October 18th club meeting recap

meeting recaps
Pictured above is a sample from our current barrel project that Nick brought to the 10/18 meeting for tasting

Here’s the recap of our 10/18/12 meeting:

  • Recap for new members/potential members: what you get by joining (% off at brew shops and 4Firkins), events etc…
  • Farmers Market – Aaron H. and Nate brewed a rye porter, used hops Grant grew
  • Big River Brewfest recap – 150 entries, earned around $350
    • Might be good to do a “what went good, what went bad”
      • Wrong = left one case of beer at Liquor store
      • Wrong = website database had a few entries missing
      • Right = website was only $20
      • Could signup for other stuff ahead of time
    • Nate has 6 cases cases of entries that didn’t make it to the competition, need to drink categories 1-3 soon. Party?
  • Future Barrel project – Aaron’s cellar
    • Cellar has the four 60 gal. barrels (Casey’s)
      • Cab
      • Cab
      • Zin
      • Merlot
    • Options – Flanders red, wee heavy, Russian imperial, barley wine, Belgian strong, saison, sour stout, lambic, sour porter
    • Grant will create form to vote. UPDATE: done
    • Club voted $200 is ok to use to build the barrel racks
  • Yeast experiment
    • Northgate has agreed to do 5 barrels (42 five gallon batches worth) so we can take the wort and pitch
    • Pres. Andrew N. will follow up with Northgate
  • Current barrel project
    • Nick brought a sample of the honeywine barrel sour beer to taste
    • Soft on the front end, sour on the back end and it hangs out on the back sides of your tongue
    • Will give it another few months
  • January holiday party/meeting/high-gravity beer competition
    • UPDATE: Confirmed a location for the meeting (Nate’s work – North Loop Wine & Spirits – has room for 80 and holds events)
    • Potluck dinner (everyone brings stuff)
    • Entries in the high gravity competition must be >7% ABV and have been brewed in 2012
    • Third Saturday in January, 1/19/13 (holy shit, 2013!!!)
  • Bylaws – voting in November, installation in January
    • Should review the bylaws soon and suggest changes
    • Anyone welcome to head the initiative to read the bylaws and suggest improvements, though most of the ExComm should be present
    • Aaron DeBoer will head committee to review bylaws, Grant, Nate, Andrew N, Tyler, Tom
    • ANDREW WILL START THREAD FOR AARON
  • New business
    • Nate – off-flavor kit tasting coming up, should be arriving in the next few weeks
    • Update: dates and times now decided – 5-7pm on Sunday 11/4 and 11/11 at East Side Neighborhood Services (normal meeting location)
  • Calendar
    • Grant to put link on site to the calendar. UPDATE: done
  • Re-visited club priorities
    • Experiments
      • Major successes of 2012 include the barrel project and single hop experiment
      • Future experiments include the four-barrel addition to the barrel project as well as the yeast experiment with Northgate’s wort
    • Education
      • 2012 education topics:
        • January: high gravity beer tips (Nick)
        • August: electric brewery setup (Ryan P)
        • September: fermenting cider (roundtable discussion led by Grant)
      • Upcoming:
        • Richard will discuss his system (electric brewery and his upsidedown fermenters and bottling line) for the November 15th meeting
        • Tom will do sour education session for the December 20th meeting
        • We won’t have an education topic at our January 19th meeting
        • Andrew W.’s discussion on water profiles/chemistry is moved from our October meeting to the February 21st meeting
    • Marketing:
      • Gained lots of members in 2012 by brewing at the ESNS Farmers’ Market and by running the Big River Brew Fest homebrew compeition
      • Should maintain participation in these events in 2013
    • BJCP knowledge
      • Gera has another training session coming up in January, $100, 12 weeks in a row, every week
      • The process for getting certified as a judge is as follows:
        • Take online test
        • Pass tasting test
        • Take written test
      • Club will refund your membership fee for the year if you attain the certification while in the NBA (n/a for those already certified)
      • NATE HAS ACCESS TO A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION DISCUSSING OFF-FLAVORS THAT HE CAN PROVIDE THE CLUB
      • TYLER WILL START THREAD ABOUT THIS
  • What to do to de-fund ourselves?
    • Jockey box?
    • $200
    • Donation to East Side Neighborhood Services?
    • Templeton Rye whiskey barrel?
  • Get 2013 membership cards
    • Tim following up with his work to see what deal he can get on 100-150 cards
    • UPDATE: Tim looked into getting better laminated cards but these will end up being $1 per card whereas Grant can get the same type as 2012, 100 cards for $6.00 so we’re going to do that again. Tim will get Grant the file updated with “2013” and perhaps a new logo??