This weekend Brendan and Cate at Green Acres Farm hosted a RIBS Beer and Food Pairing.  We had a delicious 5 course menu featuring dumplings, baby bok choi salad, kimchi fried rice (my favorite!), smoked duck with mushrooms, and red bean paste ice cream with vanilla wafers.  All of the dishes were cooked by Cate and served by their family and friends, and many of the ingredients were sourced on the farm.

We kept the pairing pretty informal, with members and their guests sampling and tasting, and commenting on which beers accentuated flavors in the dishes and which styles overpowered.  We had a variety of homebrew and commercial styles and the sampling was relaxed, lasting well into a beautiful spring evening at the farm.

We had a great showing at last night’s monthly club meeting.  Highlights included last minute submissions by members for the Ocean State Homebrew Competition, scheduling mini lectures for March and April, raffling off a chance to assist head brewer Tommy at Trinity Brewhouse, and announcing our first Homebrewing 101 class of 2017 (at Westerly Library on March 16th).  If any of that sounds like fun email us to be added to our mailing list where you’ll be kept up to date in all club happenings.

The best part of the night hands down was our Winter Styles Competition.  This year Ravenous Brewing Company sponsored the first place prize by donating a generous $50 gift card to the brewery.  We tried a new judging system to allow for personal tastes, overall impressions, and a more relaxed experience. The competition was fierce with styles ranging from Brown Ale, Barleywine, Belgian Quad, Rauchbier & Rauchwine.  

Ten beers were entered and four advanced to a mini best of show.  Alex MacIntosh’s Russian Imperial Stout won out by one vote (his Wee Heavy also placed in the mini best of show) but he deferred the top prize to Brendan Kennedy who’s Belgian Strong was a very close second.

Thanks everyone for coming out and making February’s meeting a great success!

It was an exciting day for Rhode Island Brewing Society at the 2017 Rhode Island Brew Fest! So many people, with overwhelmingly positive responses, many great new contacts made, friends made, and, of course, there was BEER.

Our South of the Wall, Clan MacIntosh, and KettleFrog were the stand-out hits of the day; not to toot our own horns, but, all of our offerings were pretty darn good!

Many thanks to Gray Matter Marketing for having us again, and to all of you for your support, enthusiasm, and many kind words.

See you at the next meeting, Thursday, February 9th!

It’s only been two short weeks since we got back from attending the New England Homebrewer’s Jamboree and already we’re starting to plan for next year’s jamboree. This was our third year attending this excellent event and we had a bigger crew than the two years before. You know what they say, the more the merrier. It also seemed there were more new clubs there from all over New England and a few new startup breweries. We saw plenty of old friends and also made new ones.

This year we had our best tap setup to date, two jockey boxes with a total of 8 taps, a few coolers full of bottles and a few lone wolf party taps. We brought a total of 15 kegs and 4 cases of bottles. By far I think our most drank beer was the Basil Saison by Charlie and Mike A. Fortunately, they had brought 2 kegs of it. Also of note were the Gaston County Light Lager and the Battlefrog Gratzer.

This was also a banner year for RIBS with two of our members taking home first place in two different categories during the competition. A big congratulations to Jamie with his “Some Troubles” Smoked Brown Ale and Alex with his “Lake Wylie IPA” for winning 1st place at this year’s New England Homebrewers Jamboree. In addition Alex’s IPA won Brewer’s Choice Award and his recipe will be brewed and featured at Hobbs Tavern & Brewing Company in Ossipee NH. Great work guys!

We were also joined by local RI band, Highway’s End for a set on Saturday. If people had forgotten about our state, we certainly reminded them.

Suffice it to say we had a blast and will be back next year!

Imagine if you will the trees filled with leaves, a warm breeze gently dancing with the steam coming off your boil kettle. You are sitting back in a lawn chair drinking your last stout from winter. The air is heavy with 7 varieties of hops totaling 21oz, as you brew up some of your famous “Facemelter IPA”. This is the average Spring scene for a home brewer.

Just because the weather hasn’t been perfect doesn’t mean RIBS and its members have been sitting idle. Elections were held in December and we have been putting our trust in our new President Chris M., Vice President Josh F. and Secretary Kate M. Both Josh and Kate have been crushing their new rolls making the club run like a well oiled machine. Kate has brought a level of organization not previously experienced by the club and we’re lucky to have her. Josh and Chris taking the helm with Jenn P. from JBREW and running the Ocean State Home Brewing Competition for the second year in a row and the 6th OSHC overall.

It doesn’t stop there, a few months prior we posted about Long Live Beer Works opening in Providence. While many RIBS members have been visiting the brewery we haven’t given it the love it deserves. So with in the next few weeks we hope to do a write up (with sweet beery pictures) of the brewery.

We have also expanded our inter-club activities to include beer experiments, this was an idea stolen inspired by the Brooklyn Brewminaries. Our latest experiment was 5 different regional yeasts in the same wort. The base was a Traditional English Bitter that was was split into 5 – 1gallon samples. Each of the wort samples had English varieties of yeast pitched. The varieties were Whitbread I, Whitbread II, London, English, and British. The results were very stark and really inspired members to branch out with their yeast choices. We have also continued our inter-club competitions with our latest competition being Irish and Scottish Styles.

We are always welcoming new members and are excited to see what the Spring and Summer months are going to bring!

This Saturday, January 9th, is a red letter day for “Long Live Beerworks” as it will be the first time they open their doors to the public. Owner, Brewmaster and founding Rhode Island Brewing Society member, Armando DeDona is following the dream we all hold. Armando has worked hard, studied harder, and brewed beers that do not compromise quality. We wish him good luck and are looking forward to checking out his brewery right in downtown Providence. Cheers!

For more information check out the Long Live Beerworks website!

http://www.longlivebeerworks.com/