Recording from the January 2023 meeting of GTA Brews Homebrew Club in Toronto, Canada.
In January we were happy to have GTA Brews Member (and former club President) Eric Cousineau back to give us a presentation this month on water chemistry!
Slides: Intro to Brewing Water 2.5 by Eric Cousineau
GTA Brews is pleased to offer another branded glass from our favourite manufacturer, Rastal! Our previous Teku glass has been very popular for many years, and this one is chosen to be the perfect accompaniment to that one.
This is the Rastal Winebar 40, which is a stemless tumbler sized at 0.4L (13.5 oz)
The graphic fullwrap pattern is created by GTA Brews member James Kennedy
The tale of Ed’s 22 year old lambic-style beer is legendary among GTA Brews members that were present in the 2016-2017 era. I was recently talking to some newer members and realized that we needed to document this story in a format more lasting than word of mouth.
Some readers might be yelling at their screens right now that true Lambic can only be made in Senne Valley region of Belgium. Ed is right there with you and readily admits this was more of a lambic-style beer or methode traditionelle (MT) beer. However at the time when the beer was brewed, homebrewers were used to playing more fast and loose with these kinds of appellations.
I’ve had the pleasure of trying both versions of this beer several times over the years, and they were both wonderful!
After contacting Ed to ask his thoughts on how we could best document this, he recommended we use a version of the letter he wrote the the Sour Hour Podcast in 2017, which has been slightly modified for GTA Brews.
So without further ado, lets get into the story!
Read on air of The Sour Hour podcast, Episode 70, 11 mins in.
I am sure that anyone reading this will appreciate the symbiotic nature of homebrewing and a desire to learn more about as many beer styles as possible. One of the unique beer styles that is wholly intriguing for both complexity and mystique is Belgian Lambic, so of course I decided I would try to brew one. More or less following Guinard’s book (from the Classic Beer Styles series) I made a wort of pale malt, unmalted wheat and aged Hallertau hops, and – as was the recommendation at the time – did a primary ferment using Wyeast 1056 before doing a secondary ferment with the Wyeast Lambic blend. My understanding at the time was that wood was necessary for proper growth of the Brett and bacteria, so I chopped a log of birch into kindling, torching the exposed ends to sterilize them but leaving the fresh wood where it was split untouched, and tossed that in. It sat in a glass carboy for a while, but then I had to move, so I transferred the beer and the wood to a stainless corny keg and sealed it up.
And here is where it gets interesting, because life sometimes throws curveballs…
A year later I moved to Europe, and when I moved back I had young kids. It was a while before I got back into homebrewing, and when I did, I decided something had to be done with the keg that was sitting patiently under the stairs at my parent’s cottage. Until I cracked it, it was kind of like Schroedinger’s cat (Schroedinger’s vat?) in that it existed in a superposition of states, both bad and good, and there was no way to know which way it would resolve until I opened it. Fortunately, it was still good – quite good in fact -so I split the batch and bottled half straight and half after a refermentation with raspberries.
Now if you are following along, you will notice that some time has passed, but I have been somewhat cagey as to just how much time. I brewed the beer in February 1994. I bottled it in the summer of 2015, twenty one and a half years later. My son was born a month after I brewed it, and was legal to drink in the US by the time it was bottled.
Eight months later the straight Lambic won best of show at a local competition with about a hundred entries (Editor: It was Spring Showdown 2016), and six months after that the Framboise won a major award at a much larger competition (Editor: It was Brew Slam 2016). While it did not medal in the BOS, it moved on to a side award sponsored by one of the local breweries as one of the top 10 beers from the greater Toronto area (a smaller field of merely 400 entries, versus the full competition of 600), and in that challenge it won hands down. The award, called the Henderson Cup, was a cash prize and an opportunity to design and brew a beer on Henderson’s 20HL system for one of their monthly special releases.
Now in 2022, I only have two bottles left (one of each), now seven years in the bottle and almost twenty nine years old. The last time I had one it was thin and had lost a lot of complexity, and I’m just waiting for a special moment to finish the last two; but once they are gone, that’s it. I’m not likely to repeat this – unless I decide to brew something now for my 80th birthday – but if anyone reading this is looking for a challenge, by all means give it a go!
A few months ago we opened sign up for our 9th annual GTA Brews Homebrew Calendar. The participation fee was $10/person, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). We also included the option to donate extra (in $10 increments) to CAMH to help us on our fundraising efforts.
We’re pleased to announce that (as of writing) we have raised $320 for CAMH! There’s still time to donate using the following item. Donations will be accepted until Weds Dec 14th.
As is tradition, James Kennedy has designed a custom advent graphic showing each beer that is part of the calendar. As is also tradition, he has taken artistic liberty based on the name given to the beer, at least for the members that gave their beer a name.
This is an Invite-Only Homebrew Competition for BOTY Final Round
Email questions to: comp@gtabrews.ca
Entrant/Volunteer Registration: Oct 24th, 2022, 12:00 PM
Entry Registration Opens: Oct 24th, 2022, 12:00 PM
Entry Deadline: Nov 11th, 2022, 4:00 PM
Judging Date: Nov 20th, 2022
Judging Location: Amsterdam Brewhall (45 Esandar Dr)
Results/Awards Ceremony: TBD
Cost of Entry: $10 per entry
– 2 bottles per entry
Payment: Paypal Only
Styles Accepted: All BJCP Beer styles (BJCP 2021 Guidelines)
Styles Limits:
– 1 entry per classic style subcategory (1-26)
– 2 entries per specialty subcategory (21B, 27-34), must be different beers
Entry Limits:
– Total cap: N/A (Invite Only)
– Per-entrant cap: 6 per person
The Canadian Homebrew Championship (CHC) is a collaboration between the Canadian Brewer of the Year Circuit (BOTY), the Canadian Homebrewers Association (CHA), and the local organizing homebrew club (GTA Brews for 2022). This is an invite-only homebrew competition, where only the top 3 winners of each local club’s qualifier competition are invited to submit entries.
This competition acts as a Final Round for the BOTY circuit, where BOTY 2022 titles will be awarded:
Our popular seasonal homebrew competition is back for 2022, in person! We will be accepting all styles of beer, and for the first time we will be using the new BJCP 2021 Guidelines! Since this is our small competition, entry will be restricted to GTA Brews members only.
This seasonal competition is designed to be a “low stakes” introduction to BJCP competitions for club members to enter their beers for feedback and fun. The focus is on providing excellent feedback, so we keep the entry cap low. Our hope is that lots of first-time entrants will find themselves on the winners list and be motivated to continue entering competitions. This competition will be judged by BJCP Judges according to the newly released 2021 BJCP Guidelines.
If this if your first competition, please read our BJCP Competition Guide for tips on entering. If you aren’t sure which category to enter your beer, bring it to a club meeting, or email comp@gtabrews.ca.
Continue reading Announcing Summer Showdown 2022 – Homebrew Competition
A few months ago we opened sign up for our 8th annual GTA Brews Homebrew Calendar. The participation fee was $10/person, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). We also included the option to donate extra (in $10 increments) to CAMH to help us on our fundraising efforts.
We’re pleased to announce that (as of writing) we have raised $370 for CAMH! There’s still time to donate using the following item. Donations will be accepted until Tues Dec 14th.
As is tradition, James Kennedy has designed a custom advent graphic showing each beer that is part of the calendar. As is also tradition, he has taken artistic liberty based on the name given to the beer, at least for the members that gave their beer a name.
Our popular seasonal homebrew competition is back for 2021, in virtually judged format! As usual, we will be accepting all styles of beer, mead, and cider. Since this is our small competition, entry will be restricted to GTA Brews members only.
This seasonal competition is designed to be a “low stakes” introduction to BJCP competitions for club members to enter their beers for feedback and fun. The focus is on providing excellent feedback, so we keep the entry cap and fee low. Our hope is that lots of first-time entrants will find themselves on the winners list and be motivated to continue entering competitions. This competition will be judged by BJCP Judges according to the 2015 BJCP Guidelines.
If this if your first competition, please read our BJCP Competition Guide for tips on entering. If you aren’t sure which category to enter your beer, bring it to a club meeting, or email: comp@gtabrews.ca
Recording from the January 2021 meeting of GTA Brews Homebrew Club in Toronto, Canada.
This month we had renowned beer author and Certified Cicerone/BJCP Jordan St. John join us, to talk about collaborating with local breweries to re-create historical beer styles! Jordan wears many hats in the Toronto beer scene and we were thrilled to have him join us.
To the GTA Brews community,
I’ve had a wonderful eight years as Founding President of this homebrew club, and I’m so incredibly proud of everything that we have accomplished during my time at the helm.
We’ve grown so much from six people brewing a Citra SMASH in my old condo back in April 2013. We’ve grown into Canada’s largest and best homebrew club! A club of almost 400 members that hosts fantastic events like our monthly meetings, raises significant funds for charities like Caf-Can and CAMH, provides invaluable services like our hop and grain bulk buys, and organizes internationally renowned homebrew competitions like Brew Slam.
The time has come to me to hand the torch to new leadership so that the club can continue to grow and flourish. Some of you may remember that during my speech at the 5 Year Anniversary Party, I said that I wanted to be down in the crowd cheering when the 10 Year Anniversary Party came around. I’m excited that I have the chance to make that happen now.
Continue reading Message from the Outgoing President, Eric Cousineau
A few months ago we opened sign up for our 7th annual GTA Brews Homebrew Calendar. The participation fee was $10/person, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). We also included the option to donate extra (in $10 increments) to CAMH to help us on our fundraising efforts.
We’re pleased to announce that (as of writing) we have raised $510 for CAMH! There’s still time to donate using the following item. Donations will be accepted until Tues Dec 8th.
As is tradition, James Kennedy has designed a custom advent graphic showing each beer that is part of the calendar. As is also tradition, he has taken artistic liberty based on the name given to the beer, at least for the members that gave their beer a name.
Recording from the November 2020 meeting of GTA Brews Homebrew Club in Toronto, Canada.
This month, we had famous homebrew author John Palmer share his knowledge about Brewing Water, followed by a Q&A session! This time last year John joined us as a special guest at Brew Slam, and we are very excited to have him back.
Note: This was our first time sharing the zoom link publicly, and we ran into some “zoom bombers”. It took a few minutes to get a handle on it, but the presentation was able to proceed well.
Recording from the October 2020 meeting of GTA Brews Homebrew Club in Toronto, Canada.
We had our very own Marcelo Paniza share his knowledge with a presentation on making Hard Seltzer! This alcoholic beverage is seeing a surge of popularity right now, and homebrewers can make their very own using equipment you already have! Marcelo will show you how, and why, to homebrew them while sharing his best tips.
Date: Monday October 19th, 2020
Time: 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
GTA Brews Members: You must login to see the link and password. If you have logged in and cannot see them, please refresh the page.
This month, we have our very own Marcelo Paniza sharing his knowledge with a presentation on making Hard Seltzer! This alcoholic beverage is seeing a surge of popularity right now, and homebrewers can make their very own using equipment you already have! Marcelo will show you how, and why, to homebrew them while sharing his best tips.
As with any conference call, please mute your microphone if you aren’t speaking, this really helps cut down on background noise. During Q&A segments we will make use of the “Raise Hand” feature.
Continue reading October Meeting: Hard Seltzer with Marcelo PanizaRecording from the September 2020 meeting of GTA Brews Homebrew Club in Toronto, Canada.
This month, we had our very own Luke Van Oort share his knowledge with a presentation on Raw Ale! This is a technique inspired by historical brewing processes that has the potential to shave hours off your brewday by skipping the boil!
Date: Monday September 14th, 2020
Time: 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
GTA Brews Members: You must login to see the link and password. If you have logged in and cannot see them, please refresh the page.
This month, we have our very own Luke Van Oort sharing his knowledge with a presentation on Raw Ale! This is a technique inspired by historical brewing processes that has the potential to shave hours off your brewday by skipping the boil!
As with any conference call, please mute your microphone if you aren’t speaking, this really helps cut down on background noise. During Q&A segments we will make use of the “Raise Hand” feature.
Continue reading September Meeting: Raw Ale with Luke Van OortRecording from the August 2020 meeting of GTA Brews Homebrew Club in Toronto, Canada.
This month, we had our very own David Chang-Sang share his knowledge with a presentation on Pressure Fermenting. If you’ve been looking for an easier way to brew tasty lager-ish beers, this is the presentation for you!
GTA Brews Members: You must login to see the video.
Date: Tuesday August 18th, 2020
Time: 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
GTA Brews Members: You must login to see the link and password. If you have logged in and cannot see them, please refresh the page.
Please note the one off deviation in date this month.
This month, we have our very own David Chang-Sang sharing his knowledge with a presentation on Pressure Fermenting. If you’ve been looking for an easier way to brew tasty lager-ish beers, this is the presentation for you!
As with any conference call, please mute your microphone if you aren’t speaking, this really helps cut down on background noise. During Q&A segments we will make use of the “Raise Hand” feature.
Continue reading August Meeting: Pressure Fermenting with David Chang-SangDue to the COVID-19 pandemic, GTA Brews has decided to cancel this year’s iteration of our annual Brew Slam homebrew competition.
As soon as we went into lockdown back in the spring, we started getting questions from homebrewers across Canada asking us what our plans were for Brew Slam 2020. We held off making any firm decision as long as we could, with the hope that the situation would improve and we could continue as planned.
After months of waiting and internal discussion, the club has decided not to proceed with a competition this year. We are aware of the virtual homebrew competition trend that some clubs in the US have been championing, but we didn’t feel this would be appropriate for Brew Slam. We also considered a smaller virtual only competition, but didn’t feel this was something we wanted to pursue at this time.
We are looking forward to coming back with Brew Slam 2021, and can’t wait to make it better than ever before. For now, we are sending out best wishes to all Canadian homebrewers and their families, and hope you are honing your recipes with plenty of homebrewing. The competition is sure to be fiercer than ever in 2021 when we, and the rest of the BOTY circuit, return!
Cheers from the Brew Slam Crew!
Recording from the July 2020 meeting of GTA Brews Homebrew Club in Toronto, Canada.
This month we had two very special guests join us all the way from California and Oregon! This presentation from our favourite podcast hosts and authors, Denny Conn and Drew Beechum, was a big hit with club members.
If you enjoyed this presentation, please considering buying their book Simple Homebrewing, and listen to their podcasts.
GTA Brews Members: You must login to see the video.
Date: Monday July 13th, 2020
Time: 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
GTA Brews Members: You must login to see the link and password. If you have logged in and cannot see them, please refresh the page.
This month, we have two very special guests joining us all the way from California and Oregon! We’re very excited to have our favourite podcast hosts and authors, Denny Conn and Drew Beechum!
As with any conference call, please mute your microphone if you aren’t speaking, this really helps cut down on background noise. During Q&A segments we will make use of the “Raise Hand” feature.
Continue reading July Meeting: Simple Homebrewing with Denny & DrewRecording from the May 2020 meeting of GTA Brews Homebrew Club in Toronto, Canada.
Our trio of bread baking experts (James Kennedy, Clayton Hoy, and Luke Van Oort) walked us through the basics of baking several kinds of bread at home!
GTA Brews Members: You must login to see the video.
Recording from the March 2020 meeting of GTA Brews Homebrew Club in Toronto, Canada.
IPA master Mike Van shared his wisdom with us at our club meeting in March 2020
GTA Brews Members: You must login to see the video.
Monday May 11th at 7:30 PM
ZOOM Meeting (Online) – Link Below
Building on the success of our first online meeting in April, we are back in May to conduct the monthly meeting over Zoom.
We are still new to hosting virtual homebrew club meetings, so please have patience with any technical issues that arise. As with any conference call, please mute your microphone if you aren’t speaking, this really helps cut down on background noise.
Continue reading May Meeting: Baking Bread in QuarantineBrew Slam is wrapped up for another year, and what a year it was! All prizes were shipped out to our winners before the holidays, and I finally have time to write my annual wrap up post. With 819 entries judged, we were Canada’s largest homebrew competition again in 2019!
Monday January 13th at 7:00 PM
Muddy York Brewing Co.
22 Cranfield Road, Toronto, Ontario, M4B 3H1 MAP
We are going back to our gracious host, Muddy York Brewing Co! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Don’t forget to buy some bottles from their shop!
Continue reading January Meeting: Brewing Water Chemistry
My profession is Computer Engineering. I am a proud member of a pre-silicon IP team at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc. We design, verify, and deploy a portion of the hardware logic that goes into the various GPU products that we make.
I’m also the Founder and President of GTA Brews, which also takes up quite a bit of time. It’s been a ongoing joke among the club officers that I’ve been too busy running the club to answer the questions for a member profile, but here I am! You win Rob!
I started homebrewing because I wanted to explore my pre-existing love of craft beer, and learn more about it.
I had become really into beer while in university (~2008), and I even co-authored a column called Beer Buzz in the Engineering Society Newspaper (Iron Warrior). I had seen my friend (Kyle Smith) brewing up a storm on social media, so shortly after I graduated I bought myself a Brooklyn Brewshop kit from Chapters (Tip: Go to a homebrew shop instead, way fresher!). I brewed my first batch in January 2013 and the rest is history!
Continue reading Member Profile: Eric CousineauWe are going back to our gracious host, Muddy York Brewing Co! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Don’t forget to buy some bottles from their shop!
Continue reading November Meeting: Brewing Science with Escarpment’s Nate Ferguson
(Dec 4th, 2019) Edit: They are are also now available on gtabrews.ca
The Award Ceremony has concluded for 2019, and the results have been announced! If you weren’t able to attend, your medal(s)/prizes will be shipped. If you are a local that couldn’t attend, please arrange to pick up your prizes directly from us.
Click Here to view the Brew Slam 2019 Results
Scoresheets have been uploaded to the entry software, all you need to do is login, go to your Account page, and look for the “gavel” icon next to each entry. You might also notice a miniBOS checkmark next to your entry, this means it was in contention for a medal. This will allow you to download the scoresheets for that entry. Direct link to profile
Gavel Icon:
This year our special guest for the judging weekend was John Palmer, and our volunteers had a blast hanging out with him all weekend. A lucky 34 entrants will notice a 3rd scoresheet in their PDF file, completed by Palmer himself while our judge pairs took turns judging a beer with the king of homebrewing.
I will follow up with a more complete wrap up post, but for now, congrats to all the winners!
Cheers,
Eric Cousineau
Organizer, Brew Slam 2019
This past September we were lucky to have Lars Marius Garshol attend our September Meeting for a special Q&A session, along with our friends from Escarpment Labs. Lars also shared news about his upcoming book from Brewers Publications, Historical Brewing Techniques.
Big thanks to Escarpment for bringing Lars to Toronto, and sharing him with us! Also thanks to Muddy York Brewing Co for hosting the meeting!
James Kennedy was ready with his audio recorder and has assembled a bootleg soundtrack of the Q&A for anyone too listen to. Check it out below!
Cask Days is coming up this weekend and we’re very excited to have coordinated a whole section of the festival devoted to featuring homebrewers. Check out the full cask list here.
While these beers were brewed by many of the most talented homebrewers around, they don’t technically qualify as homebrew since they were brewed at commercial breweries. In addition to beer brewed by GTA Brews members, we also have casks from Durham Homebrew Club, Maple City Brewers Alliance, and Toronto Brewing!
Which one are you most excited to try? Hint, you want 182…
Our club member Guillaume (cask 183) has setup his Cask Helper website again, to help you track and plan your time at the festival!
As is tradition, we will be taking a group photo of homebrewers at 3:00 PM during session 1, in front of the homebrew section sign. Make sure to wear your GTA Brews swag for the photo, and don’t forget to set your phone alarm for 2:50 PM so you remember to make you way over.
Big thanks to all our brewery partners for letting us brew with them! Please stop by breweries and say thanks by buying a pint, or some beer to go!
Big thanks for Nik Cole for coordinating the homebrew section again this year! Also thanks to Toronto Brewing for storing the empty casks, and Bear for storing the full casks!
This June we are going back to our gracious host, Northern Maverick Brewing Co.. Thanks for hosting us! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Their food is fantastic (try the Jamaican patties), and they have plenty of beer-to-go in their bottle shop!
Our annual general survey is now accepting submissions! We use the results of this survey each year to help inform the direction of the club and identify areas of strength and opportunities to improve. The survey will remain open until 11:59 PM on August 30th!
Update: Survey deadline extended until 11:59 PM on Thu Sept 12th!
This survey is open to both members and non-members, since we want to hear from everybody! The survey takes as little as 5-10 mins if you elect to answer only the mandatory questions, or a little longer if you choose to write more detailed answers (and we hope you do).
How can we make the best homebrew club in the world even better?!
Participants are eligible for a drawing of gift cards to Brew North and Toronto Brewing! Thanks to our local homebrew stores for donating these prizes to help encourage participation, please support them with your patronage!
This club belongs to all of us, and we want to make sure are all satisfied with the value you get for your membership. There will always be some challenges, but we are always looking for solutions and opportunities to improve. Please share your thoughts in as much detail as you are comfortable with, and we promise to read and seriously consider them.
At our July meeting we announced that Lars Marius Garshol (of Larsblog) will be attending our September club meeting (Sept 9th). He’ll be in town for Escarpment’s Kveikstokk on Sept 10th, and agreed to come check out our club meeting and taste some homebrewed kveik beers!
Escarpment Labs‘ Richard Preiss will also be in attendance, making this a double Kveik whammy! As many of you know Richard has been a huge proponent of kveik, and have driven significant research into this exciting family of yeast.
Lars is responsible for the popularizing this workhorse yeast in the home and craft brewing world. This article from Good Beer Hunting does an excellent job telling the story about how Lars documented and popularized Kveik yeast.
Continue reading September Guest: Kveik with Lars Marius GarsholOur member discount code page has been updated with the latest 5% off code from Toronto Brewing Co!
Big thanks to Zack and the TB crew for their continued support of the club! Please note that you must login as a current member to see them.
Announcing a new member benefit, our club recipe database! This is a searchable/filterable database of recipes from club members. The recipes are beautifully displayed using the BeerXML plugin.
Another fantastic year at HomebrewCon came to a close last week, so I thought I would put together a recap post.
This was my fifth year attending and every year feels fresh. Endless opportunity to:
– Learn from dozens of seminars
– Collect swag/ingredients
– Network with homebrew industry suppliers
– Meet and chat (and maybe even share a meal) with your homebrew heroes
– Judge among the best BJCP judges at NHC Final Round
– Make new homebrew friends
– Taste incredible homebrewed beer (& mead/cider)
– Get inspired by other clubs at Club Night
June 1st, 2019 marks the first annual Canadian Homebrew Day! To celebrate, we have moved our annual public Learn2Brew event up from the fall to coincide with this new holiday.
Learn2Brew is a multi-site event where GTA Brews club members share their love of the hobby by demonstrating the brewing process at their local brewery taproom. The goal is to help demystify the brewing process and convince craft beer enthusiasts to give the hobby a try.
Visit the Learn2Brew page for full details of the event including the partner brewery addresses, and list of participating local homebrewers.
Have you ever wondered what it takes to be able to brew your own beer at home? Do you enjoy craft beer and want to learn more about how it’s made?
Come join us Sun. Sept. 9th at Toronto’s 10th Annual Learn2Brew event, hosted at Rainhard Brewing Co.
Visit this page for full details:
https://www.gtabrews.ca/learn2brew/
So you’ve heard the rumblings, the mumblings and grumblings. Or maybe you haven’t. GTA Brews is introducing a NEW* style of competition. One so rad, kewl, fetch (to hell with Regina George), neato, etc, that you will have no choice but to sign up in droves**. What am I talking about? Last Brewer Standing, of course! (In case you didn’t read the title) Continue reading GTA Brews presents Last Brewer Standing
August 29th – Toronto, ON
GTA Brews is excited to announce our third annual, nation-wide, homebrew competition for beer, mead, and cider; Brew Slam 2017 (#BrewSlam)! This is an AHA/BJCP sanctioned competition, and also part of the Canadian Brewer of the Year circuit. Judging will be performed by BJCP ranked judges and pro brewers, using the BJCP 2015 Guidelines.
Entry Deadline: Nov 4th, 2017
Judging: Nov 10th – 12th @ Amsterdam Brewery
Awards Ceremony: Nov 18th @ Henderson Brewing Company
Styles Accepted: All BJCP Beer/Mead/Cider styles
Entry limits: 1 entry per classic style subcategory (1-26, C1, M1). 2 entries per specialty category (21B, 27-34, C2, M2-M4), must be different beers. Max 15 entries per person.
Account registration is open now! Visit the Brew Slam page for details on rules, prizes, and more!
This will be our 3rd year running this competition, and we’re excited to make it even better. Last year we had; 689 entries (117% increase over 2015), avg flight of only 8.67 entries/pair, 52 judges, 22 stewards, entries from 9/10 Canadian provinces, and over $7,000 in prizes. This year, we expect to become the largest homebrew competition in Canada.
We are Toronto’s local, as well as Canada’s largest, homebrew club. Since establishing in 2013, we have worked to strengthen and grow the homebrewing community through education, events, competitions, and camaraderie. We bring Toronto area homebrewers together in person, and online, to create a friendly community where we share knowledge, talk shop, and provide feedback on each others homebrews. We welcome members of all experience levels including; potential brewers, new brewers, experienced brewers, and pro brewers.
The ever popular Learn2Brew event will return for 2017 on Sept 17th. Visit the Learn2Brew page for full details.
The GTA Brews Spring 2017 Grain Buy is now open!
Thanks again to Toronto Brewing for hosting, please make sure to give them your love and make some purchases on pick up day! Don’t forget, now they deliver your online order to breweries all over Toronto for FREE!
All questions should be emailed to grainbuy@gtabrews.ca
Sign Up Open: Saturday Apr 29th, 2017
Sign Up Close: Thursday, May 18th, 2017 (11:59 pm)
Payment Deadline: Tuesday, May 23rd, 2017 (11:59 pm)
Split Date: Friday, Jun 2nd, 2017
Main Pick Up Date: Saturday Jun 3rd, 2017 (10:30 am – 1:30 pm) Continue reading Grain Buy – Spring 2017
The GTA Brews 2017 Hop Bulk Buy is now open!
Sign Up Open: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017
Sign Up Close: Thursday Feb 16th, 2017
Payment Deadline: Thursday Feb 23rd, 2017
Split/Pick-Up Date: Saturday March 4th, 2017
Send questions to: hopbuy@gtabrews.ca
Updates will be sent via email you sign up with on the Continue reading 2017 Hop Bulk Buy