We tasted the results of our February, 3 Lions brew, and decided to enter all four versions this past Friday, March 11th. We should hear about the results of the comp later this week.

Coming up fast we have our — still tentative — April 10th brew with Brian "Stillwater" Strumke, and the following week — April 17th — we have Chilibrew 3.0 at the Ash Street Farm in Hampden.

We'll also be having a work day before our April brew to get keggles, mash tuns, and burners built, as well as getting a basic fermentation kit set up.

The post March Meeting Minutes, 3 Lions tasting, etc. (Broken Attachment) appeared first on Baltibrew.

So Why?

Regularity of meetings do a number of things for the club:

• They allow what we say on the website about meeting dates to remain mostly true, which means casual, prospective members who find us via the Internet are more likely to show up to a meeting without having to contact us, or us having to contact them.
• They help us to support Muggsy's which is important if we want to continue to have a regular meeting place at which we can bring our homebrewed efforts. Without a regular meeting place, we similarly affect the likelihood of new arrivals.
• They get us on a schedule. The more lax we are about meeting regularly, the more likely we are to just let them fall to the wayside in favor of lackadaisically doing business at brews when we should be focused on  brewing.

Doing business at brews breaks our focus on brewing at the brew, and reduces time at the brews that could be better spent instructing members about what we're doing. It also limits our ability to do style and technical presentations during down times at brews since we have decided not to do these at meetings.

There will be times when we have to move or cancel meetings to accommodate other events — like Opening Tap of BBW/Chilibrew II, this past year — but it makes sense to minimize this as much as possible moving forward to ensure that we don't lose the privilege to meet at Muggsy's, and to make certain we get the important business of running the club done.

So show up if you can. If you can't, comment on this post if there is business you want done at the meeting.

Current agenda after the jump. Updates if we see comments.

Agenda:

There are some fairly important things to discuss tonight:

• First and foremost DUES.
  It has been proposed that we move forward with a $20 annual dues payment for membership. I have also heard $15 and I've heard $25. A number of members have suggested we simply move forward with the $20 fee as it seems to be what the MOST people have agreed upon. However, in the spirit of keeping the club democratic, and working to foster the use of the website as a real tool for our members, I think we need to insist on using the site to vote on this most important issue for our relatively young club. Less pressing issues such as what to brew next, I think require less focus on having an actual vote, but issues that directly affect the future of the club as a whole absolutely NEED to be voted upon, just to ensure that everyone has a shot at their say. If you disagree, please bring it up at meeting tonight, or comment on this thread. Outside of any collective dissent to this notion, we will lock down options for a vote this evening, and open voting once minutes have been posted.
• Kits+ Capacity Expansion:
  Once we've determined what the dues will be for the year we should be able to come up with a budget for the equipment projects we've proposed. Tonight, we should discuss which portion of these equipment projects you collectively think is more important — Kits to allow members who do not have equipment of their own to take home wort from brews, or capacity expansion that will allow us to make more wort at brews and thus send home more beer.
• April Brew:
  We tend to brew every other month. Since we're brewing our first brew of the year this Saturday at Greg Slack's house, our next brew will be in April. At present, we have a tentative "IN" from Brian Strumke — mastermind of Stillwater Artisanal Ales to run a brew with us in the month April. Brian's schedule is interesting in that he is a traveling brewer. As such, we'll need to accommodate his schedule in terms of WHEN we brew. We'll also need to discuss WHERE we brew.
• Chilibrew III:
  Discussion should be had about the when and the where. Ian has said it's likely to be on the 17th of April, and that it is likely that it WON'T be at 2640 as it has been the previous two times we've done it. We should also discuss possible beneficiaries for the event.
• Recruitment/Member Drive:
  Do we want to try to increase our general push for new members and thus more dues/participants? Should this coincide with increased capacity/kits? Events definitely help, but what else can we do? How/Where do we want to do this? Colleges? Fliers in the homebrew shops? You tell us.
• Site Access:
  How do we want to handle providing member access to this site for items like members' only areas (i.e. votes, recipes, etc.)?

The post Why We Have Meetings + February Meeting Agenda appeared first on Baltibrew.

The brew is all-grain so we'll be starting early — Say 9 a.m. Gotta' get water up to heat early so we can mash in early. But show up when you want to thereafter. We'll probably mash in around 10.

Bring food to share, beer or other libations to share, and something to keep you entertained over a goodly bit of the day. Bring coffee or some breakfast item if you're coming early. All-grain brewing is a much more laborious, and time consuming process than extract, so be prepared to learn a ton, and have a great time as well.

In other news, the American Homebrew Assn's National Homebrew Day (5/1) — lovingly referred to as Big Brew — is swiftly approaching, and Baltibrew has been cordially invited to attend a number of different events to celebrate. You can join member Kevin Berry down at Maryland Homebrew for the festivities put on by that establishment AND a number of different clubs in the South, or you can join some of us — possibly Ryan B, if the wife lets him play hooky from moving duties — at the Thirsty Brewer for Wootown's collective Big Brew up North.
UPDATE:

Wootown's Big Brew is on 5/8 — NOT 5/1.

With business out of the way… time to talk aesthetics.

Feast your eyes on the awesome label member Brent Hoffman designed to accompany our recently named Pagoda Porter. It's doubly appropriate that we'll be enjoying the better part of a Corny keg of this beer AT Patterson Park, NEAR the pagoda on brew day. Come out and have a taste.

The post April Meeting/Brew 4-25 appeared first on Baltibrew.