January 2022

1. The latest Covid spike resulted in reduced attendance – about a dozen folks.

2. Dues for 2022 are $25 for individuals or $40 for families. You can PayPal or Venmo to rob.kiernan@yahoo.com or give Rob a check or cash at any CRABS meeting.

3. HomebrewCon will take place at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh on June 23-25. See https://www.homebrewcon.org/ for details. We hope to participate in Club Night and Social Club but will work out the details later. Registration is 2 months away but you can book a hotel now. There are several hotels stumbling distance from the venue. There is a Google doc for folks to communicate with others regarding which hotel they’ve booked or to look for a room to share at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TTZHcDd3MP7R7IJQWHylGFPvQF2SMDhJJqD_rKRcQf4/edit#gid=0

4. Now would be a good time to start planning to brew for May’s same-grain-and-same-hop competition. Here are the rules:

  • Must use the exact grain & hop bill

  • Smoking or roasting of grain is not permitted

  • No other adjuncts can be added (finings & enzymes ok)

  • Any yeast can be used

  • Ingredients can be scaled up or down, but ratio of water/grain/hops must remain the same

  • Brewer has freedom in the process (mash temp, hopping schedule, water profile, etc...)

Here are the required ingredients and amounts for a 5-gallon batch:

  • 8.5 lbs Viking Xtra Pale malt (1.9 SRM)

  • 8.0 oz honey malt (25.0 SRM)

  • 8.0 oz white wheat malt (2.4 SRM)

  • 4.0 oz caravienne 20L (Briess) (20.0 SRM)

  • 2.00 oz Hallertau Blanc hops [10.50 %]

  • 1.00 oz Cascade hops [5.50 %]

5. Max’s will have their Belgian fest on February 18-20. See https://www.facebook.com/events/848870139218182 for more info.

6. Next month’s First Thursday Happy Hour will be at Ale House Columbia (https://www.thealehousecolumbia.com/) on February 3 at 5:00 PM.

7. This month’s competition was hedonistic. It was our first competition since February 2020. There were 9 entries. Winners were:

  • 5th – Les White

  • 4th (tie) – Ed Shea

  • 4th (tie) – Jason Heinen

  • 3rd (tie) – Ethan Weikel

  • 3rd (tie) – Ben Schwalb

  • 2nd – John Jester

  • 1st – Rob Kiernan

8. Next meeting: Wednesday February 16. Competition will be IPAs (categories 12C and 21A-B).

9. Go to http://crabsbrew.org for CRABS-related information. The 2022 CRABS competition schedule is at http://www.crabsbrew.org/competition_schedule

meeting_date: 

January, 2022