Happy December, all! Yours truly has been remiss in getting a post out properly! I swear I put something out for October (but clearly did not) and then got busy with writing up November the past couple weeks, so here I am late on two together. This will be a bit of a longer post than usual for a number of events that happened this fall and will be coming up soon. Grab a pint and let’s see what we have going on!
Recent Events
Big River Brew Fest, Sat Oct 5: The club was able to participate in Big River Brewfest again this year supporting our friends at Eastside Neighborhood Services. With two jockey boxes pouring our homebrew beer and cider, we were a popular booth — not to mention we were under a big tent to keep dry. We appreciate our friends at ESNS and the opportunity to help with this event again!
October Meeting, Thu Oct 17 – American Porter vs. Stout: The education topic at our monthly meeting included samples of classic commercial beer styles to sample side-by-side with a presentation put on by Tyler. As a club, we try to rotate through several styles and categories of beer to help the club membership better understand what the style is supposed to mean on our journey to brew better beer!
Learn To Homebrew Day, Sat Nov 2: Partnering with our friends at Midwest Supplies, club members were able to brew a Belgian Blonde on the club system as part of AHA Learn To Homebrew Day. On a busy Saturday at the brew shop, we also had our jockey box set up with a number of member brews on tap to talk about the club, brewing, and getting started with the hobby. We try to do a few group brews like this a year.
Dark Sour Barrel Fill, Sat Nov 16: After taking out a barleywine from a George Dickel barrel, about a dozen club members were able to put a Dark Sour in for the next turn — along with the dregs of a bunch of great beers. In the next year or two, this will come out to be replaced again!
November Meeting, Thu Nov 21 – Triangle Test: Keg vs. Bottle: Do you think you can tell the difference between force-carbonated kegged beer and a bottle-conditioned version of the same batch? Even if you can, which would you prefer? At the November meeting, that was the experiment put up to the membership. Blind to the participants, two samples of one and one of the other were poured into three colored cups.
The outcomes? The green cup was identified as the odd beer out with 58% of the votes and was suspected to be the bottle-conditioned version (71% thought so), which was correct. In the survey before results were given, the votes came in split darn close to 50/50 between what turned out to be the bottle and keg options. That feels definitive like the carbonation options are distinct, but it depends on the drinker for which they like more. Comments on the differences focused on a softer hop flavor in the bottle-conditioned and versus a stronger crisp bite to the beer when force-carbonated. Speculation was around the carbonic acid attributed to kegged option based on the forced carbonation.
Both options were enjoyable and pleasant and it stands to show that the packaging option may be best suited toward the beer intention and that neither is “better”.
Mighty Axe Brew Day, Sat Nov 30: In a collaboration brew with Mighty Axe Hops, club members were able to brew up some experiments around IPA and Cream Ale recipes over a cold Saturday in November. A day based around experimenting between split batches to find differences in hop strains from the Mighty Axe farm and how to coordinate a couple split batches all at once, it was a great day of learning for everyone!
Upcoming Events
Taproom Takeover, Thu Dec 5 – Wicked Wort in Robbinsdale: Join us at the next social hour where we will meet to grab a pint (or three) and hang out for a bit talking about recent events and brewing plans. All are welcome to come meet members.
NBA Homebrew Competition, Dec 6-8: Although registration is closed to submit a beer to the competition, we are still looking for volunteers to help judge, steward, and set up for the event this coming weekend. Please sign up on the registration site or reach out if you are able to join!
December Meeting, Thu Dec 19 – Holiday Beer @ Eastside Neighborhood Services: The education topic will be around holiday beer with some homebrewed and commercial examples. What does it mean to be a holiday beer and where does the style come from? Join the meeting and find out!
Taproom Takeover, Thu Jan 2 – TBD: Like Wicked Wort above, the first Thursday of each month is a social hour. The 2020 calendar will be updated soon, so keep an eye out where we will be next month.
January Meeting, Thu Jan 16 – Running A Barrel Program (location TBD): Based on Top 12 highlighted presentation from Homebrew Con 2019 in Providence, the January meeting education topic will be around ‘How to Facilitate a Club Barrel-Aging Program and Produce Quality Beer’. Since our club has close to a dozen barrels with member beer rotating through, this will be a great description of how we keep that program running.
Keep an eye out on the club calendar to confirm the location for January.
Winter Party, Sat Jan 18 – High Gravity Competition, Happy Accidents Brew Day, Potluck, and Officer Elections: The Saturday after the third Thursday in January (which is the third Saturday this year) is the annual winter party. The high-gravity competition for beers ≥8% ABV, the Happy Accidents brew day for a collective brew, potluck lunch, and elections for the President and Operations Director positions will all take place with details on time and location coming soon. All members in good standing (paid membership) are welcome to join! (My first party was two days after I met the club the first time and joined!)
The club is open to members of all skill levels and interests. There are members who have made anything from one batch of extract beer to 40 years of experience. Most of the members focus on brewing beer, but there are some pockets for cider, mead, and other fermented hobbies. There are several ways to contact us, otherwise stop by an upcoming meeting or event to say hello!
For announcements of the monthly Taproom Takeover, monthly recap of recent events, and announcements for upcoming events, keep an eye on this space, our club calendar, and our social media sites on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Come join us and chat about beer and brewing!
Cheers!