Category Archives: meeting recaps

December 2018 Update

barrel project, education, events, meeting recaps, upcoming meetings

Happy New Year, everyone! It has been another busy month with the club and here is a recap of some of the events we have been up to and the happenings planned for early 2019.

Recent Activities

NBA Homebrew Competition

This month was another successful homebrew competition put on by the club. With 174 entries judged and 84 participants, judges, and stewards, it was a few weeks of coordination culminating with a busy weekend of sorting and judging many fine beers!

Congratulations to all the winners! Results can be found on the competition site. Keep an eye out for the next competition the same time next year!

  • Sunday judging
  • Best In Show flight

Four Roses Bourbon Barrel Fill

With two new barrels added to the collection, we decided break them in with an Imperial Stout — and a big one at that with 1.140 target starting gravity! To get that high, the brewers in the club had long days to boil down the wort to that gravity, ranging from 2.5-4.5 hours for just the boil!

The email thread in the Google Group was quite active with discussion around best practices, problems people were having, and the results of brewing and fermentation. At the club meeting there was good discussion about what worked well (regular aeration the first several days, huge yeast starters, degassing regularly) and what we can do next time we try to make something this big. We are looking forward to seeing what this motor oil of a beer turns into over the next months in the barrel!

  • Two new barrels getting in place
  • Pitch-black beer going in

Monthly Education Topic: Baltic Porter

The education topic at the regular monthly meeting was about Baltic Porter with discussion lead by Bill H. An uncommon style at best, this topic was pushed back a few times until we could find enough commercial styles to bring and a few members could brew their own.

A high gravity, cool fermented version of Imperial Stout, these were a new style to many members and a hit with the club. I would not be surprised if more local homebrew competitions start getting more submissions for this style based on this new interest!

Upcoming Events

  • January Taproom Takeover at Wabasha Brewing on Thursday, January 3. Come join the social hour and learn about the club. Everyone is welcome!
  • Club brew day in January for an upcoming Saison experiment. We will be brewing 25+ gallons to split into a few fermenters. All are welcome to join!
  • Winter party in January for the club high-gravity competition, annual membership renewal, officer voting (Vice President, Communication Director, Finance Director), and a group collaborative brew. More details to come on the location and sign-up.
  • Off-site meetings: Since we are unable to use our normal home at East Side Neighborhood Services for the first few months of the year, we will be off-site in January, February, and March. Check the Club Calendar for details.
    • January: Northern Brewer Minneapolis with Ben from Mighty Axe hops as the guest speaker and the Comet hops experiment. After-party at Wild Mind.
    • February: Midwest Supplies (St. Louis Park) for a demo on electric brewing equipment. After-party at Steel Toe.
    • March: Northern Brewer Minneapolis for the Saison experiment from the January club brew day. After-party at Wild Mind.

For announcements of the monthly Taproom Takeover, monthly recap of recent events, and announcements for upcoming events, keep an eye on this space and our social media sites on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Come join us and chat about beer and brewing!

Cheers!

Recap – April Monthly Meeting

barrel project, education, events, meeting recaps

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

Big Brew Day, May 5th

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!

Recap – March Monthly Meeting and Things to Watch

barrel project, events, meeting recaps, upcoming meetings, , , ,

 

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.
Upcoming Events 
  1. April 5th, Taproom Takeover – Boom Island
  2. April 19th, Monthly Meeting at ESNS
  3. Education Topic: Yeast
  4. May 5th, Big Brew for National Homebrew Day – 12:00 PM, at Northern Brewer Minneapolis
  5. May 17th, Monthly Meeting at ESNS
  6. Education Topic: Explore a Style – Mild
  7. June 21st, Monthly Meeting at ESNS
  8. Education Topic: Beer Sorbet
Club Merch and Memberships Available
  • T-Shirts – $10
    Hats – $10
  • 2018 1 Year Membership – $20 or $25 with a TShirt
  • 2018 3 Year Membership – $50 with a TShirt
  • 2018 Work Shirt

NBA December Recap

education, events, homebrewing, meeting recaps

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.

 

October Monthly Meeting Recap

events, homebrewing, meeting recaps

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-most’ format. So get those beers brewed and be on the look out for a sign up sheet.

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 NBA has been invited to be a part of the Grand Re-Opening. We have an opportunity to have beers on tap in the store and brew outside in the parking lot, in the store or on their new front patio. We will bring the club system out for brewing and the jockey box for serving, So if you have a beer you would like to share on that weekend let us know. If you would like to bring your mobile brew system out that be awesome too, the more the merrier.

August 2017 Recap & Upcoming Events

education, homebrewing, meeting recaps

Thanks to everybody that came out to the meeting this month. We had a great turnout, lots of beer and a fun education topic.

As the year turns from summer to fall, here are some upcoming events the NBA will be participating in:
Big River Brewfest – We will be serving between 6 and 12 beers at the event this year. This is a great opportunity to share our beer with a very wide audience. Oct. 7 in the ESNS parking lot.
Members check out the NBA Google Group for more details. Not a member? Come by and hang out with us, and find out why you should become a member.
The NBA Homebrew Competition – For the 6th year in a row we will be running our BJCP sanctioned homebrew competition! More member info is in the NBA Group.
NBA Committees
We have some committee meetings coming up. Be one the look out for those invites if you are part of the committee and be the look out for updates from those committees at meetings. These are some great benefits to club members:
-Competition Committee
September Club meeting is September 21st at ESNS, with the education topic: mash pH and water chemistry.
We are also planning the December club mini experiment – wood aging.

May 2017 Recap and Upcoming Events

education, events, homebrewing, meeting recaps

The countdown to HomeBrewCon has started, and there is a lot going on!

Big Brew Day

May 6 we had a great time participating in the AHA’s Big Brew Day. The NBA commandeered the parking lot at Norther Brewer Minneapolis.

With 6+ batches being brewed it was a great day of brewing, brats, and talking bier. It was also a great chance to see a couple of variations on 3 vessel and brew-in-a-bag techniques, with and without pumps. Thank you to Northern Brewer for supplying the base malts for the Big Brew Day recipes.

Booth prep for Club Night

The prep for NBA’s participation at HomeBrewCon is in full swing. From commemorative NBA t-shirts to the booth for Club Night – there has not been a shortage of activity. The booth with have an industrial look to it, and will be able to be used at other events as well. We even constructed it so it can fold to fit into most SUVs.

May Monthly Meeting

The May Monthly Meeting was help at the EastSide Neighborhood Services on May 18th. The educational topic was Patagonia Malt and featured samples of beers made with malt from the end of the earth.

Upcoming Events

Club Night tasting: June 1 – EastSide Neighborhood Services

Bring your beers (44oz works) for the committee to sample and give the thumbs up/down to be served at the Con.

 

Single Hop with Northgate: June 3 – Northgate Brewing Company

We will be at Northgate on June 3rd for the Single Hop experiment. Northgate will supply the wort, you supply the hops. Did you sign up? Check the google group for info.

Need more Northgate? Yes you do! Get the week of HBC started right with the NBA/Northgate party June 13th.

 

 

NBA HomeBrewCon t-shirt pre-orders. Make sure you get one by ordering now!

April 2017 Recap and Upcoming Events

events, homebrewing, meeting recaps, upcoming meetings
Recap

We started the month as we do with a Taproom Takeover at Urban Growler. Turn out was low but its still good to have people come out to support our local businesses.

Rahr and BSG invited us out to Rahr Malting facilities for a tour. We had a few beers at the Stube and then toured the campus. It was amazing to see acres of barley going through the malting processes.

Continue reading April 2017 Recap and Upcoming Events →

March 2017

barrel project, events, meeting recaps, upcoming meetings
Recap

We held our March meeting at Northern Brewer Minneapolis. Thanks to Northern Brewer for hosting us, and thanks to everybody that came out. We had a full house and that is really great to see.

 

BSG and Rahr teamed up to teach us about the history of Rahr and how brewing malts get from barley in the fields, to the bins at our homebrew shops. We really appreciate them coming out and I want to give a big thanks to Chris and Ilya for presenting.

 

The Club business discussions covered several topics as we progress through 2017 and approach the National Homebrew’s Conference here in Minneapolis. Remember to get your swag; for the conference and our other upcoming events. We currently have t-shirts @ $10, hats @ $15 and brewer’s shirts @50.

Continue reading March 2017 →

February 2017 Recap and Upcoming Events

events, meeting recaps, upcoming meetings

It has been a busy start to 2017 for the NBA!

AHA Wort Rally

On Feb 12 we took part in the AHA Wort Rally at Surly Brewing Co. in Minneapolis. The Wort Rallies are always a good time, but this year had something a little extra: the wort given away this year is the  base wort for the 2017 HomeBrew Con Commemorative Beer.

We had great time meeting brewers from across MN, WI, IA and ND. There were some great ideas from different yeast strains, to fruit, hopping, and souring processes.

Monthly Meeting

Continue reading February 2017 Recap and Upcoming Events →