Was 2013 a wasted year? 14 ways it wasn't.

I believe most people want to make a difference with their lives.  After all, if there is no reason or motive for your existence, then what is the point?  Right?

I recently found myself bemoaning another year gone by without doing anything worthwhile.  Another wasted year.  I didn't conquer the world in 2013.  We are still in this same house, same job, same city, same school, same routine.  (About the only thing different is that the Gators aren't playing in a bowl game this year...ugh.)

Then my wife stopped me in my tracks.  "Wait a minute, you sold over $1M dollars at work this year," she began.  "Yeah, I guess.  Plus I started the Brew Club," I continued.  Maybe it wasn't a complete waste.  I got to thinking some more.

If we don't stop to count our successes, we will never now far we've come.  Here are a few successes from 2013...somewhat in chronological order.

• In February I met some great people while volunteering for the Deland Craft Beer Festival.  I shared homebrews with the guests at the event.  Seeing people enjoy your creations can be quite fulfilling.  Check out these posts from earlier in the year.  Part 1 and Part 2.
• One of my beers won the Valentines Inspired brewing competition.  This was a partial collaboration with a Twitter friend form Australia, who supplied the original recipe on which the beer was based...though this had different hops, yeast and was all grain (and in English units rather than Metric).  More of the story can be found here.
• I took the brewing on the road for the first time and brewed on location at the Sanford Homebrew Shop for the AHA Big Brew.  There I met some additional new friends.  More of the story here.
• My son had a dream a few years ago of bringing Archery as a sport to his small private school.  At the time, I didn't think there was a mechanism to make this happen.  Long story short, our family is now all certified coaches with OAS (Olympic Archery in Schools) and our little school will have a team in this year's spring session.  And only because a 14 yo (at the time) had a dream and desire.
• I started a homebrew club.  In August, the first meeting of the Brew Club of Seminole County was held.  Each month we've averaged about 20 people per meeting and participated as a club in three public events and held two group brewing sessions.  Check out the Facebook Group and the story here.
• The Belgian Dubbel I brewed in July won Bronze at the Sunshine Challenge competition in November.  This is one of the largest homebrewing competitions in Florida.
• I also was able to participate in the judging at that competition (though not for the styles my beers were entered, of course).
• In November, my wife brought home here metal for the 5K event, my son brought home a metal from a State Archery Competition, and me with my little bronze metal.  We are all successful in the things we set out to achieve.
• My son and I began making our own cheese.  Just a few batches of Mozzarella so far, but we are getting better.  And the important thing is we do it together.
• At work, I exceeded my sales goal for the year by more than 10% and sold over $1,000,000, with profitable margins. 
• This year, I brewed 15 different beers, at roughly 4 gallons each.
• We've been able to have "Family Time" on multiple occasions at Disney this year.  Some of our favorites are the Food and Wine Festival and the events surrounding the holiday season.
• The Facebook Page was created for Dunerbrew and this blog has been maintained (to a decent extent).  Check out and "Like" the Facebook Page.
• I realize this list is very beer-centric.  Well, that is what this blog is all about.  Perhaps better than than the beer itself, this hobby have given me the opportunity to meet some wonderful people, whom I now call friends.  We help each other and are better as a result of knowing each other.

Am I just patting myself on the back?  Not really, rather reminding myself that things do get accomplished when you set out to do them.  We may not have conquered the world, but are on a pathway to making some sort of difference in the world.

What will 2014 bring?  Hmmm.  We'll see.

Cheers!

Art of the Beer Label competition, Mad Monk's and more. Don't miss this!

Each year the Deland Craft Beer Festival gets bigger and better.  2013 marked the year the event spilled out into the entire week and introduced a new moniker, Deland Craft Beer Week.  The organizers of the 2014 Week seem determined to step it up once again.  Along with the daily events of the Deland Craft Beer Week, two new competitions have been introduced.

I'll start with the most recent introduction...the Art of the Beer Label competition.  For all the artists out there, this is a chance to get creative and show your best work at a beer label.  Check it out here.  I have a few ideas of my own for this one.

Art of the Beer Label Competition (click to go to the page)

Even more exciting is the Mad Monk's Mash-up!  This is an upgrade to the previously held homebrewing competitions at the event.  In the past years there were two competitions for homebrewers to enter surrounding the Deland Craft Beer Festival.  Each year a Valentine's Inspired beer could be entered, with the winner selected by the People's Choice at the event on Saturday.  The other brewing competition was based around a rotating beer style each year.  Last year was Porter.  2012 was IPA.

The style-based competition has grown into presumably the only officially sanctioned Belgian Style BJCP competition...in the world.  It no longer is just a local competition, but rather an "official" competition, with the potential reach of the entire nation.  Official BJCP Judges will be excited for the opportunity to judge in another new competition.  And winners can claim themselves Monk Queen (or King)!  (Ha ha, I just made that up.)

Based on the Style Guidelines, Categories 16, 17 and 18 will be eligible, along with the specialty categories of 20, 21 and 22C, with the base beer associated with a style in 16, 17 and 18.  Can you enter a smoked porter?  No.  A Pumpkin Witbier...yes (if you wanted to).

(And yes the Valentine's competition will remain as the People's Choice Award.)

Check out more information here.

Also, remember to refer back to the post about entering competitions from this site before you make your final entry decisions.

So get your creative minds in gear and create a label and a beer (or more) for the competitions associate with this fine event!  And we'll see you in February!  (if not sooner)  Cheers!

DeLand Craft Beer Week Gets a New Homebrew Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DeLand Craft Beer Week Gets a New Homebrew Competition

DeLand, Florida - MainStreet DeLand Association and Volusia County Home Brewers Guild, in conjunction with DeLand Craft Beer Week, are proud to announce the Mad Monk Mash-Up. Mad Monk Mash-Up is a Belgian-centered homebrew competition. Final round judging will take place during DeLand Craft Beer Week 2014 being held January 31, 2014 to February 9, 2014.

With the amazing growth and growing popularity of the DeLand Craft Beer Festival and the newly formed DeLand Craft Beer Week, the 2014 Homebrew Competition is following suit and also expanding. The 2014 Competition, The Mad Monk Mash-Up, is an AHA/BJCP Sanctioned competition featuring Belgian style and sour beers representing BJCP categories 16, 17 and 18. The entry fee is $6.00 and the entry deadline is January 12, 2014. 

For complete rules, entry information and drop-off locations please visitwww.DeLandCraftBeerWeek.com.

Winners will be announced at the DeLand Craft Beer Festival on February 8, 2014. The festival will take place from 1:00pm to 5:00pm in Artisan Alley in Downtown DeLand, FL. It will feature craft beer from breweries across the country and the world, as well as rare, vintage and cask beers. There will also be educational break-out sessions lead by industry experts.

Contact:
Ann-Marie Bays, Competition Coordinator
annmariebays@gmail.com
(386) 215-1533

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Hoppy Valentine Bouquet. It sounded like a suitable name.

Believe it or not, the photo at the right is what an award winning beer looks like.  This is the #FF Hopped Wheat Ale, aka Hoppy Valentine Bouquet.  It was the 2013 winner of the Extreme Valentine Beer competition at the Deland Craft Beer Festival.

What do you do when there is an Extreme Valentine Beer competition and you haven't celebrated Valentine's day in close to 20 years?  You enter what you have and make up a Valentinian type name for it, and then cross your fingers.

At least that is what I did.

Entering this competition, I felt almost like the agnostic in church on Communion Sunday.  I've forgotten completely how to celebrate Valentine's Day, and I'd be quite clumsy at it if I tried.  Not that I'm unloved, or unloving (at least I don't think so).  We decided from day 1 (Valentine's Day 1) not to celebrate it.  This would have been in 1995, and to this day, I've neither given nor received a Valentine's card or gift from my wife.  We'll show our love every day of the year and not just on one "special" day, thank you very much.  And Hallmark doesn't need our money anyway.  Perhaps it's just our little way to rebel against the system.

So here I am without a good Porter to enter into the style competition, but I did have a homebrew which could pass for a Valentine inspired brew...maybe.  I figured, what the hell and entered the competition.  ...and surprisingly it won.

Full Disclosure?  Nothing new is to be found under the sun.  The recipe came to me via a Twitter friend from across the world, as a clone recipe for an Aussie beer called Mountain Goat Steam Ale.  Of course, the Homebrew Shop didn't have all the correct hops, so I substituted.  The recipe called for extract and was measured in the metric system.  I had to convert, and selected grains for an all grain beer.  With just 2 Row and Light American Wheat grains, it is very light in color (probably more so than anticipated).  My wife initially called it "grapefruity goat piss" in part because of perhaps too much Citra hops used late in the boil.  The recipe and additional background can be found here.


This is my story.  I'm pleased and honored to have been selected as the winner.  There are very good brewers who participated in this competition, with far more intricate and innovative beers than this one.  But it does taste good... even though it still looks a bit like goat piss.

Hoppy Valentine's Day everyone!

Deland Craft Beer Festival wrap up, Part 2: Festival Highlights

 This year was the 4th annual for the event, and the largest to date.  Some highlights each year are the Vintage and Rare Beers table, and Cask Conditioned Ales.

Another highlight for the brewers out there is the Homebrew Competition.  Each year for this event there are two competitions.  The first is a style competition, this year's style was Porter.  Second is the Extreme Valentines Inspired Beer competition (a February event is close to Valentines Day).  And next year promises to take the competition to a whole new level... At least that what a little birdie told me.

Working hard all day, it was tough to take time out to drink (yeah right), but I did manage to sample a few.

 I was tough because with 2 Warehouses, close to 40 tables and over 200 beers, it is tough to chose which to drink next.  Life can be so cruel sometimes.

Deland Craft Beer Festival wrap up, Part 1: Working the festival.

Volusia County Homebrewers Guild.  Look at all those homebrews!

If I haven't said it here before, I'll say it now.  Volunteering at a Craft Beer Festival is the best way to be part of a beer festival.  It is a great opportunity to talk beer, serve beer, drink beer, make friends, etc.

As part of the Volusia County Homebrewers Guild, I have the opportunity to volunteer.  We have a table/booth set up and serve our homebrewed beer, helping to spread the word about the quality of homebrew.  Whats more, I can bring my own beer to serve to craft beer lovers.  What is there not to love about that?

My part of the weekend started on Friday night, where we helped sort and hang the identification signs for the tables and breweries represented.  I couldn't make it to the event early on Saturday, but hung around and helped disassemble the kegs, bar, and setup for the HCHBG at the end of the festival.

Signs are up and ready for the festival

During the festival, we poured homebrew for the participants.  The table next to ours freed up, as they quickly ran out of beer... so we moved some of the bottled beer to the new table.... the Dunerbrew beer.

The official Dunerbrew Cooler made it's debut.

Serving and talking craft beer.

A lot of the beers are well received by the participants, which can be quite rewarding.  Perhaps that is the best part of a festival, seeing others enjoy the fruits of your own brewing labor.

Continued...  Up next, Other Highlights

Deland Craft Beer Festival this weekend.

What can you expect?  For starters, a lot of good craft beer.  Check out the beer list for the festival.

The fourth annual festival will be the largest ever, with 27 serving tables in two warehouses, almost double from last year.

In addition to commercial craft beers, two local brewers clubs will be present, the Volusia County Homebrewers Guild (of which I'm a part) and the Central Florida Homebrewers.  Each group will serve multiple homebrewed beers.  And most of the time, the homebrews are both excellent to drink as well as the most interesting.  S\I'd encourage you to seek out the homebrews table(s) next time you attend a festival.  If you will be in Deland this weekend, there will be 4 Dunerbrew / Galileo's Bane beers being poured.

The homebrewers will be happy to talk about the beer.  Thank them too, as the beer donated comes from their own stock, which cost money and time to create.  It's donated without any compensation (I wonder if it can count as a tax deductible donation).

What else should you know before attending a beer festival?  Check out some best practices and tips from our friends at BeerGeekSpeak.

Most importantly, come out this Saturday, and be sure to check out the Hoppy Valentine Bouquet, as part of the Valentine inspired brewing competition.  ;-)