annapolis, MD area brewers

[gotsumbeers]

I have two Ward Labs results from Southern Anne Arundel. I am not sure if it is the same aquifer that the rest of the county uses. It is in Rose Haven and used to be Rose Haven Utilities until the county took over the water and put in sewer. One is for water straight out of the tap and the other was carbon filtered. I'll bring them to the meeting.

I like A.B.C.D.

 

[eviljay]

I'm boiling right now, anyone want to come have a beer?

 

[SuperSpy]

I'm boiling right now, anyone want to come have a beer?

I wish I could but I have to unpack more boxes, mow the yard, hang curtains, and go shopping for bar stools just so I can get permission to brew tomorrow. You should have asked this morning and I would have had incentive to take care of all that before lunch.

 

[eviljay]

Spur of the moment batch. The wife is out of town this weekend!

 

[SuperSpy]

It looks like a lot of folks are bringing saisons to the meeting, so a couple of us thought it would be a good idea to have a saison tasting and discussion as part of the meeting. I'm going to pick up some commercial examples to compare with the homebrews but I need a head count to know how much to pick up. Based on thread responses the below list is what I have for attendance. Please correct me if wrong and let me know if you're bringing friends:

ATTENDING
kmcogar
clint04
djdixon1995
jamesmrea
eviljay

MAYBE
PoorBoy
gotsumbeers
rvklein
jaynik
DolemiteGK

NOT ATTENDING
MikeMMM

 

[SuperSpy]

Here is the plan that kmcogar and I discussed for the first meeting. The idea is to allow plenty of time for everyone to get to know each other, learn something about a particular style, get feedback on your own beers, then try to formalize what we want the club to be about. So here is a draft of the first meeting agenda:

1. Intros, opening statements, meet and greet to get the ball rolling.

2. A discussion of saison style, ingredients, techniques, etc with homebrew and commercial tasting

3. Break out your homebrew for taste, with discussion & feedback from club members

4. Club business (appoint interim officers, choose club name, adopt constitution, etc.)

5. Closing of club business

6. More taste and talk time

Any thoughts on the plan for the first meeting?

Also, I plan to fire up the grill with some sausages or brats or something. Not much, just something to snack on. Does anyone else want to bring pretzels or other snack/beer food?

 

[eviljay]

Step 1 should be: "Drink Beer" at any and all meetings!

Also, let me know what you want me to bring. Can't show up empty handed.

 

[jaynik]

Thanks. I am sure were on different water supplies though. I will do a wards test some time soonish.

 

[gotsumbeers]

Gotsumbeers is coming. I was going to break in to a St Feuillien Saison this evening, but I'll save it to bring Thursday. I'm bringing my remaining IPA to taste, and can bring whatever else is necessary.

 

[Eshorebrewer]

Just seeing this thread, great idea guys. I live just over the bridge and would love to get some opinions on my brews from some fellow home brewers. I've been brewing for about a year and a half now and have moved to all grain for the last few batches using a 3 tier gravity setup that's been slopped together in my garage with a 7.5g keg for the hot, 52qt Colman extreme cooler for the mlt and a 15g ss pot with a single jet turkey fryer.

 

[SuperSpy]

Just seeing this thread, great idea guys. I live just over the bridge and would love to get some opinions on my brews from some fellow home brewers. I've been brewing for about a year and a half now and have moved to all grain for the last few batches using a 3 tier gravity setup that's been slopped together in my garage with a 7.5g keg for the hot, 52qt Colman extreme cooler for the mlt and a 15g ss pot with a single jet turkey fryer.

So count you in for Thursday? I would love to see your setup sometime. I want to build an all grain rig over the summer but have to get settled into the house first. I've been trying to get a look at other setups to give me some ideas on what to do with my own.

 

[djdixon1995]

Hi All,

This has really picked up some steam while I've been traveling. Thanks SuperSpy for providing the venue. I don't have a saison to share but I'll bring along my black IPA and hefe weizen. I've got a kolsch that's carbing up as we speak...if it's ready I'll bring that along too. I'm looking forward to meeting you all on Thursday.

Cheers

 

[jamesmrea]

I have one liter of saison left from a batch I made last fall and will bring it. I will also try and pick up a couple of commercial examples. Other than that, I don't have anything ready to bring -- I got a late start this spring. I can bring a couple of bags of pretzels.
BTW, I have a couple of vial of ECY saison yeast that are starting to get old. If anybody wants them, they are welcome to have them.

 

[eviljay]

I shall bring 4 hookers and a stripper pole. Does that work?

 

[benbrew]

If anyone is interested, there is a Free State Homebrew Club Guild (FSHCG) meeting tonight, Monday May 14, at 6:30, at the Heavy Seas / Clipper City Brewery in Halethorpe. See http://www.hsbeer.com/directions-brewery for directions. The FSHCG is a clearinghouse for Maryland homebrew clubs, a "club of clubs" if you will. A great organization for your club to join. The website is at http://mdhomebrewers.com .

This Wednesday May 16 there will be a Chesapeake Real Ale Brewers Society (CRABS) meeting at 7:30 PM, also at Heavy Seas. This is a very active club with a thriving membership, and new members are always welcome. See http://www.crabsbrew.org for the club website.

 

[Eshorebrewer]

Sadly I will not be able to make Thursdays meet up due to prior obligations to SWMBO lol, but now that I know I'll keep an eye out for the next one.

 

[SuperSpy]

If anyone is interested, there is a Free State Homebrew Club Guild (FSHCG) meeting tonight, Monday May 14, at 6:30, at the Heavy Seas / Clipper City Brewery in Halethorpe. See http://www.hsbeer.com/directions-brewery for directions. The FSHCG is a clearinghouse for Maryland homebrew clubs, a "club of clubs" if you will. A great organization for your club to join. The website is at http://mdhomebrewers.com .

I don't see myself being able to make it to the FSHCG tonight and probably not the CRABS meeting either. However, I definitely see our new club getting involved with the FSHCG. Please mention the new club when you meet tonight and feel free to extend an invitation for Thursday's meeting to any and all that would like to attend. Any help in getting this off the ground will be very much appreciated!

 

[Clint04]

Wow, I can't believe there are over 100 responses in this thread now.

I will be bringing only a few bottles on Thursday. I will bring a Roggenbier (that I am happy with), a Belgian Pale w/ Brett B. (that I am okay with), and possibly a Berliner (need to see how many bottles I have left).

Unfortunately, my Citra/Amarillo saison will not be making the trip. It's just not quite ready yet. For some reason, I notice that any time I use 3711, they need at least a month of bottle conditioning before they hit their "peak." Probably just me though.

 

[SuperSpy]

Wow, I can't believe there are over 100 responses in this thread now.

it's even more impressive considering that this thread was started over a year ago and only had ten posts as of 04 April 2012.

 

[SuperSpy]

The following is for anyone that's interested in how we setup the club from a functional standpoint or wants to take on some kind of responsibility within the club. In my experience the most successful clubs have clearly stated what they're about and who is responsible for what from the beginning. The idea isn't to create a hierarchy and give people work, it's simply to make clear what needs to happen to make sure the club picks up new members, has money to fund events, knows the who/what/where/when of regular meetings, and who is responsible for making sure those things happen. You get to sit back and enjoy a homebrew much more quickly when all of those things are already hashed out. Then you get to focus on things like brew-ins, competitions, technical topics and most importantly, drinking beer! So I've borrowed heavily from one of my previous homebrew clubs and put together a draft constitution at the below link. Take a look and offer whatever feedback you have. I have also included my own notes below the link. It would be great if we could have this finalized by the end of the first meeting:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/906974/Club/Constitution DRAFT3.doc

Articles I, II & III look pretty straightforward to me. We may want to work on the mission statement.

Article IV describes club officer positions.

- The Sergeant-at-arms (I'm not sure we need this position) just makes sure we're sticking to our own meeting rules and tries to keep us on topic when we try to have a meeting where we're all drinking (maybe we would need this)

- The Librarian maintains a library of brewing related books that could be loaned out to club members. I have a few books I can give to the club to get this started.

- Newsletter editor would write and edit the newsletter. However, I think the days of club newsletters is behind us. Maintaining an online forum or Facebook page would accomplish this function. Thoughts?

-The Website Administrator would handle all web related things. This may also just be a Facebook page for now and we can consider our own website at some point in the future.

Everything else seems self-explanatory to me. We probably don't need to worry about committees, but it's in there for when the time comes. We may need to discuss the regular meetings date/time. I just listed the currently scheduled meeting date/time.

 

[eviljay]

I know that poorboy is actually in the PR business. He'd probably be good at running the fb page.

 

[DolemiteGK]

I live in Arnold do am near there. I think "dolemite" said he lives in arnold too. Small world.

Jay

Yessir I do! Technically "Annapolis", but I live off Bay Dale Drive about 5mi from the Bay Bridge.

 

[Clint04]

Also, if anyone needs me to bring any snacks, let me know. I live in Easton, but I work 0.5mi away from SuperSpy's house....so I will be looking to kill time in between the end of my work day and the start of our get together. I would gladly run to the grocery store.

 

[SuperSpy]

A sampling of what will be available Thursday night. Ignore the Oscar Blue's and the Brew Dog; those are mine!

 

[jaynik]

Yessir I do! Technically "Annapolis", but I live off Bay Dale Drive about 5mi from the Bay Bridge.

Nice. I live down the street in rain tree.

 

[gotsumbeers]

I have the small clear plastic cups. I'm sitting here In the drizzle brewin! Lovely. I have cups and a couple of brews to bring. Anything else? I'm going to sit here and read that link Superspy provided so I don't bring my ignorance too.

 

[eviljay]

That's a nice selection superspy. My saison's are still in primary, so I'll bring a few chocolate milk stouts if I can pry them from SWMBO's hands. She loves them.

 

[DolemiteGK]

MAYBE
DolemiteGK

Count me in! I can bring whatever we need. A friend and I brewed a saison recently, so I'll see if he's around or at least has some I can grab.

But I'll gladly pick up some commercial examples -> Brooklyn Sorachi Ace would be a great start!

 

[SuperSpy]

Count me in! I can bring whatever we need.

I think we currently have:

- Beef short ribs (just enough to be a snack)
- Some commercial saisons
- Pretzels thanks to jamesmrea
- Clear plastic sample cups thanks to gotsumbeers
- Hookers and a pole thanks to eviljay

I'm not sure about what else we need unless someone wants to bring some other snack food. We may move the meeting out to the deck if the weather is good. If you have a camp chair or something similar then it would be a good idea to bring it.

Also, does someone want to take notes for the first meeting? We need an acting secretary to keep track of what we agree to once the beer starts flowing.

 

[eviljay]

I'll take notes. I was a yeoman in my past life in the navy.

I'll also probably bring something for people to snack on. Likely whatever I grab last minute on my way over.