Dear Westgaters,
Well, Christmas  is well and truly over and we are into a New Year,
Personally, I thought the Christmas party was great. We had 7 great beers on tap, the catering wasn't too bad ( although if we do it again,
I think we find a different caterer), Santa made a surprise visit and all in all we had a really convivial night. Thanks to everyone who helped set up, wash dishes, pack stuff up, provided beers, made extra food. Without these contributions, we would not have had such a good night.

By now, you should have made your set recipe clone. The recipe is pretty good and I’m pretty happy with mine although, I think the bitterness is a bit much when I've done a side by side with the actual beer. Ian Morgan, head brewer at Mountain Goat, will be coming at next months meeting to help judge the beer. It’s also an opportunity for us to ask him some questions and maybe tell him some stories about your attempt and what you brew on. Perhaps this an event that we continue going forward! I will say that I bought a kilo of cascade in the bulk buy and given the volume I brew, the flameout additions managed to chew through it pretty quickly.

Special mention must go to Dermott at Beerco for also doing a club special for the hops and associated adjuncts for the club members to brew the set recipe. Now that we’ve all got a hoppy amber, I’d like to mention that everyone who has brewed it, needs to save a bottle so that they can enter it into Beerfest (dates TBC)

This Sundays meeting will be a laidback affair, with the club, as they did last year, supplying a free sausage and burger sizzle. If you haven't already let the club know that you will be there on Sunday, please do so, for catering purposes.

From our social media pages and Facebook, we’ve had a few people contact us, so there may also be some new faces on Sunday. We all remember what it was like, walking in that first time, so please make them welcome. Hopefully, they will become members! Speaking of members, shirt orders are open. Yes, the long awaited new club shirts will be available to order. See Claire for details.

We are still in discussion with the bowls club regarding the bowls and brewers function. As soon as I have more to hand, I will let you know.
There isn't much else to report except that to wish everyone a happy 2019 and mention that there are only a few more comps until we have another BOTY!
Cheers 
Ferg