Summary of 3/14/08 JAB Meeting

Location: Eric's House

Attendees:

• Members: Eric Wentling, J.D. Ludford, Dave Manley, Kent Olsen, Jon Baldwin, Bill Schmiedlin, Myron Karki, Chris German
• Potential New Members: Kevin Sarauer, Brian Olson
• Guests: Mike, brewer from Summit and Pete from Midwest Supplies. (Sorry, I didn’t jot down the last names…)

1.      Dues & Membership:

a.      Dues: most members now paid up, Eric took the dues in Jim’s absence.

b.      New Members: two new potential members this month! Kevin Sarauer and Brian Olson, both from Waconia. (We’ll need some more Tomatillo Fizz, Jon!) Welcome guys!

2.      Upcoming Group Brews:

a.      April – IPA, open recipe

b.      June – Blonde Ale, BYO recipe

3.      Club Awards:

a.      We still need some sort of trophy for “beer of the month”. Everyone encouraged to come up with ideas and bring to next meeting.

b.      We also will have end of year awards to be given out the January meeting. Need to come up with categories. We can refer to past meeting minutes for refreshers on beers sampled. Also everyone encouraged to post favorites on message board.

4.      Competitions:

a.      Make sure to submit your previous awards won to J.D. for inclusion on the club website’s award page.

b.      Results since last meeting:

·        Ty got 2^nd in category at March Mashness in St. Cloud for his Belgian Dubbel. Good job Ty!

·        Eric got 1^st and 2^nd in category at March Mashness in St. Cloud for Barrel Aged Belgian and Coffee Oatmeal Stout. Good job Eric!

c.       Upcoming entry deadlines:

·        March 21: AHA Club Only Porters. Group decided to submit Jim’s Baltic Porter. Jim will need to submit his entry by the deadline.

·        April 11: AHA Nationals, drop off at Northern Brewer

·        April 11: Golden Growler, Wausau, WI

·        April 16: Big and Huge, Madison, WI

·        May 2: AHA Extract competition. Members to bring extract beers to April meeting for selection for this competition.

5.      Technical Topic: Caramel Malts (Chris)

a.      Chris presented very informative facts and tasty samples of caramel malts. He showed 5 roast levels of Simpson’s (UK) caramel malt as grain, along with congress wort samples. He had very good information on the process of making malt. If anyone would like to see the notes, or has questions, contact Chris.

b.      Next month’s topic: Hop Growing presented by Jon

6.      Misc.

a.      Jon brought applewood for anyone to take for smoking meats.

b.      Pete from Midwest brought new catalogs for everyone. Thanks Pete, it was nice talking shop with you.

c.       Mike from Summit suggested if we want the “brewers tour” at Summit, we should give him a call. It was also nice chatting about the beer business with you. Thanks to both of you for coming.

7.      Beers sampled

·        Eric’s Flat Earth Winter Warlock (commercial)

·        Mike from Summit’s Schwarzbier (very good! Thanks Mike!)

·        Chris’s Shiner Black (commercial)

·        Eric’s Oatmeal Stout

·        Chris’s Coconut Milk Stout

·        Brian’s Unknown (we think it was a Nutbrown)

·        Myron’s Ginger Ale and Root Beer, (commercial)

·        J.D’s. Brewer’s Cave Caramel Lager (commercial)

·        Eric’s Bourbon Barrel Brown

·        Dave’s Fitger’s Barrel Aged Raspberry Imperial Stout (commercial)

·        Jon’s Cranberry Cider

·        Jon’s Blonde Ale That’s Not A Blonde Ale

·        Eric’s Grand Teton Old Bruin Belgian (commercial)

·        Jon’s Apple Jack

·        Eric’s Smoked Porter

8.      Beer Of The Month: Group voted on favorite non-commercial, non-guest beer, and the winner is………

·        Jon’s Apple Jack

9.      Another great meeting – thanks to Eric and Sara Jo for hosting again!

10.  Next meeting: April 11 at Kent’s house, 6:30 p.m.

Apologies in advance for any errors or omissions. Let me know if anything needs to be corrected or added - Dave