HHCBC December 2016 Meeting Notes

Recaps

LIBME Homebrew Competition

• November 19 @ GSB
• Club members took home Congrats to our members who placed at this weekend’s LIBME Beer and Mead Competition! 
  John Soj won First Places in Belgian Ales and Spice/Herb/Vegetable and repeating for the second year, won Best in Show! 
  Chris Bonacorsa won First and Second Place in Pale & Amber European Lager, Second Place in American Pale & Amber Ales, and Honorable Mention in Best in Show! 
  Christopher Cerney won First Place Autumn and Winter Seasonals. 
  Ken Dalton took Third Place in Smoked & Wood Aged Beers. 
  Eric Sowa took Third Place in British and Scottish Amber & Dark Ales.
  Andrew Shumway & Team Marshmallow took Third Place in Autumn and Winter Seasonals.
• Great showing by HHCBC with 9 ribbons and 2 best in show awards!
• Full results are up at http://libme.brewcomp.com/

Brew for a Cure

• Also on Saturday, November 19^th in Maspeth, Queens.
• HHCBC participated in an open style homebrew competition/charity event, with all proceeds go to support St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
• Congrats to Bernie Ramchatesingh for scoring Second Place with his Cold Brewed Coffee Blonde Ale.

Upcoming Events:

Homebrew Alley

• Will be held on February 10^th & 11^th at Alewife in Long Island City.
• Great regional competition. Clubs from NYC, NJ, CT, Westchester and Long Island are all well represented in the competition.
• Still plenty of time to get brewing.
• Competition website is up for registering entries, and to sign up as a judge or steward at homebrewalley.com

Taste of Rockville Centre

• On January 27^th, HHCBC will again be pouring at the annual Taste of Rockville Centre, a charity event that supports the town of RVC’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
• Brew Slots full, buy some tix if you’d like to attend.

Hops & Props

• Also on February 11, we will be pouring at the Hops & Props beer festival at the Cradle of Aviation museum, which is now a single-session event, beginning at 6pm for VIPs
• Slots are full for this one as well, ticket link here: https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1383167

NYC Fermentation Festival

• Saturday, February 25^th, 2017 Brooklyn Expo Center, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
• We still have room for more brewers, you can sign up through the pinned post at the top of the FB page, find me after announcements if you need more info.

Spring Craft Beer Festival and Blue Point Cask Fest on the horizon, more details as we get them.

Other News:

I’m putting out a call to everyone who purchased barrels from our group buy at Kings County Distillery to put together a tasting of our beers for the January or February meeting. If you’ve aged something in your barrel, let me know.

Next CHOPPED Round will likely be announced at next month’s meeting, for tasting expected for March Meeting.

BJCP Mead Exam

• There will be a BJCP Mead Exam held on February 25 at H&H.
• You’ll need to pass the online mead exam before you can sit for the tasting exam.
• https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bjcp-mead-exam-tickets-29236888320

Meeting Topics/Presentations

• Looking for ideas on discussion topics or presentation themes for meetings.
• If you’ve got an idea on something, even if you don’t want to do the presentation, please see me after the announcements.

H&H Update – Pete

Membership News – Jason

Merchandise

• John has club shirts available for purchase. $10 for charter members, $15 if you’re not.

Membership

• We are starting the renewal process for 2017 (or to join for 2017).
• $25 for an individual membership, $40 for a family.
• This year we will be offering a “super-club” membership. For $10 more you will get cross-membership in all three Long Island home brewing clubs: HHCBC, LIBME & BEER.  The additional charge will be used for inter-club events sometime next year.
• See Jason and Danielle after the announcements to sign up or renew.
• CC or PayPal, $2 surcharge for CC, not sure about PayPal

Presentation of 2016 HHCBC Appreciation Awards

John Dispirito – Our Brewer of the Year – John, you’ve continued to impress all of us and I’m sure annoy some of us with your brewing acumen and skill, evidenced in your ability to continually craft award winning and palate pleasing beers.

Eric Sowa – Outstanding Service to the Club – Eric from the outset, you’ve brought in new ideas and made it your mission to proactively reach out to event organizers and seek out new opportunities to spread our passion for homebrewing and craft beverage enjoyment.

Nick Cimorelli – Special Appreciation – Nick, for taking the time and effort to apply your craft and creativity to rebuilding the jockey boxes, helps us to look sharp and stand out from the crowd at events, we thank you sir.

Matt Zinzer – Graphic Design Guru – Matt, for all your work using your design skills to help us always look our best when working events and pressing the flesh with our branded banners and cards. I’m always surprised at people’s faces when we give them our printed materials and they’re like “Oh, you guys aren’t just a bunch of drunks hanging out in a garage?” Your talents lend a legitimacy to our delinquency. We’re a bunch of organized boozehounds that hang out in a shop! Take that!

Next Meeting

• The next meeting will be Tuesday, January 17, at location: TBD.
• Once again, I’d like to put together a tasting of beer from those of us that have made barrel purchases from Kings County Distillery this last summer, so if you’ve got a barrel, come chat me up.

Thanks to Barrier Brewing!

• We want to take a moment to thank Katie and the crew at Barrier for making us feel at home here for our holiday celebration. Take good care of her.
• Finally, on behalf of the club we wish everyone a Happy Hanukkah, a Merry Christmas, a Joyous Kwanzaa, and a safe and Happy New Year Grenade Brigade! Cheers!