Month: February 2021

As the months keep rolling like an over boiling batch of homebrew some of us may be wondering when normal beer drinking with the fellas will resume. There are many of you that have stayed safe and not been to a meeting in nearly a year or more, I am thinking about you. My brewing mind will stray thinking about what brews some of you are working on, what brewing practices and techniques some of you have dove into lately as well as what has changed in your personal lives. 

This month we are going to try something new. The video calls have been a decent band-aid over the months that we have been restricted. The thought came to me last meeting after seeing Aaron and Colter hanging out and doing the call together. How cool is it that both of them could drink beers together as well as be in attendance at the club meeting? So, the thought was, what if we have a few locations for people to go to and we can also do a call? I (Evan) am willing to host as well as Aarons. We are both going to host  a small gathering (4 or 5 brewers) and also complete the virtual call. I will be hosting indoors in my brewery, Aaron will be hosting in his backyard with fire pits and outdoor heaters and maybe a moment to warm up in the garage if one of you starts crying, only the brave should attempt, sort of like an Everest expedition. An RSVP to this email is required for attendance at both locations (RSVP to this email), I will be writing you back if you respond in time as well as a later email informing you where you will be attending the meeting. Everyone else is welcome to attend virtually and join in on the fun. 

The other innovation I have to credit to is Colter for starting the beer swap last month. It seemed a perfect fit for getting feedback on beers as well as participating in the meeting. I know one of my favorite parts of the OTMP is that this is a main focus of our meetings. Colter is willing to organize the beer share this month again for us. So no matter if you are going to join us in person or if you will be remote, we would love to sample your beers and have you share in the experience, especially if you can pick up beers. You can post your information on your beers and interest in doing a beer share over here on the club forums, Thanks again to Colter for keeping this effort going, this is a great system you got started here. 

 

A huge shout out to long standing member, Ryan Pachmayer, with his recent contribution to Zymurgy Magazine. His article will be published on the 17th of February (sounds like a toast will be in order at the meeting). His article will circle around the practices of brewing clean beers using Kevik yeast. If anyone has spent time with Ryan there is no doubt that his beer knowledge, skills as a brewer, and determination have paid off with this accolade in his cap. We all look forward to reading the article and congratulations on achieving this incredible goal.   

I am looking for members that would like to do small write ups surrounding; brewing techniques, beer styles, local beer scene, historical beer, experimental beer, brewing comparison results, and basically anything relating to the craft beer and homebrewing atmosphere. These do not need to be complex or even that well written, just looking to add a new dimension to the newsletters. If you have ideas or thoughts about something that has been on your mind or things that you know you could share please reach out. Any and all write ups will be entertained. You can even just fire off some drunk ramblings to this email and you are likely to be featured in the next newsletter. 

Attendants:

Chris, Evan, Ryan, Colter, Aaron, Jeff A., Sam  

Meeting Recap:

As mentioned above we were able to pull off a beer swap thanks to Colter. Because of the beer swap Jeff A. was able to sleep tight that night knowing that he shared the greatest beer of the night, a Scottish Ale. Other beers shared were Sam's Chocolate Chili Porter, Ryan's Rum Barrel Aged beer; sorry I didn't write all the beer shares this month, I was way too busy slamming down some cold refreshing LaCroix's. 

Other highlights included all the stories about homebrew stores that sucked and what led to their demise. Way too many stories were shared about Terry the “happiest” brewer in the world, good old Stomp them Grapes, and Barley Haven. 

Ryan gave all of us a schooling with his recent research into Kevik Yeast and other similar strains for his up and coming article. 

The Low Oxygen topic came up again and we touched on a bit of the technique and how some of the components are slightly controversial. The information from www.themodernbrewhouse.com came up and we talked about some of their practices outlined. One specific topic was water and removing chlorine and how long it takes chlorine to naturally burn off; as well how long it can take oxygen to dissolve from the water sitting out, or how many days it takes to get the oxygen down to a reasonable level to brew with. Ah, the debates always rage on in the homebrewing technique world.