We had our July meeting once again in person at the Red Barn in Abingdon.
OLD BUSINESS: 1) Our June meeting was on Big Brew beers. We had a lot of Janets and 2 hazy IPA’s. Our raffle brought us a profit of $111.
2) The Guild is back up and running. George B. has just attended a virtual meeting. You can check the meeting minutes here.
3) Our last Tech Corner was on hop extracts and it was quite successful, with more people now starting to consider trying them.
4) Kelly hosted a LABS meeting on Oud Bruin.
NEW BUSINESS: 1) Next LABS meeting is at Marc’s on weizenbocks. There is a poll on Slack with the available dates. Please vote for ALL dates that you can make, not just your preferred one. Following that, Gregg will host a meeting on lambics. We may have to split this subject in 2 meetings: one for fruited lambics, one for geuze’s. They will be this winter. Chris has proposed and will host a project on white stouts in the spring of ’22.
********** A screwdriver rolls into a bar ************
2) July Tech Corner is canceled; we were hoping to schedule a social instead but the month turned out to be too busy.
3) Next July project is Saison/Farmhouse as voted from options of: a) hazy cream ale; b) single variable: hops; c) regular cream ale.
4) Our rent for the barn has gone up by ~50% from $425 to $615. Ken proposed a raise in our dues for next year from $30 to $40 to balance-out finances. We had a vote regarding the raise and it passed.
5) The beer tour has been shelved for now due to cost and logistics; we are hoping to pursue it next year. Instead, we are contemplating having a picnic at the Barn’s outdoor pavilion sometime this Fall.
6) Matt’s Band will play at AleCraft this Saturday 7/17/21 beginning at 6:30PM.
*********** The bartender says, “Hey, we have a drink named after you!” **************
7) Our Christmas Party will be on Friday 12/3/21 at the Barn starting at 6PM. The rent for that night alone has increased to $175. We will create a channel on Slack to start discussing what everyone brings and ensure we don’t have duplicates.
8) George H. has again graciously allowed us to brew our Christmas Beer at his place. We will need volunteers for both brewing and bottling. We also need a beer style, recipe, and date. We will reactivate the Slack channel for this purpose. We will vote on the style next month during our regular meeting!
9) The Friendship Beer Festival will be on October 2nd! We would like as many to participate. We will brew on the spot and have draft beer available for sampling. We need volunteers to man the table and also to provide kegs to share. We are also brainstorming ideas for recruiting new members, such as a contest for a free 1-year membership and we need members’ input. We will reactivate the Slack channel for this purpose.
10) Kenneth Brew Fest tickets are going on sale soon. They have limited the number of attendees so get your tickets soon if you want to attend!
************ The screwdriver squeals, “You have a drink named Philip??” ***************
11) Chris and Gregg are starting a brewing project for Utopias. These are high-gravity beers (shooting for 22%) that require a lot of brewing proficiency and quite a bit of patience. They are looking for groups of 2-3 brewers to collaborate and then blend the final product sometime in the winter of ’22-’23. Those interested have to have temperature and oxygenation control as well as to be able to take frequent samples. Chris will host a tech discussion about this subject sometime in the Fall and there will be a Slack channel opened for this project.
12) Claire wanted to let us know that Slate Farm collects small 4-packs of can holders, sanitizes them and reuses them. This is better and more efficient than throwing them in the regular recycling bin! There is a chance that Double Groove is taking back the bigger ones but we don’t have confirmation.
13) November 6th there is another AHA-sponsored event to promote the hobby. We should try to participate one way or another.
FINANCIAL REPORT: we have $1,066.10 in the bank, $152 cash and 27 paying members.
BEERS: The style of the month was Single Recipe, variable: yeast.
Those who brewed the style of the month were: Marc+Mike, Adi+Linda, Ken, George H, Steve, Kelly, Gregg, Matt. We all agreed the yeast made a huge impact as all beers were different!
Brewing off-style this month were: Dave with a 2% Munich Dunkel SMASH, Colin with an Irish Red, Gregg with a blended Flanders Red. Art+Claire shared commercial samples of Key’s Pickle Sour and a Blind Pig by Russian River.
See you in August and Happy Brewing! Cheers!