March 2018 HOPS Home Brew Club Meeting Minutes

Meeting was held at American Legion in Oneonta on 3/16/18 at 6:30pm with 10 members in attendance
Discussion topics:

1. As a reminder, next month’s beer style is going to be Gluten Free. Also as a reminder, here is a list of the beer styles for the new few months:
   1. April: Gluten Free.
   2. May: Porter.
   3. June: SMASH (Single Malt And Single Hop).
   4. July: Kolsch.
   5. August: Gose.
   6. September:
   7. October:
   8. November: Braggot.
   9. December: Imperial Stout.

We are still soliciting ideas for the months of September and October. Please message us with ideas.

1. The HOPS for HEROES charity event was again discussed. The event will be held on May 20th at Council Rock Brewery rain or shine. There will be tent set up like we have done in the past and Brewers for the event should bring 5 gallons of beer. The style for the event is IPA (any version thereof; session, double, triple, etc.). We have a good number of Brewers that said they would be making beer for this event, but the official sign-up will be coming in an email shortly. If you plan on brewing, please make sure you fill in the form once it is sent out.
2. There was a discussion regarding the use of wet hops. A while back Chris H. brought in some wet hops that were picked off of River Street in Oneonta. Three brewers ended up using them eventually. Two of the three brewers had beer that was less than good while the third brewer said the beer turned out great. The difference was that the first two brewers did not use them right away and the hops may have gone “bad”. The third brewer also didn’t use them right away, but instead dried them before storage. Lesson learned for those wanting to use fresh wet hops: Use them right away or dry them.
3. Beers (Beer of the Month: Dry Irish Stout).
   1. Commercial example: Murphy’s Irish Stout. Coming in at a whopping 4.0 %, this won’t put you on your butt…but it sure tastes good. Chris H. also gave a great history lesson about Murphy’s.
   2. Commercial example: Guinness Draught Stout. Even with a little more alcohol present than Murphy’s (4.2%), it seems thinner. The souring method they use separates the two commercial examples though.
   3. Wes’ Stout. This was a partial mash kit with Dextrose and Magnum hops as some of the ingredients. There was a discussion about what the Dextrose is doing to the beer as well as a discussion about Wes’ well water.
   4. Chris and Frank’s Dry Irish Stout. An overall balanced stout.
   5. Matt’s Cereal Beer (Cinnomon Toast Crunch Stout). Getting better with age.
   6. Eric’s West End Breakfast Stout. An oatmeal stout coming in at 5.1% ABV. Now that’s a good way to start the day.
   7. Jesse’s Stout. An excellent tasting stout with coffee notes. Jesse cold steeped the darker grains which helped reduce the bitterness that can sometimes come through in the normal brew process.
   8. Matt’s Russian Imperial Stout. Also getting better with age.
   9. Jeb’s Saison. The first all grain brew for Jeb (Huzzah!). Didn’t seem to hit the targets he was hoping for, but overall wasn’t too bad. A discussion of crushing grains was held, as well as different methods of primary and secondary fermentation.
   10. Alden’s Dunkel. There seems to be a theme with the darker beers as this one also is getting better with age.
   11. Chris and Frank’s South African Wine. Made in late 2015...while we couldn’t remember the exact name of the kit, the grapes were from South Africa. There were hints of Lemon-Lime and well as Chocolate and Stone Fruit.
4. Next month’s meeting will be held on April 20 at a location to be determined and announced closer to our meeting date.