Northeast MPLS Farmers Market hear we come!

events

Nordeast Brewers Alliance will be at the NE MPLS Farmers Market this Saturday from 9am-1pm demonstrating how to brew beer at home.   We’ll also have samples of some of the raw ingredients; grain, hops, yeast…etc!    Make sure to stop on by our booth and check out the process of cooking up the raw ingredient for making BEER!  We’ll be passing out flyers like the one below…possiblystickers, and have all kinds of cool stuff going on.    Those of you who want to pick up your grains forthe Single hop experiment, come on by our booth and we’ll measure and crush them on the spot!

Location: Intersection of University Ave NE & 7th Ave NE, right across from Emily’s Lebanese Deli!

May 17th Club Meeting Notes

meeting recaps,
  • Introductions/misc. (5 min.)
    • Discount reminders (see previous postings)
  • Atendence: Aaron D, Tim, Andrew w, Brian, Matt C, Joe, Robin, Joe, Chad, Nick P,  Tom, Ryan, Nick, Nathan G, Eric, Justin, Nate, Kevin S,
  • Announcements/upcoming events/new business(15 min.)
    • Mid-month BAMF meet-up recap
    • Club Priorities
    • Signing of the by laws for all members – Read before the meeting
    • Summer BBQ – Where, When, Who (Nathan’s Place, June 30th)
    • Summer BBQ – 1st Semiannual NBA Club Competition – Recap of rules and regulations
      • 6 pack of bottles, best of show, prizes still unsure
    • NBA Sponsored Homebrew Competition – Big River Brew Fest
      • October in coordination wit the East side neighborhood services.
      • Last year was first big river beer fest, this will be the first time they have a homebrew contest.
      • We will limit the contest to beers only, no meads or ciders.
      • There is a lot of work to be done, all help is welcome.
      • A Committee has been started, and we’re looking for more members.  Email Nick P on the Google Groups to  join.
  • Northeast Farmer’s Market  – June 2nd!
    • NBA has secured a booth the first four Saturday’s in June (8:00am set up, 9:00am-1:00pm market open).
    • Our Primary purpose is to continue our membership drive and get our name out in the community.
    • We will be demonstrating brewing, educating anyone with questions, and letting people know about the cool stuff we’re doing.
    • We are responsible for bringing all the gear, setting up, tearing down, and exuding excellence for the entirety of the market.
    • We have a minimum of 3 people signed up for each weekend, but the more the merrier.  Post on the forum to sign up for a day, and what you can bring.
    • Nick and Steve will coordinate the team on how to conduct ourselves.
  • Upcoming local competitions
    • Minnesota State Fair is right around the corner…
    • Big River Brewfest
  • Group experiments update (5 min.)
    • Barrel-aging project update [Nick P]
      • General status update.
      • Barrel is full, and Nick sampled (1.007 – from 1.013) flavor is a lil funky, lil tart.  Good start to the project.  Now we play the waiting game.
  • Single Hope update/status–
    • The page lists all the chosen hops.  Money was collected for the group buy.
    • If you didn’t get in on the group buy, you are on your own to purchase ingredients.
    • Water (Ice Mountain Spring water) and hops are up to each individual for purchasing
  • Financial Report (5 min.)
    • See the non-profit bullets above.
    • 7 members joined at this meeting.
    • Keep bringing in your friends!
  • Education session (20 min.)
    • DIY – Nathan G – “Mash tun to Jockey Box” – Link coming from Instructables once it’s up
      Nathan showing off his work
      • Why would you do this? 
      • To cool hot wort (at farmers market) and/or to chill a keg for serving.
      • What’s involved?
      • Added Quick disconnects in top of mash tun to make it multi function
      • Copper coils (soft copper/refrigeration tubing)– 60’ wrapped coil around a soup can, then arount a coffee can, then brought it all together
      • Jockey box – copper wort chiller goes in mash tun, fill it with ice, and you run wort/beer through the tubing
      • The entire system is gravity fed, for wort cooling, the remaining pressure in the keg pushes out the beer when serving.
  • Total build cost: ~$ 160 for entire mash tun/jockey box conversion
  • ~$95 for just jockey box conversion

Break

  • What’s on tap?– Other New Business
    • Since there are so many projects going on, and our next two meetings are essentially events, breakout committee sessions are needed to advance individual projects.  The Google groups forum will be helpful for this.
    • Library – Nick starting a forum (spreadsheet coming on blog)
    • Next educational topics:
      •  June – BBQ! (Session beers [Matt P.])
      • July – SHE tasting
      • August – ??Electric set up?  Ryan?
      • September – Andrew N – Mash tun
      • Summer Social Events?
        • mid month happy hours, Pub crawls?  Nothing cemented, but events are encouraged.
        • Next BAMF date- TBD
  • General Q&A (15 min)
  • Group Tastings
    • Andrew W – Saison (16c)
    • Tyler B – Specialty beer (23) base is cream ale (6A)
    • Tim S – Belgian Spelcialty (16e?)
    • New Holland gave us a couple bottles of the Sour, and stopped by after our meeting to talk about it.

May 17, 2012 Club Meeting Agenda

upcoming meetings

Here’s what’s on tap for Thursday May 17th, 7:00-9:00pm @ Pracna.

This is just an outline, if I forgot something or you have something you want added, email Tyler to get it added to the list

  • Introductions/misc. (5 min.)
  • Announcements/upcoming events/new business (15 min.)
    • Summer BBQ – Where, When, Who (Nathan’s Place, June 30th)
    • Summer BBQ – 1st Semiannual NBA Club Competition – Recap of rules and regulations
    • NBA Sponsored Homebrew Competition – Big River Brew Fest
    • Farmer’s Market  – June 2nd!
      • Steve and Nick to give us a run down on marketing ourselves
    • Upcoming competitions
  • Group experiments update (5 min.)
    • Barrel-aging project update [Nick P]
      • 2 weeks in, sure to be tons of news…
    • Single Hope update/status– Who’s in, what the cost is, what the schedule is.  If you want in on the group buy for ingredients, bring some cash to the meeting (Roughly $16 not including water or hops).
  • Financial Report (5 min.)
    • Banking situation update [Matt]
    • Recruitment efforts Announcements
      • Keep bringing in your friends!
      •  Recruitment chair [Steve M] – Announcements
  • Education session (20 min.)
    • “Yeast Washing” – [Nick P] takes care of the dirty, dirty yeast
  • Break
  • What’s on tap? – Other New Business
    • Next educational topic: June – BBQ!
    • July – Session beers [Matt P.]
    • Next educational topics? Volunteers needed for August
    • Summer Social Events?
    • Next BAMF date
  • Group Tastings
  • Andrew W – Saison (16c)
  • Volunteers needed!

May BAMF meeting notes

meeting recaps

On May 8, 2012 we convened at the Town Hall Brewery in Minneapolis for the BAMF meeting.

Attendance: Andrew N, Brandon, Tim S, Nathan G, Tyler B, Nick P, Steve M, Matt P

Back to the Non-Profit discussion

At the last club meeting, we voted to pursue Non-profit status when funds allow.  Thanks to a generous loan from our financial officer, Matt Price, we are able to pursue an LLC with non-profit status.  The club will pay back Matt once club funds are above $500.  A promissory note is being created for the president and VP to sign.

First we will file ourselves as a 501c7 – A Social Club.  This is essentially a federal tax classification, not an article of incorporation.  This establishes the legitimacy of our group with the state, gets us an EIN number, and also makes creating the LLC and gaining non-profit status much easier.  Best of all, it’s free.

By Laws

We need each club member to acknowledge they have read the by laws.  This is essentially a term of membership, but we haven’t been holding to strictly to requiring a signature.  This will also ensure that each member is aware of the club rules and regulations.  A signature page will be present at the next meeting.  If you can’t attend, you can sign by proxy by emailing the Scribe, Tyler B.

Some in progress amendments to the by laws include a liability waiver which will be required to partake in group functions.  We will have a waiver for non members who partake in meeting tastings.  Brendan, our unofficially official legal counsel, is working on the waiver.

Farmers Market

As stated, we will be a part of the Northeast Farmers Market for at least the first four Saturday’s in June.  Since the members representing the club, Nick P and Steve M will be giving a briefing on how to represent ourselves during the next all-club meeting.

We have enough people signed up for each week, but more are always welcome.  Nathan is building a jockey box to cool the wort during our brewing demonstrations.  Ideally, we can do a different method of brewing or technique each week (extract, all grain, BIAB, etc).  If possible, we should bring two brew set ups (kettle and mash tun) so that people can see all parts of the process at the same time.

Summer BBQ – June 30th meeting

At the next meeting, we will have a sign up sheet for party materials.  The fiesta is at Nathan’s place in the NE.

We will also go over rules for the summer home brew competition for those who don’t know.

SHE (Single Hop Experiment)

As excited as we all are, so are some other brewing members in the community.  Nick P and Nathan G have been reaching out to pro brewers in the area to come to our meeting that night and taste our results.  This means we all need to have beer ready to go at the July meeting, with enough quantity to share.  More details coming at the next club meeting.

October Home Brew Competition – Big River Brewfest

Sponsoring a HBC takes a lot of work.  We have lots to do at this point.  A committee has been started: Nick P (chair), Tim, Tyler, Nathan and Andrew N.  Hopefully some more will join at the next meeting, since there is a legitimate amount of work to do.

To ease the pain, the BAMF voted 8-0 to only allow beers (all categories) but to exclude meads and ciders from our first run at a competition.

Nick has a good idea as to what needs to be done, but the more volunteers the better.

BJCP Judging

With all that’s going on this summer this topic is tabled until September.

 

Club Priorities

1.  Experiments

2.  Club Sponsored Home Brew Competition

3.  Marketing  – Farmers Market, Social Activities, Recruiting

4.  BJCP Certification

 

 

 

Cheers – Hope to see everyone at the THURSDAY May 17th Meeting 7:00PM @ Pracna. 

April 21, 2012 Club meeting Notes

meeting recaps,

Here’s the notes from our meeting last Saturday at Pracna.  The meeting proceeded sans gavel, I don’t think we broke any by-laws by doing that.  If I left something out, let me know and I’ll make amendments.

Attendance:  Tyler B, Andrew W, Tom, Steve M, Nathan G, Grant W, Matt P, Davis, Matt C, Tim S, Dan S, Dave T, Kelsey K, Sandy B, Justin G, Kevin S, Nick P

  • Introductions/misc. (5 min.)
  • Announcements/upcoming events/new business (15 min.)
    • Mid-month BAMF meet-up recap
    • Non-Profit Status – BAMF recommendation
          • Club Vote: Unanimous vote passed – We will pursue Non-profit status wen funds allow, tentative goal is next year.
    • Summer meetings – Moving to Thursdays – starting May 17
      • We will move back to Saturday at approximately the end of Summer
    • NBA Sponsored Homebrew Competition – Big River Brew Fest
      • Nick P has started a web page on our site, as well as something more official.  Check for updates.
      • This will be in association with the Eastside Neighborhood Services of Minneapolis.
      • The main cost to us is providing lunch and dinner to the Judges, who will otherwise be volunteers receiving BJCP credit for their work.  The Eastside Neighborhood Services is excited to let us try this, and we aren’t going to be charged to put this on.
      • We will be open to all styles, AHA/BJCP sanctioned, open to nationwide events, with an emphasis on Sour (Funky) beers as well as DIPAs.
      • We will be paying $30 to become registered with the BJCP so that we can obtain a list of local judges.
      • Volunteers will be needed as Stewards for the actual Judging.
      • Our main goal over the next 3 months is promotion and marketing.  We need to get the word out.
    • Farmer’s Market  – Volunteers needed for the first 4 weekends in June.  Please check the Google groups thread and sign up.  We will be able to brew, demonstrate some methods and equipment, answer general questions, and interact with the community.  Our main goal is to recruit more members so that we have more club funds to actually do something cool.  Tim S is going to hook up a sign for us, and showed some pretty cool stickers that we can hand out at the farmers market.
      • The cost to us is $25/day for 4 days ($100).
    • Discount reminders
      • Remind all prospective members of the 10% we receive at the Four Firkins, Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies.  Not to mention all the free brewing advice.
    • Upcoming competitions
  • Group experiments update (5 min.)
    • Barrel-aging project update[Nick]
      • We are filling the barrel this weekend at Nick P’s place.  Please drop off your carboy ahead of time if you can’t be part of the mass siphoning.  It is key that we have all carboys available for the barrel filling.
    • Single Hope update/status– who’s in?
      • As I write this, we have about 15 people signed up with a chosen hop.  The GGroups thread is strong with this one.
      • The general plan: We all brew the same base beer recipe, but each use our own chosen hop, and only our hop.  We will plan on tasting in July, so plan accordingly.  When this was done last year, it was pretty cool to see how a hop can really change a beer.  Oh, and no Fuggles this time around.
  • Financial Report (5 min.)
    • Banking situation update [Matt]
      • Not much change since last month.  Right around $400 in club funds and slowly growing.
    • Recruitment efforts
      • Keep bringing in your friends!
      • Steve M is officially the chair of the Recruitment Committee!
  • Education session (20 min.)
    • “Mash Tun designs and techniques” [Andrew N and Adam]
    • Mash Tun and Sparging technique open forum.  Sorry no real notes, if you have a question, throw it out on the GGroups forum.  This was a great example of tapping all of our members for their respective knowledge.
  • Break
  • What’s on tap? – New Business
    • Next educational topic May – Yeast Washing [Grant W]
    • July – Session beers [Matt P.]
    • Next educational topics? Volunteers needed for August
    • Summer BBQ – It will be at Nathan G’s place in the Northeast.  We will need some tables, plan on bringing your own chairs and leave your dogs at home.  This is also when and where we will hold the 1st semiannual NBA HBC.
    • Pub Crawl (Pedal Pub) – We have interest.  Something will happen in August as a group event.  We encourage informal gatherings in the meantime.
    • Next BAMF date – TBD on the forums.
  • Group Tastings
  • Dan Snow : American Barleywine (19C)
  • Dan Snow: Common Cider (27A)
  • Matt Price: Brown Ale (10C)
  • DTs: Beglian Stout (13? or 18E? or specialty beer?)

April 21, 2012 Club meeting Agenda

upcoming meetings

Here’s what we have planned for the meeting next Saturday April 21st, 4:00pm @ Pracna on Main

We welcome all members, as well as anyone who wants to know more about who we are!

  • Introductions/misc. (5 min.)
  • Announcements/upcoming events/new business (15 min.)
    • Mid-month BAMF meet-up recap
    • Non-Profit Status – BAMF recommendation
    1. Club vote
    • Summer meetings – Moved to Thursdays – starting May 17
    • Homebrew Competition – Big River Brew Fest
    • Farmer’s Market  – Volunteers needed
    • Discount reminders
  • Group experiments update (5 min.)
    • Barrel-aging project update [Nick]
    • Single Hope update/status – who’s in?
  • Financial Report (5 min.)
    • Banking situation update [Matt]
    • Recruitment efforts
  • Education session (20 min.)
    • “Mash Tun designs and techniques” [Andrew N and Adam]
  • Break
  • What’s on tap? – New Business
    • Next educational topic May – Session beers [Matt P.]
    • Next educational topics?
    • Summer BBQ – location, reminder of competition rules.
    • Pub Crawl (Pedal Pub) – gauging interest
    • Next BAMF date
  • Group Tastings
  • Dan Snow : American Barleywine (19C)
    Dan Snow: Common Cider (27A)
    Matt Price: Brown Ale (10C)
    DTs: Beglian Stout (13? or 18E? or specialty beer?)

If there’s something you want to discuss, bring it to the meeting or email Tyler to get it on the agenda!