March 2002 Meeting Minutes
By Mark Tumarkin
The March Meeting Minutes, that's pretty damn alliterative sounding. Should make Bradley proud (or sick to his stomach). Whatever; now we heard a rumor at the meeting that the Rockies are calling to our illiterate, or is that overly literate young man (again, whatever). Damn, we'll hate to lose him and Erin (though it aint happening quite yet), but at least we'll all have a good reason to get out to Colorado & the GABF.
Karen played host to the March meeting, and George didn't get in the way too much. Thanks, y'all. The monthly meetings are so much fun that people are lining up to host them, almost fighting over who gets the privilege. Next month's April meeting will be hosted by Pete Turner, who was sporting a button stating that he's not as innocent as he appears - what's the story behind that? Inquiring minds want to know. Pete will also be giving thw style presentation at that meeting on Eng Bitters, Pales, and Scottish ales. The May meeting will be hosted by Julie & Dave Williams, and the June gathering will be at the home of Matt Ripetoe. Everyone's hot to see Matt's high tech mash tun.
The pre-meeting pot luck was awesome, as usual. Among the wonderful dishes were eggplant dip, habanero olives/onions/etc, spinach quiche, chicken enchiladas, nachos & cheese dip, clam chowder, yummy brownies, and more. Craig arrived late with Nancy's jambalaya, covered with tons of bright red crawfish. Though everyone was already full, this disappeared quickly. Those of you who are coming late and missing the pot luck ought to rethink your plans.
Dr. Bob will be hosting a club brew at his lab on May 4th, National Home Brew Day. We will be participating in the AHA's Big Brew celebration, brewing bot George Fix's maibock recipe and Steve Jones' Old Ale in Bob's steam-jacketed kettles. Check out the AHA web site for more details on Big Brew and this year's recipes.
Erin will be organizing the Hogtown Navy Canoe Flotilla again this year. Though, again; she and Bradley have other plans and won't be able to do the trip with us. Let her know ASAP if you plan to go, and whether you'll be bringing your own canoe or will need to rent one. The date will Saturday, April 27th; the morning after the monthly club meeting. The club has Guinness and Bass from the Medieval Fair so Black & Tans will be the official grog for this Hogtown Navy exercise.
Dave mentioned that we discussed the 2002 Road Trip/Pub Crawl at the last Executive Meeting. Though Atlanta seemed to be an attractive destination, we decided that it might be too far, too crowded, too expensive, etc. So we're thinking about Tampa as for RT/PC 2002. It will probably be done similarly to last year's Savannah trip. More about that as time goes on.
Mark Barnett, of Gator Beverage, came to speak at the meeting. As you know from Dave's email, Gator Beverage is now Hogtown Brewer's Preferred Vendor for malted beverages. Dave and Mark have started a cooperative experiment between our club and the store in bringing some of the more unusual beers to Gainesville. The problem is that MicroMan, a distributor from Dunedin, requires a minimum order of 50 cases to get the most favorable pricing. Mark is taking a financial risk here and has placed an initial order for over $2500 worth of these previously unavailable (in Gainesville) brews. Mark will be setting up shelf space for the new beers that will carry signage stating that these beers are recommended by Hogtown Brewers. We'll also do some signs describing the individual beers, so that the general public will have at least some idea of what these brews are like. He has given us the entire MicroMan list and pricing, so special orders by the case are possible for any of the available beers. Please do your part and shop Gator Beverage for your beer. Hopefully, both the public and HB will purchase enough of these beers to make it possible for Mark to keep stocking them.
Dave William's gave the style presentation on Lagers. His redneck accent (and attitude) is getting heavier all the time. It definitely was prominent in this presentation. Julie and Ziggy promised to heckle Dave, but frankly most of us were disappointed in the quality of their effort - certainly not up to last year's standard.
This month's style contest on Belgian ales will be held Sunday, April 7th at Ziggy's house. George Perrin has donated two beautiful Orval goblets as a prize for 1st place. Also at that time, we will be showing a video tape of some of the presentations given at last year's AHA National Homebrew Conference. This was made available to us courtesy of Rob Moline (aka Jethro Gump). Don't miss this event, there's some incredible stuff on this video.
Mark Barnett also brought several cases of beer, that were available for sale. Much of it disappeared quickly into Hogtown coolers. He also provided a nifty green Spaten scooter as a door prize. This nifty vehicle was won by Wayne, and Sue was spotted doing the Spaten scoot before the meeting was over. All in all, it was just another night in Hogtown. Don't miss the next one!