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!

Update on Barrel Project

events

50 gallons!  As soon as we hit 60 gallons we can schedule a day to transfer.

  1. Andrew Nesbitt – Picked Up, Brewed
  2. Steve Scott – Paid, Picked Up (brewing ?)
  3. Matt Price – Paid Picked Up, Brewed
  4. Nathan – Paid, Picked Up, Brewed
  5. Nick K – Paid Picked Up (brewing 4/11/12)
  6. Nick P – Paid, Picked Up, Brewed
  7. Grant – Paid, Picked Up, Brewed
  8. Tyler – Paid Picked Up Brewed
  9. Kevin – Paid Picked Up Brewed
  10. Tim S. – paid, Picked Up (brewing ?)
  11. Tom Burkys – paid, Picked Up, Brewed
  12. Andy Heater – paid. Picked Up (brewing 4/10/12)
  13. Justin George –paid, Picked Up, Brewed
  14. Aaron Deboer – paid Picked Up Brewed

Monumental news regarding Kevin!

the mash tun

Kevin aka K-Swiss… FINALLY PAID AND IS OFFICIALLY IN ON THE FIRST NORDEAST BARREL PROJECT!

He even brewed his batch…. so for all of you that haven’t brewed yet…step it up….son.

In other news…with Steve Scott picking up his ingredients from me about an hour ago….ALL of the ingredients for the barrel project have been distributed! 50 gallons are in primary as I write this with 20 more gallons yet to be brewed!

Boom goes the dynamite!

BAMF Meeting April 5th, 2012 notes

meeting recaps

Attendance: Andrew N, Nick P, Tyler B, Nathan G, Tim S and Andrew W

Nathan invited us over for first a little neighborhood entertainment, then offered us libations in the form of Leine’s Creamy Dark.  It led to good times and good conversation.  Here’s what went down.

Non-Profit Status

Becoming a non-profit is $75.  However, we would also want to become an LLC which costs $150.  There are many benefits which have been previously discussed.  These include, but are not limited to accepting donations, not paying taxes. Becoming an LLC would require us to have Limited Liability Insurance, and the club as a whole would be responsible should any issues occur.  After much discussion, the BAMF has the following recommendation for the club:

We should pursue becoming a non-profit LLC, when funding allows.  At the current time, we do not have the budget to make this happen.  Assuming this year we are active in recruiting and fundraising, non-profit status should be a tentative goal of next fiscal year.

Branding

We will not be changing our name.  The initial goal of the club was to develop a local community.  Local is a relative term.  As the club’s founders live in the Nordeast, our meetings are in the Nordeast, and we wish to exude the Nordeast way of life, our nomenclature is appropriate.

To further our reach, Nick P and Andrew W are will present the club mission at the next meeting (4/21).  A vote will be held to adopt it.  This will not stray far from what has been posted on the GGroups threads.

Summer meeting date change

Last summer attendance was abysmal.  Even the February meeting saw a sharp decline in attendance due to the unseasonable weather.  We are in Minnesota, and since it’s usually snow covered 60% of the year, we all make the most out of the good weather.

After club input, the BAMF voted to move the meetings to Thursdays 7:00-9:00 at Pracna.  The vote passed unanimously.  We apologize to those whose schedules do not allow you to come, but we encourage activity on the message boards, Facebook and in upcoming events.

The Thursday meetings will take effect for the May meeting (May 17th).

Northeast Farmers Market

We’re in.  Initially we will be present for the four Saturdays in June.  At the next club meeting we will be looking for volunteers.  A minimum of 3 volunteers is needed for each Saturday.  The more the merrier.  This is an early morning thru early afternoon commitment.

We hope to demonstrate brewing, show people the nuts and bolts of the equipment, talk about the science, recruit members, hand out swag (stickers, temporary tattoos, etc) and generally engage with the community.

The first Farmers Market is June 2nd.  

Homebrew Competition at the Big River Brew fest

We are moving forward with this.  The date is anticipated to be October 13th with the judging to take place the day before.  Logistics still need to be worked out, but we have some time.   This will be a nationally BJCP sanctioned event, and posted on the AHA website.  All styles will be accepted, and we can collapse categories should there be insufficient entries.  It’s going to be a lot of work, but we should be able to make some money from the entries, and really make a name for ourselves.  Here is a general idea of what we need to do moving forward:

-Nick is reaching out to other clubs that have done this before for guidance.  If you know someone, gather information and pass it along.

-BJCP certified Judges: Start getting the word out.  They will be volunteers, receiving BJCP credit.  We are expected to provide a lunch.  This is our primary expense.  The more certified judges we have, the more credible the contest is.

-Volunteers: We will need a ton of volunteers to steward, transport, organize, and make sure we don’t run this thing into the ground.  Volunteers will be needed before, during and after the event.

-Drop off locations: Ideally Midwest and Northern Brewer, maybe Pracna as well.

-Donations: For prizes, refreshments, ets, so that we don’t have to fund everything.

-Judging location: TBD, maybe the East Side Center?

– Marketing: Let people know about it.  Put up posters, tell friends, call into the Sunday Sessions (once we get up on the AHA page), whatever you can think of.

-Push the Sour!: Since we already have a barrel going, and at least one very interested member, let’s try to get the word out that we will have a special award for best sour beer (TBD).  The sour beer folk is a small collective, but we could capitalize on this.

Barrel Project

Nearly everyone has brewed, check this out for an update.  The plan is to fill the barrel on April 28th or 29th of this month.  If your beer isn’t completely through primary, that’s ok.  The key is that we need to dump all the beer at once.  We don’t want acetobactar!

5 Course Dinners with Homebrew Pairing

Until we are an LLC with appropriate insurance, this is going to be put on the back burner.  There exists the possibility of doing this on a smaller scale for the club.

On that idea, we could hold an additional BBQ this summer.  The idea would be to maintain a food and beer pairing, but it would be a much more simple approach.  Some kick ass street food paired with specific beers could be pulled off easily.  We can kick this idea around more at the next meeting.

Membership info

We would like to collect some info about our club’s members.  Right now we have email and name only.  It might not hurt to know more about each other (ie skills, profession, favorite beers, set up, knowledge base).  We will discuss at the next meeting how we want to do this.

 

UPCOMING  MEETINGS: 

All club meeting: April 21st 4:00pm @ Pracna

Barrel Project: April 28th or 29th: Fill the Barrel!

May BAMF: TBD

All club meeting: THURSDAY May 17th 7:00-9:00pm @ Pracna

June BAMF: TBD

All club meeting: June 30th – Summer BBQ takes the place of the meeting

Barrel Project Update | Temptation Clone | Transfer into Barrel!

the mash tun

We have at least 40 gallons fermenting already!   I can’t actually believe that we’ve come this far.  We need about 10-15 gallons more for the initial barrel fill.  We’ll fill it up in the upcoming weeks with approximately 50-55 gallons of beer to leave some head space for some initial secondary fermentation krausen.   Once that krausen settles down in a few days I’ll top up the barrel as far as I can to inhibit any oxygen and acetobactor (which will turn the beer to vinegar very fast).    The goal for the initial fill is 59 gallons (which is the capacity of our barrel).

A couple of other things to note.   When Justin and I brewed our 10 gallons for the batch on Tuesday, Andrew came to pick up his grains so I decided to pop the top on a bottle of Russian River Temptation that I had in my cellar.   Now, I’d never had RR Temptation before but once tasting it I realized that we made an amazing decision to try and clone this beer!   It is the most refreshing tart, acidic, and funky beer I’ve ever tasted in my life.   It’s truly world class and riding the line between wine and beer, and probably more like wine then beer to most peoples palates.   With the yeast and bacteria left in the bottom of that bottle (dregs) I dumped that into a 1 gallon jug along with 1 gallon of the third runnings of our brew day.   I’ll transfer these dregs eventually into our barrel to give it more authenticity!

The barrel has been prepared as best I know how.  It holds water, I power washed it, I burned a sulfur stick in it, I rinsed it again, now it’s sitting patiently full of water and a blend of Citric Acid and Potassium Metabisulfate.   If this barrel isn’t ready…it ain’t my fault.    On transfer day, I’ll pump out the Acid wash, give it one last rinse and then we’ll fill it up IMMEDIATELY!

For anyone that hasn’t brewed your batch yet…BREW IT!  For anyone that hasn’t even paid for your grains and shit yet (KEVIN) get er done!

This is going to be awesome!

Please Vote

upcoming meetings

This poll does not mean we are changing anything.  Please vote though.  Last year we saw a significant decrease in members coming to the monthly meetings during the Summer months.   This is understandable because it’s how we do in MN.   We go up to cabins, and hit the lake, and BBQ when the weather is nice.   It’s Minnesota living at it’s finest!   This is just to get a feel for if people would rather meet during the week or not during the summer months so that we have something to discuss at our next meeting.  I’d hate to see all of the strides we’ve been taking as a club come to a screeching halt like they did last Summer.    It’s possible that this year Saturday’s work great for people and last year was an anomaly.  We shall see as long as everyone VOTES!

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