We had a great turnout of around 25 people for the monthly club meeting September 20th at the East Side Neighborhood Services.  Here’s what went down:

• Introduction: Welcome to all the new members!  We are continuing to grow as a club, gaining more skills and knowledge with every member we gain.
• Tastings during the meeting
  • Kolsch – Trevor, new member, this will be his first meeting
  • English Brown ale – Gordy, new member joining at this meeting
  • American Amber – Tom, new member, this will be his first meeting
  • Belgian Triple – Justin
  • French Cider – Nick Pederson
• Nordeast Big River Homebrew Competition Update
  • Final tally puts us at 150+ entries from 80+ entrants.  Not too shabby for a first time competition
  • We have all the entries de-identified and labelled, over at Nathan’s place until the judging.  It was exhilerating.
  • Judging will take place next week Friday 5:00-9:00ish, and Saturday 10:00am til we’re done.
  • Winners will be able to see their score after they are entered on the website.  We will be announcing winners at the Nordeast Big River Brewfest.
  • Buy your $25.00 ticket online to the 10/13/12 Nordeast Big River Brewfest and save yourself $5.00 off the door price.
  • There are still a few details to be ironed out by the HBC committee.
• Off Flavor tasting (Nathan G)
  • Nathan will be ordering an off flavor kit, which makes 24 litres of off-flavor beer.  Right now all the spots are accounted for, and dates are tentatively slated for the last two Sundays in October.  Tasting will take place at ESNS.
• Harvest Gala Update (Nathan and Justin)
  • The NBA donated 3 kegs of beer to the recent Harvest Gala put on by the organizers of the Northeast Farmers Market.  All the beer was a success, and we helped raise around $350 for the organization.
  • The NE Farmers Market asked us to set up a booth again on Saturday the 13th of October for their fall fest.  We will have a booth like we did in June, brewing beer and talking about beer with the rest of the people at the market.  8:00-1:00pm, just in time to head over to the NE Big River Brewfest after!
  • Volunteers should email the group, Nathan is more or less spearheading this activity.
• Barrel Aging Project Update (Nick)
  • At around 5 months old, the beer has a nice funk and is starting to take on more of the oak flavor.
  • We tentatively decided to empty the barrel around a year and start a new project rather than a solera.  We can readdress this when the time comes if necessary.
• MN State Fair HBC results
  • Category 7 – Amber hybrid: 3rd place, Grant Wright
  • Category 13 – Stout: 2nd place, Nathan O’brien
  • Catgory 15 – German wheat and rye: 3rd place, Davis Kessler
  • Category 16 – Belgian and French ale: 3rd place, Tom Burtyk
  • Category 17 – Sour ale: 1st place, Tom Burtyk
  • Category 19 – Strong ale: 2nd place, Tyler Bye
  • Congrats to all who entered.  NBA had a great showing at this competition.
• Club-only Winter Strong Beer Competition
  • Just like at the summer BBQ, we are holding a club-only competition at our January meeting.  Here are the rules:
    • Beer must be >7% ABV
    • Beer must have been brewed in 2012
    • Beer must be brewed on a homebrewer’s set up.
    • 6-12oz bottles will be required.
    • An entry form will be created closer to the competition date so you can register the beer.
    • This is a FREE competition for members.  Bragging rights are on the line!
• Education Topic: Cider
  • Education this month was more of a roundtable discussion by all members offering up what they know about cider.  It was like a real life message board!  Here’s a few of the notes I took.  Feel free to ask questions on the Google Groups, there was way more information than I could write down.
    • Brewing cider is relatively easy.  You don’t really have to do much.
    • Fresh-pressed, un pasteurized cider is best.  This way you know nothing has been added to interfere with fermentation.
    • To kill the wild yeast, use camden tablets before you pitch your yeast.  Wait 24-48 hours after the camden tablets so you don’t kill your yeast too.
    • If you don’t mind the funk (and have a dedicated carboy for this), just pitch your yeast and let it go.
    • Fermentation may take several days to pick up, be patient.
    • Since cider ferments to such a low gravity, it can be quite dry.  While some people like this, others back sweeten with various sugars.
• New Business
  • Yeast experiment
    • Like the Single Hop Experiment, this will allow us to taste the effects various yeast strains have on identical batches of wort.  To make sure we have a control, we are going to get together with Northgate Brewing.  If we pay for the ingredients, they will brew a test batch on their system, and then we will take the wort home in carboys, pitch our various yeast strains, and ferment.
  • Barrels 
    • We will be getting another barrel for a project.  While we don’t have an exact date yet, New Holland Brewing is going to hook us up with a Dragon’s Milk barrel.  A HB club in WI is getting ~50 barrels, and ours is going to piggy back on the freight.  A New Holland rep is going to bring the barrel to Minneapolis during his regular travel.  Aaron has offered up his place as a future home for the barrel.  Once we figure out when the barrel is arriving, people can sign up to brew a 5 gallon contribution.
• Upcoming club events:
  • Sep 28/29 – Judging for the Nordeast Big River Homebrew Competition
  • Oct 13th – NBA at the NE Farmers Market!
  • Oct 13th – Nordeast Big River Brew Fest
  • Oct 18th – Next club meeting @ ESNS 7:00pm