Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 10:05 am
I will try to clearly detail my vision of this and what this thread started about. Correct me if I am wrong Randy.
This second monthly meeting would be a technical meeting. It would be about the technical aspects of brewing and Beer. I do like Tims idea about alternating between a brewing aspect and style understanding and identification. This would keep things exciting and keep us with topics to use.
Now, the one thing I must stress is this is not to become a second social/agenda meeting. Rules need to be put into place to prevent that from happening. That is why I don't think any beer should be allowed other then if a beer understanding and idenfication meeting those that are choosen from the style to be a excellent representation of the style. Even then, these would be prepurchased by either the board or the host and a door fee would cover the cost of those. Homebrew would be excluded from attending as the point of these meetings is to learn to make good beer and how to judge it for yourself. After all lets face it we are already our own worst critics.
Here is a couple of the idea's I was rolling around:
Blind Tasting: A style would be choosen then 3 Beers would be choosen from that style that are excellent representation of that style (Usually from the BJCP style guidelines). They would be covered or bagged to conseal the identification so to prevent bias. Samples would be tasted and compared to guidelines and each other, discussion would be held to identify flavor characteristics of each beer and wheather the specific characteristics are favorable to that style. NO OUTSIDE BEERS AT MEETING.
Learning to Judge: This would be similar to the tasting; however this would be about learning to judge a beer. This would involve again 3 beers choosen one of which would be one that was in BYO by professional judges. beers identification would be removed and the beer would be tasted and all would fill out BJCP judging sheets. After this we would pull the forms for the one profiled in BYO and compare our sheets to those of BYO and discuss the beers. This is to learn to start thinking critically of beers and flavors in them. NO OUTSIDE BEERS AT MEETING.
DIY Stir Plate: For the DIY meetings we would need to find someone who would like that item. They would provide the required parts for the build, then we would assembly the item with the expertise provided by another in the club who has done this already. The person who provide the parts would take home the item after the meeting. This would help people who are not technically savy with hands on demostration of how to build one.
DIY Counterflow Chiller: For the DIY meetings we would need to find someone who would like that item. They would provide the required parts for the build, then we would assembly the item with the expertise provided by another in the club who has done this already. The person who provide the parts would take home the item after the meeting. This would help people who are not technically savy with hands on demostration of how to build one.
Yeast Culturing: While I know of no one yet in the club culturing their own yeast I have plans to start here soon, after I have finished modifying my new setup. This meeting would go over the required items to culture yeast. Preventing contamination, developing your own yeast strains and storage of yeast.
Decotion Mashing: A demostration would be done of decoction mashing. There are many advantages of this, primarly, this accentuates and increases the flavor of malts. Which is highly desired for your maltier beers. For this meeting a mini brew would be done and the decoction cycle would be performed as a demonstration. We would go over how the calculations are performed to acheive different rest cycles and what those cycles contribute to the beer.
There are more these are just some samples of things I have thought of for these meetings. Again, I would like to highlight that this will be techincal in nature and not to replace the socilal/agenda meeting we already have. I hope this at least start to clear up what the concept of this meeting is for.
Jeremy
This second monthly meeting would be a technical meeting. It would be about the technical aspects of brewing and Beer. I do like Tims idea about alternating between a brewing aspect and style understanding and identification. This would keep things exciting and keep us with topics to use.
Now, the one thing I must stress is this is not to become a second social/agenda meeting. Rules need to be put into place to prevent that from happening. That is why I don't think any beer should be allowed other then if a beer understanding and idenfication meeting those that are choosen from the style to be a excellent representation of the style. Even then, these would be prepurchased by either the board or the host and a door fee would cover the cost of those. Homebrew would be excluded from attending as the point of these meetings is to learn to make good beer and how to judge it for yourself. After all lets face it we are already our own worst critics.
Here is a couple of the idea's I was rolling around:
Blind Tasting: A style would be choosen then 3 Beers would be choosen from that style that are excellent representation of that style (Usually from the BJCP style guidelines). They would be covered or bagged to conseal the identification so to prevent bias. Samples would be tasted and compared to guidelines and each other, discussion would be held to identify flavor characteristics of each beer and wheather the specific characteristics are favorable to that style. NO OUTSIDE BEERS AT MEETING.
Learning to Judge: This would be similar to the tasting; however this would be about learning to judge a beer. This would involve again 3 beers choosen one of which would be one that was in BYO by professional judges. beers identification would be removed and the beer would be tasted and all would fill out BJCP judging sheets. After this we would pull the forms for the one profiled in BYO and compare our sheets to those of BYO and discuss the beers. This is to learn to start thinking critically of beers and flavors in them. NO OUTSIDE BEERS AT MEETING.
DIY Stir Plate: For the DIY meetings we would need to find someone who would like that item. They would provide the required parts for the build, then we would assembly the item with the expertise provided by another in the club who has done this already. The person who provide the parts would take home the item after the meeting. This would help people who are not technically savy with hands on demostration of how to build one.
DIY Counterflow Chiller: For the DIY meetings we would need to find someone who would like that item. They would provide the required parts for the build, then we would assembly the item with the expertise provided by another in the club who has done this already. The person who provide the parts would take home the item after the meeting. This would help people who are not technically savy with hands on demostration of how to build one.
Yeast Culturing: While I know of no one yet in the club culturing their own yeast I have plans to start here soon, after I have finished modifying my new setup. This meeting would go over the required items to culture yeast. Preventing contamination, developing your own yeast strains and storage of yeast.
Decotion Mashing: A demostration would be done of decoction mashing. There are many advantages of this, primarly, this accentuates and increases the flavor of malts. Which is highly desired for your maltier beers. For this meeting a mini brew would be done and the decoction cycle would be performed as a demonstration. We would go over how the calculations are performed to acheive different rest cycles and what those cycles contribute to the beer.
There are more these are just some samples of things I have thought of for these meetings. Again, I would like to highlight that this will be techincal in nature and not to replace the socilal/agenda meeting we already have. I hope this at least start to clear up what the concept of this meeting is for.
Jeremy