March 2017 Meeting Minutes

[karl]

Cedar Rapids Beer Nuts
General Meeting Minutes
2017 March 16

Meeting was called to order by President Matt Franklin. Twenty three members and interested persons were in attendance. The club welcomes prospective new members Adam and Alex to the meeting and socialization.

Old Business

Club Competitions:
February: Bunged Breakfast Cereal: Congratulations to Bunged champion Mark Jensen for his ‘Cinnamon Toast Crunch’ beer and honorable mention Josh Jensen for his Spooktacular Stout, Pat McCusker for his Breakfast Wild Ale, and Eric Benda for his Banana Nut Crunch
April: style 24A Belgian Wit
July: style 20C Imperial Stout
October: 6A Marzen

Member-sponsored competitions: Pat McCusker is sponsoring “Mad McCusker’s Mead Melee” including putting up a prize of one pound of excellent Basswood honey. Turn-in is approximately one year from now. You need aging time so get busy!

Festival Planning
Date: Third Saturday in August: August 19
Location: Benz Beverage Depot.
Publicity
Promotional cards, magnets, posters, etc.: Cards and magnets have been printed and are being made available to members at club meetings and events.
Looking for volunteers to walk around at C.R. Farmer’s Market with sandwich board and handing out publicity cards and magnets.
Food
Food vendor has been booked: Sausage Foundry, having really hit it out of the park last year, will be back. We’re looking forward to the deep-fried bacon already.
Band
Band has been booked: Surf Zombies! Yay!

National Homebrew Conference
Registration opened on March 07 at 11:00 CST. Hotels are likely filling up fast. There will likely be plenty of available capacity, but registration fees will increase on April 30.
Club transportation - Car pool will be most efficient. Remember, you can park your car and not need to worry about transport during the conference. A thread has been posted on the forums suggesting possible carpool partners.
We are looking for a new theme. Perhaps twisting Minnesota icons might be fun. We’re looking for suggestions that might be biting humor but not offensive.
Herokuapp has been set up. Members hoping to bring beer should list their beers, the type of container, and the quantity.
Jim Potts volunteered to pull the trailer using his truck). Some consideration for the extra fuel consumption will be made.

Beer Nuts Happy Hour
Last Sunday of the month (January through October) at Lion Bridge Brewing
Had very good turn attendance and interest from the public
People’s Choice voting: Congratulations to Mark Jensen for his Cinnamon Toast Crunch beer (1st), Josh Jensen (2nd) and Pat McCusker (3rd). There was great participation from the public with about 50 votes cast.
The next Beer Nuts Happy Hour will be March 26. Please indicate on the forum thread if you are interested in bringing beer.

Club Grain Order
Sign up for the grain order will occur at on or about the April general meeting. Please be ready with your plans at that time.
This time we’re focusing on base malts only. Don’t plan on speciality grains unless you want a 50-pound sack of Crystal 60L all to yourself.
Since we’re focusing on base malts, we encourage you to purchase speciality grains and other supplies from our friends at BIY.

Club Trips/Tours
Iowa Brewery Tour - date has been proposed for April 22-23. A deposit of $20 will be charged to sign up. An itinerary of central-Iowa breweries to be posted soon. A show of hands at the meeting indicated that at least ten members are interested in participating. Planning will go ahead.
Great Taste of the Midwest - No officially organized club presence. But, many members will be camping at Lake Farm Campground for both the night before ticket day (May 7) and for the event itself.

New Business

General meeting dates and locations
March - Another Road Taproom - March 16, 8:00 pm
April - Iowa Brewing Co (tentative) - April 20, 8:00 pm
May - Lion Bridge Brewing - May 18, 8:00 pm

Wort Rally 2017
Daryl has arranged the major details with Lion Bridge Brewing
Wort will be a pared-down version of the Yard Sale wort.
Vessel drop off will be Thursday, May 4th with pickup on Friday, May 5th. Alec is hoping to have the wort ready for pickup at 3pm, but that is tentative.
Price is $30 for a volume of 10 gallons. Fees will be collected through the club.
There will be a hard cutoff date (TBD) to register.
T-shirts for this year are pending.

Big Brew Day
Big Brew Day is May 6th
NewBo Market has invited us to brew at the market that day. However, with NHC and other events on the calendar, we are planning to skip this year in favor of 2018
Club members who wish to participate in this brew day are encouraged to volunteer. If there is enough interest we may be able to participate.

Other competitions:
Mexican Mash Off @ Lark Brewing - Saturday March 25 - This is a wort rally where brewers are encouraged to finish the brewing process on-site at Lark Brewing in Waterloo. Wort pickup is March 25th. Tasting will be Saturday May 6th. (Note this is the same day as Big Brew Day.) Style is a Mexican Stout. See forum thread for details.

Lager ‘Lympics Festival
Enquiry from Metro North Rotary Club to participate in pouring (our own homebrew) beer at this festival
Further information at this link.
Problem is that it is between Benz Festival and NHC and is a stretch for many of us to provide beer.
A call has been placed on the forums for those willing to provide beer and/or pour at the event.

Ultra-Barrier Silver Beer Line Group Purchase
Those of us who are using it can vouch for it being a good product and easy to keep clean
Sign-up to be provided by Eric Benda at the March general meeting

Use of the Club Tap Box
Members are permitted to borrow the club tap box for use at parties
A refundable $20 deposit will be charged to cover cleaning if returned with the beer lines (or other portions) of the tap box unacceptably dirty.
The club is purchasing equipment for cleaning and supplies for cleaning
Instructions for cleaning and blowing dry lines to be authored by TBD.

Special Guest
The club welcomed special guest Wes Sindt from Harvest City Hops. Harvest City Hops is a new, local hop and rhizome producer located in Cedar Falls, IA. They focus on production and sale of high-quality, fresh hops to the home brewing market. Hops and rhizomes were available for purchase at the meeting. For further information please see their website at www.harvestcityhops.com.

Adjournment

Respectfully submitted,
Karl Hoech, Secretary