Meeting: 03.25.09
Posted on March 27, 2009Our latest meeting was held at the home of Greg and Jaime Wales.
Hello Brew Crew, I'll take a few minutes to recap our 3rd M.A.L.T.S. meeting held on March 25, 2009. We had two new attendees last night! We welcomed Scott St Johns and Doyle Wilson. Scott is toying with the notion of becoming a brewer and Doyle has been brewing for the past 18 years. Welcome to Scott and Doyle! We enjoyed having you on board. In addition to our two brew friends, Terry, Lon, Keith, Rich, Christian, Jules, Lee, Susie, Jan, Jaime and Greg were in attendance with a guest appearance from Mac the Knife. Thank you to all that participated and it is nice to see that we are growing the club. Lee and Susie provided a few beers from Montana to get us warmed up! They recently traveled to Montana to pick up a beautiful little puppy aptly named Barley. She is gorgeous, soft and has the sharpest little razor teeth that you could imagine. We welcome Barley as a welcome addition to the M.A.L.T.S. family and thank you to Lee and Susie for thinking about the club and providing the excellent beer. Rich took us through the steps of making a yeast starter for an upcoming brew. Rich has handcrafted a stir plate that a yeast slurry laden flask sits on. Rich pointed out that the purpose of a yeast starter is to propagate enough healthy yeast to pitch into a determined amount of wort. It is important to pitch the right amount of yeast to have a good fermentation and tasty result. Thanks Rich and I can tell you all that when I opened the refrigerator tonight to check on it... the smell was of great things happening. Bravisimo Rich... or should I call you Reposado? Terry, a/k/a/ T-Bone, brought over a growler of his IPA that has been dry hopped since our last tasting. I think that all agreed that the dry hopping well improved the beer and Terry admitted that the IPA suffered a bit because of a lack of carbonation. We will get all of the kinks worked out and thank you to Terry for his beer. Jan offered up a 5 year old bottle of Riesling wine. It was much appreciated as we do not get a chance to taste wine during the club meetings. Nice touch Jan and I know the wine was well received as well as you sharing your knowledge of how to make wine. Rich brought over a growler of Black IPA and a ghetto bottle of Kolsch. The Kolsch was in the glass first and all found it to be extraordinary light but well balanced. We all realized you took one for the team by brewing that beer for Mary and we love your dedication to pleasing your family. The Kolsch was a bit hazy due to proteins but it was agreed that the taste did not suffer one bit. The Black IPA was well received with Jules just about blowing a gasket because it was "YUM"! Rich, once again you outdid yourself and we all agreed that you MUST do the Black IPA for our impending visit to Barley's Brewfest III in Henderson, Nevada on May 2, 2009. Doyle brought over two beers for our pleasure. One is still here as Doyle requested that we sit on it for awhile. The Sweet Stout was a big hit with comments being that it was "very smooth... well carbonated... almost a champagne type of effervescence. Well done Doyle and we hope that you can return and become a regular with your busy schedule. The next order of business was our M.A.L.T.S. offering that will be on tap at Barley Brother's in the future. Agreed upon was Rich's Rye IPA. Rich brewed up another test batch this past weekend and we will taste in a few weeks and hone the recipe. Lon has agreed to consider making a "contribution" per glass to M.A.L.T.S. so that our club can flourish. We discussed the amount of beer that a home brewer could legally make in Arizona. We had a variety of opinions about this and I can tell you that through careful research (two minutes on the Internet) the answer is: I will tell you in another email!!! (Ha Ha, just like on Deal or No Deal). We talked about the upcoming Barley's Brewfest III in Henderson, Nevada on May 2, 2009. Those who committed to going were Rich, Christian and Jules, Lee and Susie and Lon. We were assured that we will have a M.A.L.T.S. tent set up and that we would like to have at least 15 gallons of our beer to serve. Rich with his Black IPA, Lee with a Belgin Double Wit, and Greg with a keg of mildly hoppy Red Ale (what the hell does mildly mean anyways)? I will be looking into getting a health certificate so that we are in compliance with Nevada laws and Lon was going to make contact with Jim Wilson to see about getting a block of rooms at the casino for our club. I will be looking into getting our logo refined and put onto a banner that we can proudly hang on an EZ Up or the tent that we have. We will augment Lon and his presence for BBs at the event and it should be a righteous time. Also attending the event will be S.N.A.F.U., our counterparts from southern Nevada. It will be a great time getting to know our brethren from so.nev. The meeting took a turn for the wicked when Keith and Lon broke out the Belgian Double, Imperial Stout and the dreaded "DESTROYER"!!!!!!!! If memory serves correct, because Jule's notes got real fuzzy, we all imbibed and enjoyed our Patron Saints beer! I was seeing vapor trails trying to describe the function of the brew sculpture recently completed for Lee and Susie. I wish you many great brews Lee and damn you guys for bringing those mind-altering fantastic BB's beers! We agreed to "stock-up" on some commonly used consumable items for home brewing for our club. We will "up-charge" the items a nominal amount (IE. 50 cents or so) and all of the proceeds will benefit and fund M.A.L.T.S.. We also agreed that our yearly dues would be $50.00 per year and be payable at next month's meeting (you like that huh... right after IRS time). As discussed at our prior meeting the dues will cover your official M.A.L.T.S. gear - shirt, glass and taster glass. We had a submission for our logo and I received some very good input on it. All agreed that it needed some work, change the cactus to a realistic 3d image, hop cones for the periods in the M.A.L.T.S., color changes in the sunburst and beer mug and a color associated with the lettering. Alas... it is a living breathing being and we will get it right. By this time of the meeting it was getting pretty drunk out (I mean dark out, sorry) and Lon offered up his $24.00 and rode into the sunset as did several others. After discussions between Rich, Greg and Lee happened and between slurs (not racial I might add) we decided to fund Lon's membership dues because of his commitment and help to the club. You SOBs better remember this come payment time! That brought our 3rd meeting to a successful and blissful end! Our fourth meeting will be held on April 24, 2009 at the abode of Lee and Susie Dockins. Address to follow in the coming weeks. Adios to all and get those burners ordered T-Bag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Greg WalesProud M.A.L.T.S. Member