Legislative Effort

The Washington Homebrewers Association is working to change our homemade beer and wine transportation laws in Washington.  As it is right now, you can't take homebrew outside of your house except for competitions!  We have drafted legislation to allow more communal celebration of the hobby and support the future professional beer and wine makers in Washington.  We are proud to announce that Senator Ken Jacobsen has agreed to sponsor our bill (Senate Bill 5060). 

We need you to get involved and contact your legislators asking them to support Senate Bill 5060.  It is easy and will greatly increase our chances of getting the bill passed.  For more information on how you can help, please check our legislative section at www.wahomebrewers.org/legal  

UPDATE: Senate Bill 5060 was passed unanimously by the Senate.  We now need to work our way through the House starting with the House Commerce and Labor Committee.  Simply call or write them asking for their support of Senate Bill 5060 through committee.   Check the Legal Section for the list of Representatives!  The contacts have been working incredibly well!  Keep them coming!

Educational Speaker - March 27th - Wyeast

The Washington Homebrewers Association is hosting Brian Perkey from Wyeast Laboratories as the third speaker in our Educational Speaker Program.  He will be coming to Big Al Brewing on March 27th to talk all about yeast. 

Event Details:
Date: Friday, March 27th
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Big Al Brewery
9832 14th Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98106
(206) 453-4487
RSVP HERE!

Click here for more details.

Bert Grant Competition - March 7th

For those individuals who qualified for the Bert Grant Competition, details are available in the Awards section.

2009 Cascade Brewers Cup - WHOTY Qualifier 

The Washington Homebrewers Association would like to encourage all Washington homebrewers to participate in the 2009 Cascade Brewers Cup and following Exbeerience Beer Festival. Entries for the Cascade Brewers Cup can be dropped off starting March 1st through March 15th at the five entry locations listed at www.cascadebrewersclub.org (there is one mail in location). The cost is $6 per entry with 3 bottles required (except for meads and ciders where only 2 bottles per entry are required). Grand prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in Best of Show TBD and will be announced soon.  The 2009 Cascade Brewers Cup registration wizard is up now so please enter/volunteer today!

The Cascade Brewers Cup is the first Washington Homebrewer of the Year Qualifiying Competition for 2009. You can find out more about this award here. 

Volunteers~ Judging will take place at the Redhook Ale Brewery in Woodinville, Washington on Sunday, March 22nd starting at 9:00 am and finishing by 4:30 pm. Lunch will be provided for all volunteers. Please register to volunteer today!

The Best of Show round will be held at Redhook on the day of the Exbeerience event, April 4th, at 10:30 am, prior to the start of the event. The Exbeerience will be held at Redhook Brewery (14300 NE 145th St, Woodinville, WA) from 1-6 pm with awards being announced throughout the day as well as the first set of WAHA Awards. Admission is $15 and gets you 6 tastes from local breweries (local homebrew clubs, WABL, and Ratebeer members get an extra pour) and more tastes are available for purchase ($2 or 3 for $5). There will be a judging workshop and a pro's versus Joe's of homebrew versus a pro brewery recipe.  Tickets and more details can be found at Brown Paper Tickets. Those who have participated in it the past you know it is a great celebration of excellent beers and the homebrewing community.  Best of luck in the competition and we hope to see you at the Exbeerience!

2009 WHOTY Qualifying Competitions

We are putting together the list of the 2009 WHOTY Qualifying Competitions.  Here is the current list:

Cascade Brewers Cup
Puget Sound Pro-Am
Evergreen State Fair
Novembeerfest

Make sure to enter these and all other competitions in Washington!

BJCP Exam

Congrats to everyone who took the BJCP exam on February 28th.  We are anxiously looking forward to everyone getting their scores and growing our judging pool in Washington.  Welcome to the BJCP family and we look forward to seeing you soon at upcoming competitions to start building your points!

NHC Attendees Yahoo Group

For people planning to attend the 2009 National Homebrewers Conference in Oakland, California this June, a Yahoo Group of Washington homebrewers has been formed to prepare for the conference.  The WAHA will have a table at the Homebrewer's Night event so we'll be putting together a booth and bar, organizing transporation of beers, and figuring out other details like themes and beer styles.  If you are going to be attending the conference, please go get registered on our Yahoo Group site (WAHAAHAConf2009) at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WAHAAHAConf2009/

Washington Homebrewers Association Facebook Site

The Washington Homebrewers Association is launching a Facebook site.  You can become a fan and receive updates on WAHA happenings.  We'll use it to post photos from events as well as meeting information and anything else from our events.  The wahomebrewers.org website will continue to be the central repository, but we will use this as another way to keep in touch with Washington homebrewers.