What: January Monthly Meeting and a changing of the guard
Where: Eagle Rock Homebrew Shop, 4981 Eagle Rock Blvd, Los Angeles, Ca 90041
When: Saturday January 10th, 2pm – 6pm, Delayed due to the New Years Holiday this weekend, Happy New Year!!
Why: You are an awesome Yeastside Member and you want to welcome the new board with some great homebrew.
Greetings Yeastside Brewers,
I hope you all had a great holiday and are ready for New Years! 2015 is right around the corner. As I reflect on the year, I want to thank each and everyone of you for being part of the Yeastside Brewers. You made my job easy this year and I always felt supported and honored to be president this year. I know there is always more we could have done or I wanted to do, but we accomplished a lot of great things this year, and I am excited for the coming year and where we will go from here. Onward and Upward!!
I also want to personally thank my fellow board members for their hard work and dedication. Luis, as Vice President and soon to be President, thank you for your positive attitude, your quick resolve in finding meeting locations and logistics for those meetings, and offering up your brewing space to fellow members and really being a mentor to new brewers. Gayle, as Treasurer, thank you for bringing the club into the 21st Century with the addition of Square payments, coming up with a great system for managing current and new members and always being ready and willing to help in any way you could. Jeremy, as Administrative Coordinator, thank you mitigating the Spam that constantly attacks our website, being a part of almost all of our activities throughout the year even with a move out of the area, and your willingness to help at the drop of a hat. Josh, as Competition Coordinator and soon to be Vice President, thank you for putting together the Brewer of the Year, filling in for me on a few email blasts this year when I was unable to put them together, and informing members of the changes in Homebrew Law which helped to bring back the Southern California Homebrew Festival.
There are also some people that I want to thank for help in organizing some events this last year. Victor, thank you for helping coordinate the CRAFTED event and also for helping organize some of the other events we had this year. Jerl, thank you for hosting and coordinating the Cider Pressing. Sally, thank you for hosting and organizing the Hollywood Pub Crawl. Matt and Sarah, thank you for inviting the club to the Ventura Beer Experience. Will, thank you for opening up your home to host our April meeting. Dave L, thanks for hosting our October Meeting at the Old Oak’s Cellar Winery. If I am missing anything I apologize. As we look forward to the coming year, we have a lot of events to lead or participate in and I encourage everyone to participate as it will really help our club grow and prosper. Sorry for the long winded email!! It is my last one!
Things to bring to Saturday’s Meeting:
- Tasting Glass (YSB glasses are for sale)
- Homebrew
- Money or Credit Card for shirts, glassware, and merchandise
- Food! We will have some EZ Ups for shade and sharable snacks are always welcome
The December Meeting Bus Tour was a huge success!! Thank you to the 45 members who attended! We attended three breweries, The Bruery, Noble, and Bottle Logic. All the breweries were welcoming and offered us a discount for coming in and tours when they were available. A special thanks to The Bruery. We had a private tasting set up in the Brewery and got to look at their new bottling line and recent expansion. I was glad to be able to have that tour as a final event of the year. I am hoping we will continue to have a special meeting at the end of each year!!
Brewer of the Year and Upcoming Competitions:
The final results are in for Brewer of the Year and I would like to congratulate Ward Walkup IV for his excellent brewing this year. Ward has always brewed amazing beers and he is consistently placing in homebrew competitons. The final tallies will be posted in the next email blast. We are currently working on your trophy Ward!!
With 2014 done, the 2015 Brewer of the Year contest is starting right away! We will update the website with the 2015 schedule but wanted to let you know about two upcoming contests in January.
2015 Doug King Memorial Homebrew Competition
The Doug King is run by the Maltose Falcons and is coming up really quick! Entries are due Saturday January 10th!! Judging will take place on January 24th in Woodland Hills. All the info about the competition is in the above link. There is a twist to the competition this year. The overall winner will have their beer brewed by Eagle Rock Brewery as their GABF Pro Am entry. This year there is a new category, “The British are Coming!!!” The winner of this category will have their beer brewed at MacLeod Ale Brewery Co. in Van Nuys. These are 2 great opportunities to have your homebrew brewed on a pro system and serve to a greater audience. It is unfortunately a little late to brew for this competition(unless you brew right now!), but hopefully you have something to fit into the categories listed on the Maltose Website. Good Luck!
Romancing the Beer 2015 Competition
There is a new competition added to our Brewer of the Year Competition. It is run by the Thousand Oaks Homebrewers. Registration and entries are due January 31st. The judging will take place on February 8th in Moorpark. All the details and styles accepted are in the link above. There is plenty of time to brew for this contest, so fire up those burners and lets have a strong Yeastside showing!!
The National Homebrew Competition is run by the American Homebrewers Association. It is the mother of all homebrew competitions! Just last year, there were over 8,000 entries. The registration window is February 2nd – 8th. This basically means that you have to register on the 2nd to have a chance in this competition. More info to come at the January Meeting.
As for most competitions, there is always need for volunteers, stewards, and judges. In both of the links, there is a link to register. I will most likely be judging at the Doug King and it usually a great learning experience to see a how a Homebrew Competition runs. Hopefully I will see some of your lovely faces at the events!
Upcoming Events and Updates:
Southern California Homebrew Festival – May 1st and the 2nd Save the Date!!!
After a long struggle and back and forth with California Legislatures, we are fortunate to have the SCHF back on for 2015!! We are looking to have a strong showing from the Yeastside Brewers. We will have room for 48 people to attend and would love to fill that number. The event is very special and a great way to show your support for homebrew, your club, and serve your homebrew to a group of over 2000 people! We will have more info to come but we wanted to have people start saving the date!! All the info about registration is on the website above. The basic info is you buy a yearly membership to the CHA for $10, and then you can purchase the ticket to the Festival in the members only area. Currently, tickets are $25 until the end of January, but they will increase to $30 in February. We will have campsites organized through the club for a per person fee. Feel free to talk with any board members, or previous board members, about the event. It is not one to miss!
Transplant Brewing Indiegogo Campaign:
There are just a few more hours to support fellow Yeastside Members, Matt and Sarah, with their Indiegogo campaign. They are in the process of opening their own brewery in the beautiful city of Palmdale and need your help and support!! There is still a chance to buy beer for life!
YSB Logo T-Shirts and Glasses for Sale:
- Yeastside Brewers logo Pint Glass, $5
- New Yeastside Brewers Logo T-Shirt, sizes M to XXXL, $25
- Classic Yeastside Brewers T-Shirt, sizes M to XXXL, $20
- Neck Lanyard, $5
- Combo Pint Glass and Neck Lanyard, $10
February’s Meeting will be at 55 Degree Wine in Atwater Village
I look forward to seeing you all next weekend. Happy Brewing to you all, and see you next Saturday!
Cheers
Dave Ochoa – Yeastside Brewers President 2014