We started the meeting at 7PM comparing"research" notes and catching up. Colin highly recommended Troegs in Hershey. Matt had a little tour of the upcoming Double Grove Brewery opening soon in Forest Hill. Ken let us know that Barley and Hops in Frederick is closing and auctioning off their equipment.
Old Business
- Our Christmas Party was a huge success with over $300 earned from auctioned material, triple what we made in the past.
- Our own Libations glasses were handed out; all members should have them by now.
- We had two guests at the Christmas Party; one of them, Dave, won the equipment raffle and joined the club.
- Dues are due :) Those who joined after July last year only pay half for this year.
- The Guild Christmas Party took place at Heavy Seas Brewery and was a lot of fun. We would like to put up our own table this year. We'll need at least 4 (significantly different) beers on tap as well as food. The club's overall theme, best food, best beer get submitted for judging separately and prizes are won for each category. It would be a great opportunity to collaborate on brewing. We'll continue discussing this topic over the course of the year.
- The Barrel Project is continuing. We emptied the Imperial Stout from the barrel last week and refilled it with an 11% Barleywine. Our next project for the barrel will be either a Flanders Red or an Oud Bruin. We would love more participation in this project! Go to Slack to keep up with the latest. We will auction 7 bottles of the barrel-aged Imperial Stout, Schrödinger's Cup, in the upcoming months.
New Business
- We are trying a new time for our meetings: 7PM for "research" and chatting with the actual meeting starting promptly at 7:30PM.
- We have a new bank! The old one used to charge us fees. The new bank does not and we also got a credit card to facilitate purchases for the club.
- The March 2020 style is the Irish Stout. We went over the BJCP guidelines of the style and discussed tips and tricks for it. Chris B. advised cold-brewing the dark grains (letting them steep overnight) then adding that liquid to the mash; this decreases astringency while still extracting color and roastiness. He also heard that Guinness deliberately sours part of their mash for the extra tang. It gets pasteurized in the boil so no risk of contamination. Gregg has tried this himself in the past, using about 1qt, but thinks he would use more (1.5-2L) in the future.
- We voted for the January 2021 style and it will be a Porter.
Financial Report:
We now have 30 members and, as of 12/31/19, $656.24 in the bank and $100 in cash.
Shared Beers:
We had a plethora of shared beers. For our style of the month, Kölsch, we had 4 commercial examples bought by the club; Kelly and Dave H. also brought commercial versions. 4 people brought homebrewed Kölsches: 1) Chris B. 2) Gregg 3) Linda and Adi brought their Das Erste Kolsch; 4) Marc and Mike brough their Krampüs Kölsch.
In other styles, Matt brought a Dark Mild, Claire and Art shared the last of their cherry witbier Rabid Rae Dog, Joe K. brought his 2.5 week old IPA, Ken shared his barrel aged stout TBS, Kevin shared a growler of RAR Out of Order: Random Dessert. Chris G. and Kyle brought their first all-grain brew, a Nut Brown Ale, as well as two interesting brews made from aged extract ;) They also shared a traditional Portuguese Milk Liqueur. We had a table set up for shared beers and there were additional delectables that were not listed by their owners. So, overall, a really fun, informative start of the year. Cheers!