August Club Meeting Minutes
By Mark Tumarkin
The August meeting was held at the home of Nancy & Craig Birkmier. There was a very good turnout for the meeting. As usual, a pot-luck dinner was held before the meeting. And as usual, Hogtown Brewers ate very well, high on the hog so to speak. The menu included barbecued ribs with Craig's beer sauce, French bread stuffed with sausages & cheese, chili, sausages, assorted bread & cheeses, hot pickles, artichoke dip, vegetables, mango-ginger sorbet, plus other things I've forgotten to list. And also, as usual, there was no shortage of great beer to accompany the meal.
The next meeting will be on Friday, Sept. 27th at Sara & Dave's. October's meeting will be moved up to the first weekend in Nov, Friday the First. It will be at Anne & Mark's house. The Novembeer meeting will be held the first weekend in Dec, and the December meeting will be the first weekend in Jan. We do not have volunteers yet to host these two meetings. So now's your chance to host a meeting (and not have to drive home afterwards).
Camping/Canoe Trip on Oct. 12 - organized by Erin. She strongly requests that you RSVP as soon as possible, and at the latest by Sept 7th so she can reserve cabin or tent space as needed.
AHA Club Only Strong Belgian Comp, Queen of Beer, Dixie Cup, Palmetto Open.
A request was made by Bruce Stevens for the club to purchase a grain mill. It was decided at the Exec Meeting that this was an unnecessary expense since a good number of club members have mills and are willing to share them when necessary. The idea was put forward that we should all think about what equipment we have that we're willing to share and then put up a page on the website with a list of who has what. So let Dave know what you'd be willing to put up on this page for occasional club use. Wayne is also working on a list of books and magazines in the club Libeery, as well as an index to articles and recipes. Watch the website for this also.
We toasted and congratulated the new judges - Dave P, Bruce, Fred and Jim (in absentia). Unfortunately, Dr. Bob's score was just a few points too low, though he is now rated as an Apprentice Judge. Several people expressed interest in retaking the exam, or taking it for the first time. So we will be organizing another study group, to start sometime soon. So if you're interested in participating (either to take the exam and become a BJCP judge, or just to increase your beer knowledge), please let me know ASAP.
In an ongoing effort to spread the work necessary to keep the club interesting & ongoing; members were put on notice that everyone is expected to write something for the newsletter occasionally and to perform at least one 'service' for the club each year. This does not include helping at the Medieval Faire, but does include hosting meetings, organizing or leading special events, etc. So think of things to write about or to do - otherwise you're in danger of being volunteered.
Even though the above seems like we covered a lot of business; Dave blasted us through it pretty quickly in his eagerness to get to the Presentation/Tasting on Specialty, Historical, and Experimental Beers. Richard F gave us an interesting and wide ranging presentation covering topics including early beer history, the Picts and heather beer, the Church and Gruit, the gradual replacement of gruit by hops, the great London Porter Disaster, and many other topics. We sampled some very interesting beers such as elderberry, grozet (gooseberry), spruce beer (this was a crowd pleaser), yarrow beer, porter made with historical yeast, and some beers made with unusal grains such as spelt and buckwheat. As usual, a good time was had by all.
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