February Meeting Notes:

This month’s meeting was held at Northern Brewer Minneapolis.

During the months of February and March the NBA has to find ancillary locations for meetings as the East Side Neighborhood Services uses our normal meeting space for tax preparation services. The March meeting will be in the basement of the ESNS building.

 

 

Thanks to Jeff from Northern Brewer for the education session! Jeff presented a seminar on Brewing Better Beer.  Starting with an emphasis on cleaning and sanitation and progressing to aeration, revisiting the basics is always good to realize all the potentials to enhance your end product.

 

 

 

 

Club Business

Welcome to all the new faces who braved the snow!  A bigger welcome to those of you who joined the club.  As a reminder, club membership comes with discounts at homebrew shops as well as several purveyors of craft beers and spirits, a local forum for exchanging ideas, as well as the opportunity to be part of our experiments and projects.  The membership is $20 annually, based upon the calendar year.  Interested in joining?

Grant Wright has decided to resign, this left the position of Director of Communication open. Aaron De Boer was nominated and verbally voted in by a qualified quorum, without opposition.

A motion was made and approved to change the position title to Director of Technology and Communication.

 

Public Club Involvement

Each year the club participates in events that benefits charities and beer related happenings.  A number of ideas were brought forth.

•  Science Museum of Minnesota Social Science
  • The NBA has been invited to present a topic at the  April 3rd event.
  • We have submitted a proposal to present an in depth analysis of hops.
• Harvest Gala
  • An event in September that supports the ESNS.
  • We will be making and serving beer.
• We will be donating “Learn to Homebrew with the NBA” days to local charities.
  
• NE Farmers Market
  • The NBA will again be performing brewing demonstrations at the market in June.  More info as we get closer.
• If you know of any public involvement you think the club should pursue, please let us know!

 

Yeast Experiment

Our yeast experiment has been submitted to the AHA Education and Research Program. If accepted, we will be providing the final data to AHA, in either Zymurgy or at NHC or other venue. The third tasting for the yeast experiment will be held next meeting, March 20th, in the basement of ESNS. The following strains are scheduled to be evaluated:

Wyeast 2001 Pilsner Urquell

Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager

Wyeast 2000 Budvar Lager

Wyeast 2278 Czech Pils

WLP862 Cry Havoc

Wyeast 2565 Kolsch

WLP644 Brett Brux Trois

ECY 20 (The Mother Bugger)

Sanctification dreggs from Chip Walton

Once the evaluations are complete we will be entering our data. If people are willing help with this data entry we would greatly appreciate it.

 

Yeast Bank

The club has an awesome Yeast Bank, managed by Chris Greenwald, available to members. Check out the spread sheet to see what is available and to request yeast at the next meeting. The yeast is great quality and the bank has a number of “seasonal” and bottle/can collected strains.

 

 

 

 

Single Hop Experiment

We will again be doing our most popular experiment. The Single Hop Experiment. This will take place in July, with two tastings, tentatively the 3rd and 4th weeks.

We are looking for a member to chair this experiment and take the lead in planning and organization. This is a great opportunity to get involved in the club at the next level. This will be the 4th edition of the S.H.E. and you will be able to leverage our previous experiences.

 

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Experiment 

The non-sanctioned, non-affiliated,  Cinnamon Toast Crunch experiment will come to fruition 1 hour prior to the March meeting. At 6:00 PM in the basement of ESNS. Club members will be presenting their beers to people from the… place. If you brewed please make sure to show up or arrange to get your beer there by contacting Tyler.

 

Barrel Projects

The club’s largest and most expansive project to date is out barrel project.  We are stewarding six barrels, the latest being a recently added Koval Whiskey Barrel. Check out the Barrel 3.0 page for more info.

Another development in the Barrel Project is the creation of the Barrel Management Committee. This committee is tasked with all things barrel. Including recipes, empty/fill dates, new ideas and overall direction and stewardship of the barrels. See the Barrel Page for additional information.

 

Our biggest recent development is the acceptance of our Barrel Project Poster for the AHA National Homebrewers Conference.  We will be presenting a poster of what we have learned by barrel aging beers. We are also hoping to serve barrel beer in the hospitality suite. We plan on bring six barrel beers to showcase our biggest project.

Registration for the NHC is currently underway. Check out the AHA site for more info.

Barrel Project 2.0 is well into its transition to 2.1. Barley Wine has replaced RIS, Belgian Dark Strong has replaced Wee Heavy and barrel #2 is soon to receive another installment of Rye Saison with brett.  We are taking sign-ups right now for the second fill of Rye Saison. Check out the Barrel 2.0 page for more info.

Barrel Project 1.1 is patiently waiting and the Barrel Management Committee will be keeping track of its progress.

Thanks to everyone who come out to the meeting during snow-megedon. We hope to see you all again in March.

Next meeting:  Thursday March 20th, ESNS -Basement
1700 2nd St NE, Minneapolis