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As Seen In |
November Minutes BY Douglas King (Published in the December 1996 Brews and News)
The Falcons had a regular monthly meeting at The Home Wine and Beer Shop on Sunday, November 3rd. The turn-out was quite good, 55-60 by my rough count. I was glad to see quite a few new faces, most of which were showing a great deal of interest in our activities. The participation level was outstanding for this event, of course highest during our tasting portions! We got going with the monthly homebrew tasting session, by far the best attended portion of the meeting. Presented for everyone's enjoyment and scrutiny were the following homebrews: Bruce Wenzel, IPA; Rich Schmittdiel, labor day pale ale; Tom Wolf, 2 Belgian Strong ales; Leo Barentse, IPA; Thom Rogers, IPA; Bill Ames, dunkel weizen; Ken Fay, cider; Bruce Brode, club brewed American light lager; and Doug King, corn lager and blonde ale. Thanks to all for sharing their efforts, and keep 'em coming! After working our way through all the great homebrews, we took care of the business portion of the meeting. Some old business was first, starting with a recap of the Oktoberfest. It was quite a success, with several original new activities, including the keg toss, and some of the greatest ribs I've ever tasted! Everyone gave Biff a big hand for organizing this great party. The published calendar for the next year's activities was mostly accepted as is, with one dissenting vote. Nothing has been finalized yet. Several Falcons attended an Oktoberfest tasting at Weber's Place, with 50 beers for the tasting. The fall tour of Anheuser-Busch was on Oct. 24th, everyone really enjoyed it. George Reich extended an invitation to come twice a year in the future. For those of you that haven't been, I recommend it as one of the best sources of information you'll ever find, and George makes it a really fun time. Sign up for the spring tour when we announce it! George will answer every question you can come up with, ad you'll be surprised how similar homebrewing is to what the big guys are doing. The only bad news to report is concerning the Pasadena Pub Crawl. Not one of the members who had signed up actually showed up for the crawl, and the club had to pay $225 for the bus anyway. It was announced that in the future the policy will be money up front, or it isn't going to happen. In the future, come with cash in hand if there is an event upcoming that you wish to be a part of. If an insufficient number of people have cash before any announced deadline, the event will be canceled. Next on the agenda was new business. The tour of Great Western Malting Co. is still in the works, date to be announced. The artwork contest is still open. Steve Keppler brought in the only entries for this contest so far. They were passed around for all to see, but no vote was taken. Brian asked for any ideas on items to be included in the club's entry for the club of the year presentation. MB and Steve offered a photo of their wedding cake from the Anchor event 2 years ago. The exam for the BJCP exam is set for Nov 23rd. at Westwood Brewing. This year's Stuffed Sandwich Holiday Beer Tasting will take place on Saturday, Dec 14th, in San Gabriel. We started collecting a 20 dollar admission fee for this event, there will be a refund if enough people go and the price can be reduced. The December meeting will be the last chance to sign up for this annual good time event. There will be a Holiday Tasting at Crown City Brewing Co. in Pasadena on December 11th, price $30. MB & Steve Casselman donated a really col poster from Cantillion Brewery in Belgium, which they picked up on their recent trip, for the club room. Thanks Steve and MB!! Grand Hydro Bruce announced upcoming styles of the months, including this month's Lambic theme and a lambic brew, led by MB at the shop on November 9th. Next month will be Pale Ales, and there will be 2 club brews of the style on the shop system, including a brew of Bruce Wenzel's runner up Best of Show IPA. At this point a break for lunch was in order. Burgermeister Gary had a complete Mexican dinner ready for the hungry masses, complete with enchiladas, rice, beans, salsa, and jalapenos. Another great job by Gary and Laurie, and it sold out quickly. Get your lunch tickets early at the December meeting, we are limiting the availability of lunches to 30, in order to prevent too many leftovers. During lunch, Key Fay did a demo on serving from corney kegs, complete with a nice info packet. I missed this demo, but there was a good sized crowd assembled to hear all the details. Next month, I will be doing a lunch demo on cooking cereal adjuncts for brewing purposes, with the focus on how to make American style lagers. Also during lunch, Bruce Brode led the Troubleshooters Corner, with 4 participants this month. Troubleshooters Corner is an informal way to get feedback on your brew from a couple of our experienced judges, and it only takes one bottle to participate. After lunch, the tasting continued with the style of the month, presented by Grand Hydro Bruce Brode. He served two great Lambics, Mort Subite Peche and Lindeman's Cuvee Rene Gueze. Bruce and MB discussed the Lambic style while we enjoyed our tastes, and MB followed this by presenting the 2 club brewed Lambic Guezes from the past 2 years. The latest version was a big hit, I think MB has this style figured out! The sign up sheet for the upcoming brew was packed with names wanting to join in to brew this unique style.
Board Meeting The Falcon's Board of Directors had a meeting on 11\7\96. There were 8 members in attendance. We started things off with a tasting session to determine which homebrewed Belgian style beer should be entered into the AHA Club Only Belgian Beer Competition. Yeah, it's a tough job-but somebody's gotta do it! There were 7 entries for this tasting, all quite good, but we narrowed it down to the winning entry from Tom Wolf-a delicious Saison style brew. Congrats, Tom, and good luck! Brian brought the finished notebook of the club's accomplishments for the year. This gets sent to Anchor to help in their decision for Club of the Year winner. The package looked great! Thanks for a great job, Brian. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for another trip to Anchor! The Falcons are now officially a non-profit organization, something we've been working on for a while. We talked about a couple of ideas to speed completion of the newsletter, to try to get it out a week ahead of each meeting. Bill is working on updating the membership list, to straighten out a few problems. Jeff Jost is working on setting up our Web page to be able to receive postings, sort of like a bulletin board. Brian is working with Jeff to establish an e-mail broadcasting system, to supplement announcements in the newsletter. David is working out the details for the upcoming Holiday Tasting at the Stuffed Sandwich. Gary reported that 32 lunches were sold at the last meeting, which was about 2 or 3 shy of the demand. We wantto keep a limit on the number, to avoid waste and extra expense, but we may increase the number slightly for some months. December's lunch may be beef stew with several types of bread. We will once again be offering munchies prior to the meeting and during the tasting portion. Probably a bag of pretzels for 50 cents. We may be setting up a deal with Tracy McDonald to offer a discount on Avon products (they carry a few beer glasses and other items) with a purchase of Falcons paraphernalia. We authorized Mark to purchase a receipt book, to offer receipts to anyone needing one. Bruce gave us the rundown on Pilot Brewery plans for the next year. We really do need more experienced brewers to step foward and lead some brews, so please volunteer! Bruce will be presenting Holiday Beers for tasting at the December meeting, including Anchor Our Special Ale and Sierra Nevada Celebration, among others. The display case at the shop will be updated with new products and prices. Certificates of appreciation will be sent tocontributors to our Oktoberfest. We will be sending George Reich of Anheuser-Busch a couple of paraphernalia items, in appreciation of the fantastic tours he has given us. See y'all at the December meeting, Doug |
