Toast

“Pain makes you stronger. Tears make you braver. Heartbreak makes you wiser. And alcohol makes you forget all of that crap.”

Guests/New Members

24 members including Summer, who has not been to a meeting in a long time.

Who is Brewing?

The current club total for 2024 is 70 BUs. The online form was changed to allow members to write-in amounts instead of using the drop-down.

Upcoming Events

• 11 FEB – Super Bowl Party/Unofficial Stammtisch, Burns house starting at 2 pm
• 06 MAR – March Monthly Meeting, 7:30 pm at MRBC
• 16 MAR – Savannah St. Patrick’s Day Parade/Unofficial Stammtisch, Clary’s side

New Business

Chandler bought an array of stickers and is requesting reimbursement in the amount of $168. Roger made a motion to reimburse the funds which was seconded by Chris S. It was approved.

Committee Discussion

Pink Points/Mike’s Mentionables/Alex’s Assessment

The Bomb Stout is out and MRBC is gearing up for St. Patrick’s Day. Belgo-American is in the tank and Super Foxy (coming in at around 8.5%) should be out next Friday. It is almost their 25th anniversary and they are planning a year’s worth of celebrations. They gave the okay to brew the Quarter Quell winner for GABF.

Treasurer’s Report

Gene gave his report to the members which included the general budget and the Domras Cup 2024 budget. Only 17 members have paid their dues for this year.

Barrel Committee

• Barrel 1 – Scottish Ale went in 18 NOV, it has not leaked much
• Barrel 2 – Lambic; the barrel is still full of water and there are enough tentative brewers to fill this, fill date scheduled for February 24. As of right now there is no unmalted wheat so it was recommended to mash at a high temperature.

Domras Cup

SBL took home six medals and two honorable mentions at Domras Cup in February which was held at Savannah Bee Company’s warehouse on Stiles Ave. There were 177 paid entries. Merideth won second place Best of Show and Cheryl won the beauty pageant.

ReBrew

Chris S. attended five meetings in the last three weeks and ReBrew is still on. The requirement is that each brewer brews 10 gallons of beer using the reused water and we need 10 batches. There will be a competition held on July 16 at MRBC (outside). We will need 25 volunteers and 300 300 GAWP members will be coming through and voting on the winner.

Merch

Stickers that Chandler ordered will be made available for those who have paid dues only.

Competitions

The first quarter club-only competition will be hosted by Powers. The focus is on lighter beers (opposite of 0 Dark 30). It could also include ciders. Moon River will brew the winner for GABF.

The mid-year competition will be held at the Bouchers’ house in June. The original plan was for Belgian beers but it is still open for suggestions.

Uber Open will be in August.

Old Business

Members were reminded to pay their dues!

Upcoming Stammtisch

• February – Superbowl party will be hosted by The Burns
• March – St. Patrick’s Day meetup in Downtown Savannah
• April – Powers along with Quarter Quell competition
• May – Roger
• June – Boucher along with mid-year competition
• July – Cheryl and Dave, 27 JUL

Close-out Thoughts

Chandler said that Domras Cup went well with minor hiccups. There were some problems at the venue at first that were quickly resolved. It was agreed that the Savannah Bee warehouse is a great venue for the competitions going forward. Chris S. suggested sending a letter to the company. Daniella, the musician who has been playing at Domras Cup for about 10 years, has a daughter who is going through leukemia treatment and Chris S. mentioned during the awards ceremony that SBL split the proceeds between Ronald McDonald House and Daniella. This year we had the highest raffle proceeds ever. The club will think about it and vote when the books are completely settled for Domras.

Tech Talk

John W. started a group discussion about packaging decisions as they relate to strength of the beverage and throughput. For example, you might not want to keg a 12% beer only to have it sit on tap but you might want to keg a session beer. Discussion ensued. Member recommendations included kegging all of the beer and bottling a bunch to send it off to competitions, make smaller batches of higher gravity beers and use smaller kegs, put extra beer in 2L bottles with a carbonation cap, and fill bombers or growlers to be used later. John E. asked if putting wax on the crown helps to keep oxygen out and the generally accepted answer is that it does not help. It was recommended to freeze bottles before filling to help with CO2 escape. The discussion ended with letting the membership know that Service has a bunch of large bottles available for free.