| 2013 Ninkasi Sponsor | 
Visit Four Peaks Brewing Co. Four Peaks Events and Announcements: Saturday, April 20 Four Peaks Festival Noon - 9pm
Celebrate Four Peaks Sweet 16 Anniversary at the Wilson Tasting Room. Food trucks, local live music, fresh beer - including many specialty brews - plenty of shade and misters. Free parking and admission
Thursday, May 9 Desert Belle Beer Dinner 6pm Enjoy a one-of-a-kind beer dinner on a boat! Tour beautiful Saguaro Lake on the Desert Belle while sipping packaged beer available on the boat year-round and a five-course meal. The finish includes Peach Ale for dessert. More details to come soon. |
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Member Benefit Corner
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Did you know
ASH Members get:
10 % off
What Ales Ya
Glendale
Click Here to See More ASH Membership Benefits
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Total Gallons Brewed in 2013
| 1079 Gallons
This tally is based on your input. Be sure to log your brews here
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Competition News,
Due Dates
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AHA-Club Only Competition entries in Extract Beer are due at the April General Meeting
is online.
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Greetings!
Yes, Easter was technically in March, but it seems like we are awfully hoppy in April. We've already had two excellent hop sessions with the Mikkeller series and Boulders on Broadway. Now at the General Meeting we'll have a Hop Main Event featuring Papago and Four Peaks.
It's always fun to "sample" hops after a long work day, but as a new brewer I've also had a good time this month learning even more about this essential ingredient.
Prost!
Angela (@girlfromarizona) |
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From the President
Several years ago I got into a discussion about whether homebrew saves you money. People often discount the time it takes to brew beer because they enjoy the process. A labor economist will tell you that your time has a value whether you enjoy the work or not. If you are mortal, you time has value. It should be cherished.
Over the last year, on a personal level, I've been reminded about how precious time is. This week finds me with another reason to pause and reflect on the size and depth of the individuals that comprise our club. This column has been seemingly devoted to asking of you, in the name of the club or on behalf others. As a leader of this organization, it's easy to ask you to put the club first although I personally know that it's impractical.
Today, I'm going to ask that we think about the value we all collectively have as a club. We have much to offer you and all you have to do is ask. Do you need a jockeybox for a wedding? Do you need a place to meet? Is there a job to be done that requires a few of your fellow club members? Do you have a message or an idea that needs a larger audience? We can provide that. Is there some idea that you have that we can help with? We are ready to help.
On a deeper level, if you know of someone that is unable to participate in the club because of financial reason, please pass that information on to me. If you know of a person in need that we can help as a network of brothers and sisters, please talk to me.
Life is too short to drink bad beer, but it's also too short.
�Salud!
Rob Fullmer
President, ASH
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From the Judges Table
Krystal Bittner
What a busy couple of weeks. Hope you all enjoyed the Judging presentation at the March meeting. Thanks to everyone who attended the Hops 101 and Hops Expert classes at Boulders on Broadway. During the expert level class the competition committee covered all of the hop data on the Cicerone and BJCP exams.
Speaking of BJCP... Existing judges are greatly encouraged to attend classes of the 2013 BJCP study course. The class has been registered with the BJCP. If an existing judge is interested in earning CEP points please contact me and attend as many of the study sessions as possible.
BJCP Class
The BJCP class starts on Monday, April 15 at 7pm. Attend these weekly classes as preparation for judging in the upcoming competition, preparation for the intense BJCP test, or just to increase your knowledge of beer and brewing. Each weekly class will focus on one BJCP style, a technical topic, and properly filling out score-sheets. The BJCP tasting sessions are open to all paid ASH members. The sessions will include a lot of lecture and note taking with a little tasting. A class fee of $5 covers the cost of the commercial examples. In order to have enough beer available for tasting, please RSVP by doing the following: Join the group here and RSVP for the class in the appropriate weekly Discussion Forum forum thread. The Discussion Forum thread for the first class on April 15 is here. Homebrewer of the Year / AHA Club Only Competition
As a reminder, here are the remaining HBOY deadlines:
4/16 - Extract Beer*
5/21 - English Brown 6/18 - Fruit Beer
7/16 -Pilsner
8/20 - European Amber Lager*
11/19 - IPA
Like before, the dates with an asterisk are the competitions where the winner will be entered in the AHA COC, and you can drop off all entries either at Brewer's Connection or at the ASH general meeting. We are still planning on offering some great prizes for the IPA competition. We are also registering the IPA competition with the BJCP. Unfortunately, we are not quite in a position to announce the prizes, but I can promise you they will both be worthwhile apart from getting you HBOY points.
The complete 2013 HBOY schedule is available online, but the AHA has still yet to announce the styles we will need to require for November and December. Hopefully they will do that soon.
Great Arizona Homebrew Competition and Arizona Mead Cup
Brewmeister's Anonymous is judging its Great Arizona Homebrew Competition and Arizona Mead Cup on 4/27 and 4/28, and entries are due on 4/16 in Tucson and 4/18 in Phoenix. Flyers are out now and can be found here . You can contact Sonja Lockhart at (602) 770-1535 if you have any questions. This is a great opportunity for points if you are willing to judge.
Salt River Fields Oktoberfest / ASH Oktoberfest
Here are the dates to remember in October:
10/4 - ASH Oktoberfest Entry Deadline
10/5 - ASH Oktoberfest Judging
10/6 - ASH Oktoberfest Judging (if necessary)
10/11 - Salt River's Oktoberfest Entry Deadline
10/12 - Salt River's Oktoberfest Judging
10/19 - ASH Oktoberfest
We need as many judges as possible, so please keep 10/5, 10/6, and 10/12 free!
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The Volunteer Corner
Kat Morrill
Your Friendly ASH Volunteer Coordinator
As volunteers in the Phoenix beer community, we've gotten some great momentum going already this year. The end of March brought the Great Arizona BBQ and Beer Festival which was a huge success. This success was especially due to the help of all of our great ASH volunteers who dealt with everything from large crowds of thirsty customers to ice cold hands from digging into coolers full of canned beer and even kegs blowing, literally, onto them. Everyone was great and I have heard nothing but great praise for our ASH-ional Guard from the organizers.
With that festival behind us now, we turn to one of the bigger craft beer festivals in Phoenix, the AmeriCAN Canned Craft Beer Festival. This year promises to be unforgettable, with many breweries in attendance that don't normally distribute in our state (Sun King, 21st Amendment and Cigar City being among them). This means I need our ASH-ional Guard to once more step up and help pour beer to thirsty craft beer lovers. I need about 35 more volunteers to finish filling all of our slots, mainly focusing on the 2:30 - 6pm shift. Volunteers for the AmeriCAN festival get general admission to the festival while they're not volunteering, which includes the sampling cup (or can in this instance) and drink tickets. If you're interested in volunteering, you can either fill out the form linked here and email it to [email protected] or I will have forms at the general meeting that you can fill out and hand back to me at the meeting.
Before we finish off the month of April, we've also got another great fundraising event for Beer For Brains Foundation called Bocce BrewHaha. The event is on April 27 and I'm looking for volunteers to help pour beer from 12:30 - 4pm or 3:30 - 7pm. If you're interested in volunteering for this, email me at [email protected] or sign up at the general meeting (I'll have a sign up sheet floating around that night).
Go ASH-ional Guard!
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ASH and OHSO, Together Again
The Men's Collaboration Brews To Be Tapped at Spring Bike-In
by Christian Chandler Riding on the success of the Bike-in Beer Festival and the women's Queen of Beer ASH/OHSO collaboration beer last fall, Jon Lane from OHSO decided to host a springtime version of this popular event - this time by inviting some men from ASH to participate in the collaboration beer.
That's how early Easter morning, six ASHers, along with OHSO head brewer Johann, took on the challenge and doughed in on a base beer that has been described as somewhat of a hybrid between a mild and a pale ale. Once the wort was ready, the ASH men were then charged with individually selecting their own yeast, adjuncts, and hops to make this beer their own. Thus we created six variants using the same base beer, and they're nearly ready to share.
Come join your fellow ASHers at OHSO on April 28th from 2 - 6 pm as they proudly tap all six variants of this unique ASH/OHSO collaboration beer during the OHSO Spring Bike-In Beer Festival. In addition OHSO will have specialty beers from local and national breweries including Ska Brewing, New Belgium, SanTan, SunUp, Oskar Blues, and many more! This event also supports the Ingleside Middle School PTO.
Oh, and keep your eyes and ears open for other potential collaboration opportunities for ASH homebrewers in the near future. The better these events are attended by our members, the more opportunities ASHers will have to participate in these projects.
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March Recap
Julie Meeker started the meeting with the calibration beer - a dry Irish Red. Lois Dongloff with the Beer for Brains gave an update on events the foundation has planned in Arizona and the U.S. plus asked for volunteers to the Epicuriad event.
President Rob Fullmer and our friendly Volunteer Coordinator, Kat Morrill, gave an update on our success at Strong Beer Fest and put out the final encouragement for the same volunteer turn out at the Chandler BBQ Festival. Rob also unveiled the ASHional Guard T-shirts - available for all volunteers to wear at events.
Doc and Krystal Bittner gave an informed presentation on becoming a BJCP certified judge and what experienced and certified judges mean for ASH's status in the national homebrewing community.
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April General Meeting
Tuesday, April 16, 7pm - 9pm
ASH Clubhouse (Rose Market Storefront
2515 N. Scottsdale Rd.
Scottsdale, AZ
The Main Event for the evening: A Gentlemanly Hop Exhibition between Papago Brewing's Ron Kloth and Charley Billingsley from Four Peaks.
Bring your homebrew to share. If this is your first meeting, you're still welcome to bring your beer. We have a reach in cooler in the back where your homebrew goes. Make yourself at home, place your beer on the shelf and help yourself to other members' beers. If you do not have a tasting cup, we have extras next to the cooler.
AHA Club-only Competition entries are due at this meeting for Extract Beers in categories 1-23, where 50% or more of the fermentable sugars come from the use of malt extract.
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The ASH Hot Break is distributed every month to our members and friends. If you stumbled upon this issue through Facebook or Twitter, take a minute to join our website, azhomebrewers.org, so you can get our newsletters and updates in your email. (There might even be some secret events and deals announced as well).
We're always looking for reader input. If you're excited about a new project, teaching others how to brew, hosting a homebrew event, or have anything else you'd like to mention on Hot Break, email [email protected]. We want to see stories and photos from our members.
We'll see you at the General Meeting. Till then brew on.
Prost!
Angela
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Your Club Board Members
President - Rob Fullmer
Vice President - James Swann
Secretary - Laura Kuning
Treasurer - Christian Chandler
Communication - Angela Muniz
Member at Large - John Rudolph
Member at Large - Ben Conner
Arizona Society of Homebrewers
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