OLD BUSINESS: 1) Our October meeting was Belgian Dubbel and we had the largest collection of samplings at 23 recorded plus the commercial beers passed around.
2) Our Christmas Beer was brewed at George’s and is doing well. Marc will bring the rest of the bourbon handle at the Christmas Party if anyone wants to make beer cocktails with it. Bottling for the X-mas beer will be Sunday 11/14 at George’s. We need help and bottles! Please consider volunteering; joyful labor starts at 1PM.
3) Gregg’s LABS on all Lambics is on 11/12. Chris is sponsoring a White Stout project to be held sometime in March.
4) Elections for the currently selected Board (Marc-President, Adi-VP, Art-Treasurer, Linda-Secretary) passed unanimously.
NEW BUSINESS: 1) Libations T-shirts XLG are now available ($13). Talk to Marc for orders.
2) Impartial Beer Judging will be available beginning in January. A table will be set up in the hallway outside our meeting room with a cooler on it. Drop off 1-2 bottles of the beer to be judged having them labeled with the style you want the beer judged as; no individual names or brewery names should be listed. The following month, there will be a sealed envelope on the same table labeled with the style of beer. It’ll have the judges’ scoresheets in. There will be 2 BJCP-ranked judges and, at times, guest judges as well.
3) We understand that, when members bring in homebrew to share at a meeting, they may want honest feedback that is not always positive, or may just want to share the drink. In order to identify which category one belongs to, there will be a question regarding assessment/feedback included in the sign-in sheet beginning in January.
4) Meeting Sign-in will be through Secretary (Linda). Please go to her when you arrive and she will take your information. This is to ensure all pertinent information is gained and the beers are listed in their proper columns.
5) Slack Christmas Beer channel got “Party” added to it: please post what you are bringing to the party so we don’t all bring the same dishes. We also need ice and clear plastic cups if someone prefers to bring these over food.
6) We are planning a Club Grain Buy as the price of grain is going up and its quality down; this trend is expected to worsen.
7) January Style is Schwarzbier. We discussed the style. Chris let us know S3470 tolerates warmer temps for those who don’t have temperature control for lagering.
8) We need a volunteer member to liaison with the Guild and go to their monthly meetings in Columbia.
9) Marc met with Phil from Independent: he would like to collaborate with the club more and discussed brewing the next Christmas Beer there and another Wort Challenge.
FINANCIAL REPORT: we have $272.19. This balance is low until members start renewing memberships, which should be now. Our biannual raffles, with the Christmas one coming up, are our greatest source of revenue. The board has reached out to local breweries for donations. If anyone would like to donate to the raffle, let your Board know.
BEERS: The style was NA, Ciders, Meads, Wines, Seltzers. The club provided 4 commercial examples and Dave H, Marc also brought commercials. Homebrew on style: Dave had his SMASH from July that came it at 1.6% and he brought it back as a N/A. Colin had 2 Hard Seltzers, Chris had a Cider and a Limoncello, John F. had a cider, Kelly brought a Ginger Beer and a 21% Mead, Steve had a Mead as well.
For Homebrew off style: Chris had a now-clear NEIPA :) Claire and Art brought a Verdant IPA, William brought a Caramel Brown Ale and Steve had a Citrus-Vanilla Pale ale clone of Sapwood Cellars’.
See you in at the Christmas Party on 12/3 and then again in January! Cheers!