Matt Hunsworth
April 19th, 2024, at 7:00 PM, we held our monthly members meeting at Deadwords Brewing.
We started welcoming our new members: Justin Criddle, Mark Hopkins, and JJ Ocampo. We’re excited to have you join us and look forward to working with you on everything we have planned for 2024!
We recapped last month’s activities, which included our participation in the 12th Annual Pints N’ Paws Craft Beer Festival in Sanford, FL, the 1st Annual Hamlin Craft Beer Festival in Winter Garden, FL, the Hogtown Craft Beer Festival in Micanopy, FL, and Brews Around Zoo at the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford, FL.
We’ve now participated in seven separate festivals in the first third of 2024, with more to come!
The Hamlin Craft Beer Festival is of particular note—Brewers Anonymous won the People’s Choice award for best beer booth at this festival. We were awarded a trophy, which we proudly shared with the members in attendance at this month’s meeting.
Broken Strings was voted the location of our May Brewery Exploration event, which will be held on Friday, May 3rd, at 7:00 PM.
We presented updates to the Florida Competition circuit:
- The Hurricane Blowoff Awards take place on April 20th.
- Hogtown Brewoff is now sold out.
- The National Homebrew Competition is closed.
Details for our annual competition were posted:
- Registration for Hot N Humid will open on May 1st.
- Delivery will be from June 1st to June 7th.
- Home State Brewing will be the drop-off location and host Brewery for judging and the Awards Ceremony.
- The first round judging will take place on June 15th. 16th, 22nd, 23rd and Virtually with Reggebeer eJudging.
- 2nd Round judging – if needed – will take place on June 29th.
- Best of Show judging will take place on the morning of June 30th.
- The Awards Ceremony will be held on Sunday, June 30th at Home State Brewing Co.
The Club Homebrewer of the Year Standings were updated and posted.
The current leaders are:
- Bill Carley, with 30
- Max Furth, with 25
- Mike Thompson, with 21
We gave a sad farewell to Deadwords Brewing. Deadwords has been our home for the past two years and will sadly close its doors on April 27th.
As we say leave one home, we start a journey with a new one, with the next meeting being held at Home State Brewing Co. in Winter Garden on May 17th, 2024.
The intra-club competition for April was held with Non-Traditional Pilsners as the style.
Congratulations to this month’s winners:
- 3rd Place – Mike Thompson with a New Zealand Pilsner
- 2nd Place – Kenny McChord with a New Zealand Pilsner
- 1st Place – Eric Rodriguez with a West Coast Pilsner
I was able to sample all of these beers, and the judges’ decision was undoubtedly tough. Every beer has great potential for any competition.
Thank you to everyone who attended this month’s meetings. We look forward to seeing you all at Home State next month.
Cheers!
