Category: Announcements

We ask that members only attend in-person events if they are COVID symptom free and we encourage home testing prior to keep all of us safe. Rules for meeting attendance may vary based on household or brewery establishment policy.

Homebrew Con (AKA the National Homebrewers Convention, AKA HBC) has been around a long time. The Underground Brewers have been around even longer. As far as we know, the club has never had an official presence at the convention. Until now….

The 2019 Homebrew Con was held in Providence, RI, practically in our backyard. From June 26 to June 29, hombrewers from all over the country gathered to learn, socialize, compete, and (of course) drink beer. Providence became, for that brief period, the homebrew capital of the world.

The HBC is rarely held anywhere near us. Most are held in the Midwest or on the West Coast. It had literally been decades since the last HBC in New England. So you can imagine our excitement on hearing that one would be happening just a short drive up I-95. A decision was quickly made: the club was going to be there, and we were going to show up in style.

What followed was a flurry of activity most unlike the normally-unfocused YAHOOS: an AirBnB was booked, a booth for Club Night was designed and fabricated, costumes were bought, beer was brewed. Hell, we even designed an entirely new logo to go on the booth decorations and costumes.

(Credit where due! Jaime Luna designed our awesome new logo, booth backdrop, and table skirt. Steve Victor and Caysey Welton put together the costumes and Caysey designed our beer menu. Pierre Margraff built our entire beer delivery system – 9 taps! Andy Tipler managed all the details of the housing, the kegs, the logistics, and the carpooling.)

The convention started, as it always does, with a day of BJCP exams and business meetings. The hot new exam on the block is for Cider Certification; only a few cider judges exist yet. Our own Steve (Pivo) Victor jumped in to take the exam and get certified. He will act as proctor when we administer the exam in February.

Most of the rest of use showed up later that day in a complex caravan of cars, kegs, costumes, and people, convening at a local watering hole for a few beers before retiring to the Airbnb. Once there, we had a few more beers. And meads. And ciders. You know how these things go.

Thursday’s dawn came far too early. But we had to saddle up. What are YAHOOS, first and foremost? Judges. And Thursday was the final round of the National Homebrew Competition. 4 or 5 of us were judging. A couple were stewarding. Our own Jim Link, Grand Master judge, was even invited to work the Best Of Show table. Game on!

Thursday night brought the official kickoff party featuring beer brewed by many local(ish) commercial breweries. As we roamed the aisles, we all thought the same thing: our beer is better. We’d all rather be back at the Airbnb, drinking our own homebrew. So, eventually, that’s where we went.

Friday was full of lectures and panels. Good stuff. Lots to learn and lots of people to meet. The lectures were generally excellent. But we were distracted. By mid-afternoon, we were all in the Club Night room, setting up our booth.

And then, the moment we’d all been waiting for: Club Night. We were ready to pour our best for the other homebrewers.

Once more, we limped back to our Airbnb, there to rehash the glory of our booth and drink a few more beers. We were joined by Mara’s dad, about whom we’ve heard so much. Andy T and Pierre, however, went to bed early because…..

First thing Saturday morning, Andy and Pierre gave their lecture on techno brewing toys for cheapskates. The room was packed. The talk was VERY well-received. By all accounts, one of the highlights of HBC. Woot!

After that, we broke down the booth and packed it in the cars, caught a few last lectures, had lunch (and a couple of more beers), and stumbled home. There were more parties going on, but we were done.

A wildly successful convention and a great showing by the club.

Time to start planning for next year in Nashville!

Passing along this note from Nurse:

I have been engaged by Two Roads to develop coffee in beer. Nothing small about this!!!!!

They are still looking for judges for NERHBC, 10/24 in Nashua. I judged this comp last year. Very well run. Good food. http://bfd.org/nerhbc/

And also for LIBME’s 3rd Annual, 11/21 in Bayshore. If Bayshore seems like a long drive, be aware that the plan is to get the whole thing done in one flight, leaving you the rest of the day free to explore. http://beermalt.net/

And LIBME is hosting a MEAD EXAM on 2/20 in Patchogue. This is the only mead exam to be held in this area in the next year or two, so jump on it. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bjcp-mead-certification-exam-tickets-17768677593

Our 40th Birthday Party was a HUGE success, attracting many old YAHOOS not seen in years as well as some of our newest members. The legendary Pat Baker, founder of Crosby&Baker, the HWBTA, the BJCP, and our little club, was there, telling stories of the club’s founding. There was plenty of excellent beer, of course, and lots of fun.

I will post photos as soon as I can wrest them from Handy Andy’s grasp.

Many, many thanks to all involved. I’m sure I’m going to forget people, so forgive me. The ones I can remember are: Two Roads for the room, Kendra for negotiating with them and handling a million details, Pivo for the pizza and soda, Jane for the wonderful cake (obtained and decorated at the very last minute because I was too stoopid to plan ahead), Andy for brewing beer especially for the event and taking pictures, and everyone for bringing great food and drink.

Andy Tipler, Greg Radawich, and I had the pleasure of judging at the First Round of the National Homebrew Competition in New York City this weekend. I posted some pictures to the BJCP group on Facebook while I was there and commented on the fact that I appreciated how well-run it was. Another group member, Dana Cordes, asked me why I said that. My answer to him grew too long for a Facebook post. So I’m moving it here. I hope that it might prove useful to anyone involved in running a competition.

I am writing as a judge, about what made my day of judging fun. But I’ve also been involved in the organizational side of competitions for long enough that I know a little about that. So I can make some pretty good guesses about what the organizers did in the weeks preceding the comp to make my day (days, actually — 3 flights over 2 days) go smoothly.

The competition was run by Mary Izett and Chris Cuzme, and they deserve much of the credit. They were ably supported by a large and well-seasoned crew from the NYC-area homebrew clubs. (I encourage you to view their own FB posts to get the full list of organizers. The cellar and IT crew deserve special mention for their excellence.) NYC has a LOT of homebrewers and a LOT of active volunteers. I realize that some of what I liked might be hard to replicate in places with sparser coverage. But much of it comes down to good leadership.

So here are the reasons why I, as a judge, found the NYC NHC First Round enjoyable. They are in no particular order. Just jotting them down as they come to mind. (In fact, as I review this, I realize that I left some of the most important points for last.)

We started on time. We finished on time. There was an absolute minimum of milling about, waiting for things to get organized. Nothing is more demoralizing for a judge than to fight through traffic for hours trying not to be late only to hang around doing nothing for an hour (or two) once you get there.

Instructions were complete but concise. We knew what was expected of us but there was no droning on. (Something I need to work on in my own organizational role.)

The stewards ROCKED. Seriously. I know that there is talk of running competitions without stewards. Maybe it works. But I know that, as a judge, I utterly depend on my steward to keep the day running smoothly. A steward who knows what he or she is doing makes me 2X – 3X more productive. All three of  my steward (Ralph Bass, Rita Ghei, and James DiMauro) were outstanding. Everything I needed appeared at my elbow, usually before I had to ask for it. Everything I was done with disappeared. There was no hanging about waiting for some necessary but missing item. And it was all done with a smile.

There was enough of everything: score sheets, cover sheets, summary sheets, instruction sheets, cups, pencils, openers, staplers, etc., etc., etc. Again, no waiting about for someone to run to the copy shop or the store for more cups.

There was enough food. Yummy food. Served on time. “Enough” is important — the slower panels didn’t find empty trays when they finished up their flights.

The venue helped make it fun. It was a craft beer place, serving its own excellent brew. Its own staff was fantastically supportive. It was big enough that we were not cramped but snug enough that it didn’t feel cold and sterile. (I’ve judged in big conference centers and wished desperately for a little LESS space to make it feel a little more “homey”.) Lighting was good. Sound levels were reasonable. We never had to worry about spillage or gushers destroying a carpet.

The cellar was totally organized and reasonably close. I know what goes into unpacking and labeling hundreds of entries and getting them all set up for competition day. We did not have to wait for entries to be found or brought from some distant location. Everything was chilled. Nothing was shaken.

Workload was totally reasonable. There were enough judges to keep flights at a reasonable size. This was a big part of “finishing on time”. None of the judges felt abused.

A lot of work went into judge assignments so that novice judges were accommodated without sacrificing the quality of the judging. The novices (many of whom were well into rigorous classes in preparation for the tasting exam) were usually assigned as the 3rd judge on a team. It is fun to teach new judges and even more fun when it doesn’t affect the workload or quality of the judging. Even panels without a novice were carefully paired to combine more-experienced with less-experienced judges.

Did I mention that the food was good? And the beer at the bar? We felt very pampered.

Smaller categories were accommodated in a thoughtful way, with split panels handling multiple small categories sequentially. For example, we had 3 panels who judged Light Hybrids and then Amber Hybrids in one session. But working this way, rather than giving all of one category to one panel, we were able to balance the workload and all finish on time, even with the required Best Of Category rounds.

The organizers kept it fun. Maybe this is a luxury you get only when you have a deep bench full of very experienced staff; you can relax when you know there will be no drama. But it makes a big difference. Lots of laughs and good times. No visible stress.

Communication before the event was great. All the important info; minimal noise.

I think that’s about it: Lots of what we needed (supplies, food, light, staff support) and very little of what we didn’t (waiting, stress, long-winded speeches). A relaxed, highly-competent, well-trained, experienced staff. A fun venue. And a great attitude.

Simple, right?

 

Many thanks to Dave and Gena for hosting the Holiday Party and Silli Biere Competition! The party was, as always, a rousing success. Many excellent bottles were swapped. The Competition was small, but all the entries were clever and wonderful.

Handy Andy took many pictures. Look for them on the Facebook page.

Our next meeting will be in January at Clone and Carole’s house in Stratford. Full details will be sent via the usual channels. With luck, I’ll have the November tasting notes posted by then.

Don’t forget: The club birthday party is coming up in March!

Club Birthday Party May 9

The club turns 40 years old this year. And to celebrate, we’re having a party on May 9 at Two Roads Brewery. More details will follow, but get it on your calendars now!

Many things need to get done to make this party a success. Want to lend a hand? Contact me.

I just received this in the mail. I have not vetted it. Just passing it along to you all.

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Hello Underground Brewers of Connecticut,

I am a television producer with VPEtalent casting a new television concept alongside Original Media (producers of LA Ink, Comic Book Men, and Tatum Channing’s new series on A&E). You can find out more about us here at vpetalent.com and originalmedia.com.

Currently in development, the series will feature experts in the brewing and distilling world who create the best backyard alcohol. If you make the best hard cider out of your own home, then we are looking for you.

We are looking for the best of the best homebrewers and distillers to show off their skills as masters of homemade concoctions as well as follow their daily lives. We were wondering if you know of anyone in your club who fits this description or would be interested in this project.

The focus of our show will be presenting how our experts create alcohol as their passion and as well as their livelihood. If this has piqued your interest please feel free to respond to this email and I would be happy to discuss the project further. Or if you know someone who might be a great fit for this please forward this message along and we would be happy to speak with them as well.

I look forward to connecting with you at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Matt Drezdzon