ESNS provides the Nordeast Brewers Alliance with our monthly meeting space, as well as ad-hoc space for other needs. In appreciation of their generosity, each year we give back to ESNS by donating a portion of our homebrew competition’s proceeds.
ESNS has been met with tough times recently and giving is as important as ever. Struggles through the pandemic, loss of funding, and cuts in food shelf programs have impacted the century-old community organization to its core.
With these challenges, we feel it’s necessary to give back as much as we can. As a result, we are kicking off a fundraising drive for ESNS. To make your donation go further, for each dollar YOU donate, the Nordeast Brewers Alliance will match that dollar up to a combined total of $2,000. This event will run throughout the month of March 2022.
I, for one, am looking forward to warmer days and brewing outside again! How many more weeks did that groundhog say?
In the meantime, here are some highlights from this month’s club meeting:
Membership renewal is due. Renewing (and new) members get a few bottles from the club solera. There will be a clean-up of the Google Group of inactive members coming in March/April, so please make sure your payment is in.
Recent Events
Taproom Takeover at La Doña Cervecería — a good turnout with great beers!
Dickel Barrel Dark Sour transfer — keep an eye out for the new batch being shared at upcoming meetings and events!
Upcoming Events
Taproom Takeover at Dangerous Man, Fat Pants, and Waldmann over the next couple months. Keep an eye on the Club Calendar for these social hours every First Thursday. All are welcome!
Club bike rides. Nick M is planning out some taproom rides potentially starting in April. Check out the thread in the Google Group emails to sign up!
Learn To Homebrew Day on Saturday, May 7. Nothing officially planned yet, but keep an eye out for likely a brew day with our friends at Midwest Supplies.
HomebrewCon in Pittsburgh on June 23-25. The NBA will surely have a contingent representing our great beers. Let’s meet up for a beer!
Barrel update: We are refreshing the names/numbers of the barrels for better tracking. Surely they will continue making great beers. Keep an eye out for a couple coming due very soon for transfers:
#2 French Oak Lambic-style
#10 Rittenhouse Rye stout
Upcoming Education: Every month we have an education and/or experiment topic including guest speakers, blind triangle tests, and hands-on equipment.
March: Irish Styles on St. Patrick’s Day. Please bring Irish-style homebrew to the meeting to go along with this education topic exploring a few styles!
Beginner’s Corner: During the monthly meeting we make space for any questions that members may have — and no question is too simple!
Nick M asked what people are using for heat sources in fermentation chambers. A heat wrapper is not working well enough in his garage. The most popular answer from the club was a small ceramic heater. What do you use?
New business: Anything new that needs to be addressed.
The club now has a Discord server for real-time chat between members! This is available to any current member.
The Craft Brewers Conference is in Minneapolis this year, May 2-5. This is for professional brewers and it is great to see our city getting some recognition!
Aaron D won First and Third place in the Wild and Sour Beer category with NBA Flanders and NBA Kriek beers.
Jason B and Adrian S took home Second place in Light Belgian with a Turbid Saison collaboration from this past summer.
Jim I brought a few books from his library to share. We keep a spreadsheet available in the NBA Knowledge Base with myriad books for members to borrow from each other.
All are welcome to join the club! Please follow us on this blog, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates. The Club Calendar also shows our upcoming meetings and events. The club benefits everyone from new brewers starting a first batch to seasoned veterans looking to hone their skills and get feedback on new styles and techniques. Feel free to drop by a Taproom Takeover social hour or stop by a meeting any time to check us out first.
This month at the monthly meeting Lallemand Brewing will be dialing in to talk about their new Farmhouse hybrid Saison-style yeast. This non-diastatic hybrid was selected through advanced breeding techniques to remove the STA-1 gene to brew outstanding Saison beers.
Members of the club received sachets of this yeast from the 2021 NBA Homebrew Competition sponsorship by our friends at Lallemand, so join the meeting and taste the difference in these batches.
February Guest Speaker: Lallemand Brewing
Brewers of all levels are welcome to join the club! Check out a meeting or Taproom Takeover before joining. Watch the Club Calendar and Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter for updates about our meetings and events. Cheers!
Happy New Year, friends and folks! 2022 will be a great year for the NBA and we are starting off with a bunch of great topics. Let’s jump in and recap the recent goings-on!
The Winter Party held a couple things going on:
Officer Elections
President Aaron D was re-elected for another term in that role. The club will surely continue to flourish under his leadership.
Director of Operations Steve M stepped down from re-election for his role. We greatly appreciate the work he has done in this position and will surely benefit from other projects and events where he will provide his expert insight.
Jim I was elected to the Director of Operations role. He has some ideas for the membership and event committees under the purview of this position.
Club High Gravity Competition
The meeting also included the informal competition for beers ≥8% brewed in 2021. Congratulations to Matt J for winning with his Coffee Stout.
Honorable mentions to Jim I for his DIPA and Al S for his Bitter Stout.
All five entries were solid beers!
For club business, there are a few things going on:
Merchandise
Stacking taster glasses are available at $4/one, $7/two, $12/four
Jim I is researching a site that sells branded hoodies, shirts, etc.; keep an eye out
January, February, and March meetings this year will be held at ESNS as they are not running their tax prep course this year. Keep an eye on the Club Calendar for upcoming meeting and event locations.
2022 membership renewal is due in January for all members. Please submit $20 through PayPal to nba.treasury@gmail.com with your name and email or visit the Join or Renew Today page on the website.
Check with a member of the leadership committee for your 2022 membership card.
Members renewing (or joining!) by January 31 will also receive bottles from the first pull from the club solera — a straight pale sour and peach pale sour. I assure you they are wonderful bottles. Pick-up or coordination is required by the February meeting.
There are a couple relatively minor changes to the club by-laws
Members joining between July 1 and October 31 receive a 50% discount ($10 instead of $20 for 2022). Members joining between November 1 and December 31 will pay the full annual membership fee good through the following calendar year. These changes are effective 01/01/2022.
Check out the Club By-Laws page on the website for full, official details.
Nick M is coordinating club bike rides throughout 2022. Members can check out the thread in the Google Group email for more details. Expect 3-4 rides during the summer and one in the fall for an Oktoberfest tour. The rides will focus on enjoying the beer and biking slowly.
HomebrewCon 2022 is scheduled for June 23-35 in Pittsburgh. If there is enough interest, there will be an NBA AirBNB to save on lodging and transportation.
A few barrel transfers are planned for the next few months:
The George Dickel barrel Dark Sour will be transferred and refilled in early February.
One of the French Oak Lambic-style barrels will follow around February/March.
The Rittenhouse Rye Stout will be swapped around March/April.
Members should keep an eye out for emails to sign up for these barrels over the next couple months.
Over the next couple months we have a couple great education topics planned:
In February we will have a guest speaker from Lallemand to talk about their yeast.
The March meeting lands on St. Patrick’s Day, so we should talk about Irish beer styles. We are looking for a volunteer to facilitate this meeting and for members to brew Irish dry stout, Irish red, and export stout to drink during the meeting.
All are welcome to join the club! Please follow us on this blog, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates. The Club Calendar also shows our upcoming meetings and events. The club benefits everyone from new brewers starting a first batch to seasoned veterans looking to hone their skills and get feedback on new styles and techniques. Feel free to drop by a Taproom Takeover social hour or stop by a meeting any time to check us out first.
This month the education topic at the club meeting will be on the NBA Solera Program. This is part of the overall NBA Barrel Program and run by the Leadership Committee. The overall goal is to create a consistent and regular source of distinct and wonderful sour beer sponsored by the club for the members to enjoy.
There is a bit of planning and maintenance in this program, so come by the meeting on Thursday, January 20 7-9pm at East Side Neighborhood Services to learn more — and have a sample of the first pull from this barrel!
The club has a number of recurring events — monthly meetings with education or experiment topics, Big Brew and Learn To Homebrew Day group brews, Summer and Winter parties — with one of those events being the monthly Taproom Takeover.
On the first Thursday of each month we schedule time to meet up at a local taproom, rotating around the Twin Cities area, to meet up socially and share in conversation over a pint or three. We prioritize the breweries that help sponsor our competitions to return the support. When we are lucky, we are sometimes even able to get a brewer-led tour of the back of the house, too!
The 2021 taproom list was recently updated, so check out the club calendar to see where we will be. If you are interested in learning more about the club or just hanging out and talking about beer, this is a great opportunity stop by and say hello. No reservations required.
Thank you to everyone who sent in beers to be judged for the 2021 Nordeast Brewers Alliance Homebrew Competition! There were 228 beers judged this year — our biggest competition to date — and we were excited about every one of them! Cheers to everyone!
Keep an eye out in 2022 for the NBA Sour Times competition around May/June and the all-category competition in November/December again!
We are always amazed by the great sponsorship we get from the homebrew community, local breweries, and equipment manufacturers! Thank you to everyone who donated brewing equipment, merchandise and swag, gift cards, and (maybe my favorite) free beers at Minneapolis-area taprooms!
A couple top winners local to the Minneapolis area will also receive the chance to brew one of their award-winning recipes on a professional system! Fat Pants Brewing in Eden Prairie, MN, and Excelsior Brewing in Excelsior, MN, are each offering some winning brewers a brew day experience! Watch for more details on where to buy that beer when it hits the taprooms!
Come join a brew day on the NBA club system at Midwest Supplies on Saturday, November 6 from 9am – 4pm for Learn To Homebrew Day. We will have some homebrew to share, too! Come by and check out the club and deals going on inside the store!
Learn To Homebrew Day – Sat Nov 6
We welcome everyone regardless of experience or skill to join the club and take part in whatever events are most interesting. Check out the club calendar to see where we will be and feel free to contact us if you have any questions. Updates are also available on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Registration is now open for the Nordeast Brewers Alliance Homebrew Competition 2021! Create or update your account now with entry registration open November 1 – 30. Judging will be 100% remote, so check the competition site for more details.
