Here is a summary of the FOAM meeting held Monday October 1 at Flying Barrel:

Special thanks to Sarah Anderson for hosting FOAMSTOCK last weekend! Lots of fun, lots of great beer! (And just remember: if I don't remember doing it, it never happened!)

And thanks to Tom Flores & Brewer's Alley for supplying FOAMSTOCK with a keg of Pilsner!

This coming weekend (October 5 & 6) is the Frederick IN THE STREET festival! Still not sure who needs volunteers there. http://www.inthestreet.info/

Great American Beer Festival is the next week (October 11-13, in Denver, CO). Here's the link: http://www.beertown.org/events/gabf/index.htm

Also next week: October 14th. in 1978 on this date, President Jimmy Carter signed the law legalizing homebrewing!!

FOAM Officer's meeting will be Tuesday October 16th at Travelin' Dave's house. 7:30 PM, everyone's welcome.

3rd Thursday in October, (18th) will be FOAM Happy Hour at Bushwallers.

Next weekend: Oktoberfest at Schifferstadt in Baker park, Frederick. FOAM will have a display there. John Ank will do a brewing demo on Saturday, I (Terry Brann) will do one on Sunday. We'd all appreciate if people would come out & help at least for a little while.

On Saturday October 20 will be the Maryland Oktoberfest in Timonium, featuring a homebrew contest (with a LOT fewer contestants than at the Great Frederick Fair, plus, the cash prizes will actually be worth a $hit.)
Here's the link: http://www.mdoktoberfest.com/
Tickets are $20. Homebrew entries are due Friday the 5th at Maryland Homebrew, Clipper City, and possibly other places as well (maybe Flying Barrel, I'm not sure. ask Bob)
And Les will do a demo of "cooking with beer". including FOAM Chili from the DC chili cookoff.

The November FOAM meeting will NOT BE AT FLYING BARREL. It will be on Monday, November 5th at Hennings in Frederick. Do not bring homebrew, except for the entries for the FOAM cup (Belgian Strong Ale).

FOAM Cup categories for 2008 will be:

February: BJCP category 7: Amber Hybrid Beer (alt, steam)
May: BJCP category 5 Bock
August: BJCP category 16: Belgian and French Ale
November: BJCP category 19: Strong Ale (barleywine, old ale)

There will be a FOAM PUB CRAWL, based on the DC Metro on Saturday, November 17th. We'll be hitting Rockville, Bethesda, and DC. We still need to work out the details re. getting everyone to, and especially from, the Metro.

The Guild Holiday Party will be at Clipper City in Baltimore on Saturday, December 1. Tickets will be on sale online only in 2 to 3 weeks, 25$ each. There will also be a raffle: They will be raffling a 12.2 gallon conical fermenter, March Pumps, Plate chillers.  There will be 300 raffle tickets @ 10$ each, sold online. The buyer of each ticket gets to decide what charity his/her money will go to. You don't have to be present to win.

The FOAM holiday party will be at Mike & Patti's house on Friday, Dec. 14th.

On Saturday, October 27, 2007 The Chesapeake Real Ale Festival!
"The Region's Premier Real Ale Event (cask-conditioned beer)
1-6pm at The Wharf Rat at Camden Yards 206 W. Pratt St, Baltimore. Tickets are $25 in advance, $35 at the door check out www.spbw.org.

Buck is still looking for people to help with his Monday night homebrewing classes at Flying Barrel.
3rd annual Guild Turkey Shoot & homebrew competition will be held Nov. 10th at Clipper City. They need judges & stewards.

Tom Flores, Master Brewer from Brewer's Alley came to the FOAM meeting & brought a case of beer, half Kolsch, half Pilsner. He said that very soon they would also bottle their IPA. Ask for it at your local retailer. He also said that, due to farming issues, very soon we may see a change in the price & availability of hops. Some varieties will be replaced with others, so get out there & experiment.  Tom also said that for our FOAM meetings, we could use the second floor room, AND be allowed to bring our homebrews there. Except that Monday nights they usually have the folksinger/songwriter event going on.

oh, yeah, and I won the 50/50!

Damn, this was a long one. Time to have another homebrew!

-Terry Brann
FOAM Secretary