August 2016 Meeting Recap

Post date: Sep 23, 2016 3:34:05 PM

Middlesex Malters

August 2016 Meeting Recap

I didn’t make it to the August meeting, but Paul was gracious enough to give me some notes and pics. Thanks, Paul!

Brian H was nice enough to host the August meeting and the style of the month was… IPA.

Looks like it was a good turnout despite being pretty far away from our typical venues.

The style of the month was IPA and it looks like there were a good number of homebrewed versions. Forgive me if I get any of this wrong as I’m mostly going by Paul M’s drunk notes.

Looks like Jonathan brought his Traci’s Summer ale.

Brian A served his Matrimony DIPA, which I thought he wouldn’t have any of left.

Mike brough a ton: an IPA, a smoked beer??, a Russian Imperial Stout, and a sour.

Steve G had his “I need a name for it” IPA and his Black Eye-PA(get it??). I’m liking those names, Steve.

Chris E shared his Jasmine IPA and his “Kolsch-tastic” beer, which I assume is a more properly aged version of his 3-day Kolsch from last month. I also see a scribbled note about a “lite” version of this beer.

Paul M brought his Ron Mexico IPA and a French saison. I’m personally hoping he brings the Ron Mexico IPA if there’s any left after Labor Day to the next meeting as I really wanted to try it.

September Meeting

Our September meeting will be at Paul M’s house in Meriden. The address is 62 White St, Meriden, CT. Knowing Paul’s house, this will be in the backyard, so go around the left side of the house and look for the crowd and the meat smoker. I’m really resisting making a joke there. There will probably be a fire too, like this one last Sept:

I plan on drinking and intend to use Uber, which works well in Meriden. If you want to get a free ride up to $15 if you are a new user, use my promo code, https://www.uber.com/invite/jessep716ue.

The style for September is sour with the alternative sugar Belgian Blonde ale experiment being the quarterly experiment. This is going to be a good one.

October Meeting

The October meeting will feature a timely style: pumpkin/gourd/squash. I’m a little torn on this one as I’m already pumpkin’d-out after some Pumking and Rosemary’s Baby last week(I didn’t buy that one!) We are still looking for a location, so if you know of one, please let one of us know.

November Meeting

The November meeting will be a good one with the style being cider and will be held at New England Cider in Wallingford. I just had their fresh blend and wild ciders today and they were delicious.

Also, our November meeting quarterly experiment is wild harvest yeast. Now is the time to try to harvest some wild yeast from your backyard. Check out Bootleg Biology. It’d be great to get some local zip codes into their bank. You don’t need anything too fancy… just a mason jar of wort with some cheesecloth over the top. See if it gets you something that’s not mold and brew a 1gal batch on your stovetop.

December Meeting

The December meeting’s style will be barleywine. These usually take a while to ferment, so get cracking. I have a holiday barleywine I brewed in 2014 that may last until then.

Other stuff

Club Insurance

The club was faced with a deadline on renewing our club insurance through the AHA/West Insurance program before September 1st. I provided a roster to the insurance carrier of approximately 23 people and paid the premium on Aug 31st. That works out to about $3.50/person. I would ask if you attend, that you throw me a few bucks to cover the club. If by chance there is anything over what I paid, I will put it towards beer for the club to enjoy. If anyone would like a copy of our certificate of insurance(COI), I can provide - just let me know.

Hop & Brew School

I recently went to the YCHhops(Yakima Chief Hop Union) Hop & Brew School in Yakima, WA, where 70% of the hops in the U.S. are grown. There were some great presentations and even better hands on tours. If you have the chance, I highly recommend attending as not only was it really cool, but I met a ton of great people including a homebrew club in Calgary and a pro-brewer to be from Chile. I have a bale core of some Cascade I brought back that was literally picked the day I got it - I’ll be bringing the bale core to the September meeting to demonstrate how hop selection is done. Feel free to ask me more about it.

Homegrown Hops

I hope all of you home hop growers out there have harvested. I missed my window as I was in Yakima, WA and Montana for vacation. Mine have started to wilt a bit and are beginning to get that onion/garlic smell. I still have some 2015 left so I’ll be bringing some to the September meeting to check out though. The CTZ I planted at my mother’s house went crazy this year and those ones don’t seem ripe yet, but I’ll try to bring some of those to check out too.

The Rest Of The Year

If you are ever wondering what’s coming up for the rest of the year, you can always check the club homepage at http://www.middlesexmalters.com/

As always, relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew