Category Archives: meeting recaps

BAMF Meeting 5 June 2012

meeting recaps, the mash tun

Here’s what went down at the June BAMF meeting, held at Pracna.

Atttendance: Andrew N, Grant W, Nathan G, Tim S, Tyler B, Steve M, Matt P, Nick P

Meeting location

Due to recent events, for the time being we cannot have our all-club meetings at Pracna since we cannot serve homebrew there.  But don’t fret!  We have a substitute location!  The East Side Neighborhood building is available for us to use, free of charge.  This is also the location of the Single Hop Experiment in July.  The location will provide with ample space and a kitchen.  The downside is that we will not have a full selection of tap beers, so tastings may become part of the entire meeting.  If someone knows of another bar location that would welcome us, we are not closing the door to that possibility.

Farmers Market Update:

Our first weekend went incredibly well, and we reached out and had seven new members join.  Check out some pictures Dan took here  [fixed link].  Over the next three weekends, we want to continue our recruitment efforts, so if anyone else wants to help out, let us know on the email threads. 

June 30th BBQ update:

Grant will be sending out an email form to fill out so we can get a head count, as well as determine the entries for our <6% contest.  Please be sure to respond ASAP!  Grant will also be updating the blog with how we are judging the contest so there aren’t any questions. 

The majority of food for this BBQ will be paid for by club funds.  However, if you want to bring a dish to show off your cooking prowess, or just want to help out, please do. 

Reminder for the event (4:00pm – ??), it is for members and family/significant others.  If you want to bring a bunch of people, they will need to become members.  Also, NO DOGS!  There will be one there who is super friendly with people, but doesn’t like to share his territory.

SHE (Single Hop Experiment):

Due to the popularity this event should have, it is going to be for members only and the select pro brewers that have already been invited.  If all members show up, we are looking at nearly 40 people as it is.  If you know someone who really wants to come to the meeting, get them to sign up as a member and reap the rewards! 

Due to the number of people who will want to try the many beers, plan on bringing at least 12-12oz. bottles or any 144oz equivalent.  The last thing we want is to run out of samples.  We will be planning on 2oz pours for samples.

Since we will not be at a restaurant and we will be consuming copious samples of amazing beer, we will need food.  We decided to turn this event into a potluck dinner as well.  This is the most effective way to feed the troops.  A sign-up sheet will be available at the BBQ, and then on the Google Groups thread thereafter.

Big River Brewfest Homebrew Competition:

A committee meeting will be set up soon; we are still welcoming more members who want to help with this.  Nick P is the committee chair, and there is way too much for one person to do.  It looks like the judging will take place prior to the brewfest, and we will use the brewfest to announce the winners. 

At this point, the website is under development, but start spreading the word to other homebrewers via forums, emails, whatever you have at your disposal!

Jockey Box:

As a future endeavor, the club will pursue a larger, 4+ tap jockey box to have for events and club use.  The cost is probably around $300 for this creation, which may prohibit us from having one on hand for a while.  Until then, if anyone wants to build one themselves and let the club use it…

May 17th Club Meeting Notes

meeting recaps,
  • Introductions/misc. (5 min.)
    • Discount reminders (see previous postings)
  • Atendence: Aaron D, Tim, Andrew w, Brian, Matt C, Joe, Robin, Joe, Chad, Nick P,  Tom, Ryan, Nick, Nathan G, Eric, Justin, Nate, Kevin S,
  • Announcements/upcoming events/new business(15 min.)
    • Mid-month BAMF meet-up recap
    • Club Priorities
    • Signing of the by laws for all members – Read before the meeting
    • Summer BBQ – Where, When, Who (Nathan’s Place, June 30th)
    • Summer BBQ – 1st Semiannual NBA Club Competition – Recap of rules and regulations
      • 6 pack of bottles, best of show, prizes still unsure
    • NBA Sponsored Homebrew Competition – Big River Brew Fest
      • October in coordination wit the East side neighborhood services.
      • Last year was first big river beer fest, this will be the first time they have a homebrew contest.
      • We will limit the contest to beers only, no meads or ciders.
      • There is a lot of work to be done, all help is welcome.
      • A Committee has been started, and we’re looking for more members.  Email Nick P on the Google Groups to  join.
  • Northeast Farmer’s Market  – June 2nd!
    • NBA has secured a booth the first four Saturday’s in June (8:00am set up, 9:00am-1:00pm market open).
    • Our Primary purpose is to continue our membership drive and get our name out in the community.
    • We will be demonstrating brewing, educating anyone with questions, and letting people know about the cool stuff we’re doing.
    • We are responsible for bringing all the gear, setting up, tearing down, and exuding excellence for the entirety of the market.
    • We have a minimum of 3 people signed up for each weekend, but the more the merrier.  Post on the forum to sign up for a day, and what you can bring.
    • Nick and Steve will coordinate the team on how to conduct ourselves.
  • Upcoming local competitions
    • Minnesota State Fair is right around the corner…
    • Big River Brewfest
  • Group experiments update (5 min.)
    • Barrel-aging project update [Nick P]
      • General status update.
      • Barrel is full, and Nick sampled (1.007 – from 1.013) flavor is a lil funky, lil tart.  Good start to the project.  Now we play the waiting game.
  • Single Hope update/status–
    • The page lists all the chosen hops.  Money was collected for the group buy.
    • If you didn’t get in on the group buy, you are on your own to purchase ingredients.
    • Water (Ice Mountain Spring water) and hops are up to each individual for purchasing
  • Financial Report (5 min.)
    • See the non-profit bullets above.
    • 7 members joined at this meeting.
    • Keep bringing in your friends!
  • Education session (20 min.)
    • DIY – Nathan G – “Mash tun to Jockey Box” – Link coming from Instructables once it’s up
      Nathan showing off his work
      • Why would you do this? 
      • To cool hot wort (at farmers market) and/or to chill a keg for serving.
      • What’s involved?
      • Added Quick disconnects in top of mash tun to make it multi function
      • Copper coils (soft copper/refrigeration tubing)– 60’ wrapped coil around a soup can, then arount a coffee can, then brought it all together
      • Jockey box – copper wort chiller goes in mash tun, fill it with ice, and you run wort/beer through the tubing
      • The entire system is gravity fed, for wort cooling, the remaining pressure in the keg pushes out the beer when serving.
  • Total build cost: ~$ 160 for entire mash tun/jockey box conversion
  • ~$95 for just jockey box conversion

Break

  • What’s on tap?– Other New Business
    • Since there are so many projects going on, and our next two meetings are essentially events, breakout committee sessions are needed to advance individual projects.  The Google groups forum will be helpful for this.
    • Library – Nick starting a forum (spreadsheet coming on blog)
    • Next educational topics:
      •  June – BBQ! (Session beers [Matt P.])
      • July – SHE tasting
      • August – ??Electric set up?  Ryan?
      • September – Andrew N – Mash tun
      • Summer Social Events?
        • mid month happy hours, Pub crawls?  Nothing cemented, but events are encouraged.
        • Next BAMF date- TBD
  • General Q&A (15 min)
  • Group Tastings
    • Andrew W – Saison (16c)
    • Tyler B – Specialty beer (23) base is cream ale (6A)
    • Tim S – Belgian Spelcialty (16e?)
    • New Holland gave us a couple bottles of the Sour, and stopped by after our meeting to talk about it.

May BAMF meeting notes

meeting recaps

On May 8, 2012 we convened at the Town Hall Brewery in Minneapolis for the BAMF meeting.

Attendance: Andrew N, Brandon, Tim S, Nathan G, Tyler B, Nick P, Steve M, Matt P

Back to the Non-Profit discussion

At the last club meeting, we voted to pursue Non-profit status when funds allow.  Thanks to a generous loan from our financial officer, Matt Price, we are able to pursue an LLC with non-profit status.  The club will pay back Matt once club funds are above $500.  A promissory note is being created for the president and VP to sign.

First we will file ourselves as a 501c7 – A Social Club.  This is essentially a federal tax classification, not an article of incorporation.  This establishes the legitimacy of our group with the state, gets us an EIN number, and also makes creating the LLC and gaining non-profit status much easier.  Best of all, it’s free.

By Laws

We need each club member to acknowledge they have read the by laws.  This is essentially a term of membership, but we haven’t been holding to strictly to requiring a signature.  This will also ensure that each member is aware of the club rules and regulations.  A signature page will be present at the next meeting.  If you can’t attend, you can sign by proxy by emailing the Scribe, Tyler B.

Some in progress amendments to the by laws include a liability waiver which will be required to partake in group functions.  We will have a waiver for non members who partake in meeting tastings.  Brendan, our unofficially official legal counsel, is working on the waiver.

Farmers Market

As stated, we will be a part of the Northeast Farmers Market for at least the first four Saturday’s in June.  Since the members representing the club, Nick P and Steve M will be giving a briefing on how to represent ourselves during the next all-club meeting.

We have enough people signed up for each week, but more are always welcome.  Nathan is building a jockey box to cool the wort during our brewing demonstrations.  Ideally, we can do a different method of brewing or technique each week (extract, all grain, BIAB, etc).  If possible, we should bring two brew set ups (kettle and mash tun) so that people can see all parts of the process at the same time.

Summer BBQ – June 30th meeting

At the next meeting, we will have a sign up sheet for party materials.  The fiesta is at Nathan’s place in the NE.

We will also go over rules for the summer home brew competition for those who don’t know.

SHE (Single Hop Experiment)

As excited as we all are, so are some other brewing members in the community.  Nick P and Nathan G have been reaching out to pro brewers in the area to come to our meeting that night and taste our results.  This means we all need to have beer ready to go at the July meeting, with enough quantity to share.  More details coming at the next club meeting.

October Home Brew Competition – Big River Brewfest

Sponsoring a HBC takes a lot of work.  We have lots to do at this point.  A committee has been started: Nick P (chair), Tim, Tyler, Nathan and Andrew N.  Hopefully some more will join at the next meeting, since there is a legitimate amount of work to do.

To ease the pain, the BAMF voted 8-0 to only allow beers (all categories) but to exclude meads and ciders from our first run at a competition.

Nick has a good idea as to what needs to be done, but the more volunteers the better.

BJCP Judging

With all that’s going on this summer this topic is tabled until September.

 

Club Priorities

1.  Experiments

2.  Club Sponsored Home Brew Competition

3.  Marketing  – Farmers Market, Social Activities, Recruiting

4.  BJCP Certification

 

 

 

Cheers – Hope to see everyone at the THURSDAY May 17th Meeting 7:00PM @ Pracna. 

April 21, 2012 Club meeting Notes

meeting recaps,

Here’s the notes from our meeting last Saturday at Pracna.  The meeting proceeded sans gavel, I don’t think we broke any by-laws by doing that.  If I left something out, let me know and I’ll make amendments.

Attendance:  Tyler B, Andrew W, Tom, Steve M, Nathan G, Grant W, Matt P, Davis, Matt C, Tim S, Dan S, Dave T, Kelsey K, Sandy B, Justin G, Kevin S, Nick P

  • Introductions/misc. (5 min.)
  • Announcements/upcoming events/new business (15 min.)
    • Mid-month BAMF meet-up recap
    • Non-Profit Status – BAMF recommendation
          • Club Vote: Unanimous vote passed – We will pursue Non-profit status wen funds allow, tentative goal is next year.
    • Summer meetings – Moving to Thursdays – starting May 17
      • We will move back to Saturday at approximately the end of Summer
    • NBA Sponsored Homebrew Competition – Big River Brew Fest
      • Nick P has started a web page on our site, as well as something more official.  Check for updates.
      • This will be in association with the Eastside Neighborhood Services of Minneapolis.
      • The main cost to us is providing lunch and dinner to the Judges, who will otherwise be volunteers receiving BJCP credit for their work.  The Eastside Neighborhood Services is excited to let us try this, and we aren’t going to be charged to put this on.
      • We will be open to all styles, AHA/BJCP sanctioned, open to nationwide events, with an emphasis on Sour (Funky) beers as well as DIPAs.
      • We will be paying $30 to become registered with the BJCP so that we can obtain a list of local judges.
      • Volunteers will be needed as Stewards for the actual Judging.
      • Our main goal over the next 3 months is promotion and marketing.  We need to get the word out.
    • Farmer’s Market  – Volunteers needed for the first 4 weekends in June.  Please check the Google groups thread and sign up.  We will be able to brew, demonstrate some methods and equipment, answer general questions, and interact with the community.  Our main goal is to recruit more members so that we have more club funds to actually do something cool.  Tim S is going to hook up a sign for us, and showed some pretty cool stickers that we can hand out at the farmers market.
      • The cost to us is $25/day for 4 days ($100).
    • Discount reminders
      • Remind all prospective members of the 10% we receive at the Four Firkins, Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies.  Not to mention all the free brewing advice.
    • Upcoming competitions
  • Group experiments update (5 min.)
    • Barrel-aging project update[Nick]
      • We are filling the barrel this weekend at Nick P’s place.  Please drop off your carboy ahead of time if you can’t be part of the mass siphoning.  It is key that we have all carboys available for the barrel filling.
    • Single Hope update/status– who’s in?
      • As I write this, we have about 15 people signed up with a chosen hop.  The GGroups thread is strong with this one.
      • The general plan: We all brew the same base beer recipe, but each use our own chosen hop, and only our hop.  We will plan on tasting in July, so plan accordingly.  When this was done last year, it was pretty cool to see how a hop can really change a beer.  Oh, and no Fuggles this time around.
  • Financial Report (5 min.)
    • Banking situation update [Matt]
      • Not much change since last month.  Right around $400 in club funds and slowly growing.
    • Recruitment efforts
      • Keep bringing in your friends!
      • Steve M is officially the chair of the Recruitment Committee!
  • Education session (20 min.)
    • “Mash Tun designs and techniques” [Andrew N and Adam]
    • Mash Tun and Sparging technique open forum.  Sorry no real notes, if you have a question, throw it out on the GGroups forum.  This was a great example of tapping all of our members for their respective knowledge.
  • Break
  • What’s on tap? – New Business
    • Next educational topic May – Yeast Washing [Grant W]
    • July – Session beers [Matt P.]
    • Next educational topics? Volunteers needed for August
    • Summer BBQ – It will be at Nathan G’s place in the Northeast.  We will need some tables, plan on bringing your own chairs and leave your dogs at home.  This is also when and where we will hold the 1st semiannual NBA HBC.
    • Pub Crawl (Pedal Pub) – We have interest.  Something will happen in August as a group event.  We encourage informal gatherings in the meantime.
    • Next BAMF date – TBD on the forums.
  • Group Tastings
  • Dan Snow : American Barleywine (19C)
  • Dan Snow: Common Cider (27A)
  • Matt Price: Brown Ale (10C)
  • DTs: Beglian Stout (13? or 18E? or specialty beer?)

BAMF Meeting April 5th, 2012 notes

meeting recaps

Attendance: Andrew N, Nick P, Tyler B, Nathan G, Tim S and Andrew W

Nathan invited us over for first a little neighborhood entertainment, then offered us libations in the form of Leine’s Creamy Dark.  It led to good times and good conversation.  Here’s what went down.

Non-Profit Status

Becoming a non-profit is $75.  However, we would also want to become an LLC which costs $150.  There are many benefits which have been previously discussed.  These include, but are not limited to accepting donations, not paying taxes. Becoming an LLC would require us to have Limited Liability Insurance, and the club as a whole would be responsible should any issues occur.  After much discussion, the BAMF has the following recommendation for the club:

We should pursue becoming a non-profit LLC, when funding allows.  At the current time, we do not have the budget to make this happen.  Assuming this year we are active in recruiting and fundraising, non-profit status should be a tentative goal of next fiscal year.

Branding

We will not be changing our name.  The initial goal of the club was to develop a local community.  Local is a relative term.  As the club’s founders live in the Nordeast, our meetings are in the Nordeast, and we wish to exude the Nordeast way of life, our nomenclature is appropriate.

To further our reach, Nick P and Andrew W are will present the club mission at the next meeting (4/21).  A vote will be held to adopt it.  This will not stray far from what has been posted on the GGroups threads.

Summer meeting date change

Last summer attendance was abysmal.  Even the February meeting saw a sharp decline in attendance due to the unseasonable weather.  We are in Minnesota, and since it’s usually snow covered 60% of the year, we all make the most out of the good weather.

After club input, the BAMF voted to move the meetings to Thursdays 7:00-9:00 at Pracna.  The vote passed unanimously.  We apologize to those whose schedules do not allow you to come, but we encourage activity on the message boards, Facebook and in upcoming events.

The Thursday meetings will take effect for the May meeting (May 17th).

Northeast Farmers Market

We’re in.  Initially we will be present for the four Saturdays in June.  At the next club meeting we will be looking for volunteers.  A minimum of 3 volunteers is needed for each Saturday.  The more the merrier.  This is an early morning thru early afternoon commitment.

We hope to demonstrate brewing, show people the nuts and bolts of the equipment, talk about the science, recruit members, hand out swag (stickers, temporary tattoos, etc) and generally engage with the community.

The first Farmers Market is June 2nd.  

Homebrew Competition at the Big River Brew fest

We are moving forward with this.  The date is anticipated to be October 13th with the judging to take place the day before.  Logistics still need to be worked out, but we have some time.   This will be a nationally BJCP sanctioned event, and posted on the AHA website.  All styles will be accepted, and we can collapse categories should there be insufficient entries.  It’s going to be a lot of work, but we should be able to make some money from the entries, and really make a name for ourselves.  Here is a general idea of what we need to do moving forward:

-Nick is reaching out to other clubs that have done this before for guidance.  If you know someone, gather information and pass it along.

-BJCP certified Judges: Start getting the word out.  They will be volunteers, receiving BJCP credit.  We are expected to provide a lunch.  This is our primary expense.  The more certified judges we have, the more credible the contest is.

-Volunteers: We will need a ton of volunteers to steward, transport, organize, and make sure we don’t run this thing into the ground.  Volunteers will be needed before, during and after the event.

-Drop off locations: Ideally Midwest and Northern Brewer, maybe Pracna as well.

-Donations: For prizes, refreshments, ets, so that we don’t have to fund everything.

-Judging location: TBD, maybe the East Side Center?

– Marketing: Let people know about it.  Put up posters, tell friends, call into the Sunday Sessions (once we get up on the AHA page), whatever you can think of.

-Push the Sour!: Since we already have a barrel going, and at least one very interested member, let’s try to get the word out that we will have a special award for best sour beer (TBD).  The sour beer folk is a small collective, but we could capitalize on this.

Barrel Project

Nearly everyone has brewed, check this out for an update.  The plan is to fill the barrel on April 28th or 29th of this month.  If your beer isn’t completely through primary, that’s ok.  The key is that we need to dump all the beer at once.  We don’t want acetobactar!

5 Course Dinners with Homebrew Pairing

Until we are an LLC with appropriate insurance, this is going to be put on the back burner.  There exists the possibility of doing this on a smaller scale for the club.

On that idea, we could hold an additional BBQ this summer.  The idea would be to maintain a food and beer pairing, but it would be a much more simple approach.  Some kick ass street food paired with specific beers could be pulled off easily.  We can kick this idea around more at the next meeting.

Membership info

We would like to collect some info about our club’s members.  Right now we have email and name only.  It might not hurt to know more about each other (ie skills, profession, favorite beers, set up, knowledge base).  We will discuss at the next meeting how we want to do this.

 

UPCOMING  MEETINGS: 

All club meeting: April 21st 4:00pm @ Pracna

Barrel Project: April 28th or 29th: Fill the Barrel!

May BAMF: TBD

All club meeting: THURSDAY May 17th 7:00-9:00pm @ Pracna

June BAMF: TBD

All club meeting: June 30th – Summer BBQ takes the place of the meeting

March 10th Meeting Notes

meeting recaps

Our monthly meeting was moved to March 10th, since St. Patty’s day may leave some of us rather…occupied.

Attendance: Nick P, Andrew N, Tyler B, Steve M, Nick K, Aaron D, Kelsey, Justin G, Dave T, Matt P

  • Introductions/misc. 
  • Announcements

    • Pracna takes care of us, our first beer is free during meetings, everything else is happy hour prices.  Imports are no longer included.
    • It has been verified we get 15% off discount at The Four Firkins with our membership card.
    • Physical Library (Chaired by Nick P) If members are willing to lend out any books, we will be creating a peer lending library.  The basic rules are 1 book at a time, and you will have to sign out the book.  Let Nick know if you have any books or magazines or any material related to zymurgy you would be willing to let others borrow.  A vote in favor of this library passed 8-0.
  • BAMF March 1st meeting recap
  • Non-Profit Status
    • Nick talked to other HB club presidents regarding this.  President of Jack of All Brews are in the same situation as us.  The MN Home Brew club is a non-profit group.To become a nonprofit we have to pay $75 once, yearly renewal is free.Benefits: Bank account and tax ID are held by the officers of the club, changes with the officers as they change.  Very low maintenance.We cannot be taxed for incoming funds.We can carry a profit, but we will have to file taxes claiming our position.General consensus is that we should pursue becoming a non-profit.

      At the next BAMF meeting we will determine a recommendation for the club.  A vote will be held at the April Club wide meeting.  If you cannot attend but want to vote, send your vote by proxy to the scribe, Tyler Bye, prior to April 21st.

  • Financial Update
    • We currently have about $350 in club funds, all from member dues.  If you know of another homebrewer, let’s recruit so we can have a great summer get-together.
    • It has been verified we get 15% off discount at The Four Firkins with
  • Recruitment
    • We are moving forward with the Farmers Market this summer, to increase club awareness.  Getting a booth will only cost $25 a weekend.  The idea is to have a booth 4 consecutive weekends to maintain a presence in the community.  IF we get 2 members a weekend, it is more than worth our cause.
    • It has been verified we get 15% off discount at The Four Firkins with
  • Public Involvement
    •  Local homebrew contest: Nick is meeting this Thursday to discuss the possibility with the 2nd annual Nordeast Big River Beer Fest.We need to explore the cost of adding judges (BJCP sanctioned or not), and determine the style guidelines we want to hold entrants accountable to.
    • It has been verified we get 15% off discount at The Four Firkins with
  • BJCP Judging
    • Please also refer to the March BAMF notes for a background.
    • At this point, we should try getting a study group or two together, so that we can begin the process.  This is a personal commitment more than anything, and it isn’t an overnight process.
    • If we can become more knowledgeable judges, we can help critique our beers, and become better brewers.
  • Barrel Project
    • 8 people have paid, notes show Justin, Aaron, Dave T, Tim S and Kevin S all want in.
    • TIME TO PAY UP!
    • The next step is to buy grains in bulk.
    • The goal is to have grains for distribution by the next meeting.
    • Once we get ingredients, we can transfer the beer after primary fermentation at the April or May BAMF meeting.
  • Education Session: Dave T – Stir Plates & Yeas

    • When breweing a big beer or a lager, you want healthy, plentiful yeast.  You can either buy several yeast packs, or make a starter.A yeast starter is essentially a ratio of 10:1 water to DME boiled and cooled in an Erlenmeyer flask (simple wort), and then yeast is pitched.  The goal is to grow large quantities of active, healthy yeast.  In order to propogate the yeast, you need to shake the yeast to bring in oxygen.  Rather than doing it by hand, you can use a stir plate to keep things in suspension.  This gives the yeast the most contact with the starter wort.Pre-fabbed stir plates are expensive.  You can make your own for around $20.  An automated sitr plate will let you stir the yeast for 18 hours without having to pay attention to it.  Dave brought in a great homemade stir plate using a cigar box and basic materials.  A hand out was passed to anyone present.Once you make the starter, you cold crash it and decant off the spent
    • If you want a copy of the handout, let Dave know.  Dave, send me a digital copy and I’ll throw it on the site.
  • Chocolate Mint Beer Update
    • Refer to the email sent by Andrew regarding tastings.
  • New Business
    • Harriet is doing a fundraising beer competition, the Handy Andy Benefit Homebrew and label competition, for an employee who dropped a carboy on his hand.  Deadline is April 28.  $10 and two bottles to enter.  The top 3 scoring will get to brew beer at Harriet  for the party.
    • Justin: Knows a guy who makes glass tap handles.  Perhaps we could sell these at an upcharge to raise some funds (maybe at farmers market).
    • ~NEW PROJECT (Nick P – who else): Return of the Single Hop Project!
    • This was done last year.We brew a simple recipe, and each use only one hop strain each to profile the new flavors.  The goal is to do this using hops that have only become available recently (Southern Hemisphere spring harvest, New Zealand, new blends).  More details coming.
  • Tastings – BJCP judging sheets were used for the first time.
  • Tyler B: 23A. Specialty Beer/ 6D. American Wheat or Rye Ale
  • Steve M: 14C. Imperial IPA
  • Justin:1776 Ale –  1C Premium American Lager

 

 

Next Meeting April 21st, 4:00pm @ Pracna!


March 1st BAMF meeting notes

meeting recaps
We finally have a gavel!
We finally have a gavel!

March 1, 2012

Attendance: Dan S, Matt P, Nick P, Andrew N, Tyler B, Kevin S, Steve, Tim S

Nick P was gracious enough to host the BAMF meeting this month.  While treating us to his Galaxy IPA off the tap, we were able to marvel in the presence of the key item in the barrel project.  What follows is what transpired.

What is a BAMF?

Aside from the obvious, we determined BAMF membership requirements going forth.  BAMF members are all founding and senior members as defined in our bylaws, all current ExComm members, and all Committee Chairs.  Right now 99% of all members are BAMF members since dues were paid before the end of January.  The thought is that new members who want to make additional contributions to the club will chair a committee for projects of interest and value to the club.

Should we become a non-profit group?

This has been in discussion since last month.  More research is needed on the topic before a decision is made.  Among other implications, this may determine how we fundraise and/or how we manage funds.  Nick P is going to reach out to other home brew clubs for a consensus.  If anyone has any specific information already, please bring it to the March 10th meeting as we will be acting shortly.

*Deadline set: Will be decided at the April BAMF meeting.

Recruiting Continue reading March 1st BAMF meeting notes →

February 18th Meeting Notes

meeting recaps

NBA 18 February 2012

Pracna 4:00 – 6:00pm

Introductions/misc. (5 min.)

Attendance:  Justin, Tim, Andrew W, Neal, Dave T, Dan ? Matt P, Andrew N, Nick P, Grant W, Tyler B, Kevin, Mallory. Christine

  • Announcements/upcoming events/new business (15 min.)

o   Mid-month (BAMF) meet-up recap

§  dnon-profit discussion?  Matt & Nathan are researching this further­­

§  BJCP Judging: Becoming a beer judge entails learning about all styles of beer, why they differ, and how they should taste Continue reading February 18th Meeting Notes →

January 21, 2012 meeting notes

meeting recaps

Here’s what went down on 1/21:

  • Pre meeting: 
    • tasting of Nick P’s Brett Saison (10 mo old)
  • Introductions/misc. (5 min.)
    • Still no gavel!
    • Attendance: Andrew N, Matt P, Justin G, Steve A, Eric C, Tim S, Rick & Dave T, Andrew W, Adam S, Steve M, Brendan K, Grant W, Tyler B, Nick P, Kevin S
  • Announcements/upcoming events/new business (15 min.)
    • Collect 2012 membership dues from those yet to join, $20.00
    • Hand out membership cards to those who have paid dues
      • Membership card entitles you to 10% off purchases at Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies.  If you find out any other companies offer us a discount, be sure to share that information with the group.
    • By-laws update [ExComm]
    • Upcoming competitions Continue reading January 21, 2012 meeting notes →

December 17 2011 meeting notes

meeting recaps

Introductions/misc. (5 min.)
Andrew (5 years AG), Matt (5 years), Dean (new to brewing), Tim (2 yrs), Nick P (3 years), Andrew W (AG), Dan (Casual brewer 6 years), Tyler, Steve (since April – Extract), Eric (>1 year), Grant (2 yrs), Nick K. (8 yrs), Nathan (“Chief El Beardo” ; original founder)

Announcements/upcoming events/new business (15 min.)

  • Should we get a gavel?
  • Membership cards
    • Top priority. Grant working to get these printed and distributed to members.
    • Will need approval from Midwest Supplies (Andrew has an in…) and Northern Brewer? Steve should be able to help there.
  • Original NBA Meeting 1 year ago. Woohoo!

Membership dues due ($20) for 2012 – what does this get you? Continue reading December 17 2011 meeting notes →