Volume 1 Issue 1

We are approaching May and the Knights of the Brown Bottle in Arlington are preparing to host the 13^th Annual Celtic Brew-off Homebrew Competition.  The Celtic Brew-Off is the second major competition of the Lone Star Circuit of Texas homebrewing competitions.  This is the largest homebrewing competition in the country devoted to exclusively to beer, mead, and cider of Celtic origins.  No doubt this contest was created as a clever ploy on the part of some north Texa homebrew club contesting for the LSC trophy to confound BAM.   What can BAM in such a situation?  Do we have brewers that can make a passable Pale Ale, an IPA for the Empire, a Porter, a Stout that would be at home in Dublin, a Scottish Ale or even a good English Barleywine?  If only BAM had some makers of good meads and ciders to team up with some brewers of good English Ales!  Unless we have such heroes and strong brewers, I fear that our small club shall be undone by the machinations of the multitudes of the North!!  Do you brave brewers of BAM have the courage, the stout hearts and the resources available to make BAM stand proud among the major challengers for the LSC in their territories?

Each year the Knights of the Brown Bottle host the Celtic Brew-Off to coincide with the Texas Scottish Festival and Highland Games held in Arlington in June.  The competition is open to styles of fermented beverages associated with the Celtic regions of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, or Brittany.  Please note that the BJCP categories may have been modified to fit the character of the competition and special Celtic Brew-Off categories and styles have been added. For example, two types of Strong Scot Ale are designated and a Celtic Lager category has been added.  Specific details for the Celtic Brew-Off can be found at:

http://hbd.org/kobb/celtic/celtic13.html

Entries will be accepted from May 9^th to May 15^th, 2009.  That gives us very little time to prepare for this contest.  Do you have an ale, a cider or a mead ready to go to face the cabber tossers?  Des BAM have some member of our band of bravehearts who is planning to travel to Ft. Worth and deliver BAM responses to the challenges to the club??  The contest will coincide with the Texas Scottish Festival and Highland Games May 23^rd thru June 6^th, 2009. 

I know there is not much time but we have an excellent opportunity to continue our near dominance of the homebrew brew-off circuit in Texas.  If we can do well again up in North Texas, we can really establish a strong LSC point position at the end of the first two of the three North Texas homebrew LSC competitions for this year.  That is before Rendezbrew.  Every extra point BAM wins makes us that much more difficult to defeat at the end of the year.  And we know that the big North Texas Homebrewers Association is really looking to take the LSC from BAM whatever it takes for them to do it.  So let’s pull together and make BAM a force to be reckoned with early in the LSC circuit.  Let’s make them all know it will not be easy or quick to win that LSC trophy from BAM.  

Onward BAM!!