Re: [mba] 17th Annual Domras Cup Mead Competition - Savannah, GA - Feb 7 - a call for Judges & Entries

It is a bit warmer down here this time of year. Just sayin'. :) Seriously, would love to have you guys attend, if not now at some time in the future. I've heard a few of you can even make mead, but not sure if it would meet our SE standards. Cheers! Chris Stovall Thomas & Hutton stovall.c@thomasandhutton.com<mailto:stovall.c@thomasandhutton.com> (P) 912-721-4155 (F) 912-234-2950 Website<http://www.thomasandhutton.com/> | vCard<http://www.thomasandhutton.com/vcards/ChrisStovall.vcf> From: Al Boyce [mailto:alboyce@comcast.net] Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2015 11:13 AM To: mba(a)thebarn.com; mnbrewers(a)yahoogroups.com Cc: Stovall, Chris Subject: FW: 17th Annual Domras Cup Mead Competition - Savannah, GA - Feb 7 - a call for Judges & Entries Want to judge meads in Savannah, GA? - Al From: Stovall, Chris [mailto:stovall.c@thomasandhutton.com] Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2015 9:43 AM To: Stovall, Chris Subject: 17th Annual Domras Cup Mead Competition - Savannah, GA - Feb 7 - a call for Judges & Entries Hello Southeastern Judges & Mead Judges- Second call (appears the first is still lost in cyberspace) for Judges & Entries for the 17th Annual Domras Cup Mead Competition When: * Competition Date: Saturday, February 7, 2015. 9:00 a.m. Judges/Stewards on site by 8:30 a.m. * Entry window: January 1, 2015 to January 27, 2015. Where: Captain Butler's Retreat, 115 Penrose Dr, Savannah, GA 31410 on Whitemarsh Island (fantastic venue on the marsh) Post-party and Oyster Roast/Low Country Boil begins ~ 2:30 p.m. (immediately after BOS meads are judged), ending time is up to you Why join us? We can use certified judges and mead aficionados for judging and stewarding. We have a number of local BJCP-certified mead judges, but always need help. For those wanting to learn more about mead judging, this is a great competition to attend. We'll try to pair you up with one of our experienced mead judges. Each volunteer will get an etched Domras wine tasting glass and look for some of our new SBL "crimp-less" bottle openers to be available as well. Drawings for a door prize or two will be in order. Bagels, etc. will be available before we start and snacks in between. Immediately following judging, we hold our epic post-party and oyster roast that is an event not to be missed, so if interested in helping to judge or steward, please sign up on the registration page and/or email me and come join us. We generally try to finish in one round though a few folks may have to do two small rounds (we strive for no more than 10-12 total meads per judge). BOS will coincide with the beginning of the after-party with results announced shortly thereafter. Michael Fairbrother, of Moonlight Meadery, will be joining us once again to showcase some meads as well as provide some expert evaluations, Why enter? You still have two weeks to enter. The cost is just $7 first entry and $6 each additional entry. Any size bottle is acceptable (meads will be served "blind" by our experienced stewards to allow for non-standard bottle shipments). We know your mead is a precious thing. You can send any number of bottles you want, but we do recommend a minimum of one 750ml, two of anything smaller, and two if carbonated to ensure a fresh bottle for the BOS round. Three are recommended for the "Other Fruit Mead" category due to a likely MiniBOS round. Ship early and we will get conditioned quickly so they are ready for competition day. Ribbons and lots of great mead-centric prizes from the Savannah Bee Company (can you say 100 lbs of regional honey!), commercial meadery products, and Savannah Homebrew Shop will be provided to winners. At this point we don't have plans for remote drop-off locations where our club members would pick up. If entries are registered and paid for and at proper condition, however, we can accept the entries the morning of the competition (or better yet on Friday) if someone is planning to come judge from an outside area. We'll leave that up to each club to arrange. Just let us know in advance about any special arrangements needed. For more information please visit the SBL website at http://www.savannahbrewers.com/domrascup.php . The direct link to Domras Cup on-line registration page is http://domras.homebrewcomp.com For lodging, there are no hotels on Whitemarsh Island, which is 6-9 minutes east of downtown Savannah. A cheaper option is the Baymont Inn 2 miles west of downtown. The area is industrial but the hotel is nice and clean, and $85. Here is some info from Trip Advisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60814-d563256-Reviews-Baymont_Inn_… . There are nicer (and pricier) hotels downtown in the $150-200 range with easier access to downtown activities. More hotels on Trip Advisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com/HACSearch?geo=60814&inDay=1&inMonth=02%2… We are only the second longest-running, not nearly the biggest or most prestigious, but we make a claim to be the funnest mead-only competition in the world! Come join us! Cheers, Chris Stovall stovallchris@yahoo.com<mailto:stovallchris@yahoo.com>