Just a note to remind you that the Upper Mississippi Mash-Out (UMM) home brew contest has moved to January. The contest dates are January 27-29th, 2005. That's the weekend before the Super Bowl. You won't miss a minute of NFL playoff action. This year the UMM will be the first contest in the High Plains Brewer of the Year circuit. Curt Stock says he's going to cut down on his entries (I'll believe that when it happens!) so the rest of us just might have a shot at the title in 2005. New this year for the contest: -New Brewer award: a special award category just for new brewers, complete with medals and prizes, open to any style of beer, cider or mead -BJCP 2004 guidelines will be used -more award categories: we're going to try to have awards for all 28 BJCP categories, but reserve the right to collapse categories as needed -multiple mead award categories: all 3 BJCP mead categories will have awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd -judge and steward prize drawing: there will be a seperate prize drawing for all judges and stewards -food at the awards show: no details yet, but we're working at having food at the awards show at the Summit brewery Keep checking our web site for details: http://mnbrewers.com/mashout If you haven't taken part in the contest yet, we'd really love to see you stop by to help judge or steward. It's fun! And only one of us bites but we think there's a vaccine.... -- Steve Fletty fletty(a)umn.edu