SAAZ BREWZletter
March 2018
Brought to you by Platinum Sponsor
President’s Blowoff
Hi Brewers!
Great meeting at Iron Oak last month! Very exciting to see you all engaged, and having fun talking brewing with our special guest Denny Conn. More to come on the club experiment we will be participating in!
Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Spring Party! St. Patrick’s Day will be a heck of a lot of fun celebrating with great beer and great food! Don’t forget your entries for the Irish beer challenge as well as the Irish food challenge. $50 Brock’s gift card on the line for the brew challenge and $20 Publix gift card for the winner of the food challenge! See you guys there!
Several circuit announcements: Hurricane Blowoff is at capacity, so sadly, no more entries are being accepted. However, Hogtown is coming up, so get your boil kettles going for that! NHC entry deadline is March 30, please bring any entries to the Spring Party so we can get them to Tampa! Judging weekend will be April 13-15, so any judges needing/wanting points should sign up!
Make sure to pay your dues if you haven’t done so already! This is your key to all our membership perks like parties, free entries to home brewing competitions, access to our library of books, etc. $20 per single adult, $30 for family, $150 for lifetime. Don’t miss out!
Next member meeting after the party will be April 15th at WOrld of Beer in Viera at 2 pm. Featured challenge is our “hop forward beer” challenge. Showcase those hops and win a $50 Brock’s gift card!
Look forward to seeing you all at the party!
Cheers!
Brian
Next Club Event
SPRING PARTY, St Patrick’s Day Style!
Saturday, March 17th – 12:00 to 4:00 PM
Rotary Park Suntree, 6495 U.S. 1, Melbourne, FL 32940
We’re celebrating Spring, Daylight Savings Time, and of course, St. Patrick’s Day! Wear your green and your shamrocks and plan for a fun and relaxing afternoon. The club is providing burgers and dogs. Bring a side dish… preferably an IRISH side dish, which will be judged in our Irish food competition before it’s devoured by your fellow SAAZers. Is there a prize? Well, OF COURSE there is a prize, ’cause that’s how we roll! We’ll also have the Irish Beer Intraclub Competition at the party, and the winner will go home with a $50 gift certificate to Brock’s Homebrew Supply.
SAAZ Stars
Congratulations to our 2018 Coconut Cup winners!
Sean McCoy: Silver, Dunkles Bock (mmm… Bockolate)
Chris Jojola: Bronze, Imperial Stout (Obfuscation)
Officer Meeting Highlights
- February Meeting: Denny Conn interactive webcast well received. Both Denny and those present from SAAZ seemed to really enjoy the discussion. New name tags for paid members were also a hit.
- Spring Party – Discussed details Brew competition, Irish food competition, interactive game… PRIZES!!!
- Upcoming Competitions – “Beer train” discussion. Both Hurricane Blow-Off and NHC will be collected at the Spring Party, so members will have to take care to clearly march which entries go to which competition.
- Commander SAAZ – Working a deal to make a purchase of competition medals to cover multiple years, which should yield significant savings due to bulk buy. Cocoa Beach DoubleTree Hotel will not re-open in time to host 2018 event. Alternative locations are being explored. DoubleTree is helping with a suggested alternate site, but other sites are being explored as well. There is a possibility that the date may have to be moved up one week. Commemorative beer style and brew day to be announced later. Anne Gregg provided a Grog Tag certificate to be used for the printing of professional labels.
- AHA – Renewal coming up soon for club. Need to update “club address” with AHA.
- BUBR planning meeting held on March 5th.
- Need to plan brewing demo for Craft Brews in the Park/ Big Brew day (get press kit from AHA, and put in paper). Use Big Brew Day to make beer for BUBR.
- Discussion of possible “deluxe membership” with shirt – Would it be cost effective? Would members agree to a slight increase in membership dues to cover/lessen impact? T-shirts are “walking billboards” for the club.
- April Educational Session – Session will be on hops to tie-in the hop forward theme of April’s “Best Hop Expressive Beer” Intraclub Competition.
Intraclub Competitions
Refer to the December 2017 BREWZletter for rules.
- Irish Beer – March 17th @ Spring Party
- Hopped Up – Best hop expressive beer- April 15 @ WOB
- Lawnmower Beer – June 16th @ Summer Party
- Prost! Best German Beer – October 20th @ SAAZtoberfest
- Cooking with Beer! – Best beer infused dish- November 18th@ Dirty Oar
- Mead @ TBD
Reward for winning the best beer will be a $50 gift card to Brocks Homebrew Supply!
Thank you, Brock for sponsoring our Intraclub Competition!
Upcoming Events
- March 17th– Spring Party @ Rotary Park
- April 13th – 15th– NHC 1st Round judging in Tampa
- April 15th – SAAZ Meeting @ WOB
- May 5th – Craft Brews in the Park @ Avenues Viera
- May 20th – SAAZ Meeting @ The Broken Barrel Tavern
- June 9th– Bottoms Up Beer Run @ Wickham Park
- June 16th– Summer Party @ Pelican Beach Clubhouse
- June 30th- (tentative) Member Bus trip to Orlando
- July 15th – SAAZ Meeting @ Village Idiot Pub
Want a text reminder? Text SAAZ to 24587 to join.
Upcoming Competitions
Hurricane Blow-Off: Registration has closed as this comp has reached capacity. Entries need to be a Due South by March 30th. If you don’t want to ship them yourself, bring them to the SAAZ Spring Party on the 17th.
National Homebrew Competition: Registration is closed. Entries are due to Rapp Brewing in Pinellas Park on March 30th. Bring entries to the SAAZ Spring Party on the 17th. Some interesting stats regarding the NHC: In 1979, there were 34 entries and in 2017, there were 8,618 entries!
A Walk on the Wildside: Special Hoperations (Tampa) hosts this AHA/BJCP sanctioned homebrew competition for sours & Brettanomyces beers, mead, and ciders. Entries Due: May 26 http://www.specialhoperations.org/wildside/
Hogtown: Not open yet for registration, but get brewing! Entry Fee: $8.00. Entry Deadline: 05/15/2018. Competition Date: 05/26/2018.
IMPORTANT! Since entries are being collected for two different competitions at the Spring Party, make sure your entries are CLEARLY MARKED regarding WHICH COMPETITION they’re going to!
Reimbursement reminder: If you would like reimbursement for your first two competition entries in a Florida Circuit competition or one NHC entry (you must be a paid member, SAAZ must be listed as your homebrew club for your entries, and reimbursement must be requested within 90 days), contact SAAZ Treasurer Anne Gregg (Treasurer@SAAZ.org).
If you would like to expand beyond Florida and enter some competitions in other areas, check out the BJCP sanctioned competitions schedule at BJCP.org.
Feedback/Contact Us
President: Brian Cavins – president@saaz.org
First VP/Competition Coordinator: Chris Jojola – 1stvp@saaz.org
Event Planner: Shelly Cavins – events@saaz.org
Secretary/Membership: Sean Mccoy – secretary@saaz.org
Treasurer: Anne Gregg – treasurer@saaz.org
Newsletter/Webmaster: Laurie Bridges (Pending confirmation) – editor@saaz.org
Historian: Sean Mccoy – library@saaz.org
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