Notes from the February Meeting

Last night, the club met for its February meeting that has been postponed from last week due to the weather. The off-schedule might have discouraged a few from making it out, and so a few regular members were not in attendance.

However, we'd like to warmly welcome three new members: Jim, Sam, and Eric. It seems both the place mat ad and the Gazette article were effective recruitment ventures!

In total, we had 12 members in the Dubliner for the meeting. After everyone grabbed a pint and socialized for a bit, we began the program. Our program was given by Dave Juart, who shared his experience in using a small 2 gallon cooler to do counter top partial mashing. This extra step adds just a bit more time in the extract brewing schedule, but has the benefit of adding more control and complexity to the flavor and fermentables that one normally doesn't get with extract brewing.

Dave got several questions followed by lively discussion on the technique. Thanks, Dave!

Following the presentation, Nate made a few announcements regarding upcoming events:

• Febtoberfest is currently booked at the Coney for Saturday, March 22. It was brought to my attention that several of us forgot that this is the Saturday on Easter weekend. The deposit was put down, but if that Saturday is a conflict for a large percentage of the membership, thereby preventing them from attending, then we may have to push the event back to the next available weekend. An email will be sent this week regarding.
• We need to find out how many members are committed to attending, with and without their significant others; we'll try to keep the costs as low as possible, but that will depend on participation and which food items we select
• Club name?? So far, all we have been given is the "Trubadours". Are there other nominations?
• Pints For Pets - the first annual brew festival to be held at the Blair Co. ball park on May 17 from 4-8pm. $30 admission, with all monies going to the Central PA Humane Society. If interest is high, we'll see about organizing transportation.

After the official business, we got down to the tasting of three homebrews:

1. Excelsior Stout, courtesy of Jon Defibaugh, a sweetish milk stout with a very creamy body!
2. Batch XI, courtesy of Muckney Brewing (Dave Juart, Justin Tanaka), is a "kitchen sink", Stone 11th Anniversary-inspired ale - described as an extra dark IPA. Very hoppy!
3. Dark & Mysterious, courtesy of Muckney Brewing also, was a cinnamon porter and the first recipe written entirely by Mr. Tanaka. Quite a wallop of spice in that one!

After the tasting, as usual, several people stuck around for another round and some good discussion. In all, another successful meeting!