Several folks were reminiscing at a recent Guild meeting about some cartoons drawn by Colin Hotham and Bob Marsdon had drawn. We are making these available on this site. We include the introduction to the document below.

• Let’s Draw You a Pitcher of Homebrew.

The Middlesex Federation of Wine and Beermaking Clubs was formed to encourage the improvement of home wine and beermaking and to promote good fellowship among wine and beer makers. In 1964 the first Middlesex Wine Festival, comprising a competition containing 15 wine and 2 beer classes, took place at Southall.The main aim of this type of competitive wine and beer making was to present unbiased, experienced assessment of individual entries by qualified judges, with suggestions on how any faults found in these wines or beers may best be remedied, thereby improving the quality of our brews.

The popularity of the Middlesex Festival continued over the years, with the quality of entries improving and the quantity of classes growing. At present there are some 72 classes in the show, which now also includes cooking with wine or beer, and various art exhibits. Among the latter is the Cartoon Class depicting our hobby. This may not encourage any improvement of home wine and beer making, but I feel it does promote good fellowship among us.

I have had some sucessful entries in the Cartoon Class at our Show, as has fellow winemaker-cartoonist Colin Hotham and, after some prompting, I decided to publish some of our entries plus a few extra drawings on behalf of

“THE MIDDLESEX FEDERATION OF WINE AND BEERMAKING CLUBS.”