Blowing off the dust....

Now that the 2011 Kansas City Bier Meisters Homebrew competition is over and behind us, it's time to get this thing back up & running. Combine organizing that competition with a new position I started last month, and you have a very busy me... and a very neglected blog.

So to get caught up... let's see here...

1. Our annual homebrew competition was a lot of work, but definitely fun. We had a lot of great judges & stewards this year and hope to do the same in 2012. If you're a homebrewer and looking for blind feedback on your beers (and meads & ciders), this is a great way to do it. Plus, we were treated to presentations/discussions by Paul Kavulak from Nebraska Brewing Co & Stephen Hale from Schlafly Taproom. Both very personable, interesting, and entertaining guys. It's every year in February, with different speakers each time; if you missed it this year, pay attention this fall when we start planning and posting information to the comp website.
2. Speaking of home brewing, Nationals is coming up quick. If you want to give it a shot at making it past the first round & into the finals, the deadline is late March. Get to brewing!
3. I spent a few days in Austin last week and was able to get out to a handful of places. I checked out Lovejoy's and Ginger Man on my own, but spent my third evening getting a tour of Austin from I Love Beer's Lee with the great company of his fellow beer writer (also a homebrewer), Debbie. He wrote a fun summary of our evening out in his blog (check it out!). Though I had a great time visiting several places, for me there were two specific highlights of the trip:
• Discovering a new brewery down there called Jester King. I only had two beers from them (a Rye IPA and a barrel-aged Dark Mild - appropriately named "Commercial Suicide"), but both were outstanding. If you get a chance to try anything from them, don't pass it up.
• Hanging out at the Whip-In. The place was like nothing else - convenience store meets craft beer bar meets Indian cafe ... and they're adding a brewery in the future. What I particularly liked about this place was that they had two sections of taps: one with craft brews (many of them local), and another smaller one with 'vintage' brews. Among others, they had a St Arnold Divine Reserve #6 on tap, a barleywine nearly 3 years old. Divine indeed.

There are more things of course, but I'll save those for later. Let the blogging resume!