Merry Christmas to all.   Come on down to Point Brewery and join the party.  We will be hosting our annual christmas party in the Hospitality Room from 6:30 - 9:00pm on Thursday December 18th.   No regular scheduled topic for the night as this is a social gathering to enjoy.  Please bring a dish to pass as we have had in the past.  Hot or cold food, main dish or snacks and deserts.  CWDB will sponsor the plates, silverware, and napkins.  Outlets and extesion cords are available for hotplates.  Come down and Enjoy!

Thursday November 20, 2008...Clone Brew Competition Judging will be held during this meeting at the Point Brewry Hospitality Room from 6:30 -9:00 pm.  (Note:  There was an error with a wrong date previously listed for this event)  It is to be held on the 3rd Thursday of November as a usually scheduled meeting date.

As discussed in past meetings members are going to brew  clones of their favorite commercial beer. You need to bring in a 6-pk of the clone (or equivalent in growler) and a 6-pk of the original commercial example for comparison.  Club members in attendance that night will evaluate the clone compared to the original.  You will be given a score card to write comments on, and you will vote for what you consider the best cloned beer  brewed.  Sampling and evaluation will start right away, so don't show up late.  Prizes will be awareded to the winner.  No entry fee will be needed as this is just a fun club function.  You can bring other beers along but do not set them out for sampling until after teh clone brew tasting/scoring is over.  Snacks as always are welcome. 

 Saturday November 1, 2008...The First Saturday in November each year is National Teach-a-Friend to Homebrew Day, and Customer Appriciation Day at Point Brew Supply, and our annual fundraiser event. 

Interested CWDB members can brew in front of Point Brew Supply and O'so Brewing company with your own individual brew systems.  Other shoppers and public will be stopping by to see what you are brewing adn the equipment you are usuing.  Please ask if they have any questions.    Let Katina or myself know if you are going to be coming so we can plan accordingly.  Space is limited out front of the store so you may want to double batch with another homebrewer.   Homebrewers that preregister with Katina or myself will be allowed first choice at set up space out front.  Show up to brew, shop for supplies, or just hang out. 

CWDB and PBS will have food sales throughout the day for a small donation.  Money raised will be donated to local food pantries.   We also need members to bring homebrews along to share with each other and for the public to sample.  Anyone donating a food item to the food pantry will be given a ticket for a sample of homebrew.  Last year we raised over $300 and procedes went to the Boys and Girls Club.   Hope to see you there.   

Saturday October 25th, 2008 is Open Brew Day at Dave Olsens House.  Dave has graciously ofered to host a group brew event at his house.  Bring your own equipment and brew with friends.  Or just show up to hang out and harass Dave.  Bring your own lunch and snacks and beer to share.  Fire pit on site if your interested in a fire brew.  Dave has some wood available.  If your interested call Dave and get dirrections.  His home phone is 341-1248.  Thanks Dave....

Thursday October 16th 2008 Regular Monthly Meeting from 6:30 to 9:00pm at Point Brewery Hospitality room. 

Topics for the night is the future use of the hospitality room for our club meetings.  We will be meeting with Point Brewery representatives and discusing contiued use of the meeting room.  The brewery pays someone to watch the room while we meet and has graciously waived any room rental fees in the past.  CWDB had in return had supplied volunteers to all Point Brewery sponsored events as our way of saying thank you.   Recently our volunteering has declined to almost no volunteer participation.   Additionally, budget restrictions in today's economical time has Point raising issues about our use of the room.  One option is to disband our club.  Members interested in contiuning an organized club are encouraged to attend this meeting.   

Once this topic of discusion concludes we will be have a judging/evaluation session using BJCP scoresheet and using a blind beer for tasting.  This will help prepare us for future evalutation of our Golden Growler beer entries to be club judges.  We will be discussing the upcoming Golden Growler style guidelines.  If your planning on participating in this years GG competition by either brewing or pre-juding please attend this meeting as it would benifit our clubs odds of winning.  Thanks to everyone who helps make CWDB's odds of winning a reality.  Better Brewers Make Better Beer.  

Remember meeting wrap up promptly at 9pm.  No loitering in the parking lot afterwards.  

Travis and the Bull Falls Homebrewers have invited us to join their big brew party.   Here is a link to the Bull Falls website with all the info.  Looks like a fun time brewing up with good eats too....

http://www.bullfalls-homebrewers.org/Big%20Brew%20Details.html

Thursday September 18th, 2008 was CWDBs 17th Year Anniversary Party. Held at Point Brewery's Hospitality room from 6:30 - 9:00pm. No formal meeting topic for the nite, but we talked about the past years events and said thank yous, and discussed the next years club plans.  .Club members attending gave feedback to the beers sampled as we did a lot of "showcase of beers". 

For the upcoming year we will be doing a "sign in" sheet at every meeting event and drawing names for prizes at the end of the next year.  The more events and meeting you attend the better your odds at winning.  This is CWDB's rewards program for the year for members who participate.  Club funds generated over the year will be returned to members as a way of saying thanks for being there.  Thanks to everyone who helps out during the year.

You are all invited to WOODSTOCKTON FEST at Greg Tamason house.  This is the 5th running of this annual event held each Labor Day.  Greg says come on by and join the fun and festivities.  Party is Monday September 1st from 2-7 pm located at 6977County Beautiful Lane (just off of Hwy J on the east side of Point).  Hwy J is closed at Hwy 10 so use the Detour route of Brilowski Road to HH then backtrack on J.  The party features live entertainment with Greg’s band on the back deck.  They were the opening act at O’so Grand Opening.  Greg is picking up a 1/2  barrel of Big-O, but feel free to bring beverages to drink or share also.  Everyone seems to bring some food to share and let me tell you, that’s the reason that I go.  Some of the best eats around.  Bring a chair and relax under the shade trees in back yard.  Hope to see some of you there.

Thursday August 21st, 2008 was the REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING for AUGUST from 6:30 until 9:00 pm at the Hospitality Room in the Point Brewery.    Andrew brought in some old bottles found in the Wisconsin River drawdown for us to look at.  We sampled a variety of homebrews including an excellent Octoberfest from George.  The new night shift brewer took us on a quick tour of the brewery.  We also finalized plans for a clone brew contest for later this fall. 

Friday and Saturday August 15-16, 2008 Point Brewery is having its annual Brews, Brats, and Bands festival. CWDB members can volunteer time to bar tend or help out with other tasks. Sign up for a shift of pouring beers with Dave Pias dalpias@charter.net or call him at 345-0696.     Thanks to those of you who are helping out. 

Marshfield Hub City Days with car show and beer fest is Saturday July 26th.  Neither O'so Brewing or CWDB will be doing a tasting booth, but there will be plenty of other beers available to sample. Check it out if your in the Marshfield area. 

O'so Brewing GRAND OPENING!!!  was Saturday July 19th from Noon till 8pm at the Springville Warf parking lot.  The event kicked off rather well as Katina had quite a crew of volunteer staff helping out with all the tasks.  Bart tended bar, Mike ran hourly tours, and Marc wandered aimlessly through the crowd.  Volunteers were too numerous to list, but thanks to everyone who helped.  CWDB manned a homebrew booth and raised a few dollars with a ring toss game.  Greg Tamason's band opened up the show.  Nine different O'so beers were served on tap with the Summer Saison fresh from the tanks.   The event ended with an inch and half rain falling in 20 minutes, wow.  Photos and video from Bob Stempski can be seen on the Oso web site.  Check it out.  O-yeah, there is merchandice now available for sale with the O logo. 

CWDBs Regular Monthly Meeting was from 6:30 to 9:00 pm at the Stevens Point Brewery Hospitality room. We started things out with a ton of snacks set up on the bar.  A few new club members showed up after hearing about us at PBS.  We discussed havign a clone brew competition later in the fall.  The meeting was turned over to Ted Zinn who ran a judging and evaluation presentation.  We divided into groups and scored Point White per BJCP guidlines.  Amazing that all four tables of scores were within one point of each other.  Results were sent onto John Zappa, who later commented "thanks for your support".  Award winning Lagers were presented to the group from Tom Zahasky.  Tom had been perfecting his lagering and should have brought more beer along. Maybe next time.

There was NO regular meeting as we are had the annual Summer Solstice Brew Event over the weekend. Take the evening to get caught up on your weekend chores and show up on Saturday instead.

Thursday January 15, 2008 is our Regular Scheduled meeting.  Same time and same place as usuall.  Stop on down and check out what is going on. 

Thursday January 15, 2008 is our regular scheduled monthly meeting at Point Brewery Hospitality Room from 6:30 until 9:00 pm.   It's the third Thursday, but it falls a bit early in the month as the 1st is on a Thrusday.  Some guys say "I thought the meetings were always at the end of the month".  No...they are always on the 3rd Thursday.  So mark your calendars.

Topic for the night is still up in the air.  I have some presentation material to go over on beer clarity.  We'll group discuss recipie options for this coming Golden Growler competition.  Someone was going to bring in a home-built stir bar mechanism to show-n-tell.  And we'll do a few Showcase of Beers sampling and evaluation.  So, brings some homebrews, microbrews, and snacks are always welcomed.

See you there.

National Teach-a-Friend to Homebrew Day held first Saturday in November each year.  You are welcomed to set up your homebrew equipment in front of Point Brew Supply and O'so Brewery and brew with your fellow club members. If can't brew stop by for lunch.  CWDB will host something to eat for the event.  Let Katina or myself know if you are coming so we have an idea of how many brewers to expect.  Hope to see you there.