Blog – Page 3 – North Texas Homebrewers Association

February 7, 2024

Help with the Bluebonnet Brew-Off

A couple of items related to Bluebonnet Judging.

James Lallande is our Head Judge this year and is working on scheduling judges. There is a page on the Bluebonnet website: https://bbbrewoff.com/bluebonnetbrewoff/judging-assignments/ that shows the current judge assignments. You can go to that link and see where you have been assigned.

We currently do not have enough judges for Wee Heavy and Smoke beers. If you are not already assign and can judge that day, please contact James at [email protected] and update him on your availability.

Last, for our BJCP/Experienced judges, We need a backup Site Head Judge if Fritz is unavailable. The role is just to resolve any judging issues like wrong category clarification. If you are willing to be the backup Site Head Judge, please contact James at the email address above.

Thanks, Jimmy

February 5, 2024

February 2024 Newsletter is Published

Here is the link to the newsletter: Click me for the newsletter

Quick Sips for January:

What	Where	When	Time
Officers Meeting	Bavarian Grill	February 6th	6:30pm – 8:30pm
Club Meeting	Bitter Sisters Brewery	February 13th	6:30pm – 8:30pm

Quick Sips

These and other events can be found on our Club Calendar.

Bluebonnet Brew-Off judging starts this weekend. We will be judging at NTHBS Friday nights and Saturdays for the next few weeks. Judging will improve your brew as it introduces you to styles and problems. Please come out and help.

You can register your availability at: Click Me

Cheers,
Jimmy

January 30, 2024

Bluebonnet Brew-Off Help at Login

We will be logging in the entries for the 2024 Bluebonnet Brew-Off this Saturday February 3rd. We will need help. If you can come out we would really appreciate it. If you have never been to the competition login, you can learn what goes on before judging. How we create anonymous entries and sort into Tables (medal categories).

It usually does not go past about 1:30pm. We move really quickly.

We also might need help getting entries that were dropped off at North Texas Homebrew Supply to login. We had about 15 case boxes this weekend but more will be trickling in. We are also getting Kettle to Keg’s drop offs that need to be transported to the Church. If you have a truck and can help move entries, please contact Jimmy at [email protected]. We may need covered beds or tarps as it looks like rain on Friday and Saturday.

The login location is Peace Lutheran Church. We start at 9am. The address is:
941 W Bedford Euless Rd, Hurst, TX 76053

Cheers,
Jimmy

January 19, 2024

The results for COC are in !

The first COC of ’24 was a great success with 12 entries, all different styles, which makes for a fun round of judging. After considerable discussion among the judges; Sir Bill Lawrence, Doug Hicks, Garrett Bryan, Malachy Bryan and Eric Morgan, the judges selected a Belgian Single brewed by Jimmy Orkin for the bronze, an American Wheat brewed by James “Smitty” Smith for the silver and the gold goes to Mark Rendon for his British Brown Ale. All excellent beers.

You can see the results over at coc.nthba.org and download your score sheet.

Thanks to North Texas Homebrew Supply (now open on Mondays) for allowing us to use their store for few hours and Eric for staying late.

Reminder you collect Brewer Royale points for being a COC judge.

Thanks again to all who entered, the next COC will be in March, registration will open March 1st and close the day of the March club meeting (COC takes place on the odd numbered months).

Cheers John,

[email protected]

January 19, 2024

Reminder! Winter Party THIS Saturday!

Smitty here. Reminding everyone about our Winter Party coming up tomorrow starting at 6:30 PM. The club is providing a BBQ trifecta of pulled pork, chicken, and jalapeno-cheddar sausage. As always, please bring an appetizer, side, or desert. Our address is HERE.

We will award the Brewer Royale trophy and prizes along with the Big Mohunker prize. You must be present to win the Big Mohunker.

Please bring your own beverages of choice, including and especially homebrew to share. The club kegerator is not slated to be in attendance, but we do have a limited number of spare jockey boxes should you wish to bring a keg. Tap space is first come, first served, so please email [email protected] no later than 6PM today to reserve a space. If you do not let me know or we run out of available taps, you will need to supply your own gas and dispensing method.

Texas weather in January is living up to expectations tomorrow with high only in the upper 30’s. Our garage bar is climate controlled and well ventilated, so we should have plenty of room to congregate somewhere inside. Smoking is permitted in the garage bar.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected].

Cheers!
Smitty

January 11, 2024

Recap of Tuesday Meeting/Socials Update/Upcoming Events

I covered a lot of ground at last night’s meeting and wanted to provide a recap along with a rundown of the events this month.

Brewdays:

Brewdays will be on the 3^rd Saturday of each month unless: 1) there is not a brewday that month, OR 2) there is a special event.
Brewdays will occur at the NTHBS unless someone volunteers to host at their place
Brewdays will require at least one volunteer to brew. Preferably, other brewers participate. You can bring your own equipment or brew on the store Gen 3 35L 240V Brewzilla.
See Club Calendar HERE for dates.

Club Meetups:

One per quarter with possibly one or two others added throughout the year. Stay tuned.
Q1 – Bluebonnet
Q2 – Pub Crawl possibly w/Dallas area clubs
Q3(September) – Oktoberfest @ Bavarian Grill
Q4 – Local brewery, likely Autonomous Society

Events this month:

Saturday, Jan 13 9am-3pm: Brewday at Mike Grover’s. As always, members are welcome to brew. Otherwise, please come by, socialize, and bring your homebrew for sharing and evaluation. More details HERE.
Saturday, Jan 20 6:30pm-???: Winter Party at James Smith’s.
At the time of this post, the club will provide smoked pulled pork, sausage, and chicken.
Bring an appetizer, side, or desert to share, along with your homebrew.
We will award the Big Mohunker and Brewer Royale prizes.
Bring your homebrew to share! Commercial beer allowed also. If you plan on bringing a keg, we have jockey boxes to serve your beer from. Please send an email to [email protected].
More details HERE.
Saturday, Jan 27 8am – 3pm: Big Rig Brewday / Housewarming Party: 5pm till ???
Some of you know that one of our longtime club members Wayne Yandell has a 1.5 bbl 3-vessel system that the club and others brew on from time to time. Several award-winning beers have been brewed on this system in recent years, including Labor of Love best of show and a Bluebonnet stein.
A group from the club will be brewing a Czech Pilsner(BJCP 3B Czech Premium Pale Lager) on Saturday, Jan 27 starting at 8am. Anyone is welcome to attend and even help brew if you want. Wayne and his wife, Jennifer are graciously hosting a house warming party starting at 5pm as they have recently completed construction at their new residence on this beautiful property. Please RSVP to Wayne at his email address HERE. The address is HERE.

Club Parties:

I did not touch on club parties throughout the year for the benefit of anyone new. Last year, we had 4 club parties throughout the year and we plan to continue with that, assuming we get volunteer hosts. Aside from the Winter Party mentioned above, they are presently TBD as follows:

Spring Party: Sometime April-June timeframe.
Limbo Awards/Summer Party: Follows Limbo Judging in August
Fall/Oktoberfest Party: September/October

Stay tuned on these events throughout the year.

In conclusion, we have a busy slate of activities coming up this year. As I stated in the January Newsletter, our success as a club with these events relies on member attendance. We understand everyone is very busy and the likelihood for most of attending every event isn’t possible. Please plan to attend as many as you can. If you have ANY questions about brewdays and events, please do not hesitate to email me HERE.

Thanks!
“Smitty”

January 8, 2024

January club meeting at NTHBS store Tuesday, Jan 9th

Reminder that tomorrow night is the January club meeting at North Texas Homebrew Supply starting at 6:30pm.

The club will provide pizza and everyone is encouraged to bring your homebrew to share. The more the merrier.

Pizza, homebrew, good friends, does it get any better?

Yes it does, as January is a COC month so make sure you have registered your COC entry by 5pm at coc.nthba.org and bring your 2 bottles to the meeting. If you can’t make the meeting to drop off your entries let me know and we can make arrangements.

Cheers John,

[email protected]

January 2, 2024

January 2024 Newsletter is Published

Here is the link to the newsletter: Click me for the newsletter

Quick Sips for January
Officers Meeting – @Palio’s Pizza Café Richardson – January 3rd 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Club Meeting – @NTHBS – January 9th 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Brewday – @Mike Grover’s – January 13th 9am – 3pm
Winter Party – @Smitty’s – January 20th 6:30pm – ???

These and other events can be found on our Club Calendar.

Also, Bluebonnet Brew-Off entry registration starts today at Noon. You know some medal categories will fill up quickly. Get your entries in today. You can always go back and edit them in their current medal category or into a different medal category if there is room. The maximum entries in a medal category is 36.

Pay for your entries within an hour. Unpaid entries older than an hour are automatically deleted.

Cheers,
Jimmy

January 1, 2024

Reminder, Bluebonnet opens Tuesday Jan 2, at noon

Reminder that Bluebonnet Brew-Off registration opens Tuesday Jan 2 at noon. The popular categories are likely to fill up within hours. If you are unsure about which style your beer fits into, you can always move it to a different style at a later date (as long as the style is still open and you have paid your entry fee).

January’s COC is a great way to prep for BBO as we should have the COC judging completed before the BBO registration closes on Jan 27th. January COC registration closes Jan 9th at 5pm and entries due at the club meeting at North Texas Homebrew Supply.

Cheers John,

[email protected]

December 12, 2023