1) Big Brew was on Saturday May 4. CRABS, especiallly Rob Kiernan, cooked food all day for the crowd. Attendance was down, maybe due to the rain forecast.
2) Bikes and Beers will happen this Saturday May 18. The plan is to leave at 10:30 AM from Jeff Adelsberger’s house (email him at macbrak@gmail.com for address), or folks can catch the crowd at Crooked Crab at 11:00. Other stops will include Chesepiooc Brewing and The Hideaway. There’s a chance of storms, so Jeff will make a decision Friday night whether to shorten the route by skipping Chesepiooc.
3) The CRABS food/beer pairing will be this 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. Sign up at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MkMgCBDxHvpaAEx8BvE1ueWONawJ34XOpIE1XY0MysM/edit
4) Big congratulations to Zach Keim for his showing at FOAM’s Battle of the Bubbles. He won both the Stout and the Strong Belgian categories, and took 2nd place in the Spiced/Specialty category. Rob Farrell got an honorable mention in the IPA category. See https://bob.brewcomp.com/ for full winners list.
5) The Guild summer picnic will be on Saturday June 1st, from noon to dusk, at Patapsco State Park, Hollofield area, pavilion #300. Bring food and beer. It will feature the annual wheat beer contest. Bring your best wheat beer for a chance at cash prizes.
6) Annapolis Homebrew Club’s Pints for Paws will be on Saturday June 15th from 2 to 6 PM at the Navy football stadium in Annapolis. It will benefit the SPCA of Anne Arundel County. CRABS will serve several beers. See https://www.facebook.com/events/2502552786439024 for more info and tickets.
7) HomebrewCon will take place June 27-29 in Providence RI. CRABS has 17 people going! We will pair with the Guild on Club Night, and also pour one evening at Social Club. 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, J, K). HomebrewCon website is https://www.homebrewcon.org/
8) MASHOUT will take place August 15-18 in western Maryland at a new location: 11828 Mason Rd NE, Cumberland MD. This will no longer be a BURP event. Ron “Buck” Steele (who used to do maintenance on the old MASHOUT site at Popenoe Mountain) and his wife Elena have started Club MASHOUT to take over this event. Several Guild folks will join this club and donate seed money in order to help defray startup costs. A planning meeting will be held on Monday May 20 at MDHB starting at 4:30 PM. All are invited to attend. MASHOUT website is campmashout.com
9) The 6th annual Hometown Brewdown will take place on Saturday September 7. Website is https://www.catonsvillecoop.com/calendar/2019/9/7/6th-annual-catonsville-cooperative-markets-hometown-brewdown
10) Crabs4CRABS will be on Saturday September 14.
11) This month’s competition was malty lagers. There were 8 entries. Winners were:
5th - Rob Kiernan
4th - Zach Keim
3rd - Marty Mengele
2nd - Joe O’Keefe
1st - Trevor Rose
12) Next meeting: Wednesday June 19. Competition will be same grain / same hop.
13) Go to http://crabsbrew.org for CRABS-related information. The 2019 competition schedule is at http://crabsbrew.org/competition_schedule
14) See http://crabsbrew.org/Other_Competitions for a list of upcoming local homebrew competitions.