This year's Variant Homebrewing Competition will be orchestrated around the Winter Social and will focus on process.  For those unfamiliar, the Variant Homebrewing Competition is an event which focuses on allowing changes around one particular aspect of the beer to see how significantly different and tasty of beers we can come up with.  Since we at Boeing are adept at making small improvements to our line of aircraft, we should be able to do the same for our beers.  In this contest, competitors will be given a kit of ingredients, all of which must be used in the brew.  The kits will include malt extract or base malt (brewer's choice), specialty grains, hops, yeast, priming sugar and bottle caps.  This year, everyone must brew the same exact recipe and the variable is your brewing process.  How clean is your operation?  How vigorous is your boil?  How do you add your hops?  All of these things (and many more) affect how the same recipe will come out and we'll see who can do the best with what they have.  

So, what do you need to do to participate?  Well, first, let us know that you want a kit.  To enter the competition, please register online at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=PE0Cnt9SFWXCg3GYH0NcyQ_3d_3d

or contact Mark Emiley (206-251-1344 or markemiley @earthlink.net) to register and receive your ingredient kit.  Requests must be made by September 30^th.  They will be prepared and available for pickup at Larry's Brewing Supply in Kent, WA.  CLICK READ MORE FOR MORE DETAILS

Mark your calendars onow for an American Homebrewers Association (AHA) Membership Rally on August 23rd at Big Time Brewery from 5-9 pm.  It is looking like we'll be featuring more than half of the Puget Sound Pro-Am beers for your sampling. Bill Jenkins, the brewer at Big Time, will be giving tours. Several of the winning Pro-Am brewers will be there in case you want to pick their brains about the scaling up and brewing of their homebrews recipes. We are also trying to make it into a showing of WAHA so you'll be able to meet up with the officers and reps (wear your WAHA shirts!) There should also be some appetizers available and we'll be holding a raffle. Basically just a great time to mingle with fellow beer lovers and homebrewers.

Several local clubs are getting ready to do a set of coordinated BJCP classes.  The goal is to be able to schedule classes in several areas where different classes are being taught each week so that if you miss one, you could attend another location's meeting.  They are likely to be held in Everett, North Seattle, and Kirkland.

Most home brewers and wine makers in Washington are not aware of the state regulations which regulate your transportation of beer and wine.  RCW 66.12.010 creates the opening for producing home wine and beer without a license and RCW 66.28.140 provides limitations for transporting it out of the house of production.  What it boils down to is:

• You can't transport home wine or beer out of the house except for competitions
• You can only take out 1 gallon at a time for the competitions
• Only judges or the person producing the wine or beer can consume it (and it has to be consumed for judging)
• Leftovers have to be sent home

The Board has evaluated and approved a grape procurement proposal to move the open enrollment period for grape purchases to a start date of April 1st instead of May 1st.

This decision was made in order to better compete with the many other entities vying for Washington State fruit. We encourage club members to send in their membership payments soon as this is a requirement for participating in the April 1st procurement activities.

The board also approved the purchase of new macrobins and food grade pitchforks to better handle crush activities, and new glasses for club tastings and recognition events.

With February behind me in my first full month as President, what strikes me as most memorable is the impressive effort your club volunteers spend in support of the whole organization. I attending Steve Foisie's sensational wine testing seminar and watched and learned as he led twenty of us on an expert and fun journey through the in's and out's of wine lab techniques and testing, with invaluable lessons from his personal years of experience spread throughout the day. I participated in the grape procurement focal meeting lead by Dean Sprayberry and listened to a professional and detailed analysis of our clubs experience and relationships with vineyard owners, and a somewhat sobering account of the competition we are facing for quality fruit access. I lead my first board meeting, where we had outstanding participation, and listened to Brad Sherman's thorough proposal regarding wine glass purchase options, including a hands on review of close to a dozen glasses, with taste testings. Our past President Mark Emily is as focused and energetic as ever, leading a packed agenda for the brewers at the Pyramid Brewery and working hard on behalf of all of us to improve the home brew laws of Washington State. With all of this activity, you'd think we'd be in the New York Times - and we were. Thanks so much to all of our current and future volunteers.