It is a new year for RIBS and with that we have decided to step up the competitions a bit. RIBS members now will be following the Beer Judging Certification Program (BJCP) guidelines for their beers. The move to a more rigid system helps hone the skill of the brewer and gives valuable feedback even before entering into an official contest. It also helps the other members who are judging the beers understand how the judging process works. The first competition in the BJCP series focused on Style 13 – Stouts. Style 13 includes 6 sub categories and members were free to choose from those categories:

• Dry Stout
• Sweet Stout
• Oatmeal Stout
• Foreign Extra Stout
• American Stout
• Russian Imperial Stout

For detailed descriptions, visit the official BJCP page:(http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style13.php)

When you are brewing with in the guidelines it forces you to take a step back and really think about if the ingredient goes with the recipe. Many of members who were familiar with brewing stouts were able to add their own flair to it and still stay within guidelines.

Since this was our first BJCP based competition we realized (about half way through) the standard practice of subjective voting would no longer cut it. In the interests of continuity we stuck with the subjective practice for this competition. The next competition will be more like a real BJCP competition, complete with score sheets.

This time around we have 2 winners, first time winner Jim taking first place with his Sweet Stout and 2nd time Winner Nate taking 2nd place also with a Sweet Stout. I guess people really like their sweet stouts.

Nate and Jim

We have the rest of the pictures in our gallery.

PS. Be on the look out for the RIBS table at the Rhode Island Brewfest on February 1st. We’ll have a few beers for sampling and will answer any questions you have about brewing.

It has been another fun year and RIBS has had a blast; we look forward to another year of adventures in brewing! We ended the year on a high note with the return of Dog Fish Head to RI.
RIBS members were able to have a rare opportunity to meet with Sam Calagione at the Dog Fish Head return party.

We would like to thank all the local businesses that have helped us keep brewing through out this year. Our members kept the beer flowing and the good times coming in 2013.

RIBS held quarterly beer competitions and turned out some great beers. The goal, aside from camaraderie is to break members from their brewing comfort zone to try styles they might not have tried before. We then mix in a bit of friendly competition and a 1st and 2nd place snazzy ribbon or trophy for a fun filled night of tasting.

The first competition, in a winter-fashion was a stouts and porters competition. Armando won with a killer Milk Stout and thus kicked off a great year of competitions.

The spring competition opened the gate for a golden beer competition. Justina, a relatively new home brewer won first place with her 2nd beer ever brewed! Her Mango Golden ale really took the taste buds of our members by storm.

The summer competition with fruit and vegetable based beers gave everyone a chance to add some vitamins to their diet, in beer form. Kate took first place with her Cucumber Wheat, this beer was refreshing and flavorful, and adhered closely to the guidelines. In 2nd Place we had Josh’s Strawberry Rhubarb beer, which mixed a pleasant balance of sweet and tart without the Rhubarb over staying it’s welcome.

The fall brown and bitters competition held in October brought a great variety of beers.  In first place was Mike D. and his “India Nut Brown” and second place went to Josh F. with his “English Bitter.”

RIBS members all agreed that after 1 year of successful competitions we would follow the styles of the BJCP guidelines. We are excited for our next competition, which will follow the BJCP guidelines for Stouts in our first competition of 2014.

Dan graciously hosted the RIBS Octoberfest party this year. Everyone who attended brought some samples of their fall brews. There was great conversation, laughter and beer tasted.

Justina and Eddie hosted the Holiday party this year. It was a wonderful pot luck and Yankee swap event. There wasn’t a bad beer in the house.

RIBS will be attending the RI Brew Fest again next year on February 1st so look for our booth and our home brews!

We hope everyone enjoyed the year with RIBS and we look forward to making more memories and more beer with everyone next year!

From all of us at Rhode Island Brewing, have a happy holiday and a great new year!

RIBS members use a number of a different mobile apps. We thought that we would bring to light many of the apps that we use pretty regularly. All the apps that we use are free and a number of them are for iphone or android. Of course we could go into blackberry, windows phones, paid vs. free apps but let’s be realistic we would all need a nap before the end of that discussion.

Drinking Sherpa, like the name implies, will help you find your way to breweries, distilleries or wineries. The app will check to see how close you are to breweries using GPS positioning. Drinking Sherpa will provide insightful details about your destination, like address, phone number, and tour hours. Unlike most aggregates Drinking Sherpa does not copy and paste data, they actually partner with the breweries. This partnership allows for the results to be more accurate and up to date, this also mean they are constantly growing!

When you discover a new favorite beer why not share it with your friends? Untappd allows for you to do just that! One of the key features that keeps me coming back is unlocking the clever and fun badges they have built into the app. You also have many social features such as toasting, following friends and breweries, also tagging your location so you can meet up with fellow beer enthusiasts.

We know this is not exhaustive but we just wanted to give you a tasting of the types of apps available to all levels of brewers and beer enthusiasts such as ourselves. Tell us what your go-to app is so we can all expand our beer knowledge!

RIBS takes great pride in the DIY movement and strongly encourages members to build their own brewing equipment when possible. Getting down into the nitty gritty allows for a more complex understanding how the equipment is used in the brewing process. Matt Maffucci is not one to shy away from a project especially if it involves beer as the final product.
This past weekend a few members ventured down to Matt’s house with quite a bit of grain, some sanitized buckets and a goal to take his brand new 45 gallon Recirculating Infusion Mash System (RIMS) for a first time run. We left with our buckets filled with wort and whole new load of brewing knowledge. We brewed a large pale ale recipe for all participating members. Each member then selected their own unique hops to use, no two members could chose the same hop. Lastly we all fermented with the same yeast. In a few weeks, we will be doing a tasting to compare and contrast the unique hop flavors. Make sure to have a look at the pictures from the event in our gallery and stay tuned for the final results.