Muskrat Mashers - June Meeting Notes - 06.25.09Thanks to everyone that attended the June meeting. We had a smaller turn out, due to tornado's and vacations, but all in all, it was a great meeting.
Topics we discussed:
- Next meeting: Thursday, July 30th. 6-8 p.m. Meeting will be held at Kevin and Sarah Nash's house - 429 E. 6th St. Monroe, MI 48161 Map -
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=429+E.+6th+St.++Monroe,+MI+48161&sll=41.908991,-83.395995&sspn=0.011833,0.027874&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=41.908778,-83.396235&panoid=KoV5OFUuI1F_IIRRJn7yAg&cbp=12,47.12,,0,5.14 Plan on bringing whatever home brew you have available at the time. Don't feel obligated to bring anything, as I'm sure they'll be enough of us bringing home brew, but this will be our first official home brew drinking, home brew meeting.
Someone else asked if it was OK to bring commercial styles. Fine by us. I plan to bring a beer from an Indiana brewery for everyone to try.
Parking is on the street, you may have to park further down the road, but the city provides lovely sidewalks for your walking pleasure.
- Following meetings: We're still going to jump around on locations, but the group agreed to switch monthly meetings to the 2nd Thursday of the month. If we stick to that rotation, here are the remaining meetings this year: August 13th, September 10th, October 8th, November 12th and December 10th. This works out better all around for holidays and everything else throughout the rest of the year. Again, location to be determined.
- Brewing Demo's: Fred, from Dundee offered to post to the forum the next few times he's going to be brewing. Fred does the all-grain method of brewing, so it would be a great chance for those interested to see how it's done. Keep an eye on the forums for the dates/times.
Fort Street Brewing will be holding beer brewing demonstrations at their "Beer in the Park" party Saturday, August 1st, from 1 - 8 p.m. - 13 beers on tap, brewing demos, beer cuisine.
- Question & Answers: We had a very good Q&A session this time. Some great topics were discussed and I think everyone walked away with some great brewing knowledge. Here's a list of some things we talked about. If anyone wants to start a new thread on any of these topics, feel free!
- Water: Kevin provided a water report and Fred elaborated on how he manages the PH for his brews. Very interesting stuff. Kevin offered to post a report on the city water to the forums.
- Open fermentation: Various methods of open fermentation were discussed, as well as some spin off discussion on sour beers and sour yeasts.
- Hop Bags: I asked the best way to avoid having a hop mess after boiling. Several suggested using hop bags, to avoid a mess and a clogged boil kettle.
- Tap system for refrigerator: I asked if anyone had any tips for me as I begin building my 4 tap system on my refrigerator. Fred strongly suggested using Perlick faucets. Perlick faucets are built in such a way, that they don't get sticky or stuck over a period of time sitting dormant. Excellent tip! Here's more information on Perlick faucets:
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/PERLICK_FORWARD-SEAL_STAINLES_P1360C65.cfm- Mead: We had a nice discussion on mead, how it's made, what yeast to use, etc. We talked about maybe making a trip up to B.Nectar Meadery sometime to see the operation.
I'm sure there's more we discussed - if anyone that attended has anything else to add to this, feel free!
