Happy New Year! 🥂

It is going to be another great year for the club:

• Taproom Takeover social hours to meet up and hang out for a bit every first Thursday
• an education or experiment topic every month at the meeting on the third Thursday
• social get-togethers and competitions like curling leagues, indoor winter and outdoor summer disc golf, and board game nights
• group brews and one-off bottle shares

If you are brewing beer, making mead, pressing cider, bottling wine, or concocting any sort of fermented beverage, come check out some NBA events and meetings to hang out. Everyone is welcome. Membership is not required, but grants access to the email list and Discord chat within the club.

There have been a handful of new members in the past few months and a lot of the long-time members have been venturing into new ideas. We are even talking about putting together some beer judging training toward the tasting exam and BJCP certification.

If you have any questions, reach out (email is best), otherwise just show up to one of the events on the club calendar — and bring some tasting glasses! Folks always have good new recipes to share.
https://www.nordeastbrewersalliance.org/club-calendar/

Cheers!

Every month at the club meeting we prioritize an education or experiment topic. These vary from “explore a style” to dig into the history and examples, brewing process or tips that a brewer wants to share, guest speakers from an equipment or ingredient company, or informal competitions for a style or process. We make this part of the meetings a priority because we are getting together both for the community and to learn about this hobby.

EDIT: The education topic will look at the history of some approaches to fermentation, including some fermenters and process — plus how modern homebrewers can leverage those ideas!

Next week (Thursday, December 18 7:00 PM @ East Side Neighborhood Services in Northeast Minneapolis) is our next meeting. Everyone is welcome to join and check it out before becoming a member. The topic for this month fell through, so at the time of this post, we are working on getting some new ideas put together.

See you there! 🍻

Thank you to everyone who entered, judged, stewarded, and coordinated this competition! There were many great beers and there was a lot of feedback of Mini-BOS and Best Of Show judging being tight races!

Check out the full results:

Keep an eye out for upcoming competitions from our friends:

• DÉJÀ BRÜ – The Homebrew Competition Remembering Historic and Long-Forgotten Beer Styles
• Valkyries Horn – Largest mead only competition in the Americas in 2025.

Upcoming events for December:

• Taproom Takeover social hour at Utepils on Thu Dec 4
• NBABrewComp.com judging on Sat Dec 6 (winners announced later in the day)
• Monthly meeting with education on Thu Dec 18

The photo in this month’s post is from a few years ago when we turned staves from a retired barrel (charred bourbon barrel by the color of dirty hands!). We have done a few one-off projects like this, also engraving club logos into barrel heads, staves into competition awards, and of course making beer together. The club is about community and working on these things together!

Brewers of all skill levels and specialties — wine, cider, beer, mead, and beyond — are welcome (and encouraged!) to join a club event or meeting. Come join before becoming a member; we welcome everyone at all events! Membership gets you access to the email list, Discord chat server, the barrel program, and other club projects.

Cheers! 🍻

We received notice today — Thursday, November 13 — that competition websites hosted at brewingcompetitions.com is undergoing maintenance. It should be done Friday or Saturday. This was not announced in advance to us or to the folks that host the competition site.

Once back online, we will confirm the entries and competition settings are where we expect.

The competition is still on track!
Thank you for your patience!

Cheers!

EDIT SAT NOV 15 6:00 PM CT: We are still waiting to hear back when the site will be back up at the normal address. In the meantime, we were told the address below will work. Once everything is clear, we will be validating all site settings and entries look normal.
https://brewingcompetitions.com/nordeasthbc/

EDIT MON NOV 17: The competition site is working again.

When a beer is not boiled, how does that change the sensory experience? Raw ale does just that. Next week at the monthly meeting we will explore this style and see what it involves, how it is different, and what to consider when you make your recipe.

Thu Nov 20 7-9pm, East Side Neighborhood Services, Northeast Minneapolis

Everyone is welcome to join club meetings and events regardless of membership. This includes our monthly #TaproomTakeover social hour (first Thursday at rotating breweries), our monthly meeting (third Thursday at ESNS in Northeast Minneapolis), one-off wort rally and group brews, the annual summer and winter party, and all kinds of fun events. More details are available on the website for the Club Calendar: https://www.nordeastbrewersalliance.org/club-calendar/

Reach out with any questions, otherwise join up when you can!

Cheers!

There are some fun projects in store for November:

• Competition entries open today at 12:00 PM CT at nbabrewcomp.com
• #TaproomTakeover with our friends at Bad Weather Brewing on Thu Nov 6
• Education about raw ale at the monthly meeting on Thu Nov 20

Come join when you can to chat about beer, wine, cider, and mead. Everyone is welcome to any club event or meeting. We look forward to having you! Cheers!

Next week is thinking outside the box: 3D printing for brewing. What tools or objects would help your brew day? Hose clips? Airlocks? Tap handles?

Come hear about some ideas and see what the process takes!

Three things to think about this month:

1. What are you entering in the homebrew competition? Account registration opens today at nbabrewcomp.com with entries opening next month.
2. What are you going to order at Under Pressure Brewing? The #TaproomTakeover will be there this month (tomorrow!) for some social time.
3. What kind of gadgets could be 3D printed to help with brewing?

The monthly education topic will look at some ideas!

Cheers!

Next week the education topic will look at unmalted and cereal grains across a variety of beer styles. No, adding breakfast cereal is not what this means — but we did have a good time with this experiment in 2019! Come find out how different grains in a high proportion of the grist means from a few brewers.

ESNS, Northeast Minneapolis, Thu Sep 18 7-9pm