Also, Steve at Barley & Wine would be more than pleased to help you get ready for your next brew session!  Take advantage of your CVBG club discount that evening:)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Learn to Homebrew Day 2011

This Saturday, November 5, 2011, the Central Valley Brewers Guild will be co-hosting the AHA’s 13th annual Learn to Homebrew Day at Barley & Wine in Modesto. We’ll be starting promptly at 9 am, and so far it looks like three CVBG guildies will be putting together all-grain batches of beer. Please join us to talk the brewer’s talk, while three of our brewers demonstrate how easy it is to brew high quality beer. Feel free to bring samples of your homebrew to share with attendees, as well as perhaps a munchie to share. There will be some kind of light lunch provided to attendees.

See you Saturday at Barley & Wine!

Dust Bowl Brewery

The November 2011 CVBG gathering will be held on Thursday, October 3, 2011, at 6:30 p.m. at the Dust Bowl Brewery, in Turlock. It’s always a treat to visit a working brewery, so make sure you don’t miss this month’s gathering! You must be a logged in, authorized user, on the CVBG Forums to view the location of the gathering.

The topic for the evening will be Learn to Homebrew Day (at Barley & Wine), and based on requests from members, all things yeast!  Don Oliver, Dust Bowl Brewing Brewmaster (and brand new dad!), will answer any questions you may have pertaining to yeast handling, storage, viability and anything else you can think of.  The beer style of the month will be Baltic Porter, and Don has a new Dust Bowl Baltic Porter for us to sample! Please bring commercial or homebrewed examples to share and discuss.

Sociables Ale house

The October 2011 CVBG gathering will be held on Thursday, October 2, 2011, at 6:30 p.m. at Sociables Ale House, in Turlock. You must be a logged in, authorized user, on the CVBG Forums to view the location of the gathering.

The topic for the evening will be NHC 2012 preparation, Learn to Homebrew Day (at Barley & Wine), bulk hop purchases and based on requests from members, making yeast starters. The beer style of the month will be American Amber Ale, including Red Ales. Please bring commercial or homebrewed examples to share and discuss.

Also, Steve at Barley & Wine has a great announcement for us that will affect every CVBG member. Be there so you don’t miss out!

The Tap Wall at Dust Bowl Brewing

News Flash!  They are opening tonight, Monday, August 1, 2011, at 5:00pm!

The Dust Bowl Brewing Taproom will be opening the week of August 1-5, 2011.  All CVBG members currently on our text messaging system will receive a text with further info for official opening night.  We’re hoping to have CVBG members out in force to show support for our home brewery!

We’ll also be holding our August 11 CVBG Gathering at the Taproom.  We need an accurate headcount for this gathering by Monday, August 1.  If you haven’t done so, please go to the CVBG Forums and post in the August 2011 Gathering topic with your attendance status.

We’re planning for two options, a Pub Crawl – and a Pub Crawl Over. If you plan on a single day event – the Pub Crawl, Amtrak will allow for 4+ hours of tasting before you need to get back on the train for your ride home. If your plan for an overnight event, the Pub Crawl Over, you’ll get a 28 hour experience. Round trip Amtrak fare from Turlock, will run $34. Your cost will vary depending on location. The train will arrive about 12:30 pm.  Be sure to ask the conductor for bus transfers to get a free ride to the first crawl stop, Rubicon Brewing.  The train departs from the Sacramento station promptly at 4:55 – and no, Amtrak will not wait while you finish your beer – so make sure you are back at the Amtrak station with a few minutes to spare for your ride home, if you are not Crawling Over:)

For the Crawl Over, the Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza is suggested for lodging as it is centrally located between downtown and Old Town Sacramento. It is literally crawling distance from River City Brewing Company- and walking distance to many eateries and services.

We’ll be starting with lunch and ales at Rubicon Brewing about 1:00 pm.  From there, we’ll be heading to at Brew It Up!, a brew-on-premisis brewery, that is a good starting point for beginning brewers. The final stop will be the Pyramid Alehouse for a beer. Non-Crawl Over folks will need to hustle back to the Amtrak station for their 4:55 pm departure for home.

It should be a fun day for CVBGers!

Photos from the event can be viewed here.

One of the Central Valley Brewers Guild Founders, Mark Ranes, brought home a bronze medal from the 2011 National Homebrewers Conference, recently held in mid-June in San Diego. The bronze medal was for his American Barleywine.  Mark placed 3rd out of 252 strong ale entries from all over the United States and Canada. He also had a spiced beer in the final round, but it didn’t place. Mark was surrounded by CVBG members and supporters at the Grand Banquet and Awards Dinner.

You can view more info on the bronze, as well as full coverage and photos of the entire  2011 NHC event over at Mark’s blog, The Lazy Brewer.

After three years of a languishing static web site, the Central Valley Brewers Guild has an new look and feel! The revamped WordPress-based site will be actively updated with CVBG specific information, CVBG events and general homebrewing information.  CVBG members will still actively participate in the CVBG Forums, but this web site will offer quick access to the most important, current information for CVBG members.