Good evening, everybody! Hey, ruffians. So, hi. How are you all? Welcome, of course. Do you have another one? I didn’t think there would be that many people here because it’s so cold out.
I don’t think I’ve seen anybody who’s brand new tonight.
Anybody? No?
So, anybody who’s only been to a meeting before but, haven’t been around for a while, feel free to kind of reintroduce yourselves because there’s a lot of alcohol involved and so people are constantly forgetting names inside.
I’m Bruce. I’ve been brewing for probably about seven months now. I brought a pumpkin spice beer to set up. It’s my third brew, so I don’t know. I think it’s turned out okay. Just a little piece improvement. But I think that’s all I got.
I’m Nick. I haven’t been here in three or four months, probably.
I’m Beth; I was here in September and I started brewing during COVID.
All right, well, welcome back. And glad you’re all here. And glad everybody made it out tonight. Like I said, I don’t like this weather. We don’t have a big itinerary tonight. So, the biggest thing is going to be the 10th anniversary party in February. Tonality, we finally got our stuff together. And they’ve agreed to do a 10th anniversary beer for the club at Tonality.
Which means there’s going to be a competition of sorts, I guess. So, laid out some ground rules. And I’ll just go over everything really quickly. And there’s also some guidelines that Tony was kind of adamant about in terms of like, there are certain things we were not going to do. So, just keep that in mind. And they’re all totally fair. Shouldn’t be a problem.
So, first of all, the guidelines:
- Each member of Good Standing can enter a single beer. So, you know, don’t like pump in three different entries to try to up your odds. This is not what this is about. Not what this is about. This is about everybody having a chance to represent the club with a club beer and have some fun.
- To kind of narrow it down to what Good Standing means. And I don’t think anybody here needs to worry about this. But it’s really defined as dues paying members. So, someone who’s current on dues. That’s essential.
- The other thing is members who are not purely joining the club out of self-interest. We have had several members who joined the club solely to serve their beer at festivals and then never came to a meeting. Ever. And, you know, we don’t want someone who is just, you know, obviously joining the club to have some sort of pass to go promote themselves at a fest to represent the club as having a club beer over at Tonality. Because they’re not, you know, that’s not really fair. So, that was the logic about what member of Good Standing means.
Last thing is that it’s a the judging is gonna go down it’s gonna be two bottles so 12 ouncers are probably ideal some people will do the old Grolsch bottles they’re a little larger that’s not gonna be a big deal I don’t think cans I suppose would be fine the drop-off we’re not sure Andy would it be okay if we dropped off our bottles here absolutely thank you so that’s so the drop-off will be here and the drop-off date is going to be deadline will be the 26th which is the Sunday before the party in January 26 of 2025 can’t believe I’m thinking about that you’re already the winners will be announced at the party and I think it’s gonna be part of a larger I don’t know award ceremony is the right word but it’s going to be sort of a song and dance.
Um, so let’s get to the brass tax about what you can and can’t do with your beer so there are really three rules:
- Nothing that requires barrel aging or excessive conditioning time can be allowed they do not want to tie up real estate in this beer for prolonged periods of time.
- Nothing brewed with critters that could infect the entire brewery so this is kind of a no-brainer they probably I don’t think Tony wants bread in there you know Lactobacillus new you know Pediococcus new spontaneous fermentations no not really because you just don’t know what’s in there so stay away from those beers but that you know there’s a lot of stuff that you can still do even if you’re avoiding the last one.
- The last one is no ridiculously expensive ingredients and this is a little bit squishy in the sense that you can you can play around you can do some things that are you know pricier as long as it’s in moderation you know you judicious about it so if you want to have cacao nibs it’s like don’t have something that’s like 50% cacao nibs that’s just gonna explode the amount of the bottom line on the beer, you know sexy hops are fine but don’t have some all sexy hops and like 700 pounds of them you know all this stuff costs money and that’s something that you should be keeping in mind as you formulate these recipes but that that said feel free to experiment feel free to get a little weird remember it is a restaurant these are probably gonna be beers that would in your mind best formulated as something that goes with food especially since that’s a big component of what they do.
So that is that except for one other thing we are looking for volunteers to help muster donations for the club fundraiser raffle. So we already have a Google Doc that basically lists all the donors that we’ve hit up in the past we’re gonna hit that but we’re really making an effort to get things that people can use locally and do locally you know we’ve had times in the past where we’ve had these fundraisers and we get like five bags of specialty malts that nobody’s ever going to put in their beer and we’re kind of trying to get away from that because you know that’s not really a draw so the pivot then becomes towards local businesses where you like to spend your money or you like the product they have like hewn bread they have that they’re kind of tangentially associated because they’re permanent foods you’ve got places like Vince yeah I’m gonna say is that I already hit us up earlier for some of it’s like you can only do that so much and I guess but you know where you like to shop where they’re they’re cool experiences I think that a lot of what attracts people to brewing is having cool experiences and things that really excite their imagination so it doesn’t have to just be beer it could be something that’s pretty cool that you’re like you know I’ll bet people would like to go to do this event or they would like to go to this store because it might fire their imagination about making a certain kind of beer or getting out of their comfort zone with something designed for a beer whatever.
Anybody who’s interested in helping out and kind of like going, maybe knocking on a door or two. You don’t have to get a long list and start trailing down it. But if you know a couple of people you can go up to and go, hey, can we have a gift card? Let me know. We’ll get you on the list. And it’ll be low stress. You don’t want to stress anyone.
So that’s pretty much that. The beer of the quarter, this is funny. So the beer of the quarter is coming up next month. That is Scottish Ales. And in big, bold print I put, not we heavy. So that is a strong ale. We have been very specific about saying that we’re dealing with category 14, which is Scottish Ales. So these are the three sort of lower alcohol beers that are commonly drank. I forget what they’re calling them now. It’s like common, export, special, whatever. Yeah, exactly. So they don’t go higher than, say, like 5%, 6%. I was going to say you’re shilling classes. Yeah, well, it used to be shillings. But BJCP doesn’t recognize it anymore because they’re BJCP. I don’t know.
So I guess I already know there have been a couple of people who didn’t quite understand this. We tried to be clear about it. But I will say to those people, definitely bring your beers. Because I will actually bring one of them. Because I brewed one of them years ago, we heavy. And taste them out. I will ask the question now, how many people have brewed Scottish Ales for beer of the quarter next month? OK, how many people tried to brew we heavy in attempting to do that? OK, so we have a couple. OK, so it seems like we still have enough people to have a viable beer of the quarter without straying from the guidelines. So we’ll keep with that. But we will also have a little honorary, yes? Can we, oh, you were just about to say that. We’re going to have an honorary we heavy competition? Well, yeah, it’s not really, yeah, you’re not going to get on the horse head. OK, not on the horse head, just for who’s making the accidental we heavy. Yeah, exactly. There’s like a tie. It’s a side kissing match. Exactly, it’s totally just a side kissing match. Yeah, it’s just a we off. I like it. But who made the best screw off? All right, so there will be a we off, a little one. It’ll just be a little we. Thank you, Jason. Thank you, everybody. We’re going to do that every quarter. So it’s a we off. So we heavy is going to be like 7% or not? Yeah, something like that. We heavy sometimes are like 10%. Yeah, I mean, how low is it going to be heavy? I mean, you’d have to look up the guidelines. I could look them up right now. I’m not going to, because I want to get through the notes here. And we’re almost there.
All right, so wait a minute, we’re just about through this. And then we do have a speaker this evening. So the last big note that I have is that we are not doing club events until January. We’re going to basically take a pause on anything that’s sort of organized by the club, like at the board level. That said, if anybody is ever out, like hanging out at like roaring table or Mickey Finn’s or a tonality or whatever, and they just want to pop on like in the morning that they’re going to go to the brewery and say, hey, you know, I’m going here tonight. Anybody else want to show up? Do that. I mean, we’ve been doing that more and more. But I’d really like to see it even more and more. I think that it’s like it’s low-hanging fruit. It’s easy. And it’s important to local breweries. And it’s what we should be doing it.
So that pretty much ends my part. I’m going to shift over to Andy, because Andy has several things that are going to be going on in the near future. Well, I think you have a party of your own coming up for the 10th anniversary, right? Yeah. We are celebrating our 10th anniversary of my ownership Friday, December 13. So we will be getting a new development for the RGB, because we’ve started demos. Basically, we’re getting demos of everything we do here. It’s starting from beer, red, number two is cheese, starting at 530. And then the A-block is a bottle shaker. So we’re going to put up a new demo. So not everyone brings 18 bottles of bourbon county. So we’re going to have an RGB, so at least what we’re having here. So it’s going to be Friday the 13th.
Friday the 13th? Friday the 13th. That’s right. Yeah. Yeah, that’s very industry appropriate these days. Saturday the 14th, we’ll see. So we’re very excited about that. We’re going to have some raffles. So we’re going to have to use the raffle prizes as a kickoff to our political and economic relations, where I’m going to be contacting a lot of those friends that have helped us out in the part of what we do the last 10 years. And they’re going to supply some really cool stuff as we convert those tickets and try to win.
There is more matter coming up, I think, January 23rd. Jason, close your ears. I’ve got more briefs next year. We’re going to have more information on you ahead tomorrow. We’ll get that hammered out. Oh, the demo. The educator from Micromatic. Yes, thank you. Oh, yes. We’ve got a few things going on. It could be anywhere. That’s why I’m here. Keep me in track. We spent enough money with Micromatic. They’re sending one of their professional educators out here to talk about draft lines. And we’re going to have them talk about the differences of all the different tasks that they offer here. So we’re really honored to do something they just don’t do. They volunteer to say, hey, we’re going to send a representative out that teaches our school to talk to everyone that wants to come out about professional draft lines, cleaning, and anything else.
We still have an opportunity. So if there’s any subjects that anyone would particularly like to submit, they can come out and talk about it. They really do a weekend course. It costs $600, $700 for this. They’re going to come out to us. We may charge $5, $10 to pay students for the weekend, because we’re going to show up with them and listen to the game, show them what it’s going to be. We’re going to get that. So we’re really excited about that. That is January 23rd. 23rd, thank you. No. No? Yes. Yeah. It’s a Thursday. No, it’s a Thursday. Starting at 5.30. So if you want to mark your calendars for that. We are going to map it out to see how much space we actually have here. We are anticipating that we probably have the whole house. So I don’t know if you’d be on that for a little bit, but we’re going to make that a statement.
Well, you gave the wrong statement of marker on it. Yeah, it’s the 19th. 19th? He already said that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No. No, the draft is the 23rd with Micromatic. Thank you. Yeah. I still have it on my calendar. 19th? Interesting. With Micromatic? Yeah. That is the 23rd. Oh, what time is that? It’s like a… 5.30. Okay, so it’s after close. Yeah. Yeah. Those are two of my favorite settings. No. I don’t think so. For people who are missing anything, it’s a setting time right here to make sure.
Oh, if anyone is interested in recommending a gift for people, so we are also doing a two-year package. We’re doing a year of beer. So we’re writing recipes specific to what we want to specifically to yeast that you can’t get from Omega. So we’re going to be writing specific recipes for yeast that’s only available to brewers only. The next step in that, what’s that? To pro-brewers. To pro-brewers only. So you’re going to get stuff. You have the option to get stuff that you can’t get, ever. And then, if you’re going to services for recipes with pro-brew yeast. Yes. So that’s kind of cool that we’re doing. We’re also offering that up to where you can also buy the ultimate package. You can get something in the ultimate package and then you can brew that year-round.
Here’s my sales pitch. The first recipe will be an India Porter using London Ale. An India Porter. Yes, Craig, I see that face. India Porter. He just gave you an old home brewer face. Totally old home brewer face. Ale Ale is not the only beer sent to India. Porter was the big beer that London was making at the time when they were sending beer over to India to their soldiers there in the new colony world, whatever.
There’s soldiers there in the new colony world whatever What would one say that maybe Indian order was the original black So what was now about 10 years ago at around forty years ago Warrior and they were actually What’s funny as most people think that I feel like like this whole duty something no Only officers drank pale ale in India. So India pale ale was for officers Everyone else drank Border. Border was what? The rest of the people that were drinking Border was what? Yeah, and it would have been India Border. They were hopping it to crazy levels, same levels as IPA to make it to India. So India Border is the first recipe.
Question, was it possibly, were barrels possibly slightly infected with breath? Absolutely they were. Breath is not involved in this recipe. If you want to be more traditional, use breath. Okay, if you guys want to try a real IPA Hey, hey, hey, reign it in, reign it in Yeah, bring it back to Dan. All right. Well, I’m bringing it back to me so I can bring it back to you. Are you still up for doing this? Yes. Is that like I’m not ready at this moment or I’m, okay. That’s fair. Is it like ever? Oh, okay. No, that’s fine. No, I wasn’t sure. It was sort of like I, I said yes to something and I’m really Okay. Okay. No, that’s cool. All right. So then we’ll skip that.
Um, so that, that was what, what’s that? Well, just one other quick announcement. Uh oh. If anyone’s interested, on cap over there, uh, on the black handle, there is, it’s a rum barrel, uh, Belgian strong from Smiley Brothers, uh, that won gold at Faux Beb two years in a row. Well, fuck me. I stumbled on it. I need to, I need to empty it, so Oh yeah, look at Dave hopping on that like Oh, oh, and Ben didn’t say And anyone that wants to fill a ground with rum from there, uh You take it home, you’re more than welcome You fucking inebriates All right. What’s that? Cocktail of life All right. So, yes.
Uh, two things Yes Bonfire Bonfire Yeah, Aurelio gets mad props for that If you did not go to Aurelio’s house for the bonfire, you missed a really fun night Wait, what’s this? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That’s okay. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. All right. Actually, if you Let me recommend, uh, just put a quick note on Facebook. That way, you know, there’s a note there for other, even if they haven’t, people didn’t show up for the meeting, they’ll at least have some notation of it.
Um, okay. And then was there another hand that went up? Oh, it’s just, you were pointing, it’s like Okay. Actually, one other thing. If you’re free Sunday, we are having a pre-release for Santa’s Magic over at Mickey Finn’s. It is a ticketed event. Uh, I think it’s like $65. It does come with a meal. It comes with two, um, uh, servings of Santas, and, uh, you get early access to buying four packs of Santas, which we are canning tomorrow. It’ll be delightful.
Oh, that’s right. The commemorative plastic. Um, yeah, they’re pretty cool. So if anybody is not busy on Sunday. Yeah, they’re pretty cool. So if anybody is not busy on Sunday, and oh it is also a fundraiser And there’s going to be a toys for tots Collection going on. I believe that’s it They They they set up kind of a donation system where Lower-income families can come and shop for their kids. Oh, they they accumulate donations and then People can come and shop for their kids at you know it gives them the you know the value of that They’re still you know kind of Making but it’s at a much the reduce through the donation much much reduced cost.
November 2024 Meeting Minutes
