February 2018 HOPS Brew Club Meeting Minutes

February 2018 HOPS Brew Club Meeting Minutes
This month’s HOPS meeting was held at the American Legion in Oneonta on 02/16/18 at 6:30 p.m. with (13) members in attendance.
Discussion topics included:

1. The HOPS for Heroes homebrew competition fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Softball Team is to take place on Sunday, May 20, from 1:00 to 4:00.  The beer style is to be an IPA.  We will have a signup sheet and expect to have about 10 home brewers.  Will also ask Mohawk home brew club to participate with a beer or two.
2. Club dues of $5 per member were collected from those in attendance.  If you were not able to make it this month, please bring club dues to the next meeting that you can attend.  These dues help pay for the club’s insurance and provide funds to pre-order glasses, shirts, etc. for the fund raisers.
3. Some upcoming beer fest events that may be of interest include:
   1. February 24 to March 4 is Saratoga Beer Week in Saratoga
   2. March 3 - Craft Brew Fest at the Desmond Hotel in Albany
   3. March 10 - Snommegang on Main Street in Oneonta
   4. TAP NY beer and food festival is April 28 & 29 at Hunter Mountain Ski Resort
4. We discussed about having one of the summer meetings be a big brew day on a Saturday and having one large batch of beer brewed as a group.  This will be discussed more as the details are the time approaches.
5. Here is a list of the upcoming beer styles for the club meetings for the next few months:
   1. March: Irish Stout
   2. April: Gluten Free (with sorghum or rice for example)
   3. May: Porter
   4. June: Single Malt and Single Hop (SMASH) beer recipes

We are still soliciting ideas for the subsequent months. Here are a few styles that were tossed around at the meeting: Berliner Weiss; Cider/Mead. Any additional style ideas are welcome.

1. Many great beers were shared this month, including the cereal beer competition for the first four entries below:
   1. Eric & Kat’s Raisin Bran Wheat, brewed with 3 lbs. of Raisin Bran was the winner of the popular vote.  A trophy in accordance with the occasion will be presented at the next meeting.
   2. Matt’s Cinnamon Toast Crunch Stout, also with 3 lbs. of cereal, came in at a smooth 6.8 ABV.
   3. Wes made a Peanut Butter Puff Porter that was best enjoyed with a spoon.
   4. Chris H. & Frank brewed Maple Pancakes, a beer made with 4 lbs. of the rare Cap’n Crunch Blueberry Pancake Crunch, 3 lbs. of blueberries, and a quart of blueberry juice for a fine entry into the competition.
   5. As an encore, C&F brought a nicely aged Frankenberry Berliner Weiss from last year’s cereal beer competition
   6. Jesse brought his freshly brewed German Lager fermented with S189 yeast
   7. Aldin shared his German Dunkel lager fermented at in his basement at lager temperatures.
   8. Brian brought an IPA with rose hips that he named Black Rose.  This may be the test recipe for his entry into the HOPS for Heroes fundraiser.
2. Frank made a presentation, with handouts, on How the Mash Makes Wort.  Very educational with the emphasis on the temperatures during mashing and why the details are important.  We hope to have more presentations at future meetings, so if you have ideas or would like to present a topic during the meeting, please let one of the HOPS officers know and we will add the presentation to the schedule.
3. Next month’s meeting will be held on Friday, March 16th at 6:30 p.m. at a location to be determined.