It’s a big week for the NBA, with the Monthly Meeting on Thursday, June 21st at ESNS. The topic this month will cover club events and committees. So bring a brew to share, a tasting glass, and join us at 7:00pm in the ESNS Main room.
Also, don’t forget about the Brew for Good event, Saturday, June 23rd. The NBA members will be pouring a wide range of styles, including samples from the club barrel program.
This Saturday, come join us at Midwest Supplies starting at 10am for their Homebrew Club Fair.
We will be there pouring from the jockey box, talking brew, and hanging out with some of the other great club members from the area.
If you would like to share some of your creations, please see the Google group for the sign-up sheet. Kegs, bottles, cans, it all works! Dress in your NBA best and join us for the fun!
April Meeting Recap
The April meeting had a great educational session lead by Bad Weather’s Christian Breitbarth. We covered yeast washing, over-building starting, building a yeast bank, and most importantly, how to create and work in sterile environments.
Thanks member Jason Berg, there are great notes in the club forum. Make sure to check it our!
We also covered the introduction of the club yeast bank. This new benefit for members will being kicking off over the next few weeks, and will also be 
accompanied by some club wort canning days. The wort canning days will be club members have the opportunity to can starter wort, decreasing the time it takes to grow yeast for brew days. Watch the forum for updates from Paul for the yeast bank and Carl for the first wort canning day.
Committee Updates
The barrels continue to be a great benefit to club members. There have been brew days to brew the Belgian Dark Strong that will be going into the Buffalo Trace barrel. These brew days have given us a chance to use the new 30 gallon mash tun and boil kettle, as well as step up the brewing water chemistry and mash pH game from previous education sessions. The committee also gave an update on the Lambic and George Dickel transfers.
Upcoming Events
The Nordeast Brewers Alliance will be at Northern Brewer Minneapolis for Big Brew Day. We will be brewing, possibly grilling, and serving samples from club members. So make sure you grab your gear to brew on site (great chance to try BIAB if you haven’t) and if you want to share one of your brews on the club jockey box, make to sign up on the registration form that was posted to the group. There are also slots to share at other events there!
Midwest Homebrew Club Fair, May 12th
Our friends at Midwest Brewing Supply will be holding a homebrew club fair for local clubs from 10am-4pm. Think of it like ‘Homebrew Con Lite’. Its an opportunity for us to show off to potential members and other clubs. They will also be giving away malt from Able Seedhouse. The beer made with that malt will be entered into a competition, details to come. Everybody is welcome, come hang out, drink beer, and promote the club!
March Meeting Recap
The NBA held our March meeting at Midwest Brewing Supplies, and we covered some great topics!
To start, we had an update on the barrel program. Members received a detailed round up of the barrels, and what empties/fills will be coming up, plus the opportunity to expand the program! If you are not (yet) a member of the NBA, the barrel program is one of the shining benefits of being a member. Here’s a couple quick highlights:
There will be an upcoming empty and fill of the George Dickel Barrel that has been the happy home to a Russian Imperial Stout.
Coming in April will be the empty and fill of a red wine barrel containing a Lambic.
The other barrels will continue to age – keep an eye out for those updates.
Our educational topic this month was identifying off flavors, thanks to Chris Haas. This lead to an interesting discussion on some of the more common off flavors, how they can range in perception, what causes them, and how to avoid them.
Thanks to Chris, we were able to spike a Helles with the proper compounds to present these flavors without being masked by assertive malt/hop/yeast characteristics.
If you have not participated in an off flavor tasting session, I’d highly recommend it. Take oxidation, which is typically described as “cardboard” or “paper”. But those are actually the minority of the flavor impacts oxidation has on a beer. Tasting a control vs. the spiked variable for common off flavors can really provide a great educational foundation for opportunities to improve your brewing.
There was also a video from Aaron, Steve, and Tyler breaking in the club’s new 30 gallon mash tun, thanks to Northern Brewer. Remember how the barrel program is a great benefit that comes with being a member? The club brew system is another benefit, all members have access to the system, with two configurations: 15.5 gallon keggles, and 30 gallon kettles – allowing for batches anywhere from 5 to 25 gallons.
Need more benefits? At the March meeting we kicked off the plans start building a club yeast bank! Look for more info to come at the April and May meetings.
Also in March NBA members brewed for Experimental Brewing. Those batches should be ready for tasting in April, and there will be a full write up for you to conduct the same experiment.Happy 2018 from the Nordeast Brewers Alliance!
January was another fun month, and February is shaping up to keep 2018 exciting.
January Monthly Meeting
During our January monthly meeting, we highlighted with a triangle tasting with hops from our friend Mark Catlin. Does the drying temperature impact the hop bittering and flavor profiles? Keep an eye out for the recap in the near future.
Winter Party
The NBA Winter Party and High Gravity contest was January 20. With an amazing display of 8%+ ABV beers brewed in 2017, special recognition is deserved for winners:
The recipes for the winners will be posted to the NBA Google Group.
We also announced the club leadership for 2018.
Barrels Are In Action
There is a lot of action around the club and personal barrel projects! Another reason to keep up with the group forum, as the sign up sheets for new fills and empties are posted there.
February Meeting
The monthly meeting for February will be held at Northern Brewer Minneapolis. The education topic will be water chemistry led by Norther Brewer’s Jeff Merrimann. There will also be announcements about the club brew system and 2018 group brew events.
2017 Wrapped up with a bang for the Nordeast Brewers Alliance!
Let’s start with the Nordeast Brewers Alliance Homebrew competition – congratulations to all of the participants and winners. The competition this year was our largest yet, with 180 entries. A special thank you to our judges, volunteers, and sponsors that made this year a success!
The NBA was also named Growler Magazine’s “Kind of a Big Deal” Homebrew Club of the Year!
To wrap up 2017 we had our monthly meeting. We had a great educational discussion on brewing with wood, highlighted with white ash, maple, and sassafras.
Along with some festive fun, there will be some great things to look forward to in 2018 – including quarterly club brews on the club system, and group brews with members. Look for those sign-up sheets starting in January.
And to kick off 2018, we will have our Winter Party and high-gravity club comp on January 20.
I hope everyone got their leaves raked this weekend, because:
Thursday, November 16, is our monthly meeting at ESNS, 7pm. Our education topic will be “off flavors.” Bring tasting glasses and some brew for what should be a great session.
Saturday, November 18, we will be at the grand re-opening of Northern Brewer Minneapolis. We will have the club system going for 20gal of a Winter Warmer, and hopefully the classroom system for 10gal of a Brown Ale. The club will also be sharing our beers with the home brewing community there. If you would like to share, here is the sign-up list.
You can also still register for the NBA Homebrew Competition! Make sure you are registered and have your entries at the drop-off locations by the 27th.
L
astly, the NBA is getting internet famous! Carl, Chris, and Aaron spent time with Chip for an episode of Chop N Brew, tasting a handful of beers featuring Weyermann® Barke® Vienna Malt. Check it, and share it with your social networks.
October was another busy month for the Nordeast Brewers Alliance!
NBA Tasting Notes
October 7th was the Big River Brew Fest at ESNS, and we had a great showing!
Monthly meeting
October 19th was our monthly meeting, with special hop growing presentation from Mark Catlin.
This was a great learning experience while we enjoyed club beers that featured home-grown hops. We are also excited to partner with Mark to conduct sensory testing of his hops in our beers!
Friends of the NBA
October 20th saw NBAers descend on Surly for Darkness Day eve fun.
And we wrapped up tasting beers brewed with Barke Vienna Malt for a Chop N Brew segment – look for that to come in the near-ish future!
November is building up as well, headlined by the NBA Homebrew competition entries opening October 30th and closing November 27th.
Also, don’t forget about the merch – get it before it runs out!
-New T-Shirts – $15
-Old T-Shirts – $10
-Hats – $10
-Buy any two items and get $5 off.
As we move into the end of the calendar year, there are a few more events to watch out for:
November Monthly meeting with the planned education topic of off flavors. We will have tasting kits to help identify specific off flavors in your beer, and what some potential solutions may be.
January is the NBA winter party. Our meeting in January our yearly kick off party were we gather to share food and beer, vote for officers and renew memberships. We also run our club high-gravity competition. The rules are simple, an 8+% beer brewed in 2017. The competition is pretty free form being run in a ‘which-beer-to-do-you-like-
The Minneapolis Norther Brewer retail location is also going to be remodeled. The store will be closed from October 30th – November 10th with a Grand Re-Opening on November 18th.
The monthly meeting will be Thursday, Sept 21, at ESNS. 7:00pm, be there.
Items for this month will include:
Thanks to everybody that came out to the meeting this month. We had a great turnout, lots of beer and a fun education topic.