Meeting held at Roots Brewing in Oneonta
(17) HOPS Members in attendance
Many orders of business were discussed including:

• Dues were collected for 21 members.  The dues this year were only $1 as the balance of the insurance was to be from the HOPS brew club funds.  If you did not sign up as a member, please bring $1 to a future meeting and officially sign up.
• The HOPS for Harmony event was a success with $370 added to the HOPS Club account.
• This month’s presentation was by Wes Nick discussing the details of water that can directly affect one’s beer making.
• There will be an informal Cereal Beer home brew competition at the February meeting, so look to get those going shortly.  Grape Nuts and Oatmeal do not count as “cereals” for this competition, and someone has already claimed Boo Berry, but other than that all ideas are open. 
• There were many interesting beers samples this meeting including:
  • Chris’s Sweet “As” Kolsch that was bottled prior to completing the fermentation process for a sweeter taste.
  • An ale with Amanda’s Old Yeast and Oxidation that was not as bad as the name suggests.
  • There were some other’s that were quite good, but the favorite of the night went to Chris’s Super Spiced Pumpkin with fresh ginger and four additional spices.
• The next meeting is to be held on the third Friday of the month on December 18, tentatively at My Father’s Place restaurant in Oneonta, at 6:30 p.m.

Meeting held at Andrew’s House at 112 Pleasant Meadows in Cooperstown

(14) HOPS Members in attendance with about ten beers sampled

Many orders of business were discussed including:

• The HOPS for Hounds charity fund raiser and home brew competition is to take place on May 31 at Council Rock Brewery.  There are now twelve competition brews.  The winner of the HOPS for Hounds pre-tasting by the HOPS club members will win the coveted championship beer paddle and the winner of the public vote will be honored by having their beer brewed at Council Rock and be part of their beer menu for sale to the public.  
• Chris is contacting Big Chuck to try and get an interview on the radio for more good public relations and ticket sales.  
• Frank will try and make some postcard size flyers than can be left at sales locations as reminder cards for people to take home with them.
• Joe, Kathy, and Andrew volunteered to help at HOPS for Hounds with ticket collection and other activities as needed.
• It was recommended that Brewsmith.com is a good place for creating recipes.
• Food a plenty was eaten including black and blue burgers with cheese interspersed into the hamburger, real Zweigle’s red hots, chili, mashed potato salad, and the delicious Susan’s Strawberry Delight (recipe accompanies these notes with a pretzel crusted dish where one was expecting graham crackers).
• There were many interesting beers samples this meeting including highlighted beers such as:
• Compared Chris and Frank’s Vienna lager with that of Council Rock’s and determined the best was a 50/50 combination of the two beers.
• Initial offerings from Blind Guy Brewing that were nicely done.
• A heavy peanut butter chocolate coffee stout that tasted fine, but had lost its peanut butter flavor over time.
• Wes’s sour/coffee/tea/smoke experiment from contaminated bottles was interesting and a reminder to clean one’s bottles.
• Mike’s Triple Imperial IPA that checked in at an unheard of 200 IBUs.
• The June meeting will be on Friday, June 19 at 6:30 at Chris and Frank’s at 3938 State Highway 23 in Oneonta.  More details are to follow as we get closer to the date.

Meeting held at My Father’s Place in Oneonta

(17) HOPS Members in attendance with about ten beers sampled

Many orders of business were discussed including:

• The HOPS for Hounds charity fund raiser and home brew competition is to take place on May 31 at Council Rock Brewery.  There will be ten competition brews, and now have an eleventh as Mohawk brew club contact Wes after the meeting and asked if they could enter a beverage for the event and they were gladly accepted as an additional entry.  The winner of the HOPS for Hounds pre-tasting by the HOPS club members will win the coveted championship beer paddle and the winner of the public vote will be honored by having their beer brewed at Council Rock and be part of their beer menu for sale to the public.
• HOPS is going to the TAP NY brew festival on Sunday April 26.  We have joined the Binghamton Brewery group as they have a bus and needed some addition people to share the costs.  Tickets can be purchased and bingbrew.com and the bus will be picking us up in Oneonta at the Price Chopper parking lot about 10:30 on Sunday morning.
• The educational spiked beer of the night was a tainted Miller Lite with phenolic/medicinal/band aid/plastic flavors that would be the result of incorrect pH levels, incorrect temperatures, or not properly cleaned equipment.
• Rhizomes for growing your own hops were discussed and it was mentioned that Adventures in Home Brewing is a good source for rhizomes.
• There were many interesting beers samples this meeting including:
• Mike’s mystery caramel beer
• Council Rock’s Belgian Single with La Chouffe yeast
• Council Rock’s Walaroo summer brew
• Pear cider with 50/50 water/sap mixture
• Sampling from Trinity Brewing
• The May meeting will be on Saturday, May 16 at 1:00 at Andrew’s home at 115 Pleasant Meadows Road, Cooperstown.  More details are to follow.

Hey Brewers!

Don't forget this Friday, April 17th is our next meeting.

This months meeting is at My Fathers Place in Oneonta.

We have lots to discuss with the upcoming HOPS for Hounds charity event and new info about the possibility of attending Tap NY.

So bring growler of your own brew, a tasting glass, and notebook.


Also, our very own Bernie Neumann will be playing music at Green Wolf Brewing Company in Middleburgh on 4/18. If you can go it will be a great time.


Green Wolf Brewing

Cheers!

Hey Brewers!

Don't forget our meeting is this Saturday March 21st at 2PM at Council Rock Brewery. We have lots to discuss with the upcoming charity event and of course much beer to taste!

• so bring a notebook
• a sampling of your own brew (if you are willing to share)
• A tasting glass
• and a smile

Cheers

This was the presentation Ben gave about the Braumeister brew system. If you would like more information you can visit Speidels website by following this LINK

Hey brewers,

I'm sure everyone is in the middle of brewing those winter ales and stouts but duty calls and one must take a break for this Friday's meeting on Dec 19th at 6:30PM.

The meeting will be at Josh and Amanda's house and the directions according to Amanda are:

222 Angel Road, Mount Vision, NY 13810.
Head north on Route 205 out of Oneonta. Go about 10 miles on 205. 
You will come into the town of Mount Vision. It's a 40 mph zone. 
Angel Road is the last turn on the left - right when you see a sign for the 55 mph zone. 
Our house is the last house on the right - about 1/2 mile up. Small white house with an attached 2 car garage. It's right in plain sight. You can't miss it. The number 222 is also on the house. Some cars will be parked in the driveway, including Josh's maroon Honda Element (a weird boxy vehicle). 
See ya Friday!    Amanda :)

Don't forget:

• Bring your favorite beer infused food recipes to swap at the meeting (just the recipes, not the actual food)
• A sampling of any tasty home brew you may have
• A tasting Glass
• Notebook
• Ugly Christmas Sweaters are encouraged 
• fruitcake is optional...

Merry Christmas!!

Chris

November 21, 2014

Meeting held at My Father’s Place in Oneonta

(15) HOPS Members in attendance

Many orders of business were discussed including:

• Bring your favorite beer infused food recipes to swap at the December meeting (just the recipes, not the actual food)
• Possibly having a “cut throat” beer related present swap at the January meeting
• February meeting to have the 2nd annual brew your best Cereal beer competition
• Having clone beer competition in the future, but with the twist that you will pick which beer you would be brewing out of a hat
• Will investigate the TAP NY beer festival on April 25 and 26, 2015 for group rates and possibly renting a limo/van or carpooling (as Ben and Amanda may have contacts for discounted group transportation to/from the event)
• Chris to check into getting HOPS club business cards from Vista print for use at Snommegang and other beer related gatherings
• Need  to procure a gavel for presidential usage at club meetings 
• Wes presented a spiked beer tasting.  This demonstrated the sour/acidic flavor that a beer can develop from conditions such as wild yeast contamination or equipment that was not cleaned adequately.  On a side note, adding vinegar to Bud Lite actually improves its taste, though this is not usually the case with most palatable beers.
• Ben gave a presentation on a magnificent programmable brew kettle called the Breumister.  
• Membership dues ($10) were collected from those present.  Chris is to obtain the Brew Club insurance with a portion ($3.50 per person) of the funds.  If you were unable to attend this month’s meeting, please sign up to renew your membership next time you attend a club meeting or stop by the 8th Note in Oneonta between 12:30 and 5:30 Monday through Friday and ask for Chris.
• The December meeting (12/19) will be at Amanda and Josh’s house (directions to be posted later)
• A presentation on the hops shortage/blight will be presented by Nate and John at the December meeting

Note that I have the 15 minute presentation by Ben Wood on the magnificent Breumister programmable brew kettle.  This presentation is in two parts, but the files are almost 1GB each, so they could not be e-mailed.  Not sure the best way to post these for others in the club to see.

Hey Brewers!

Don't forget this months meeting is Friday night (November 21st) at My Fathers Place in Oneonta.

Bring a tasting glass, notebook, 64oz of your own home-brew concoctions, and a smile of course!

Below are the meeting minutes from the October meeting:

October 17, 2014


October HOPS meeting held at Mike and Karen Duheme’s house with 15 members in attendance

• Excellent presentation by Wes Nick on the history of wine in the Roman era.
  
  
• Discussed the Home Brew Club insurance and this is worth pursuing to protect the club and its meeting venues. A list of members is needed and the cost is based on the quantity of members. More specific details as to how to sign up should be presented at next meeting.
  
  
• The beer spike kits are expensive, so homemade spike kits are to be investigated.
  
  
• Some excellent homebrew samples were shared including favorites such as:
  
  
• Domestic Dispute- a Black & Blue (berries) Blonde, and its relative Honey Blonde
  
  
• Double Bock by Bernie was made with maple sap in place of water and included cherry smoke. It was asked if a beer could use hot dog water in the same way as the maple sap, and this was met with mixed reactions.
  
  
• Barley wine by Mike was an excellent happy ending to the evening.
  
  

• It was enquired if we could get HOPS club tattoos. This was deemed too expensive for club funds, but not discouraged on an individual basis.
  
  
• Volunteers were being asked for the next presentation (in December as it was thought that having a presentation every other meeting would be the proper frequency) with the suggested topic of history of the 2007 hops scare and the black mold blight in the early 1900’s.
  
  
• The next meeting is scheduled for the third Friday in November (11/21) at My Father’s Place (with a suggestion that attendees buy a beer from Ryan when they arrive). The December meeting was tentatively scheduled to be at Amanda and Josh’s house, and we will ask Beer Pond Winery about having the January meeting there.
  
  

Cheers!