Record Attendance

February’s meeting returned to The Brewmaster, held in the newly redecorated meeting room. Club records were shattered for both attendance (18 people, including two new members and two guests) and homebrew samples shared (23 Dark Ales.)

Club business again focused on membership, with emphasis on developing a recruiting poster, providing club-informational fliers to shops that attract homebrewers, and eventually getting the newsletter on the internet page.

BABO turned a profit! For next year’s Bay Area Brew Off we will have to examine publicity. Bonny Setzer has volunteered to be the chief steward for the 1997 BABO.

John & Ann Pyles, Ken Koupal, and Charlie Webster were nominated to be the club representatives at Anchor’s prestigious, annual homebrew club party (article inside.)

Roger St. Denis organized the tastings of Dark Ales. Here is a starter list of what was sampled: American Brown (Ken Koupal, Rich Crowell, Bill Delveaux, Charlie Webster), Bill’s Liberty Ale clone Porters from Joe Setzer and Cecil Scheib. Cecil’s porter also had sorghum and ginger in it. Then came John Leichel’s extremely complex all-grain (and I think it was literally "all grains possible") porter/stout combination. Bob Jones shared stouts from BABO, poured in reverse-award order (3rd, 2nd, and 1st.) Surprisingly, there had been changes to one or two of the beers since BABO in January. Harry Graham brought his huge Russian Imperial Stout. Bruce Brazil shared a Scotch Ale. Bryan and Lisa Gros brought a collection of Tennessee’s local offerings. Well, I hope Bryan loaded up on homebrew supplies before heading back to the volunteer state, because there wasn’t much to brag about from commercial examples.

Next month’s meeting will be held at The Brewmaster on March 9th, 2:00 pm. See the article below about the Lager-Ale / Steam style of the month, and bring your examples to share!