www.nthba.org

We talked up this competition at the meeting last night. Good luck.

Dennis made some additional interesting comments as the last of us cleaned things up. He mentioned the poor crop last year in Germany and that the current trend of highly hopped beers is pushing the limits of the available supply. Hops that cost him $8 per pound before, are now costing $25 per pound...

Don't forget, the deadline for the Celtic Brew Off is this Thursday (April 3rd). You can drop your beers off at either Homebrew Headquarters or The Wine Makers Toy Store. Be sure to pack them up in boxes, not just 6 pack carriers.

Brian and I both have chiller plates in our jockey boxes, so that should be good enough to chill the beer. I can bring a big cooler to hold the kegs in if we want to put some ice on them, but since we'll be indoors that may be overkill. Make sure that everyone who is bringing beer enters it on the B...

I have a jockey box.

We may want to consider bringing a couple of jockey boxes for the overflow.

It sounds like you could do BYOB. Let us know when you are open and maybe we could hold an officer's meeting there.

I've known of restaurants that have given away beer to diners while the business waits for their TABC license to be approved. I would definitely try contacting the state regarding your plans, especially if you are ever planning on applying for a liquor license.

I received word about this event and thought I'd put the word out.

The event was at Texas Motor Speedway last year, but this year, they are moving to Lewisville.

Check out their web site at: http://bestlittlebrewfestintexas.com

I'll either bring a keg of roggenbeir or a triple.

Air is 21% oxygen and extended exposure to 100% oxygen will lead to oxygen toxicity. The valves for O2 tanks are different, so you could not get that SCUBA cylinder filled with oxygen. There are a lot of considerations to take into account when filling a cylinder with pure oxygen, the primary one be...

It varies based on how much of the top was cut out. Bigger hole = higher boil-off. My experience was closer to the 1.25 - 1.5 gallons per hour.

I think two weeks should be sufficient to extract the aroma and age is probably not your problem, especially if the hops you are using are in the sealed foil bags. However, the hop bag may be contributing to the problem. When I dry hop, I just toss the hop pellets in loose and then siphon carefully ...

I certainly wouldn't boil them for 10-20 minutes. You'd loose a lot of aroma in the steam. Are you placing your hops in a bag or letting them loose in the carboy? How long do you leave them in? What amount are you adding? Also, the age of the hops will make a difference. What varieties are you using?

I should be able to help judge next week.