From: Tom Vista <hoptyrant@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Feb 14, 2009 at 9:49 AM
Subject: Mid South Homebrew Series

Hello Bill,

I apologize for the length, feel free to pass this along to any of your
members or any other potential interested parties as I will likely be
repeating the content of this letter many more times over the next couple
of months.

my name is Tom Vista and have been the brew off coordinator for the annual
Music City Brew Off homebrew competition for the Music City Brewers here in
Nashville, TN. I was forwarded your information from a mutual friend Tony
Aiken of the BOCK club. I had communicated with Tony in regards The
MidSouth Homebrew Series - a regional series competitions that ANY homebrew
club or brewer can participate and earn points towards either the MidSouth
Homebrewer/Club of the Year. At anyrate here is the link to the site so you
can read all the rules.
http://midsouthhomebrew.org/rules/
 As I told Tony our structure is changing this year as we have dropped (2)
of the previous (6) competitions that we held. First was the Blue Ridge
Brew Off, which is already a part of the Carolinas' Regional Series, it was
thought that our regional should not overlap another and that it would be
preferable to have that defined more along state lines. I had wanted to
define the region as Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, well it appears that
the Georgia maybe working towards their own regional series between their
various events, this I have not confirmed as of yet. With that in mind John
Little of the Auburn club suggested adding Kentucky and Mississippi and I
further think that Arkansas may also be good fit. At this time there are no
restrictions of what clubs or brewers can enter to qualify and there is NO
defined region of the MidSouth, in fact receiving points in half of the
competitions for the year a Club gains one vote for determination of either
adding or subtracting any competitions. Those clubs who further run a
competition have another vote. In our case the Music City Brewers have 2
votes. The second competition eliminated this year is the MidSouth Fair,
mainly because from my understanding it is moving into Mississippi where
homebrewing  is still illegal, one of the main stumbling blocks for having
more competitions with either Mississippi or Alabama also still not legal
but hopefully changing soon. Having given all that info I hate to say that
since this competition season has begun it is too late to change the
schedule for this year. I apologize for not getting this out, but have been
in the process of starting my own business and have not had the time to get
this info out. However it is still possible for your clubs to participate
this year as we still have 3 competitions left in this years series of
which the Memphis competition will be in April.  The other 2 competitions
are BrewMasters Open is in May in Georgia, and The Music City Brew Off will
be late September or early October here in Nashville,this year attempting
to get a hotel setting for our competition for the first time. Hopefully
with your clubs involvement with the Kentucky State Fair and the BOCK club
starting another competition this year we could consider those events as
possible additions to the MidSouth Series which would solidify this region.


Now having given you all that background for the MidSouth the reasoning
behind my sudden major involvement in the series has been that is my belief
that a strong coalition of homebrew clubs will be necessary to moving
beyond regional events and to start hosting larger AHA events. The fact is,
after having Jamil Zainasheff  as our special guest  at this years
competition there was an excitement created here about the possibility of
putting together a bid for the NHC. In fact we where asked to host the
South Regional for the 2009 NHC, however given our current venue - a
brewpub, and that i would have to take the lead at a time when I am just
starting a business, we had to decline. However I have already initially
committed ourselves for hosting the regional in 2010 as we are hoping to
move our competition this fall from a very generous brewpub to a hotel
style competition in preparation for running the regionals and being able
to host an even larger event. As I told Tony the fact that your clubs
helped pull off that most excellent event this year in Cincinnati, I would
be crazy not to get your advice and helping do something like this. He has
mentioned talking with Rob Westendorf of the Blotarians and I whole
heartedly agree. I did get to speak with him for a short period at the Beer
and Sweat Event, an event i plan on attending again if all goes well. Never
the less I hope to get input from as many as possible as that can only help
me in the process.

In closing I am going to be making a concerted effort in the coming months
to hopefully build more solid relationships with the homebrew clubs in this
region via the MidSouth Series. I can say honestly that until recently I
have not taken a very active role with the MidSouth, that is about to
change. There are several newer clubs right here in middle Tennessee that I
hope to get more involved. I can only believe that the inclusion of
Kentucky in the MidSouth will only be a benefit this effort and later
efforts.  I hope you will pass this on to your membership for consideration
in joining with the MidSouth and hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely

Tom Vista
Music City Brew Off Coordinator