August Meeting Information – Hops!

The August meeting of the Society of Barley Engineers homebrew club will be held on Wednesday August 4th @ 6p.m. at the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens. We will be focussing on topics relating to Hops and will have a number of presenters including special guest speakers Ken & Eric from Star B Ranch. The entree of the evening will be Mac ‘n Beer Cheese. Directions are available at the Stone Brewing website [PDF link]

On the agenda:
1. Commercial hop growing – Ken & Eric from Star B Ranch
2. Growing hops at home – Travis Hammond
3. History of Hops in Brewing – TBD
4. Calculating Hop Bitterness – TBD
5. Dry Hopping Techniques – TBD
6. Stone Anniversary Celebration planning – Eric
7. SBE T-shirt sales ($12 each)
8. Homebrew Sharing – All

What to bring:

Homebrew for sharing
Star B Ranch has indicated that they will bring some fresh harvested hops to the meeting, so bring some cash for hops
Cash for entree ($10 + tax & tip = $13)

July Meeting and Meading

Greetings fellow Barley Engineers and prospective Barley Engineers:

The July meeting of the Society of Barley Engineers homebrew club will be held on Wednesday, July 7th @ 6p.m. at the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens [upstairs]. The entree of the evening will be Pesto Penne with Chicken & Tomato. Directions are available at the Stone Brewing Co website [pdf link]

On the agenda:
1. Brewing beer with honey – Jeremy
2. Mead making – Dean
3. Judging meads for club only competition – Paul
4. SD County Homebrew Competition Recap – Paul/Andy
5. Stone Anniversary Celebration planning – Eric
6. Homebrew Sharing – All

What to bring:
Homebrew for sharing
Mead for club only competition (at least 22 oz)
Cash for entree ($10 + tax & tip = $13)

See you there, cheers!

Meeting Information for May


Fellow Barley Engineers as well as potential Barley Engineers:

The May meeting for the Society of Barley Engineers will be held on Wednesday, May 5th at Lost Abbey in San Marcos. The topic is going to be on pairing breads and cheeses with Lost Abbey and Port Brewing excellent line up of award winning brews.

For more information on Lost Abbey and Port Brewing company, hit up their websites:

The Lost Abbey

Port Brewing Company

Map of Lost Abbey Location:

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Pizza and Beer at the Lightning Brewery

On Wednesday, February 17th at 6:00 pm Dr. Jim Crute will give a tour of the brewery, answer questions, and can discuss a topic of our choosing – preferably beer related. (please e-mail me topics that may interest you)

Lightning will be providing beer tastings, but we’re all going to chip in for some pizzas, so please bring a few bucks cash. As always, feel free to bring some homebrews for sharing.

Lightning Brewery location:


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May Camp out and Spring Fling Festival

The Society of Barley Engineers will be joining QUAFF at Lake Morena in Campo for this year’s Spring Fling Festival.

This is a 2-night camping event starting on Friday, May 14th with a beer Trick-or-Treat, continuing on into Saturday with the main event being the Spring Fling Festival.  That means the camp site reservations we have are for 2 nights: $24 per night, per site [$48 total].  By getting a block of sites we saved you a $5 reservation fee [Thanks for the help, Stan!].  Tent Campers may share a site, if the site occupant wants to share their spot.  A maximum of 8 people may share a site – Share with friends and $ave!

This is a simple, uncomplicated “main event”.  No admission charge, no guest speakers, no bands, no raffle, no food vendors.  Yes to great beer [yours], yes to great food [pot luck], yes to fun hanging out with your friends and relaxing with great homebrewed beer.

The beer Trick-or-Treating on Friday night is a tradition that I highly recommend experiencing, but if folks just want to come to just the main event on Saturday [without camping overnight on Friday or Saturday], there’s a $3 Day-Use Fee that would work well.  Plenty of day-use parking near the entrance, with a short walk to the campsite and pavilion action.

Cabins are also available, currently they are primitive, with no electricity or heat, but may be upgraded my mid-May.  If you reserve a cabin now, you get it at today’s price of $30/night, even if it is upgraded by then.  The price goes up to $50/night for cabins reserved after the upgrade.

This is a fairly-kid-friendly event, with a playground available. We say “fairly”, because it depends on how much adult imbibing you want your kids exposed to.  With the playground and camping venue, there should be enough of a buffer from the imbibing, if you want it.  Also, luckily, we’re all “fairly” happy drunks!

We need to know NOW if you’re interested.  Check your calendars and contact any of the officers on the contact page , so we can get a block of sites reserved.  This will ensure we will have sites close to each other, plus we’ll save the $5-per-site reservation fee.

This camp out is intended to be the San Diego version of the Southern California Homebrewers Festival, so you’ll also want to be brewing beer for this event.  Plenty of time, for that, but we need your commitment for participating in the FUN now.

Pertinent Information:

QUAFF has reserved sites 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 44, 55, 56, 57 and 58 along with the large covered pavilion adjacent to site 75

Lauren has reserved sites 25, 26, 28, 38, 40 and 42 for SBE members [3 have been accounted for, leaving 3 left for other members]

Time line of events:

Day Event
Friday Beer Trick-or-Treat
Saturday Spring Fling Festival
Sunday Recovery/Go home

Lake Morena Regional Park brochure [Warning PDF link!]

County of San Diego Lake Morena information site

Map to Lake Morena:


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Meeting Information – FeBREWary

ref: flickr.com

The topic for this month is English Brown Ales. We will have a style discussion, present commercial examples as well as judge for the homebrew club only competition. So bring in your English Brown Ales, at least two-12oz beers for the panel as well as one to send off for the competition.

Check back often as the location and date is not set and may not be the normal time. We’ll update this as soon as a location and date is set.

Update: The FeBREWary meeting will be on February 3rd at Churchills in San Marcos. Ivan [Owner of Churchills] will have the Alesmith Nautical Nut Brown on keg for us, plus he will have Newcastle on as a standard offering with his new 50-TAP setup!  Yes, all 50 taps should be pouring by tomorrow night, if they’re not already primed and up today.

Meeting will start at 6:00pm.

Map below:


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