MASH’s 2020 started like everyone else’s — with great excitement and high hopes. By the end of February we had almost as many paid MASH members as we had each of the previous two calendar years. And we were still seeing brand new people at every monthly meeting. We were excitedly talking about the 2020 HomebrewCon in Nashville, trying to figure out if we could actually participate in Club Night with a booth.
As the newly elected MASH President, I can clearly remember the tone of our March board meeting when the novel coronavirus seemed a looming threat but not one that would fundamentally impact every aspect of our lives. In haste we cancelled our March monthly meeting at the last minute amid rising concern. The meeting was supposed to take place on St. Patrick’s Day, and was going to be our first return to SubUrban where MASH got its start eight years ago. It was a difficult decision at the time, but looking back, it was the right call.
As we started learning more about the virus in early April along with the rest of the world, we launched bi-weekly virtual happy hours in addition to our monthly meetings to give people a place to connect with each other.
As the early shutdowns took their toll on small businesses, we quickly launched the MASH Friends Relief Fund and raised $2,250 for staff at the breweries and restaurants that helped MASH grow — Twin Elephant, SubUrban and Poor Henry’s, the latter which has shuttered its doors. While the funds helped offset lost wages and tips, what we heard in response was that staff felt seen, valued, and moved by our members’ generosity.
Over the course of the year, MASH had 45 virtual meetings on the books, including monthly board meetings, regular monthly meetings, happy hours, and new sensory analysis tastings.
Several MASH members presented on the craft and process of homebrewing at the Highlands Virtual BrewFest and other virtual events, reaching new audiences. For the Highlands event, the Education Committee presented in a unique way, with each member discussing a different ingredient during their live brew session of brewing their own version of Ned Gardner’s Foreign Extra Stout recipe that took Third Place in the 2019 Motown MASH.
As incredible as it seems, in the middle of this pandemic several MASH members launched new breweries. 2020 saw the opening of Ashton Brewing in March, Seven Tribesmen Brewery in May and Bull N Bear Brewery (which just opened in December) despite the enormous challenges to opening during a pandemic. All pivoted their business plans to offer predominantly socially distanced outdoor pints and to-go sales.
We managed a collaboration brew with Untied Brewing early in the year (for a beer festival that eventually was cancelled due to the pandemic). At the October Sensory Analysis Happy Hour we hosted a tasting of a MASH-inspired collaborative beer brewed with tweaks by Ashton Brewing, Seven Tribesmen Brewery and Untied Brewing. All three MASH members from the breweries participated.
As difficult as the year has been, several MASH members did manage to get together in person for a few socially distant/COVID-compliant events. On August 20th, four members gathered in Karl Weiss’ backyard for a Club Only Competition. On October 1st, five members gathered in Chris Johnson’s driveway for Mead-judging as part of the Valhalla: The Meading Of Life competition. On November 1st in the rain, about 13 members congregated under the carport and a few pop-up tents in Stephen Hocken’s driveway for the Motown MASH Bottle Sort. And finally, on December 4th, also in the rain, 10 members met up in the Whole Foods parking lot in Parsippany for our Holiday White Elephant Bottle Exchange.
MASH being MASH, we quickly adopted to a virtual format and left no stone unturned. We invited guests to every meeting from May through October: Melissa Johnson, Master Bread Maker and Bread Writer (and the wife of MASH member Chris Johnson), Cindy De Rama of Twin Elephant and Alexis Degan of the NJ Brewers Association discussed Brewery Strong, John Kimmich, Founder and Owner of The Alchemist Brewery, Roxanne Westendorf Brewers Association, presented on cheese making, Liz Shehadeh and Nina Houts of Imperial Yeast presented on yeast, and Laszlo Varga of Seven Tribesmen Brewery.
Our diverse monthly Sensory Analysis Happy Hours have featured many different styles, as well as many New Jersey-brewed beers. We explored pilsners and unique porters brewed by Ashton and Untied breweries, session IPAs, Munich Helles, Oktoberfests, and holiday beers.
In November, we executed the first-ever virtual Motown MASH homebrew competition, featuring 228 entries and more than 50 judges, volunteers, and organizers who all contributed to make the event as smooth as possible. We remain grateful to all our past sponsors and especially to Ashton Brewing, Twin Elephant Brewing, and Untied Brewing for offering ramp-ups to Best of Show winners and to Alementary Brewing for offering a ramp-up to the New Jersey Homebrewer of the Year. Brew Hardware and New Jersey Craft Beer also contributed prizes.
While we have continued to see many familiar faces, we know that not everyone is up for virtual meetings. The economy and competing priorities and added stresses at home during the pandemic made it a challenge for others to join us. We want to say to every past and present MASH member whether you’ve been able to join us this year or not that we value you and look forward to seeing you soon.
Two of the events I was most looking forward to this year was MASH’s annual campout for National Homebrew Day and our new summer outing to Vermont. As we look forward to 2021, and the eventual deployment of the virus’ vaccine, I hope that we can see the return of these traditions, and new ones, soon. And I hope that everyone is safe and healthy and taking good care of their families, loved ones, and communities, and, of course, enjoying homebrew.
In closing, the rest of the Board and I feel that MASH has actually exceeded our expectations for 2020. Being forced to go virtual this year was not ideal, but we ended up having a lot more interaction with each other. And we did not let the pandemic slow us down from brewing, supporting our MASH-owned breweries and participating in homebrew competitions. We are a very positive, optimistic, creative group that continues to do whatever it takes to accomplish all things beer-related. For however long we need to be in the current environment of virtual meetings, I expect MASH will continue to rise to the occasion as we always have. We are a great group of homebrewers and friends, and should be proud of what we are doing as an organization.
Here is to a better 2021!
-Rich Cohen
*** To view the video of Rich’s 2020 Year In Review, please visit our homepage at www.mashnewjersey.com or the youtube video here: https://youtu.be/aez4rSUFZS8 ***