Check out the web page http://www.brewbeer.org/wizupcoming.htm - it now contains the full calendar of events for 2009 and early 2010 along with the event coordinator for each activity! You can see what we plan to do at each meeting and who to talk to about helping out where you can. The calendar will also give you plenty of notice about the Quarterly Brewing Styles so that you can brew on the club's schedule. Finally, you'll note a few spots where volunteers are still needed....

Time to start thinking about the 11th Annual Wizards Home Brew Competition! The competition is a great way to improve your beers and if you're lucky you might even gain a few bragging rights! Complete details are available on the website at http://www.brewbeer.org/competition.htm.

Not only is the competition a chance for you to get some written feedback on your beers, its a great way to get involved with the club and learn a little bit in the process. Competition judging will be held at the April meeting. All members are encouraged to attend and participate. Starting in February we'll start preparing the club for the competition judging with an "Intro to Judging" session and then we'll hold a more detailed practice run at the March meeting that will include Vik's palate training seminar.

This year's entry deadline will be in April. Watch the website for complete upcoming details.

Dues for 2009/2010 are now due. Dues are still a bargain at $12/year and cover most, if not all, of our club activities. Dues pay our nominal expenses like buying the pretzels and cups for meetings. The biggest way your dues are spent is at club functions where the club finds some way to treat everyone in attendance like buying the pizza at our holiday party this past December or buying the appetizers on the annual pub crawl.

As always, articles and suggestions for the newsletter are both welcomed and encouraged and should be sent directly to Bill.

• February 2009 Club Meeting - IPA Night, presented by Bryant, which saw IPAs from Keith, Carl, Jimmy, Brian and Bill and commercial examples from Racer 5 (3/5), Leatherlips (2/5), Stone Ruination (3.25/5), Smuttynose IPA (3.5/5) and Sam Smith's IPA (not rated).
• March 2009 Club Meeting - Vik once again brought us the palate training seminar. An educational and informative night for all.
• May 2009 - National Home Brew Day - The club spent the day brewing at Strange Brew and announced the winners in this year's home brew competition (Congrats to Keith Antul for BOS). Watch the video on YouTube .
• May 2009 Club Meeting - Pilsner Night, presented by Jimmy
• July 2009 Club Meeting - Summer Swill-Off presented by Nick - just keep reading this newsletter for complete details.
• August 2009 Club Meeting - Cream Ale Night, presented by Kurt
• June 2009 Club Meeting - Yeast Washing Round Table Discussion - see Special Features on the website for results.
• August 2009 Club Meeting - Brewing Better Extract Beers Round Table Discussion - see Special Features on the website for results.
• August 2009 - Mike led the club on a pub crawl through Connecticut and Central Mass.
• September 2009 Club Meeting - Octoberfest - just keep reading this newsletter for complete details.

The September Club Meeting brought our annual Octoberfest tasting just like it does every year. This year's tasting featured a total of eight fest beers for our tasting pleasure. Eight is really nothing - last year year's event had seventeen, yes that's seventeen, different commercially available Octoberfest beers. Two years in a row German's came out on top but not by much. How fitting given its their beer style!

The complete list of sampled Octoberfests in 2008 and 2009 are shown below in the order they were preferred by the club's unofficial tasting panel.

This year's swill-off brought a new twist to the wizards. The theme of this year's event was "South of the Border." Event organizer Nick brought us eleven appropriately selected beers to sample. The night started with Nick providing the complete list of beers to be tried and then providing them to the club one at a time. He then told us that whoever could identify the most of the samples would get a prize. Several people got three right but Greg took the top prize by identifying five of the mystery beers and got himself a (small) bottle of Pardon Silver. Thanks to Nick for taking the lead on the swill-off this year.

• El Presidente
• SOL
• Tecate
• Negro Modelo
• Corona
• Corona Light
• Bohemia
• Dos Equis Amber
• Model Especial
• Dos Equis Lager
• Pacifico

If you've ever wanted to get in to Belgian beers, Keith provided this list of good, **affordable** Belgians that are easily found at Austin or Julio's. He tried to cover, (broadly) the general spectrum of Belgian beer styles.

• WITBIER: St. Bernardus Witbier (something besides Allagash White, which seems to be very commonly found these days).
• DUBBEL: Maredsous 8
• TRIPEL: Tripel Karmeliet (go for the brown, 375ml bottles, not the big green 750ml, which is invariably stale on arrival).
• GOLDEN STRONG: Duvel (ubiquitous for the style)
• DARK STRONG/QUADRUPEL: Malheur 12, or Koningshoeven Quadrupel
• SAISON: Ommegang Hennepin
• FLANDERS RED: Duchesse de Bourgogne (probably the best Flanders available until Rodenbach Grand Cru returns. An easier sour style to get into than lambics. Consider avoiding back-sweetened lambics like Lindeman's, as they don't really represent a proper rendition of the style.)

Click here to read about Bill and Darja's trip to the 13th Annual New England Home Brewer's Jamboree held at the Branch Brook Campground in Campton, NH.

We'll end this newsletter by reliving last year's holiday party in pictures so we can start looking forward to this year's event.

Comments, questions or information on the WIZARD's to Bill