Hey everyone, it appears I've been drinking too much homebrew and not paying enough attention to the sending of club emails. I apologize that this email should have gone out last week, or weeks ago, but here it is. We have a meeting this week on Thursday June 26! Same rules this month as last month, bring some homebrew to share, if you can't, bring some favorite craft beer, maybe a homemade snack, or if not a store bought one. I would like to discourage people from bringing wine.... this is a beer club--if you or your guest is a wine drinker I suggest you try something new, that's what this club is about. --See the email for the location details.

NOVA Summer Brewfest is being held at Morven Park in Leesburg, VA, June 20-21 from 11am-9pm Saturday, and 11am-7pm Sunday. They need volunteers and would like DC Homebrewers to be a presence at the event. I've had a couple people contact me about this, so I think they are serious. We could possibly share a tent with other homebrew clubs and use it as a chance to bring in new members/meet other homebrewers in the area. The BrewFest will feature over 40 breweries pouring their beers, and plenty of tasty food.  There will also be local bands playing. Volunteering scores you a t-shirt, tasting tickets and karma points for the club. They need help on the second shift on Saturday and both shifts on Sunday.

Hey Everyone, by now you should have all gotten an email with the details of tomorrow's meeting. Check out this pic of Daniel, Brian, Mike and I with Randy Mosher - author of Radical Brewing - at the SAVOR event. We also meet Charlie Papazian, Garret Oliver, Sam Caligione, Rob Tod, and a bunch of other living brewing legends...

See you all at the meeting! - Mike

Meeting Thursday May 29th, 7:00PM!

Man, it's been a busy month. Sorry for the delay in the next meeting plans. We were shooting for a new venue this month but complications arose and we will be back at Mike's place. Hopefully y'all aren't sick of it yet. :) We will try again next month. Corner Mike at the meeting if you want to host the June meeting. See the email for location details.

The Onion finally published its news article about DC Homebrewers from February's club interview in today's issue (April 24, 2008). The article mentions tonight's meeting. You should have time to pick up a copy of the paper (it is free). I think it is released weekly on Thursdays. For those of you who are not able to find a copy, I will be bringing at least one copy to read.

Read it online at Endless Simmer

We had a great happy hour last week at RFD and it's almost time for the next meeting. Mark your calendars for Thursday, April 24 and check you inbox for an email with details soon. Also if anyone is interested in hosting meetings in the future, email dchomebrewers at gmail dot com and lets schedule some dates for you to host!

Happy Hour!!

So April 7th is the 75th anniversary of the repeal of beer prohibition. According to my really quick search on the beertown.org and beeradvocate websites, no DC events are planned for this occasion! And so, I submit we all show up at a beer bar somewhere in town to celebrate. It's on a Monday so I am thinking a happy hour after work maybe at RFD's since its centrally located... Any takers? Suggestions?

More info...

This year we are celebrating the 75^th anniversary of the modification of the Volstead Act on April 7, 1933, which allowed beer to legally flow once again in the United States of America. Not to be confused with the repeal of prohibition on December 5th, 1933, April 7 marks the date when beer was the only legal libation in the United States.

The modification of the Volstead Act allows beer to be sold once again. The modification changed the allowed alcohol percentage of a beverage from .05 to 3.2 allowing beer to be served once again. Over 1.5 million barrels of beer was consumed during the first 24-hours after the modification of the Act.

click for beertown's website

It's almost time for another meeting of the DC Homebrewers! As we mentioned at the last meeting, we plan to keep changing it up to appeal to different people's schedules, and this month we are going to host the meeting on Monday March 24 at 7 PM.

The March meeting will be similar to the previous two--a meet-and-greet followed by homebrewers introducing their beers to the group. We plan to kick the night off with a few bottles of Springtime beers--seasonals and wheat beers--along with some form of food accompanying it. Please bring some homebrew, a snack or a few bottles of your favorite craft beer. Let us know in the meantime if you have any ideas or want to contribute to that as well. RSVPs to the email are encouraged and appreciated! Look forward to seeing you all there.

Details on the location are in the latest email that was sent on March 14.

This article is a little bit of a work in progress. We will add more pictures of the steps, expand it, cut it down, add links, and other stuff as we develop the tutorials on the site. We can also get into more depth on some of the subjects in other articles and in our Advanced Brewing section. For now, this is to get started.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the second meeting of the DC Homebrewers club. We had an eclectic selection of beer at the tasting including a Burnsauce chili beer, a milder Weaksauce version, a Hare of the Moon Orange Honey Meade, a Top o' the Mornin' Irish Cream Stout, a Wass-ale, a coffee stout, a Dopplebock, a Chocolate stout, a flat IPA, a Red Ale, an Alien Ale, a Grizzly Adams pale ale, a California Style Imperial Pale Ale and a messed up hefeweizen. This time around I noticed an uptick in labeling, which seemed to make the beers taste even better.

On top of the homebrew, some partook in a chocolate beer tasting that Brian and I put together that featured both Belgian-style stouts and a few imperial pale ales.

There were some great debates over equipment and ingredient use as well as a general feeling that the club has become an inspiration for better and more frequent brewing. On that note, if anyone wants to see some brewing in action, this weekend Brian will be brewing at his place (two blocks away from mine) on Sunday starting around 11 AM. Email him at bddolan -at sign- gmail dot com if you want to stop by.

Click read more to see some more photos!