SSBC Newsletter

Past Newsletters

January 2009

Meeting Minutes - 1.13.09

25 Members attended, and six new/potential members.

Business:

• Financials: we have an $850 balance, and will have more soon from late dues and whatever. Maybe we should spend some. Does anyone have ideas? Possible ideas: Bus rental for pub crawl, financing the Group Brew ingredients. We do have some expenses we still need to cover (summer picnic, possibly Brewoff expenses if we don't break even), but we should be able to spend some money.
• South Shore Brewoff (our annual competition open to the public, AHA and BJCP sanctioned): the date will be April 18th @ Bob's barn. Kevin is the coordinator and will contact homebrew shops / drop-off points. Others will help with various aspects. Helper assignments will be made next month. It was suggested to do a mailer/e-mail to people who had previously entered.
• New faces at the meeting: Chuck, Larry Erica, Frank, Mark, and David. Welcome, and we hope to see you at future meetings.
• Upcoming Events: Beerfest @ Park Plaza this weekend; Extreme Beer Fest (all sold out apparently); NERAX March 25-28 (was moved forward due to cost of flying beer over, which can be avoided by having the beer shipped over via distributors when done earlier)
• Beer for Aging competition in 2010: it was decided that the format of this competition will be any beer with O.G. of 1.090 or greater and the beer must be brewed AFTER this meeting (i.e. no beers that have been brewed previously and are already aging, in order to level the playing field).
• Febrewary Fermentation and Mashing meeting: it's at Brian S.'s house. Brian K. will do the mashing presentation, and we need a presenter for the Fermentation topic. When no one offerred, it was decided to do an open discussion on that topic.
• Club Yeast Experiment: using the same beer and different yeast strains, members will ferment the beer and taste them side-by-side to see the differences yeast can make. Jason offered to coordinate, as he did for the hops experiment last year. In order to use consistent wort it was suggested to do a small group brew. Then everyone who wants to participate gets assigned a yeast strain to ferment with. Maybe this could be paid for by the club.
• Honey order: Bill will put together a honey order and go pick it up. They only seem to have Dark Wildflower honey, but there may be a possibility of Orange Blossom as well.
• Flander's Red Group Brew: Brian S. has shares from the Flander's Red Group Brew (2006) at his house - come and get them. The beer is very vinegar-like, but Bill says it makes a great BBQ sauce.
• Raffles: Brian S. has a pile of raffle stuff that was donated to the club. We'll have a big raffle at the next meeting.

Presentation:

Sweet and Dry Stout Presentation and Competition
presented by Ken Hermann

Stouts are believed to have derived from Porters, and originally called 'Stout Porter' as it was the strongest tasting type of porter.

Dry Stout - coffee-like aroma, long-lasting tan/brown head, dark, roasty, bitter, creamy ale. Can have some sourness.

Sweet/Cream/Milk Stout - roasted grain, coffee and chocolate notes. High sweetness, medium-to-full bodies and creamy.

Competition: 14 entries!!!!!

• 4 Dry entries
• 6 Sweet entries
• 4 other entries

Winners:

• 3rd - Steve Gravel
• 2nd - Brian Anderson
• 1st - Frank White

If there are any updates or corrections, please contact Rick Rodriguez