peeps who put some SERIOUS effort into the event will be compt.
Just because you're club member won't mean free entrance. But, than
again it is only $5.00 to get in!
FESTIVAL COMPETITION DIRECTOR'S REPORT
By Ron Hall
We have formally kicked off our Festival competition campaign to
homebrewers, as the on-line entry and judge registration pages of our
website have been activated by webmaster extraordinaire, Beto Zuniga.
Email invitations have been sent out to past entrants and homebrew club
members, and entry packets have been mailed out to our 13 official drop-off
point homebrew shops. Judge registrations and entries are already starting
to trickle in.
The next Festival organization meeting will take place this Monday, April 7,
at Scott Caul's house at 7pm. We need all our members to start stepping up
to volunteer for various Festival assignments. Please come to the next
organizational meeting or regular meeting ready to volunteer!
BIG BREW
By Joel Rea
Big Brew: The AHA's Big Brew day is May 3rd. If you register your
site CBS will give you a 15% discount on ingredients for the brew. I
will also be brewing up a batch down at the shop if you want to hang
out and maybe make a hop addition or two. For more information visit
www.beertown.org
