Summary of 09/12/08 JAB Meeting @ Eric's house

1.    Attendees:

• Members: Eric Wentling, J.D. Ludford, Ty Harrison, Jim Trowbridge, Dave Manley, Kent Olsen, Jon Baldwin, Brian Albright, Bill Schmeidlin, Myron Karki, Brian Olson
• Potential New Members/Guests: Steven Muthistad (J.D.), Andy Bateman (Ty), Rick Olson (Brian) and Jeff….sorry, I forgot to get Jeff’s last name.

2.      Welcome/New Prospective Members:

a.      Good to see several new faces at this meeting. Would like to have them join the club.

b.      Payments to Jim for club glasses.

c.       Club funds are $30 after paying for shirts.

2.      Shirts:

a.      Shirts are in! All members have paid. Most have been distributed.

3.      Competition Results:

a.      MN State Fair:

·        1^st place, Dark Lagers: Kent’s Dark Lord schwarzbier

·        3^rd place, Scottish/Irish Ales: Dave’s Skara Brae Scotch Ale

·        3^rd place, European Lagers: J.D’s Vienna Lager

·        Honorable Mention, Strong Belgian Ales: Eric’s Palm Of God Tripel

b.      Ren Fest:

·        1^st place, English Pale Ales & 3^rd place Best Of Show: Bill’s Group Brew ESB

·        1^st place, Scottish/Irish Ales: Eric’s Big Horny Scotch Ale

·        1^st place, English Brown Ales: The King’s Nuts Northern Nutbrown

·        2^nd place, Scottish/Irish Ales: Dave’s A Beer Named Sue Scotch Ale

·        2^nd place, Porters: Eric’s Prolific Porter

·        2^nd place, Bocks: Dave’s Baxter’s Bock Maibock

·        3^rd place Porters: Ty’s Midnight Porter

·        3^rd place Belgian/French Ales:  Bill’s Wittenbrew

c.       Upcoming contests:

·        AHA Club Only Imperial Anything: Bill will send his Belgian Tripel

·        ANA Club Only IPA: will select entry at October meeting

·        Club decided that club funds will be used to reimburse members for the entry fees for AHA Club only competitons

4.      Cider Press:

a.      Several members have a $60 share of ownership of the press.

b.      Group decided that any members wanting to use the press that are not one of the partial owners will pay a $10 rental until purchase price has been reimbursed.

c.       Jon has used the press a few times and has put a fair amount of labor and materials getting it into good working order.

d.      The press is currently at Dave’s house, will probably use on 9/20.

e.      Group cider pressing sometime in October at Deardorff again?

f.        Jon indicated he’d be willing to keep over the winter.

5.      Technical Topic: Beer and Health (Eric)

a.      Eric gave an interesting talk on the relationship between beer and health. The key word being “moderation”. Group then ordered pizza.

b.      Next month’s topic: No topic scheduled at this point. We do have a hop swap scheduled for October meeting, perhaps that could take the place of the Technical Topic presentation?

6.      Upcoming Club Events/Topics

a.      October – hop swap

b.      November – wood aged beers

c.       December – spiced/holiday beers, gift swap

d.      January – club awards (need categories!)

7.      Schell’s Tour

a.      10 people toured the Schell’s Brewery on Saturday, 9/13.

b.      We had a private tour and head brewer Dave Berg joined us for most of it.

c.       We got into many areas of the brewery, several of which the tour guide had never been in before!

d.      After the tour, we had several samples in the tasting room and Dave Berg was there as well and spent a lot of time talking to us and answering questions.

e.      Then went to Kaiser Hof in downtown New Ulm for lunch.

f.        Overall a great time. Next tour will probably be Summit.

8.      Beers sampled

·        Eric’s Pelican 2005 Biere De Garde (commercial)

·        J.D’s Helles

·        Jon’s Fresh MN Harvest Ale

·        Ty’s Baltic Porter

·        Eric’s Prolific Porter (award winner, see above)

·        Kent’s Dark Lord Schwarzbier (award winner, see above)

·        Dave’s Baxter’s Bock (award winner, see above)

·        Bill’s Group Brew ESB (award winner, see above)

·        Dave’s It’s A Shame About Ray Pale Ale w/ old sorachi ace hops, ugh

·        Bill’s Belgian Wit (award winner, see above)

·        Steve’s Vanilla Stout (1^st beer, good job!)

·        Eric’s Vanilla Porter

·        Steve’s Stone Smoked Porter (commercial)

·        Kent’s RyePA

b.      BROWN ALES:

·        Dave’s Red Eye Southern Brown (commercial)

·        Jon’s Tillburg Nutbrown (commercial)

·        Dave’s Peak Organic Nutbrown (commercial)

·        Dave’s Goose Island Hexnut Brown (commercial)

·        Eric’s South Shore Nutbrown (commercial)

·        Myron’s Big Sky Moose Drool (commercial)

·        Eric’s Northern Nutbrown

·        Kent’s Northern Nutbrown

·        Dave’s Southern Nutbrown

·        Ty’s Northern Nutbrown

·        Brian A’s Northern Nutbrown

·        Jon’s Northern Nutbrown

c.       Group did blind tasting of the homebrewed nutbrown ales.

d.      Thanks to J.D. for coordinating/stewarding those.

e.      Unlike the blonde ale blind tasting, where there was a wide range of color/taste in the beers, this had a much narrower band of variety.

f.        All were very good as well, no clunkers in the bunch! This shows we are all improving as brewers!

9.      Beer Of The Month: Group voted on favorite of the nutbrowns, and the winner is…………….

a.      Brian Albright’s Northern Nutbrown – way to go Brian!

10.  Group also decided that on those meetings where there is a style of the month, the monthly award should go to one of those beers. 

11.  Next meeting: Friday, October 10. Location?