HOPS Brew Club Meeting Minutes August 2017

HOPS Brew Club Meeting Minutes – August 18, 2017
Meeting was held at the Oneonta American Legion on August 18, 2017 with 6 members in attendance. 

1. As a reminder, next month’s beer style is going to be Belgian Blonde.  Also, as a reminder, here is a list of the beers for the upcoming months:
   1. September: Belgian Blonde
   2. October: Oktoberfest/Marzen
   3. November: Doppelbock
   4. December: Christmas/Seasonal/Winter
   5. January: American Barleywine
   6. February: Cereal Beer
   7. March: Irish Stout

We will need to solicit ideas for the subsequent months, so suggestions are gladly accepted.

1. The visit to Hartwick College Food and Beverage Center for an educational presentation and an off tasting beer sampling can take place on either the evening of Friday, October 13 or Friday, October 27.  There will be a cost of $10 per participant with the club picking up any extra cost (as it is a $200 total cost for the event).  Please respond by September 8 if you would like to attend and which date you prefer on the poll at: http://www.hopsbrewclub.com/events.html
2. It would be best if members can volunteer for topics that they would like to discussed in regards to everything fermented (although it is educational and entertaining for Chris to present topics, we should spread this privilege around to other willing members).  Some ideas for future educational discussions included:
   1. Why are wines “whipped”?
   2. What is the purpose of step mashing?
   3. What brewing grains grow well in this area?
   4. How are grains malted?
3. Sudsy Brews and Fiery Foods festival will be held again in Binghamton on September 23 from 2:00 to 5:00.  We went as a group two years ago and it was well worth the nominal entrance fee.  If we can get a group together to carpool again it will be a lot of fun.  More info can be found at http://www.ctandi.org/events/2016/10/8/sudsy-brews-fiery-foods-fest
4. There were many interesting beers sampled at this meeting, including this month’s beer style of the month, British Brown(which were A through D below):
   1. Commercial example: New Castle Brown Ale - Good basic brown, but a little too light for the tasting palettes
   2. Commercial example: Samuel Smiths Nut Brown Ale –Slightly meltier than the New Castle.  Tasted a little old, and hints of celery were noted.
   3. Chris and Frank’s Honey Brown 2.0 – Hoppier than the commercial examples.  The honey in this version comes from the granulated sugar.
   4. Jim’s “Against the Light” Brown Ale – An excellent example of the style.
   5. Wes’ Pale Ale – Darker than expected for a pale ale, most likely due to some scorching of the Light Malt Extract (LME) in the boil, but the hop profile was awesome with the Amarillo and Mt. Hood hops used.
   6. Jim brought in some Riunite Lambrusco Italian wine that was at least 35 years aged.  This wine was known to be one of the first, if not the first, to be sold commercially with a screw cap instead of a cork.  It was noted to have some flavors of chocolate, dark stone fruit, balsamic, and prunes that have held up well despite its age.  Was actually similar in taste to a Flanders Old Bruin.

 
Next month’s HOPS meeting will be held on Friday, September 15 starting at 6:30. The location is tentatively at My Father’s Place Restaurant in Emmons/Oneonta.This location will be confirmed in an e-mail sent out the week of the meeting.