Minutes from the Feb.3, 2009

Bluebonnet Homebrew competition is March 20 in Dallas. Feb. 26th is the entry deadline to submit your homebrews. You can book a hotel room and complete your entries online at www.bluebonnetbrewoff.com

Club t-shirts will be available at the next meeting for purchase. They are $20.00 and can be purchased from club treasurer Jed Reinhard.

Club vice-president, Lucas Stoltz is collecting club membership registration and will have membership cards available to paid members at the next meeting in March. Membership entitles you to a 10% discount at The Wine and Brew Makers Gallery (Thanks Jim!), and is good through June of 2010!! Please consider supporting our craft and becoming a member of the RVAR. Club dues are $25 per person or $35 for a brewing couple!

We are updating the email list to ensure that everyone is getting the information being sent out. Lucas has a master list and if you know of someone not getting our emails please have them check with him to get on the list. And please let us know if your email changes so we can keep everyone in the loop.

Schedule of upcoming events was detailed:

During the March 3 meeting we will be having a Commercial Calibration just like they do in Zymurgy Magazine which is published by the American Homebrewer Association. You will be able to sample a commercially available brew, score it, then compare your impression of it with the actual judges scores from an issue of Zymurgy.

At the April 7 meeting, Jed Reinhard will be brewing a beginners kit to showcase how easy it is to get started brewing. This is a great opportunity for anyone who has not brewed yet, but is thinking about it, to see the process. And it is a great time to bring a friend and introduce them to this great hobby.

We will follow up Jed's brewing session with a bottling/kegging/packaging your brew session at the May 5 meeting led by Steve Arnold and Bob Wolfe.

Also, May 2 is Big Brew day where brewers all over the world get together and brew the same recipe and celebrate the hobby. Check out the specifics and this years recipes at http://www.beertown.org/events/bigbrew/index.html President Steve Arnold is working on a joint venture between the RVAR club and the Fort Smith BBQ society that may coincide with Big Brew Day, or may be scheduled at a later time. (I can't think of two things that go together any better!!)

The highlight of the evening was a presentation by Ben Brown, a sales rep from Boulevard Brewing. Ben covers Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas for Boulevard which is out of Kansas City. Ben brought five Boulevard Brewing samples to share and discuss, including their popular Boulevard Wheat as well as Pale Ale, Irish Ale, Lunar Ale, and Bully Porter. He detailed many specifics about each beer and described the company's rise from a single homebrewer, John McDonald, who began brewing in 1989 and entering his beers in competitions. The rest is some great suds history. Ben will be returning for another presentation very soon. Watch for an update as soon as he lets us know.

The next meeting is March 3 with the Commercial Calibration. We will send out more information about the event soon. Please bring $2 to cover the cost of purchasing the commercial brew and be sure to bring some of your own samples!Happy Brewing!!