1) Big Brew will be on Saturday May 4. Maryland Homebrew will have its annual event with food, beer, and folks brewing. Some CRABSters will brew.
2) The CRABS food/beer pairing will be on Sunday May 19 at Joe O’Keefe’s house. Awards will be given for best food, best beer, and best pairing. Find a partner to pair your food or beer with their beer or food.
3) BaltiBrew will hold its second annual Brübakes on Sunday April 14 at De Kleine Duivel. This is a competition where a saison is paired with a baked good. You may compete, or simply attend and taste. More info and tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/baltibrew-presents-brubakes-ii-tickets-58279568759
4) Registration is open for FOAM’s Battle of the Bubbles. See https://bob.brewcomp.com/ for info and to register.
5) Registration is open for BURP’s Spirit of Free Beer. See https://www.burp.org/spirit-of-free-beer/ for info and to register.
6) The Guild summer picnic will be on Saturday June 1st, from noon to dusk, at Patapsco State Park, Hollofield area, pavilion #300.
7) MASHOUT will take place August 15-18 in western Maryland. Details to follow in the upcoming months.
8) The CRABS hedonistic competition will be held in September, and Checkerspot has agreed to brew the winning recipe. The parameters are that the beer must be under 9% ABV and not contain funky yeast or bacteria.
9) Annapolis Homebrew Club’s Pints for Paws will be on Saturday June 15th. See https://www.eventbrite.com/e/5th-annual-pints-for-paws-homebrewing-and-craft-beer-festival-tickets-57470233014 for more info and tickets. If you’d like to donate a keg, email hello@annapolishomebrewclub.com
10) HomebrewCon will take place June 27-29 in Providence RI. The slogan this year is Brew England. CRABS is considering having a table for Club Night, Social Club, or the Knockout Party. If we don’t have enough beer for our own table, we may join the Guild at theirs. There is a Google doc at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZbUKKUg8E-SA37eqHJnexFogyAeEO7z8cfiwBvLQATg/edit#gid=0 where you can enter your travel plans and look for a room or a roommate. Several CRABSters will be driving, so if you have a keg that you’d like transported, put it in the Google doc (see columns I and J). HomebrewCon website is https://www.homebrewcon.org/
11) Ben recently did a 4500-mile beer journey in which he visited more than 40 breweries across the eastern half of the U.S. His triplog http://www.benbrew.com/EasternUS/ contains photos and beer assessments at each place. This might be a good resource for planning your own beer excursion.
12) This month’s competition was Belgian/Trappist. There were 13 entries. Winners were:
- 5th - Jeff Adelsberger
- 4th (tie) - John Wood
- 4th (tie) - John Bugert
- 4th (tie) - Don Zwach
- 3rd - Jay Thorpe
- 2nd - Rob Farrell
- 1st (tie) - Trevor Rose
- 1st (tie) - Jason Heinen
13) Next meeting: Wednesday April 17. Competition will be IPAs.
14) Go to http://crabsbrew.org for CRABS-related information. The 2019 competition schedule is at http://crabsbrew.org/competition_schedule
15) See http://crabsbrew.org/Other_Competitions for a list of upcoming local homebrew competitions.