July 2008

[Bill]

Seminar
There was no seminar this month. Chuck directed the meeting towards welcoming the new members to the guild by discussing what the guild is about and why we do what we do. He discussed the openness of the guild and how everyone is willing to help anyone wanting to learn the basics or have you over for a co-brew session.

Tasting
The tasting this month was flavored Wheat beers. We could class these under BJCP Guideline Style 20 Fruit Beers. Click here for the BJCP Guide lines.

Announcements
John Monoghan accounted that he would be hosting Mead Day again this year. It will not be on the usual day for Mead Day. He will be hosting it on the 2nd or 3rd weekend of August. Watch the forums for more.

Victor has 10 or so ?beer of the month? boxes to give away. They would be great for sending brew to competitions since each bottle has its own cardboard jacket for packing. Post in the Swap Meet forum if you are interested.

Talk came up about the Topeka Hall of Foamers getting together a GABF charter bus, Sean said that fizzled out. If you have any information on this, post it in the Forum.

Jonathan Drury offered some imported red oak pieces to give away. They could be used for oak aging beer. Post in the Swap Meet forum if you are interested.

Sean Belden took to the floor to ask for a vote to decide on forgoing the membership dues for officers during their term. It was put to a vote, everyone in attendance voted for it (including the new faces!).
It is official; starting in 2009 Officers will not have to pay membership dues during their term.

Sean Belden also announced that the shopping cart portion of the LBG website is up. You can pay for your memberships, get Brewfest tickets or buy some LBG glassware. Check it out here

Tony Sailor asked about how the T-shirt sales are done, and Chuck knighted him Captain of the T-shirt committee (and later the food committee). In the past, T-shirts were done on a volunteer basis. It would be nice to get something setup in the Brewfest book.

Old Business

Muggs for Juggs
Muggs for Juggs was at Andy and Kim Booth's. Muggs for Juggs in is a fund raiser for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Andy took the floor and thanked everyone for showing up, donating beer and shelling out $3,300!
Now Kim can go and walk 16 miles in 3 days in Sept.

Tallgrass Brewery Tour
The Tallgrass tour was great! Jeff Gill walked us through his brewery and answered every \question we could come up. Despite the size of the brewery we spent a very long time asking questions, opening shut doors just to see what?s behind them and walking into the cooler to see what hops he had on hand.

There was a fresh brew fermenting away and the blow off tube bucket looked like a Jacuzzi turned up to 11. No, see, it goes to 11.

A big thanks to Jeff for taking time on a Saturday to walk a bunch of home brewers through his brewery.
If you have any photos from the Tallgrass tour, please contact Sean so we can get them posted up on the Web.

Treasury Report
$3,360.00
Memberships: there are currently 89 paid members.
$16 for single and $24 for family (two adults and yer kids).
Contact Xan Wedel (treasurer@lawrencebrewers.org) to pay and/or pick up your laminated membership cards (courtesy of Zach Staats. Thanks Zach!) Check out his site at www.peaceloveart.com.


New Business
Ren Fest is coming up fast. The LBG will be there on September 6th and 7th. What we do is sell our collectible Lawrence Brewers Guild 6oz highball glasses for $5 and if they so chose, they can sample up to 3 different beers. We talk to the public about home brewing and answer questions regarding the process. Someone usually does a kit beer. John announced that we need to make sure to watch the 2008 KC Renaissance Festival thread for details.
VP Shane Lynn and Andy Booth offered up the use of their systems for two, count 'em, two 20 gallon batches of beer each!. Shane was thinking of brewing up a bitter and a wheat for the samples. Maybe a pale ale and and a K?lch would offer up some good flavors.
With the dual group brews going on this time we decided to go ahead and get 4 cases of glasses this year. We always sell out earlier than we think, but we need to have enough beer to fill the glasses.

We have some extra things to put in the glasses this year:
Zymurgy magazine is giving us 50 coupons for 1 free issue of their intro to home brewing edition. Get your own subscription at the AHA Web site
BYO has also offered up 400 postcards for a free issue of BYO magazine. Get your own subscription of BYO at BYO.com.
Please feel free and come out and visit. We still need to confirm, but it has always been setup that there is free admission for LBG members for our event, so its at no cost for you to come join us.

Brewfest
Brewfest is our main event we put on for our family and friends to show off what we do, bore them to tears when we huddle together for some beer-geek talk.
Last year we were 20 kegs short on pledged donations (that's 800 beers!). This is our event to showcase our brew and we are coming up short. There was a discussion on the Forum on the Points to Ponder regarding Brewfest thread.

To figure out the amount of tickets we will have available per member, we take total number of tickets (300) and divide that by the the total number of the membership and that is the number of tickets per member to have up for purchases.

Discussion had come up on the Forum regarding modifying the Brewfest logistics and pricing. Brewfest tickets last year were $25 and that was a great price for what is given. There was a proposal to to raise the Brewfest ticket price to $40. There was discussion from the attending members, a few pointed out that $40 was a large price hike and that it may turn some people away. The majority thought even at $40 Brewfest will still sellout.
The $40 price was established by looking at the cost of a decent beer kit. Why would someone brew a $40 kit for a ticket when they can pay $25 cash for one.
The vote to increase the Brewfest tickets to $40 for this year was put to the floor. All present voted Aye so the vote passes.
It is official, Brewfest tickets are $40 for 2008.

Andy Booth stated we need to do a group brew for Brewfest like is being done for Ren Fest. Sounds like a great idea. Watch the Forums for updates.

All donated soda/brew must arrive in a keg of some form, no bottles or growlers. Bottles and growlers are for the campsite after-hours. We can accept ball lock and pin lock cornies and sankey kegs. I don't think we have a Hoff-Steven's adapter.
For those of you that don't have the ability to keg, there are plenty of people willing to help you keg your brew. For anyone needing help with kegging please keep an eye on the Forums or just come to a meeting and ask during the announcements.

We need committee chairs and members. This is a great change for those of you that haven't stepped up to help out during an event to come and see the 'pre-game' activities befor Brewfest. It's not all work, c'mon, look at us... we like to play. It's a great way to get to meet some of the other members and you will be helping to make everything run as smooth as possible.

Logistics : tables tents glass ice
Beverage: beer, non-beer, donations
Food: food, smoker, utensils. meeting next Thursday at Sean?s house.
Entertainment Committee: Joe.

A question was asked regarding who?s designing the Brewfest tickets this year. If you have some ideas, post them in the Forum.

Club Brew
With the Ren Fest and Brewfest discussions we are finally going to have our group brews. Two group brews at Shane's and two group brews and Andy's.
Glad to see things coming together on this. I missed all the past group brews.

Odds & Ends

New Faces (I always slaughter names in this section so forgive me. I'm easily distracted by shiny things.)
Ann Lauder - She says it?s Chuck?s fault she?s here. She's been brewing kits since January and hasn?t drank Bud light since. (and the crowd goes wild)
Peggy Craig - Jim?s wife and Tuckers mom. They keep on saying how much fun the meetings arn thought she would show up.
Devin Zell - He's brewed for 1 year (you know, Bourbon Drinker from the forums)
Peter Graham - friend of John Peppin. He says he hasn?t brewed yet. He had attended last years Brewfest and had a great time.

Clean up
Rob and Melissa Cole volunteered for clean up.