10C: American Brown Ale

11A-C: English Brown Ale

12A-C: Porter

13A-F: Stout

18B, E: Belgian Dubbel and Belgian Dark Strong Ale

23: Specialty Beer

Registration opens Saturday, June 15, 2013 at 12:00 AM, CDT. Registration closes Friday, September 6, 2013 at 11:55 PM, CDT. Please note: registered users will not be able to add, view, edit or delete entries after this date/time. Be sure and check out the competition website for special updates including new prizes!

Once they’re signed by the governors, which is expected to happen for both bills, home brewers will be able to share their beer with friends, family, and neighbors outside of their homes, enter homebrew competitions, bring their beer for feedback from homebrew clubs, and pour their beer at festivals.  That’s right.  POUR THEIR BEER AT FESTIVALS.  Nice.

There is no doubt that these bills are beneficial to the home brewing community, but I have two concerns about them.

First, the argument could be made that transporting homebrew wasn’t actually illegal in either state before the law was passed.  These bills weren’t necessary until recently, when the state governments of Missouri and Illinois suddenly began interpreting the words “personal or family use” in a very strict sense, meaning “personal or family CONSUMPTION.”  This very limiting interpretation of the law was a twisting of the language of the law, which mimics federal law exactly.  The federal law has never been interpreted to limit transportation or use, so why should the state law do so?  These bills simply correct that interpretation.  Why our state government suddenly decided this was a problem I’ll never understand, but it is good that the legislatures took decisive action to fix this.  I’d hate to think that “Personal or family use” actually meant “consumption.”  That would mean it was technically illegal to bathe in your beer, water your garden with it, or to even wash your car with it (not recommended).

Second, these bills deliberately limit their verbiage to beer brewers and do not include wine or meadmakers.  This is not an oversight.  It was done deliberately, as the folks creating the bill felt there was no reason to include them.  See my post on this law here.  Senate Bill 121 is actually very close to the Senate Bill 114 I wrote about in that post.  I’ve since changed my view on the law slightly, as I do believe it is a positive thing to explicitly state our rights without question, but I am still disappointed that they did nothing to offer the same liberties to wine and meadmakers.  They’re home brewers, too.

I’m glad to know that we, as the Homebrew ZOO, will be able to participate in festivals in the area to aid not-for-profits and share our beer with folks at beer festivals and at homebrew rallies.  It will do a lot to expand the interest in our hobby and hopefully bring a lot more people into our little world of geekdom.

To read the full press release, click here.

Ben Stange

Homebrew ZOO President

If you plan to brew and are a current dues-paying member of the Homebrew ZOO, you need to contact Todd Frye and let him which recipe you are brewing and how much as soon as possible.  You can email him at todd [at] homebrewery [dot] com.  Let him know if you are brewing the blond, pilsner, or mild, if you’re brewing extract or all grain, and how much beer you plan to make.  He will have your kit ready to go on Big Brew Day and current ZOO members will get a discount on these kits.

To review the recipes, click here.

The Homebrew ZOO will be well represented @ this festival, showing off our equipment and maybe even brewing up some beer! Come over to our tent and chit chat with us about beer… or better yet: making your OWN! Hope to see you there!
Start Time: 14:00
Date: 2013/05/18
End Time: 20:00

Along w/ local food and games, the Homebrew ZOO will be there brewing up some goodness, taste testing some grains and generally educating Springfield about the awesomeness of homebrewing! Be sure and stop by the tent to say hello!
Start Time: 11:00
Date: 2013/04/27
End Time: 17:00

A big thanks to Mother’s Brewing, especially Doug and Holly. We were pleased to see so many new faces and I do believe that we all had a great time. Be sure and check out the pics below!

Title:   Leadership Meeting
Location:   Coffee Ethic
Date:   04/12/13

Time:  8:00pm

In attendance: Ben (Pres), Keith (VP), Ed (Secretary) Kassidy (Media Director)

Ben ordered the checks for our account and they have been received.  Ben will bring them to the next meeting and give them to Todd.

Events:

Mother’s Day at the Mothers Brewery:  May 18^th 1-6pm.  Ben will contact Mothers and work out the details.  We will more than likely not be brewing due to the nature of the event.  We do need to have printed materials and brewing samples available.

Happy Birthday Springfield:  April 27^th on the Square 11am-5pm, Sponsored by TAG.  TAG has reserved us a spot.  Kassidy will be brewing an extract beer.  We need volunteers to help man the booth.  Please contact Kassidy.

Big Brew Day/Zoo Family BBQ/Homebrew Store open house:  May 4^th at the Homebrew Store in Ozark.  Brewers can arrive anytime after 10:00am.  Family BBQ from 3-6pm.  All members need to bring a dish.  We need volunteers to brew at the following times:

10:00am – All Grain

12:00am – Extract or All Grain (Ben)

2:00pm – Extract

We want to do this in stages so there is someone brewing all the time.

Promotional Ideas:  Kassidy will look into the prices of promotional items and T-shirts.

ZOO Flyers:  Keith will look into the price of printing this from a actual printer versus printing them at home.

Medals:  All medals have been sent out to our winners from our last competition.  Keith is looking into the price of creating a medal that is our actual logo instead of a generic medal with our name printed on it.

BJCP certification:  We will start looking into setting classes up

Banner:  Keith as approval to order a 6’x2.5 foot banner

Membership cards:  The design has been approved.  Ed is looking into adding a QR code.  This will be completed by the May meeting.

Fall Competition:  Talk with Mothers to see if they would be interested in taking the winners brew to GABF pro-am.  We need more interest in the Competition Comittee.

Hoppy St Patrick’s:  We need to follow up with Aston and find out if he is for sure taking our BOS to the GABF pro-am.

Meeting adjourned: 9:55pm

Category 8: English Pale Ale

1st: Keith Wallis – “English Pale”

2nd: Robert Socha – “Sofa King Bitter”

3rd: Jake Culver – “Lady Snaggletooth”

Category 10A: American Pale Ale

1st: Tim Thomssen – “Cheech & Chong Pale Ale”

2nd: Chris Becker – “Conan Pale Ale”

3rd: Time Rosse – “Spitfire Extra Pale Ale”

Category 14A: English IPA

1st: James Frazer – “James the Ripper”

2nd: Mike Winckler – “It’s Pat(‘s Ale)”

3rd: Robert Socha – “Redcoat IPA”

Category 14B: American IPA

1st: David Schumacher – “SchuBrew IPA”

2nd: Keith Bachman – “Chupacabra IPA”

3rd: Dave Hukill – “SAC Up IPA”

Category 14C: Imperial IPA

1st: Tim Thomssen – “Hop-Tarded Imperial IPA”

2nd: Wit Sanders – “BlackIPA Imperial IPA”

3rd: Nicholas Otersen – “TLC Double Bubble Imperial IPA”

Best of Show

1st: Keith Wallis

2nd: David Schumacher

3rd: Tim Thomssen

Time:  6:30pm

In attendance: Ben (Pres), Keith (VP), Ed (Secretary), Todd (Treasure)

Officers: Ben (Pres), Michael (PR Director), Keith (VP), Ed (Secretary)

Todd (Treasure), Kassidy (Media Director)

There were a few questions about couple’s memberships:  It has been decided that couple membership holders act as one unit.  They are considered 1 vote, and can hold a 1 position on the board.  On the current board directors we have Kassidy and Michael who will have a couples membership holding two different positions.  Based on not having bylaws prior to electing our original officers the two will continue holding both offices until the next election. Officer terms will be 13 months, 12 months in office and 1 month training the new officers.

Ed, the current secretary will be moving before the next elections.  Currently he does not have an exact move date but will notify the board 30 days before his resignation.

Big Brew Day/Zoo Family Picnic:  May 4^th.  Ideas that have been discussed but not finalized

Todd having a customer appreciation day in conjunction

Possible in club competition based on the big brew recipe

Zoo members Pot Luck

Competition Update:

Competition Date will be March 16^th at 12:30, subject to change base on number of entries

Setup and dry run will be the night before March 15^th at 7:00pm

Medals will be determined based on the number of entries we receive per category.

The Zoo will purchase dinner for the Judges following the event.

Club only Barleywine competition:  Needs to be discussed at the membership meeting.  Currently we do not have enough time to brew and in club judge before the entries need to be submitted.

T-Shirts/ Work style shirts:  Ben will look into pricing; these will be offered to the members at cost.  We still need to look into a design.

Additional paperwork/legal status needed for the club:

Ben and Todd will both review to see what additional paper/legal status that the Zoo needs.  This will be reviewed at the next leadership meeting.

Meeting Adjourned:  8:37pm