August in the Twin Cities is one of the most fantastic times of the year! One of the many reasons is at the end of the month is the Minnesota State Fair. There,  you can see giant swine, butter sculpted heads, anything you can dream of on a stick, live music and great Minnesota craft beer. As well, the results of the MN State Fair Homebrew Competition results are posted. A big shout out  and congratulations to NBA members Bryce Larson, Tim Stuemke, Matthew Tjosaas, Steve Towey and Erin Towey for placing in the Minnesota State FairHome Brew Competition!

On August 4th a small but motley crew of NBA’res met at Indeed Brewing Company to attempt our monthly taproom take over. Alas, we were dwarfed by large group of what appeared to be conference goers. While out numbered it did not deter us having good beer, great conversation and an all around good time.

August 20th the NBA was at the Nordeast Farmers Market, to brew, recruit and socialize. While a good time was had, you can never predict the weather.

August Meeting Re-cap

August 18th the NBA convened at East Side Neighborhood Services for our monthly meeting. We welcomed new attendees and touched on what had happen since the last meeting, including barrel fills of the Hobo and Koval barrels and the summer party.

Nick McLawhorn also shard with us a small experiment he had done, which was how long the same beer had been dry hopped.

Upcoming Educational Topics

Saisons – Sept
Diastatic power of differing malt – Oct
Base Malt Experiment – Nov Please sign up if you are interested in participating in this.

August Education Topic – Brew the same beer. 

We had eight members brew the same exact recipe, using the same exact malt, hops, water and yeast. All from the same source. A huge thank you to Matt T, Aaron H, Nick, Steve, Bryce, Aaron D, Matt P and Eric for brewing for this!

10lbs  Golden Promise
1lb Golden Naked Oats

1.25oz of EKG @ 60min
.5oz of EKG @ 20min
.5oz of EKG @ flameout

Danstar BRY-97 Dry Yeast (No rehydrate)

8.25 Gallons Kandiyohi Spring Water

Needless to say it was surprising to see the difference. The major one that stuck out was the difference in ferment characteristic, which after some discussion was thought to be due to the age of the dry yeast. (Always check the dates on your yeast!) Another fantastic experiment and conversation.

Upcoming Events and Important Dates

Sept. 15th 7PM –  Monthly Meeting @ East Side Neighborhood Services

Sept. 24th and 25th 9AM till 5PM (both days) – NBA Big River Homebrew Competition! We need volunteers. Please sign up if you can help.

Sept. 28th 7PM – NBA NHC 2017 Planning @ Fulton Brewing.

Oct 6th 7PM – October Taproom Takeover @ Surly Brewing Company

Oct. 22nd 1-4PM – Eastside Neighborhood Services – Nordeast Big River Beer Festival.

Ah… July! What a fantastic month!

July 7th, the NBA had our monthly tap room takeover at Bauhaus Brew Labs, and we had an awesome turnout! Three picnic tables plus!

July is also our Summer Party/BBQ + Small (6% or less) beer competition. President Aaron DeBoer hosted us. A number of members brewed on the club system. As well we had homebrew beer brats, burgers, grilled corn, as well as many other of the delicious delicacies of a summer BBQ. Congrats to Mike Colling, who’s Simco Smash won first place in the small beer comp.

Continue reading July 2016 Recap →

In May we had a fun month. We kicked it off with a tap-room take over of Dangerous Man. We had a good turn out of a very social and casual group. We then proceeded that weekend to have an awesome presence at the annual AHA Big Brew Day. We showed up at Northern Brewer Minneapolis and brewed on the club system an American Pale Ale.

As well, at our monthly meeting we discussed for an education topic, the effects of first wort hopping. Matt Price gave a good talk and samples on the difference.

A big thank you to Northgate Brewing for making wort and hosting us for the tasting it was a pretty epic evening! Listed bellow is the list of what was tasted and my personal tasting notes.

• Nelson Sav. : Slight white wine. Fruit.
• Motueka: Slight cirtus flavor.
• Rakau: Plesant, not super bitter. Cirtus and fruit.
• Waimea: Strange and intense fruit and citrus flavors, pine finish.
• Wakatu: Clean citrus/lime flavors.
• Galaxy: Nice tropical fruit flavors
• Amarillo: Smells like Something off. Jules says it smells/tastes like Buttercups paws. Nice citrus flavors.
• Equinox: Cirtus tropical flavors.
• Jarrylo: Great hoppy fruit favor.
• Zythos: Love the fruit pine balance.
• El Dorado: More fruit that orange citurs than expected
• Azacca:Tropical fruit… yes please.
•   Saaz: Classic Saaz… I mean fugle.
• Pilgram: Something wrong, berry but off flavors… cheese? old hops? Yup.
• Ahtanum: Way more berry and fruit than citrus.
• Warrior: Fruit but not great.
• Brewers Gold: Smokey and blackberry. Something wrong with the smoke…
• Horizon: Cheesy aroma, clean bittering flavor.
• CTZ: Tastes like CTZ.
• Chinook: Acetaldehyde
• Simcoe: No cat pee, surprisingly good.

May was another fantastic month of events for the Nordeast Brewers Alliance. There were a number of important things that we participated in.

Friends of the Mississippi

President De Boer went to the Friends of the Mississippi to not only represent the NBA but also to bring back some information to share with the club on how we can be more friendly to the ol’ Miss.

Koval Barrel Empty, fill, and the lack of… 

In the middle of May the empty and fill of the Koval Barrel (Barrel Project 3.0) was slated and prepared for. What we were not prepared for was the extreme pediococcus infection that was in the Imperial Red ale. It seems that some members’ previous barley wine that was in the Koval barrel was also seemed to be infected. So, it was not emptied and filled with delicious double IPA. It now will get emptied and filled with an acid wash. Once the acid wash has some time to soak in the barrel, the barrel will be filled with a brett & lacto sour beer.

Community Hops 

PAD-B (President Aaron De Boer) and Tim Stuemke and fellow NBA member and Community Hops President ,  Bryce Larson represented the NBA at the Community Hops Member and Fund Drive. NBA beer was poured and very well received.

Farmers Market

For the opening of the Nordeast Farmers market on May 30th, we had our first representation coordinated by Matt Price. A great time was had and we picked up a few new members to boot!

Meeting recap

Our May meeting at Eastside Neighborhood Services was planned to have Rahr Malting do the education topic, but unfortunately there was a snafu and we had to change up. Fortunately it gave us the time to sample a number of members beers and give some very constructive feedback. As well we got to taste Richard Brower’s Northern Brown ale aged on Blackswan Barrel Alternative Cherry Wood.

As well we discussed past and upcoming events, including our upcoming June meeting which will be our 2015 Single Hop Experiment. First, and very important, dry hop your one ounce of hops 7 days before packaging. The first of possibly two tastings will be at Northgate Brewing Company on June 16th, 6:30PM, 783 Harding St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413.

Aaron De Boer posed the idea of purchasing a CO2 racking cane for transferring the beer out of our barrels. The purchase of $270 was brought to a vote and was vote to purchase. The idea is to provide a cleaner, oxygen reduced transfer process. As well, we are hoping that it reduces the possibility of  contamination between the barrels.

Intro

 

Continue reading May Agenda – Thursday 5-21, 7 PM @ ESNS →

Our winter club party is scheduled for Saturday January 17th, 12-5pm.  This takes the place of the monthly club meeting, so don’t be the only one showing up at ESNS.  RSVP info after the jump. Continue reading 2015 Winter Club Party RSVP – Jan 17 →

Have you entered the Big River Homebrew Competition yet?  Here’s another reason to get you beers in.  Entrants now have a chance to be part of the 2015 Great American Beer Festival!  Spread the word!

For Immediate Release

The 3rd annual Big River Homebrew Competition is proud to announce NorthGate Brewing will be sponsoring the grand prize – a chance to have their beer brewed as for the GABF Pro-Am in 2015.

The Mini Best of Show winners will be will be evaluated by the NorthGate Brewing crew.  Their favorite, the Brewers’ Choice, will have the opportunity to collaborate with NorthGate Brewing to have their beer brewed and entered in the GABF Pro-Am competition, held October 2015.

Currently the Big River Homebrew Competition is at 50% capacity and registration is open until September 28th.  Full rules and registration are available at nordeasthbc.brewcompeition.com

Please direct any questions to nba.operations@gmail.com

The Big River Homebrew Competition is sponsored by the Nordeast Brewers Allliance and proceeds benefit the East Side Neighborhood Services.  Winners will be announced at the 4th annual Big River Brew Fest on October 18th.  Tickets are currently available for $25.

Rules:

-Entrant must be a registered AHA member at the time of the GABF entry deadline.

-Beer styles may be eliminated based upon NorthGates ability to brew (ie. no sours or funky stuff)

-Winning recipe will be modified to accommodate the professional system

General GABF Info:http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/the-competition/pro-am-competition/

Full GABF Rules  http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/brewers/competition-information/#11