Meeting Recap: 3/6/12

Location: Mike F's
Time: 7-9
Attendees: Mike F, Mike P, Randi, Doug J, Ivan, Tyler S, Eric D, Jayme, Chuck, Lee

Beers:
Five Stouts were turned in for the 'Stout it Out Loud' Competition. Eric D brought his Cream Ale, Tyler S brought an English Bitter and Brown, Mike F had stout on tap, Jayme had his Pale Ale.

Business:

Hop Rhizomes
The Rhizomes have been ordered. We’ll let you know as soon as they arrive. If you have not yet paid for your rhizomes Randi will be sending you a PayPal request.

Next Taster Glass
The 5.25oz Snifter won 75% of the votes for the next club taster. Please vote for the design you want to see on the snifter. (Click here to vote)

St Patrick’s Day?
St Patrick’s Day falls on a Saturday this year (March 17th) and we’ve got a whole keg of a tasty Irish Stout to drink. Mike P has proposed meeting at his house on Saturday to crack this keg open. The keg will be cracked at noon. If there's any interest in doing a potluck or meeting at the Tumbleweed or Angus Grill first, please post on 'St. Patrick's Day' discussion or send Mike P a message.

Big Brew Day
We're just two months away from Big Brew Day. For those of you not familiar with Big Brew Day, AHA Big Brew is a celebration of National Homebrew Day (May 5). Each year homebrewers around the world invite family and friends to their brewing site on the first Saturday in May to celebrate the holiday. Everyone is encouraged to help out with the brew, enjoy the fun and join in on a world-wide toast at noon CDT. The Mashers are debating doing a large brew site with multiple brews going on. In order to get this rolling, we need a general idea of participation. If you would like to bring out your system for a brew display please post on the 'Big Brew Day 2012' topic or send Mike P a message. Once we know how many participants we have, we can better pick a location.

Hosting
We need hosts for Meetings and Brew of the Months, please help out if you can. If a month does not have a host for a brew, the brew will not happen. Months without meeting hosts will be defaulted to the Philleo’s home in Lincoln. Chuck and Ryan will be hosting a double brew day of a Kolsch and Stout. The brew will be March 24th at 10am. Watch the calendar for directions.

Stout it Out Loud
Five stouts were entered in the clubs internal contest to decide on the stout to send to the AHA ‘Stout it Out Loud’ competition. All meeting attendees voted. To keep it anonymous, the brews that were entered were assigned a letter.

• Ivan's stout took over 55% of the votes. So his stout will be sent on to the competition in Colorado. We wish him luck! Thanks to all those that participated in the contest.
  
• Plan ahead. You can keep track of all upcoming AHA Club Only Competitions with the Club’s online calendar. This year’s lineup is: May- Scottish and Irish Ale, August-Porter, September – light hybrid beers, November – Olde Ales.

Hop Tea Series
For the hop tea series, we sampled the 3 C’s, Cascade, Columbus, and Centennial with the answers hidden so everyone could guess which was which.

• It was suggested to add a small amount of pale extract to the teas to make them a little easier on the pallet.

Paddle
Since we are the “Mashers” we’ve obtained this lovely golden mash paddle. This traveling trophy will be awarded monthly for the winner to take home and proudly display. At the end of each meeting we will look for nominations on outstanding homebrew of the night. This beer can be a new brew or a reworked recipe. Once a beer has taken home the paddle, it will no longer be eligible to win. When nominating a brew, look at flavor, style, and originality. A majority vote will declare the winner. If you win the paddle, make sure that you can have it back to an officer at the next meeting.

• Ivan took the paddle home with his Stout victory.

If I forgot anyone or any beers, feel free to post it. Sometimes as the beer flows, the notes get sloppier and I get more forgetful. Cheers!