NaCl? CaCl₂!? MgSO₄?!? What are these letters and numbers in my beer??

The monthly education topic is brewing salts: why we use them and how they affect beer. Pour yourself a tall glass of your brewing water and let’s chat about our favorite cations and anions!

Thursday, July 21 7:00-9:00pm at ESNS

All are welcome to join! Bring homebrew to share if you have some — and tasting glasses regardless! Cheers!

Happy Father’s Day to all the Brew Dad’s out there!

It was so nice out for the June meeting, we moved it outside to the ESNS pavilion. We shared some beers and talked about cream ale as the education. Here are some others notes for this month about recent and upcoming events and activities.

• Officer elections are in January with nominations being collected started in November. Tyler, the current Finance Director, has elected not to run for re-election, so that position will be open for nominations later this year. The election will also include the Communication Director and Vice President. Please feel free to reach out to anyone from the leadership committee if you have any questions or would like to discuss these roles.
• We have been looking into a vendor for one-off merch orders, but they have not been responsive since the site was set up, so we are investigating other options. We have some t-shirts, a few work shirts, and some tasting glasses in stock now. If anyone has a lead on a one-off merch shop we can research, please reach out!
• Our recent Taproom Takeover was a trip up to Coon Rapids to visit Alloy Brewing! A few members took the trip and we were happy to visit a great sponsor to our competitions!
• There are a few upcoming events:
  • This week a few members will be going out to Pittsburgh for Homebrew Con. Be sure to say hello if you see us around the convention!
  • On the first Thursday in July, we will be visiting Venn brewing for the monthly Taproom Takeover event. Come grab a pint!
  • Nick is coordinating more group bike rides between breweries. Keep an eye out in the club email and Discord for details around those casual strolls.
  • The Summer Party will take place at the palatial Mittelstaedt estates in Minnetonka on Saturday, July 30. That gives plenty of time to brew up a batch for the low gravity (≤5% ABV) competition and find a recipe for potluck side-dishes.
  • A few folks are researching a field trip later this year perhaps to a fresh hop harvest festival. Once we have more information, keep an eye out to join in.
• The Sour Times competition was a great success. We really enjoy this new competition in our rotation and look forward to doing it again! Thank you to everyone who entered a beer, helped judge, and helped coordinate! Congratulations to Adrian who won TWO first place prizes for his Flanders and Berliner entries!
• With more news to follow soon, Brew For Good will be returning in September with coordination from the NBA and partner homebrew clubs. This is exciting!
• The barrel committee met recently and tasted through the club barrels. There are a couple that are ready to come out — the imperial stout in the Rittenhouse Rye barrel, the pale sour in the HOBO barrel, and the pale sour in the Lodi lambic-style barrel — so keep an eye out about getting your beer and the opportunity to re-fill.
  • The HOBO barrel — Honey Oak Barrel One — was the first in the club barrel program. Based on some recent beers turning a bit ascetic, this barrel will be retired with this empty. There are some ideas on its replacement (tequila-barrel gose?! yes, please!), so more news will be shared as barrels are sourced and sign-up is announced.
• During the Beginner’s Corner section of the meeting, Carl brought up recently moving from Northeast Minneapolis to St. Anthony and finding that despite his zip code not changing, his water source did — and not favorably. He asked what members recommend for improving his water now.
  • A couple members recommended $0.39/gallon distilled from the grocery store
  • Tyler told the club about his recent installation of a tankless under-counter reverse osmosis system that generates 5 gallons in about 15 minutes.

Next month we will meet again at East Side Neighborhood Services, of course, where the education topic will be about brewing salts. We look forward to seeing you there!

Keep tabs on other events and news on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Brewers of all skill levels and experience are welcome to join us any time!

Cheers! 🍻

Thank you to everyone who entered, coordinated, and judged for the Sour Times homebrew competition. It was a huge success and there were many great beers. Here are the final results. Entrants can find their score sheets by logging into SourTimesNBA.com

Cheers!

Best of Show Winners  

Best of Show – Beer

Winning Entries  

Table 1: Fruited Sour (12 entries)

Table 2: American Wild Specialty (17 entries)

Table 3: American Wild (14 entries)

Table 4: Flanders (9 entries)

Table 5: European Sour (8 entries)

What are the origins of cream ale and what makes this corn-adjunct beer special? The education topic for the monthly club meeting on Thursday, June 16 will cover this distinctly-American beer style. Bring some from your favorite recipe (or tasting glasses if you do not have any ready) and we can talk about this.

All are welcome to join any of the club meetings and events. We have members of all skill levels and backgrounds to learn together about beer and brewing. Stop by a meeting, Taproom Takeover, or other event to meet up and learn more.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for heads-up on upcoming events.

Cheers! 🍻

Before the May meeting, we were able to present East Side Neighborhood Services with a check for $1000 as the matching donation to the GoFundMe campaign. As of of their many programs supporting people across Hennepin County, this is the biggest way we can help this great organization. For example, $10 donated to ESNS is able to source 100 pounds of food for families and individuals — much more effective than donations of groceries directly.

We are lucky to have such a great partnership between the NBA and ESNS! Cheers!

Here is a summary of the other topics from the May monthly membership meeting:

• The Google Group email list and Discord server clean-up took place in April and May. Any non-renewing members were removed from these groups. Please contact club leadership at nba.operations@gmail.com if you have any problems accessing the club resources.
• We had a great turnout at the recent Taproom Takeover at Waldmann Brewing in St. Paul. Join us on the first Thursday in June at Alloy brewing to chat over a pint!
• Nick M. is scheduling the next club bike ride for likely early June. Keep an eye out for a tour of local taprooms in the next couple weeks.
• The Sour Times competition is open for registration with judging taking place in June. Get your entries registered today! Reach out to the club if you are interested and available to help judge or steward, too!
• Plans are in motion for a return of the Yeast Experiment! We are working with a few of our partners to see about brewing a big batch of wort where any member can get a few gallons to take home and ferment with a different yeast. The experiment will be to see how different the same beer turns out with one ingredient different — the yeast pitch! Keep an eye out for this brew day likely in June.
• The June education topic is an American classic: Cream Ale. Brew your favorite recipe of this style and bring it to the meeting where Perrin will be talking about the history and ingredients to this great summer beer.
• We also had some great discussion during Beginner’s Corner where no question is too simple and we can all learn from each other.
  • Mike asked for feedback on a yeast starter that did not seem to be doing anything
  • Austin G had questions about a Hazy IPA that turned out surprisingly bitter
  • Brady picked up a new gas regulator recently, so got some feedback on setting it up
  • Chris F heard a new term recently: first wort hop. This is adding hops to the boil kettle before/as the wort collection first starts running.
  • Adrian brought an experimental beer and talked a little about that process: the most imperial of stouts where he was targeting 20% ABV and only hit 16% when the terminal gravity stopped at 1.065 — yes, final gravity of 1.065!
  • Bill is looking for some new equipment, so asked the group the best place to find a reasonably-priced 2.5-3.0 gallon keg; based on experience, it is difficult to find these for any less than the price of a normal new 5 gallon keg.

Everyone is welcome to join the club monthly meetings (and other activities and events!) whenever available. We have members with experience from extract brewing through all-grain automated systems, so bring your questions (and homebrew to share if you want!) to join up with other brewers.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to keep track of our goings-on!

Cheers! 🍻

Homebrew recipe development is more than just selecting malt, hops, and yeast. The education topic at the May monthly meeting will be talking about those decisions and how to find the right balance and flavors. Brewers of all skill levels are welcome to join at East Side Neighborhood Services in Northeast Minneapolis on Thursday, May 19 7-9pm. Bring your recipe development questions and suggestions!

Cheers! 🍻

Entry registration is now open for the Sour Times homebrew competition! Pull out your best SOUR, WILD, and FUNKY beers and get them registered at SourTimesNBA.com today! Space is limited to 100 entries in the European Sour, American Wild, and a couple Historical and Local styles. There were many great entries last time and we look forward to seeing what you are going to enter!

Cheers! 🍻🎖️

It was another full night at our latest meeting. We are grateful to have Two Track Malting dial into the meeting to talk about their processes and products along with a few beers brewed by members with Two Track Okefenokee Pale — an American Bitter, SMaSH Pale Ale, Rye IPA, and New Zealand Pilsner. They make amazing malt products, so keep an eye out — and ask you local retailer — about stocking some!

Here are some notes from the business portion of the meeting:

• The fundraiser for East Side Neighborhood Services closed out with $1150 raised and a matching $1000 check coming from the club. Thanks to everyone who supports ESNS!!
• We are cleaning up the Google Group used for the email list and club knowledge base access. If you have not yet paid your 2022 dues, please check that email and reach out to club leadership. Unpaid accounts will be removed from the Google Group soon.
• We had a couple in-person events recently
  • Taproom Takeover at Fat Pants in Eden Prairie. A number of members got together for a pint, a bite, and social hour. We will be at Waldmann in St. Paul the first week of May. Check out the Club Calendar for a full schedule.
  • The first bike ride was a success with stops at Wooden Ship, Steel Toe, and LynLake. Plans are being formed for potentially two rides in May: a longer ride west of the city and a ride into St. Paul for the Bad Weather Arcade Bay event. Fill up your tires and join the rides!
• A few members of the club will be at HomebrewCon in Pittsburgh in June. Say hello if you run us — and, more importantly, check out the education session on sour beer blending!
• With more events happening this year again, we are also thinking of some ideas for a field trip, potentially to Duluth for All Pints North, Fargo breweries, Schell’s Oktoberfest, or somewhere else around the region. Previous trips have been to Mighty Axe Hops, Schell’s, and Rahr Malting.
• The Sour Times competition is open for account registration with entries open through May and judging in the first half of June. Check out the competition site for more details.
• Planning for the 2022 Yeast Experiment is underway. Ideally we will find a way to brew ourselves or work with a brewery partner to create a batch of middle-of-the-road wort where different yeast strains will provide different results. We are targeting the beers to be shared at the July meeting as the experiment topic.

In closing, we would like to give a shout out to the Primary Fermenters homebrew club. They recently announced they are shutting down operations. The NBA has been lucky enough to partner with them for events like Brew For Good and they will surely be missed. We are lucky to have so many other clubs in the area including St. Paul Homebrew Club and Minnesota Home Brewers Association.

Cheers!

Our friends at Two Track Malting will dial into the monthly meeting on Thu Apr 21 7-9pm to talk about their operation and excellent malts. As a sponsor of the 2021 NBA Homebrew Competition, they donated a bag of their Okefenokee Pale that a few members used to brew a few malt-forward beers to showcase the grain and the differences in its application.

Stop by East Side Neighborhood Services for the monthly meeting and see what makes the difference in Two Track malts. See you there!

Starting in April, Nick M is planning club events for bicycle rides between local breweries. These will focus on social rides with slow, short trips between taprooms. The first ride is targeting April 9 or 16 with more trips planned throughout the summer.

All are welcome to join. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more details as plans are finalized. Cheers!