Month: March 2022

Hop Farm Tour

Gooding Farms has invited us to tour their hop farm.

When: Saturday April 16th at 10:00 a.m.

Gooding Farms is located at 23669 Batt Corner Rd, Parma, ID.

It is a little over an hours drive to the farm from Boise. For those wishing to carpool meet at the Homebrew Stuff parking lot at 8:30. We can caravan from there. Please enter your name in this Sign-up Sheet (on the Gooding Farm tab) if you are interested in car sharing as a driver or a passenger. More details about the event and carpooling will be available at the April 14th Club meeting.

Brewer of the Year and Monthly Agenda

Greetings,

Now that you have had a chance to look over the new Brewer of the Year Points Program I am looking for some feed back. After having had many discussions with various Club members I went to work and drafted the program. My goal was to creat a process by which we can all get involved and receive recognition for doing so. Starting with our April monthly meeting and going forward David and Nicole will offer a different agenda each month, whether it be a contest or purely for educational purposes. Our ultimate goal is that we all get more out of the Club than just a place to gather and drink beer. We want this to be a fun and rewarding experience. After all the purpose of the Club is for us all to become better brewers. This is a new program so let’s see how it develops. Give it a few months and if you have any concerns or ideas for improvements please feel free to contact me. Like I said, I am looking for some feed back.

Thank you David Reish and Nicole Thompson for your assistance with editing the final draft of the Brewer of the Year document. Your willingness to step up and help bring a new life to the Snake River Homebrew Club is truly appreciated.

Happy Brewing,

Terry

terrjone@msn.com

Kick-Off of Club Contests and Brewer of the Year

Thanks to everyone who came out last night for our monthly meeting hosted at Mother Earth Nampa!

As we touched on briefly, we’re kicking off (nearly) monthly contests to help inspire members to brew more, try out new styles and techniques, and to foster some good ol’ fashioned brewer rivalry. All in the name of beer education, of course.

For those who missed last night’s meeting, or didn’t get a handout, be sure to check out our new Club Contests Overview document that explains the points accumulation rules by contest type and covers how we will be awarding various “brewer of the year” honors each December moving forward!

To get us started, our first monthly contest will take place during our monthly meeting on May 12. The theme for our inaugural contest is BJCP Category 1D: American Wheat Beer, a light, crushable, and Spring-appropriate style. We encourage you to participate either individually (or in teams!) to craft a perfect American Wheat pint that stays within the official guidelines, but expresses your unique take on this modern classic style. Need some inspiration to get started? Check out Beer and Brewing or Brew Your Own for some ideas. This contest will be decided by popular vote during the bottleshare hour, with points awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places. You’ve got two months, so get brewing!!

We’ll also work to announce monthly themes/contests at least 2-3 months in advance moving forward so everyone has time to prepare. And we’ll populate the calendar and meeting agendas with contest information as we lock it in, so be sure to check that out regularly.

Any questions, concerns, or ideas for a contest, please reach out to me or to our newly anointed Contest Director, Dave Reish. Leave a message here or find us on FB or Discord.

BJCP Tasting Exam Practice Session (3/16)

Hello aspiring BJCP judges!

Now that Beer School has ended, we know some of you may be looking for some final ways to prepare for the Tasting Exam on 3/19. If you are interested in getting together for some live beer judging practice sessions, we are tentatively planning to set something up for the evening of Wednesday, March 16th. 

We will meet at a brewery and order beer flights of some classic styles that might be expected to show up on exam day. We’ll walk through some judging best practices, complete scoresheets individually, and discuss our impressions and scores. Practice makes perfect!

Exact time and location are TBD and will be confirmed once we have a sense of who wants to attend (and where everyone lives). Scoresheets and some extra writing implements will be provided but you’ll be responsible for your own beer. 

Please note that this is NOT A SOCIAL EVENT and probably won’t be fun for you if you aren’t actually interested in either preparing for the tasting exam, or at least building some formal judging skills. 

If you are interested, please email me directly (thompson.nic@gmail.com) and let me know whether 3/16 works (we can consider alternate dates), and where you’ll be coming from so I can select an equally inconvenient location for most.

Cheers!

March 10, 2022 Meeting @ Mother Earth Brew Co. in Nampa

Our next meeting is around the corner! Join us at Mother Earth’s Nampa location for an action-packed agenda and Q&A session with co-owner Daniel Love! New or potential members always welcome.

We will be covering legislative updates, our upcoming BJCP exam, an April Hop Farm visit, the rollout of club contests, and so much more. Don’t forget to bring your bottles for the post-meeting bottleshare. See the detailed agenda in the Google Calendar invite.

When: Thurs, March 10th, 2022 (6-7p Happy Hour, Meeting starts @7p)

Where: MEBC-Nampa (1428 Madison Ave, Nampa, ID, 83687)