January Meeting Minutes
by Sue Smith

The Brewers met for the January meeting at the home of Fred Buhl. Sign up sheets for work schedules for the Medieval Faire were passed around and volunteers to help set up were called for.

Ray Badowski gave a talk about the history and qualities of Belgian beers and passed around a selection of Belgian beers to rival any tasting that has come before. There were examples of all styles of Belgian beers from the witbier, a golden wheat beer with citrus fruitiness, to fruit lambics, geuze and oud bruin, with their decided sourness. There were golden ales and brown ales and abbey ales. There were saisons, strong wheat beers made to keep. One thing they all had in common was the lack of hops expression i n flavor or nose, but that was all they had in common. Even those falling into the same style catagory tasted wildly different, highlighting the difference in the yeasts from one region to the next. Hopefully our yeast bank now has a good collection of these Belgian yeasts thanks to the dilligent work of George Perrin who collected samples from as many as he could. Don't look for any lambic cultures though. This beer is fermented in open vats and innoculated with yeast by shaking the rafters and allowing the wild flaura and fauna to take over. Beside yeasts there are bacterium like pediococcus and lactobacillus acting on the wort to create that wonderful sourness and it is impossible to replicate from what is left in the bottle. Also, some of them are over two years old when bottled, a long time for any yeast to survive under these conditions.

Thanks to all the people who brought us these wonderful beers.

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