OLD BUSINESS: 1) We had a March Social at Double Groove and had great attendance and a fun night.
2) Chris hosted LABS on White Stout and it was a very informative session. Next meeting will be hosted by Matt on Milds/Dark Milds.
3) Marc attended the Guild meeting on Zoom and the minutes can be found here. They talked about Homebrew Con and they may have a “Guild Booth” that we can join. They have “Guild Shirts” on their website, please Slack Marc if interested in getting any. The picnic will be on 6/4 at a park in Sykesville ($6/vehicle). Check out our EVENTS channel on Slack for more info.
NEW BUSINESS: 1) HomeBrewCon registration is open; entry window for competition is closed though and the Westin is booked for the discount code given. However, many of us are going and we may be able to get together. Matt and Debbie have a back-seat open if anyone wants to carpool with them.
2) Our next social will be Thursday 4/28 at Hopkins farms beginning at 6PM. We will be posting on Slack to find out how many of us are interested. Speaking of Hopkins, Colin has scheduled his date to brew with Aaron, which he won in the raffle at Christmas. And we’ll get a price list for Hopkins 2-row grains.
3) We’ve set up some dates for the upcoming year: our Libations Cookout will be 9/17 at the Barn ~12-5PM for members and their families including kids. Our Christmas Party will be Friday 12/2 at the Barn for members, guests, family members all being 21y.o. and over.
4) We’ve gotten new business cards and free AHA flyers that we’ve personalized with our info and AleCraft’s. We will place them in several breweries and liquor stores. We encourage you to pick some up and spread the word about our club.
5) Big Brew is on 5/7. We will brew both recipes posted by AHA on AleCraft’s patio. We need volunteers to help us brew and talk to prospective members: they should wear our club T-shirts and will be getting discounts for AleCraft beer that day. Additionally, we will serve small samples of homebrew in the AleCraft store, so please consider bringing a growler or 2. We’ll be hanging a banner from the patio to generate traffic and interest in our club and also have a raffle for prospective members that sign up. We really want this day to be about homebrew, our club, and AleCraft supply store! We need all members to rally and help us make it a special day! We will post more on our #aha channel.
6) The Board met with Eryn from AleCraft and had a very informative meeting as to how to strengthen our bonds. She would like our club to teach more classes at AleCraft and we will do so. There will be a class on Off-Flavors on 5/17, taught by Adi and Linda. Marc will teach a class on Recipe Design in August and Art will teach a water chemistry class in November. If anyone is interested in a topic to teach or learn more about, let us know.
7) Beer Judging is moving on to a “per request” version as we don’t want to continue to set up the table on months that interest is low. If you would like to submit a beer for judging, please privately Slack Marc or Art and they will have the judging table set up for you at the next meeting.
8) We are still trying to coordinate events with Granite Run. We may coordinate a Charity event. We have options for pets vs. firefighters…..though not having them fight each other ;)
FINANCIAL REPORT: we have changed banks. Harford Bank is smaller, more local and without yearly fees. Art has been working on our budget and will post it on Slack and on the “members-only” spot on the website. It will show our expenditures and projections. You can all see where funds go and that there is no surplus expected at the end of the year.
We currently have $1,634.13 in our account and $100 in cash with a total of 24 paying members.
EVENTS: 5/14 is MD Beer Festival. Burley Oak’s Sour Fest is on 6/4.
MINI-TECH CORNER: George H. presented the in-line draught cleaning system he is using. There is further info posted on Slack.
BEERS: This was an open style month. George H brought a dirty Blonde and a Hibiscus Saison, Art and Claire brought a Belgian Pale, Dave an Irish Red, Myke B a Best Bitter; Matt, Kelly, Art/Claire brought their White Stouts brewed for LABS.
See you at the social on 4/28, at Big Brew on 5/7, and our next meeting on IPL on 5/11! Cheers!