May 2021 Meeting Minutes

This was another Zoom meeting and it started at 7:17PM. We moved “Saison” to June and had the May meeting to support MD Breweries.

OLD BUSINESS: 

1) We had our April meeting on Zoom last month and it was well-attended. We virtually shared beers and stories.

2) The Barrel Project has ended.

3) We have started Technical discussions on Wednesdays at 7PM for one hour. Topics vary from meeting to meeting and members are encouraged to suggest topics of interest. These are focused discussions and the emphasis is on learning and sharing information.

4) Big Brew happened and lots of us participated by brewing and logging in online.

5) The Independent Wort Sale occurred and a lot of us participated.

NEW BUSINESS:

1) Ken will check to see in which reopening phase do clubs fall into so we can plan future meetings. Our “Saison” meeting should be in June and we hope to be able to have it live. We are thinking about having the first “live” meeting on a different evening than a Wednesday, preferably on a Friday.

2) Next year’s May beer will be a lager. There is a poll on Slack between Mexican and German variations.

3) Kelly let us know BAM is doing a fundraiser.

4) We will have a raffle next month. Tickets will be available for purchase during the meeting while all of us attending tonight’s meeting and entering MD beers will get one ticket/unique beer. See table below.

5) Our July style is a Kettle-sour.

6) Chris was able to harvest Gregg’s farmhouse/Saison yeast from Urban brewery. It seems to be an esthery strain, not very phenolic, and led to a sweet finish. He pitched it at 70 degrees, it got to 75 on its own and was left to do its thing with no temperature control. Chris has 2 vials left for anyone interested.

7) There is a grain buy under way for German dark wheat, available likely sometime in June. We already have one sack filled and we can add another if there are enough interested parties.

FINANCIAL REPORT:

We have 25 paying members, $170 in cash and $835.92 in our account. Most of us have reimbursed the club grain buy.

As mentioned above, the meeting was to promote MD breweries and help them out in these tough times by purchasing local beers. Below is a synopsis of those who attended and participated by buying local beers. There is more detail on Slack, including a list of all unique beers entered and a breakdown per brewery.

Hope we’ll all stay safe and be able to see each other in June! Cheers!!