November 2018 Update

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We have been keeping busy as the weather turns colder again. Here are some updates for our events and activities.

Recent Activities

Big River Brew Fest

On a windy and cold day in October, the NBA was able to participate again in the Eastside Neighborhood Services annual Big River Brew Fest annual fundraiser. This was a record-breaking year for attendance and our booth had quite a few visitors — and return visitors looking for the special brews from previous years. This year included Cinnamon Toast Crunch Milk Brown, Oreo Milk Porter, Apple Cinnamon Amber, and barrel-aged Lambic and Flanders — among others. This is always a great time for the club and we are looking forward to next year already!

All-Grain Partial Boil

The November education topic was a presentation by Chris on how he follows an all-grain partial boil strategy for his quick indoor brews. Although this causes a hit to efficiency, this is easily remedied with a little extra grain. Diluting the wort with clean water in the fermenter, he can brew in the kitchen and keep going on cold winter days. The presentation will be made available through the normal club channels.

Barrel Transfer

After aging to get the oak and bourbon flavors into the beer, a Foreign Export Stout was pulled out of the club Dickel barrel and a new Barley Wine was put in. The barrel program is one of the core programs within the club and there was good turn-out from those who pulled out, brewed to refill, and spectators alike.

Next month two new Four Roses barrels will be filled with a huge Imperial Stout to start them off right! The Barrel Committee is keeping an eye out for additional barrels to keep the rotation

Upcoming Plans

NBA Homebrew Competition

The annual NBA Homebrew Competition is fast-approaching with entries filling up. Everyone is welcome to enter and we expect more great beers. Volunteers for judging and stewarding are also open and we are looking for all levels of experience. Check out the competition page for more information on how to enter or volunteer!

Entries are due at the drop-off or mail-in locations by Friday, November 30, so act fast!

Winter party in January

The annual Winter party is now scheduled for January with the High Gravity Club Competition (8% and higher on the honor system) and elections for the Vice President, Communication Director, and Finance Director positions. All members are welcome to join with the final details on time and location being sent out soon.

Upcoming Education

December: Baltic Porter

Next up in the Explore A Style series is Baltic Porter with homebrew and commercial examples available during the presentation. This porter with lager yeast is a unique and uncommon style, so this education topic will hopefully shine some light for the club.

January: Mighty Axe and Comet Hops

We were able to recently coordinate a Group Buy event with Mighty Axe Hops growing in Foley, MN, for a bunch of Comet hops. These will be brewed into various styles for the January meeting where Ben from Mighty Axe will be stopping by to talk about hop farming and the company — and to taste the beers with us.

New and Noteworthy

Membership Changes for 2019

All memberships are becoming household memberships! This will allow the partners of members to join meetings, parties, and events with the club at no additional cost. Please reach out if you have any questions — or join us at a meeting or taproom to learn more!

 

For announcements of the monthly Taproom Takeover, monthly recap of recent events, and announcements for upcoming events, keep an eye on this space and our social media sites on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Come join us and chat about beer and brewing!

Cheers!

 

Nordeast Brewers Alliance Homebrew Competition 2018 – Brew. Drink. Compete.

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Our BJCP/AHA sanctioned competition is on us, and now is the time to get your account registered in preparation for the entry window to open on November 1st.

Drop off deadline is November 30th, so get those comp beers brewed, and your beers entered.

If you are able to help Judge or Steward we would really appreciate it.

So, join us for a quality competition and a fun time. Cheers!

Sign up here: https://nordeasthbc.brewcompetition.com

Shells Brewery Tour and Star Keller Visit

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A number number of members from the club ventured down to New Ulm to check out Shells Main Brewery and the Star Keller.

We received an excellent tour and tasting at the main brewery from the awesome staff. We had a great time and look forward to returning at some point in the future.

We then headed across town to the Star Keller to enjoy a wide selection of excellent sour beers.

The beer was great at the Star Keller and it was a great end to a great day.
Thanks to Steve M, he plan a crucial role in getting the event setup. Thanks to the Shells staff and the people of New Ulm

Cheers!

Saturday May 12 – Midwest Supplies Homebrew Club Fair

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This Saturday, come join us at Midwest Supplies starting at 10am for their Homebrew Club Fair.

We will be there pouring from the jockey box, talking brew, and hanging out with some of the other great club members from the area.

If you would like to share some of your creations, please see the Google group for the sign-up sheet. Kegs, bottles, cans, it all works! Dress in your NBA best and join us for the fun!

Recap – April Monthly Meeting

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April Meeting Recap

The April meeting had a great educational  session lead by Bad Weather’s Christian Breitbarth. We covered yeast washing, over-building starting, building a yeast bank, and most importantly, how to create and work in sterile environments.

Thanks member Jason Berg, there are great notes in the club forum. Make sure to check it our!

We also covered the introduction of the club yeast bank. This new benefit for members will being kicking off over the next few weeks, and will also be accompanied by some club wort canning days. The wort canning days will be club members have the opportunity to can starter wort, decreasing the time it takes to grow yeast for brew days. Watch the forum for updates from Paul for the yeast bank and Carl for the first wort canning day.

Committee Updates

The barrels continue to be a great benefit to club members. There have been brew days to brew the Belgian Dark Strong that will be going into the Buffalo Trace barrel. These brew days have given us a chance to use the new 30 gallon mash tun and boil kettle, as well as step up the brewing water chemistry and mash pH game from previous education sessions. The committee also gave an update on the Lambic and George Dickel transfers.

Upcoming Events

Big Brew Day, May 5th

The Nordeast Brewers Alliance will be at Northern Brewer Minneapolis for Big Brew Day. We will be brewing, possibly grilling, and serving samples from club members. So make sure you grab your gear to brew on site (great chance to try BIAB if you haven’t) and if you want to share one of your brews on the club jockey box, make to sign up on the registration form that was posted to the group. There are also slots to share at other events there!

Midwest Homebrew Club Fair, May 12th

Our friends at Midwest Brewing Supply will be holding a homebrew club fair for local clubs from 10am-4pm. Think of it like ‘Homebrew Con Lite’. Its an opportunity for us to show off to potential members and other clubs. They will also be giving away malt from Able Seedhouse. The beer made with that malt will be entered into a competition, details to come. Everybody is welcome, come hang out, drink beer, and promote the club!

Recap – March Monthly Meeting and Things to Watch

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March Meeting Recap

The NBA held our March meeting at Midwest Brewing Supplies, and we covered some great topics!

To start, we had an update on the barrel program. Members received a detailed round up of the barrels, and what empties/fills will be coming up, plus the opportunity to expand the program! If you are not (yet) a member of the NBA, the barrel program is one of the shining benefits of being a member. Here’s a couple quick highlights:

There will be an upcoming empty and fill of the George Dickel Barrel that has been the happy home to a Russian Imperial Stout.

Coming in April will be the empty and fill of a red wine barrel containing a Lambic.

The other barrels will continue to age – keep an eye out for those updates.

Our educational topic this month was identifying off flavors, thanks to Chris Haas. This lead to an interesting discussion on some of the more common off flavors, how they can range in perception, what causes them, and how to avoid them.

Thanks to Chris, we were able to spike a Helles with the proper compounds to present these flavors without being masked by assertive malt/hop/yeast characteristics.

If you have not participated in an off flavor tasting session, I’d highly recommend it. Take oxidation, which is typically described as “cardboard” or “paper”. But those are actually the minority of the flavor impacts oxidation has on a beer. Tasting a control vs. the spiked variable for common off flavors can really provide a great educational foundation for opportunities to improve your brewing.

There was also a video from Aaron, Steve, and Tyler breaking in the club’s new 30 gallon mash tun, thanks to Northern Brewer. Remember how the barrel program is a great benefit that comes with being a member? The club brew system is another benefit, all members have access to the system, with two configurations: 15.5 gallon keggles, and 30 gallon kettles – allowing for batches anywhere from 5 to 25 gallons.

Need more benefits? At the March meeting we kicked off the plans start building a club yeast bank! Look for more info to come at the April and May meetings.

Also in March NBA members brewed for Experimental Brewing. Those batches should be ready for tasting in April, and there will be a full write up for you to conduct the same experiment.
Upcoming Events 
  1. April 5th, Taproom Takeover – Boom Island
  2. April 19th, Monthly Meeting at ESNS
  3. Education Topic: Yeast
  4. May 5th, Big Brew for National Homebrew Day – 12:00 PM, at Northern Brewer Minneapolis
  5. May 17th, Monthly Meeting at ESNS
  6. Education Topic: Explore a Style – Mild
  7. June 21st, Monthly Meeting at ESNS
  8. Education Topic: Beer Sorbet
Club Merch and Memberships Available
  • T-Shirts – $10
    Hats – $10
  • 2018 1 Year Membership – $20 or $25 with a TShirt
  • 2018 3 Year Membership – $50 with a TShirt
  • 2018 Work Shirt

Monthly Meeting – March 15th, 2018 @ Midwest Supplies – St Louis Park

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Hi everybody! The monthly meeting is this Thursday at 7:00pm (come early!) at Midwest Supplies. They are graciously letting us hang out and use their space after the store closes down. Be sure to head over early and take a look at some of the offerings, including the GigaWort! Rumor has it there might be an additional discount for club members!

Education topic: Off flavor Tasting with Christopher Haas!

Bring some homebrew to share! If you aren’t a member, no worries, our meetings are open to everyone!

January Recap – Kicking off 2018 with the NBA

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Happy 2018 from the Nordeast Brewers Alliance!

January was another fun month, and February is shaping up to keep 2018 exciting.

January Monthly Meeting

During our January monthly meeting, we highlighted with a triangle tasting with hops from our friend Mark Catlin. Does the drying temperature impact the hop bittering and flavor profiles? Keep an eye out for the recap in the near future.

Winter Party

The NBA Winter Party and High Gravity contest was January 20. With an amazing display of 8%+ ABV beers brewed in 2017, special recognition is deserved for winners:

  • 1st: Old Faithful, Foreign Extra Stout – Matt Grove
  • 2nd: Golden Stout – Jim Ingebrigtsen
  • 3rd: NyIPA – Chad Oesterreich

The recipes for the winners will be posted to the NBA Google Group.

We also announced the club leadership for 2018. 

Barrels Are In Action

There is a lot of action around the club and personal barrel projects! Another reason to keep up with the group forum, as the sign up sheets for new fills and empties are posted there.

February Meeting

The monthly meeting for February will be held at Northern Brewer Minneapolis. The education topic will be water chemistry led by Norther Brewer’s Jeff Merrimann. There will also be announcements about the club brew system and 2018 group brew events.

 

 

 

NBA December Recap

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2017 Wrapped up with a bang for the Nordeast Brewers Alliance!

Let’s start with the Nordeast Brewers Alliance Homebrew competition – congratulations to all of the participants and winners. The competition this year was our largest yet, with 180 entries. A special thank you to our judges, volunteers, and sponsors that made this year a success!

 

 

 

 

The NBA was also named Growler Magazine’s “Kind of a Big Deal” Homebrew Club of the Year!

 

To wrap up 2017 we had our monthly meeting. We had a great educational discussion on brewing with wood, highlighted with white ash, maple, and sassafras.

Along with some festive fun, there will be some great things to look forward to in 2018 – including quarterly club brews on the club system, and group brews with members. Look for those sign-up sheets starting in January.

 

And to kick off 2018, we will have our Winter Party and high-gravity club comp on January 20.