What a strange year this has been. The club has not had formal in-person events since our monthly meeting in February, but we have been keeping connected. The Taproom Takeover events and monthly meetings have become online video chats and beer sharing has been quite limited. We did put together an exchange where members dropped off a six-pack at a central hub, which were then sorted into variety packs to pick up the next day. Keeping socially distant has really changed how our club operates, but we can still stay connected virtually.

There have been a few upgrades this summer to the club brew system as well. Club member TJ shared his excellent welding skills to put together a new burner frame for the club system. This new system is still made of mild steel, but is designed to be a bit taller and sized to fit the current 30-gallon kettle and mash tun as well as possible 50-gallon kettles if needed in the future. Getting some new Blichmann burners from our friends at Midwest Supplies — a huge Hellfire and a standard banjo-style — the new system feels more solid for huge batches.

The club also made some changes in the Barrel Program. One of the Flanders-style sour barrels turned into 60 gallons of salad dressing (very vinegar and undrinkable), so it was dumped and the barrel is being decommissioned. To keep the program going, a new Silver Oak Cellars Cabernet barrel replaced that in June with a few club officers brewing up the beer to fill that and get it back in cycle. A twin barrel was also part of that order and filled with acid wash to get beer around the new year to keep them on separate fill cycles. A third barrel was also ordered at the same time as another addition to the program: a La Crema Chardonnay barrel. This was filled with pale sour base beer to become the new club solera. Ideally this will become sour and drinkable in the next 18 months where one-third will be removed (and fruited and bottled for club members) and filled again with fresh, clean beer. Keep an eye out for an update to the Barrel Program page real soon for an update on the barrel inventory, the beers that are in-flight, and the plans going forward.

Last, and certainly not least, the campaign for the Nordeast Brewers Alliance Food Drive for ESNS was a great success! We met our goal of $1000 raised for this great organization to support their services, especially the metro food programs. With the NBA summer party being cancelled this year, we had to also cancel the food drive. We will continue our efforts of supporting our home base hosts as we all work through these tough times together.

If you are looking for a club to increase beer and brewing knowledge, meet up with others interested in the brewing process, or want to share your own knowledge, please feel free to reach out to the NBA Operations mailbox. In addition to two meet-ups each month (albeit virtual right now), we have a bunch of regular events on the calendar. Check out the club calendar to see where we will be and feel free to contact us if you have any questions. Updates are also available on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 

Cheers!