Buying ingredients, kits - get your orders in before Friday 5 March

I'll be making a run down to the Art of Brewing store this weekend. If you'd like me to pick up ingredients or kit, please let me know (and let me have payment) before Friday 5 March by emailing: chertseyotter@googlemail.com.

• Complete ingredients for Chertsey Otter Ale = £35 (makes 40 pints)

• Full starter brew kit (includes 5g fermenting bin, syphon, airlock, beer paddle, beer finings and sterilising solution = £20
  

Thanks!

Any idiot can drink a beer. It takes a legend to make one.

The second annual Chertsey St George's Beer Challenge is ON.

Full details here at the brandspanking new Chertsey St George's Beer Challenge website.

UPDATED: Six Nations Opener: This Saturday (6 Feb) 5pm kick off

Calling all Otters. It's that time again. Yes, the frozen misery that is January has subsided and the warming winter sunlight of February dapples Chertsey and bathes it in a sultry golden glow.

Hear it. Hear the siren song of our good friends Bombardier and Kronenberg as they serenade you towards the Crown (boutique hotel and hostelry) and the opening match of this season's Six Nations campaign - England versus Wales at Twickenham, 5pm kick off.

And to make things extra special, it's Ulrich von Lichtenstein von Lederhosen's 33rd birthday and he's chosen to spend it with us and the England rugby team, celebrating in true Island Monkey style by drinking his own weight in beer and shouting a lot. God bless you sir.

Kick off at 5. Get there as soon as you can. Let's start the campaign in style.

We will also be launching the Inaugural Chertsey Beer Festival featuring the Otters St George's Beer Challenge II. The beer festival itself will be held on Sunday 25 April. More details when I've worked them out.

Here's some stuff from last year's to remind you: Inaugural St George's Day Beer Challenge

Happy New Year Otters!

Update on events for early 2010

Early February - Table Football World Cup POSTPONED - will now be held as warm up to real Football World cup

Still agreeing a date, but the venue is Chertsey Cricket Club and the format as follows: doubles, £5 entry, come themed as the nation of your choice. Jan/Feb are a piss-awful, brassic, cold, wet snowy, miserable months, so why not brighten things up with an impromptu world class sporting event hosted in the cheapest place to drink in Chertsey? Why not indeed.


February - The Otters' Ergo Challenge

Date and venue TBC, but here's the format: 2000m timed sprint with best time winning, then beers somewhere afterwards. Depending on numbers, we may split the categories into light, welter and heavyweight with a row off for the grand champion. There will be a men's and a women's competition, so don't feel excluded.

There will also be the grand prix spectacle of Al 'Big Gay Al' Davis versus Phil 'Phil the Pilot' Bachelor over 10,000m, with the winner taking bragging rights for time immemorial. Anyone else wants to get involved in this madness,let me know.

Sunday 25 April - The Inaugural Chertsey Beer Festival featuring the Otters Beer Challenge II - LAUNCHING SAT 6 FEBRUARY

Hosted at the Crown with professional beer judge(s) and (hopefully) some sponsorship from a brewery, we're aiming for a date around St George's Day (23 April), which means we'll have to get brewing sometime in Feb/March. More details v soon.

The plan this year is to throw it open to all-comers, converting our stunning 2009 beer challenge into Chertsey's very own annual beer festival and hootenanny. Format will be the 'fixed recipe' competition as per last year (new recipe though), plus a 'freestyle' category for those who want to go off-piste. We'll also be retaining the best label and best name comps. Stay tuned.

Otters AGM

If anyone can remember any of the resolutions, decisions or elected positions that were decided on at last night' AGM - indeed can remember anything about it - please comment below. Many thanks.

Latest from Otter Zen

Crikey.

Zen 14: Eleven beautiful, full-breasted maidens - it's Christmas in France!
Zen 12: "We must march, my darlings, we must bear the danger..."
Zen 11: Man calls cops on band that's 'not jazzy enough'
Zen 10: How people scam you - the six principles
Zen 9: Scoutmaster gets fingered

Latest from Otter Zen

Waste time. Go on.

• Zen 8: Incredible escapes from death
  
• Zen 6: The dangers of dirty women: cracking wartime propaganda posters
• Zen 5: The Devil's Mountains: Germany's trümmerberg thing
• Zen 3: Low pass - my favourite You Tube clip ever
• Zen 1: Geriatric Korean auto menace