On a hot & sunny August day, we had a great, albeit, limited meeting at Scott & Martha’s lovely house in Bonsack. We had fifteen “old” members and three “newly minted” members (Gene, Bud & Joan), along with five guests (Matt, Rachael, Peter, Manoj, and Kelsey), and one baby (Mabel), for a total of twenty four people.
I did not have either my chief note-taker or my backup note-taker, so I have to rely on my increasingly unreliable memory for these notes. If anyone wants to chime in with some additional details, please feel free to do so!
General Business
- Treasurer’s report
- With the new members from the meeting, our total is now 79. Unfortunately, I did not record the bank balance, but it remains healthy!
Future meetings
- September 19th – Jeff & Debbie D. (Scottish Heavy competition)
- October 10th – Peter G.
- November – Justin & Carrie C. (Nominations for president)
- December – Chaos Mountain (Voting, Belgian Dark Strong Ale competition)
Discussions
- September meeting
- Because of the conflict with BLBC’s first anniversary, we will start the Scottish Heavy judging at 1 and have the meeting at 2. This allows people to attend the BLBC party (which goes on until 9 or 10)
- Microfestivus – August 8th
- It seems that everyone had a great time and enjoyed the weather and well-placed port-a-johns
- Virginia Craft Brewers Fest – August 22nd
- Too late to attend by the time I am sending these notes. We will report on it next meeting. Congrats to Chaos, Parkway & Sunken City for their medals!
- MASHOUT – August 21-23
- Too late to attend by the time I am sending these notes! If you went, please tell us about it next meeting!
- Enter the BREWniverse – September 26th
- Kegs are needed! Who will donate beer? (Bottles accepted if you can bring at least a twelve pack (preferably a case), assuming you want to be part of the people’s choice voting…)
- Volunteers are needed to pour and talk about beer and science!
- Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day – November 7th
- Same day as the Brew HaHa, but we will do it anyway
- Will be at Blue Ridge Hydroponics again
- Star City Homebrew Throwdown – November 14th
- The site is now available for registration! http://throwdown.starcitybrewers.org
- There will be eight regular categories (BJCP categories will be rolled up into the eight once we have the registration complete) and one special category. Best of show winner will have their beer brewed by Chaos Mountain.
- Subterranean Throwdown category will be a “just for fun” category. This is for any beer that includes at least one ingredient that grows underground. The beer will need to be entered into the appropriate BJCP category, but if you indicate during registration that it should be included in the Subterranean Throwdown, it will be also judged separately. The Sub. Throw. winner will be selected from that group and the winning recipe will be brewed at Big Lick Brewing Company. (In other words, you can win the BJCP category AND the Sub. Throw.) More details on the website.
- Summer campout
- Status update – Alex
- Some options, but Alex will continue to investigate
- Open floor (local beer/brewery updates, brewing tips/questions, etc.)
- Peter recommended following “homebrew finds” on Facebook
50/50 Raffle
- Chris S. won the 50/50 raffle and took home $21 (as did the club).
Style Presentation and Commercial Tasting: Belgian Dark Strong Ale
- I presented the style and we tasted the following fantastic beers: Boulevard The Sixth Glass, Chimay Grande Réserve, Rochefort 10, and St. Bernardus Abt 12
- My notes were primarily taken from Gordon Strong’s presentation, which can be found here: http://docslide.us/documents/designing-great-belgian-dark-strong-ales.html
- If anyone wants a copy of my notes, please send me an email off-list
