The first group beer tasting was held on the evening of October 25, at Alan McKay's house in Ottawa and on-line. We tasted some doctored beers to learn flavours associated with lactic and acedic infections, and diacetyl. We also tasted (in order):

• Beamish stout
• Guinness stout
• McAuslin oatmeal stout
• The Lion Stout
• Wellington Imperial stout
• homebrewed oatmeal stout made by Pat & Todd, and oatmeal porter made by Drew and Paul

We finished the evening with Alan's Oatmeal Koeslchy.

For an idea of what happened, see the on-line transcript.

Over the last number of weeks and months, several group purchases have been organized by various members. These group purchases have included such things as:

• Brewing Equipment: Couplers, Kegs(Sankey and Corny) and thermometers.
• Hops
• Grain
• Yeast
• PBW and StarSan
• Quick Disconnects
  

Keep watching our e-mail list for upcoming purchases that the club will be undertaking. The bulk discounts that have been achieved have saved those involved a large sum of money!

Several brewday reports were submitted to the mailing list:

• Drew Avis' report
• Denis report
• Michael Pratt's report
• Sean Hopkin's report
• John Misrahi's report

As well, photos were uploaded to the MoB gallery.

For those that didn't make it out we had our best attendance yet for a beer outing. Well over a dozen brewers, spouses and offspring showed up at the Swan in Carp at 6pm.

My wife and I almost didn't pick up Daniel because he neglected to tell me that the instructions he had given me lead deep into the heart of a military base, and there were signs everywhere warning not to enter, authorised personal only ,etc, etc. It's a good thing I don't always listen to my wife because otherwise Daniel would still be sitting there on the veranda waiting for me ;-)

The beer selection at the Swan was quite impressive, especially given it is in the middle of Carp. No offense to any Carpians on the list or anything, but it is quite unexpected. I found the food to be fairly unimpressive, however. Probably a 3 from 1 to 5. Passable, but nothing to write home about. And the service I found was piss-poor. When the food came he didn't have a clue who had ordered what and mixed everything up, and he actually had the nerve to complain that "everytime I come to the table someone is saying 'can I get this, can I get that'". Knock, knock, hello buddy, you're the waiter, it's your job to get stuff for us. And their unwillingness to provide separate cheques is inexcusable IMO. If they are not willing to do the slight amount of work required to divide up the cheque, then IMO they do not deserve the business.

Anyway, I don't want to sound like a wet blanket because in spite of all that I had a great time and the beer selection and company more than made up for it. Though I doubt I'd go back in a large party again.

We split up around 8:30 and Daniel, Andrew, Gord and myself met back at my place to sample some Raspberry mead. Then it was over to Andrew's for a nip of Gord's and his Spruce Ale, some Cream Ale and cider, and finally we got a cab down to the Black Tomato in the (other) Market where we each sampled a few more beers. At about 12:30 we were parting ways in my driveway.

All-in-all a great time, and I hope we can do it again sometime!

In late July 2002, Drew Avis' upcoming article in BYO magazine forced the club to vote on a name. A number of names were proposed and during the last week of July, it was put to a vote on the club e-mail list. When voted was declared finished at 5pm EDT on 31-Jul-2002 it was official. In a close 7-6 vote, the Members of Barleyment (submitted by Brian Lundeen) beat out the HOZERS (submitted by Drew Avis).

Fellow MOBsters, John E., Patrick B., Michael S. and I met yesterday to perform BSKCWB. Starting at 9:30 AM, we successfully converted 8 kegs by 2:30 PM (with beer breaks)!

The grinding wheel made quick work taking the tops off. Infact, we refined the process such that we would make 4-5 passes with the grinder until we had inadvertantly ground through a section or two. We then finished off the cutting with Patrick's recipro saw. With this method, we managed to hack the tops out of 8 kegs for the price of $4.57!!!

Now, boring the ports was another story . . .

We started with 2 hole saws - and first indications were that we would be finished by noon. But then we ran into a couple of very stubborn kegs that ate up our two hole saws. So John E. volunteered to drive to HomeDespot while the rest of us sat around drinking Black & Tan, Brown Ale and Stout (sorry John!) We did manage to finish our 'work' before John got back, but just barely!

Thanks to John's pig-headed stubborness, and after resting 2 sorely over-worked and over-heated drills in the freezer to "chill out", we managed to struggle our way through the remaining ports!! Nice work guys!

Costs are not yet in for the port boring, but a rough estimate would be about $5 per hole.

The highlight of the day, for me, was that I was actually able to use my sledgehammer for something!! (always a good day when you get this opportunity, IMHO) While Patrick sat on his one bent and disgruntled keg, I lifted 'sleggy' and bashed the be-jasus out of the bent keg skirt, eventually straightening it out enough so that the keg will now sit on a burner without doing a little dance! Damn fun!

Photos to come - but you'll have to wait until I use up the rest of the film (should be up by X-mas).

It was fabulous - despite the rain we had some good homebrew, and made some decent chillers, learning as we went. The chiller design was based on MOB member and beer gadget guru Patrick Brochu's Chilly Willy. Very helpful if you're thinking of building something like this yourself.

For a laugh, check out the photos of the event, hosted in Alan McKay's back yard: Chilly Willy, and click on the Chilly Willy link.

John Scime's request for help brewing beer for his friend's wedding turned into our first big event, participation in the AHA's Big Brew on May 4. Eleven local brewers (including two from Montreal) showed up early Saturday morning in Alan's back yard and brewed 45 gallons of homebrew on three systems - the first all-grain experience for some brewers, and the first "club event" for us all. We named our local brew "Big StrangeBrew" after the event's sponsor (StrangeBrew receipe-formulation software, developed by Merrickville homebrewer and MOB member Drew Avis). The event inspired at least three brewers to make the jump from extract to all-grain brewing, which meant there was a need for new equipment…