January Minutes

January 8, 2023 by lpbrewer

January 8, 2023 @ Union

Max is headed to the guild meeting tonight and will forward the minutes when he receives them. He provided a preview of some of their agenda:
- The guild holiday party was a success and they will share information about the charitable donations.
- The annual guild picnic is on for the first Saturday in June.
- Judging for the MALT Turkey Shoot competition is scheduled for January 22nd. If you plan to enter now is the time to do so (https://turkeyshoot.brewcompetition.com/).

In February the club will finish the Barrel Aged compounds tasting panel and in March the plan is for a demo & discussion on the effect of grist milling on mash efficiency. As Union has provided a stable home for the club and meetings have moved to Sunday afternoons rather than Thursday evening, the event space and event time are more conducive to doing working/interactive sessions rather than presentations. Kevin is going to follow up with the board to get an understanding of what Union is comfortable with.
To encourage engagement, BaltiBrew is offering a stipend for members that would like to experience and report back! The specifics are still to be worked out, but the idea is that if a member has an idea on an experiment to run, the club would reimburse for the cost of materials (up to $40 or so dollars) on the stipulation that regardless of how the experiment turns out, that an ed topic would be presented by the brewer. If you've been on the fence about diving into a novel technique, ingredient, or side-by-side brew this is an opportunity to dive in with support from the club. Ping the listserve or the board and let us know what you're considering!

BruBakes is returning this spring! We have tentative pencilled in the afternoon of Sunday, April 23rd for this year's BruBakes competition. Kevin (thanks again) is going to confirm if Union will allow us the use of the Duckpin room for the event. If so, we will spin up the ticketing site and get to work on organizing. We need about 8-12 entrants to make BruBakes happen. As a refresher, BruBakes is a homebrew & baked good competition. Contestants brew a saison and make a baked good with a portion of the spent grain (at least 5% by weight of the baked good must be spent grain). This is a fundraiser for the club and we normally treat it as a showcase of the club, with most of the contestants being BalitBrewers. Contestant tickets are free, attendees will be 20 dollars. It's a smaller, low key event (we normally shoot for 60-100 attendees). If you are interested in brewing, baking, or helping organize the event, please ping the board!

The current club bylaws have not been updated in a long time. They were written at a time when homebrewing was in the public zeitgeist and engagement was much higher. For anyone interested they are online here: https://www.baltibrew.org/about-us/. While not a pressing issue, the club should consider updating them to better reflect the needs of the membership.

Congratulations to Rajesh for taking home the BaltiBrew Iron Brewer cup in battle No Hops! His Raspberry Gose defeated Jude's Mead and Kevin's Sahti to claim the prize. With a new reigning Iron Brewer the door is open for more club challenges!

Many apologizes for leaving anyone out who brought beer to share. Kevin's English Bitter, the Reed's two-way Mexican Chocolate-Pepper-Coffee Ale, Emily and Jerry's Imperial Stout, and my own small english ale were sampled, along with some tasty beer from our host, Union Brewing. Looking forward to our next meeting, Sunday, February 12th at Union! Cheers!