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March 2024 Meeting Minutes

Toast

“Be one who drinks the finest of ales. Every day without fail. Even when you have drank enough, remember that ale is wonderful stuff.”

Guests/New Members

28 members and two guests: Captain Jack from Florida and Adam G. who is the new Southbound head brewer.

Who is Brewing?

The current club total for 2024 is 140.5 BUs. Jeremy will post the brew totals for everyone on Facebook each week.

Upcoming Events

  • 08 MAR – International Women’s Day brew at Service, 9am
  • 09 MAR – Eckles Silver Anniversary party, 4pm
  • 16 MAR – Savannah St. Patrick’s Day Parade/Unofficial Stammtisch, Clary’s side
  • 03 APR – SBL Monthly Meeting, Moon River, 7:30pm

Treasurer’s Report

Gene gave his report to the members which included the general budget and the Domras Cup 2024 budget.

Barrel Committee

  • Barrel 1 – Scottish Ale: It has been in the barrel for about 3.5 months so it can be sampled at the anniversary party to see if it is ready to package.
  • Barrel 2 – Lambic: The barrel was filled and is fermenting. It smelled funny when it was emptied so there is most likely some kind of bacteria in there already. It will be inoculated with Lambicus soon.

Chandler mentioned that we should think about retiring the barrels if they are no longer giving “barrel” characteristics in the beers. Barrel 1 had approximately three projects in it and Barrel 2 had around four to five projects in it so far. The retired barrels could potentially be made into a table to be used as a prize or raffle item.

ReBrew

The water will be tested over the next month. The competition/event for ReBrew will be held on Tuesday, July 16 at Moon River at 5pm. There will be around 300 GAWP members coming to try the beers and vote. There will also be official BJCP-style judging. The club will need to produce 10 batches of beer, 10 gallons each using the water. Beers must be below 5.5% ABV. Club members need to volunteer to serve and we may or may not need server certifications.

Merch

Besides 30th Anniversary stickers for paid members, there are tasting glasses and other stickers for sale. Chandler discussed the possibility of ordering more shirts and some members expressed interest in polos. Chandler will look into Custom Hustle as a supplier.

Competitions

The first quarter club-only competition will be hosted by K. Powers. The focus is on lighter beers (opposite of 0 Dark 30). The beers should be below 30 SRM. Moon River will brew the winner for GABF. It will be held on April 6.

The mid-year competition will be held at the Bouchers’ house. It will be held on June 22. Kristen mentioned that the competition should be wheat and Belgian styles, BJCP categories 1D, 10, and 23-26. Allison made a motion to approve these categories for the competition and it was seconded by C. Stovall. This passed unanimously.

Old Business

There are currently 31 members who have paid their dues so far for 2024. There are 81 who have not, according to the roster. Members were reminded to pay soon or they will be removed from the Facebook page.

C. Stovall passed information for the cider judging exam onto J. Wilson, who will put the classes together. C. Stovall will proctor the exam. Getting together the ingredients is difficult but the class will run six to 10 weeks and will cost approximately $50.

Upcoming Stammtisch

  • March – Eckles Anniversary Party, 09 MAR
  • March – St. Patrick’s Day meetup in Downtown Savannah, 16 MAR
  • April – Powers along with Quarter Quell competition, 06 APR
  • May – Roger
  • June – Boucher along with mid-year competition, 22 JUN
  • July – Cheryl and Dave, 27 JUL

Competitions

TeeJay and Kristen talked about upcoming homebrewing competitions. The competitions for our Southeastern Homebrewers circuit fill up very quickly so it was recommended that members look at the website to see when the registrations are. TeeJay and Kristen will also make efforts to announce upcoming registration openings on Facebook. The Peach State Brew Off is not in our circuit but is open and currently has less than 100 entries. The National Homebrew Competition is also open and so far, no cities are filled.

Domras Cup Donations

Chandler brought up the possibility of giving a donation to Daniella’s Go Fund Me to help with her daughter’s medical expenses. This was discussed and Allison suggested giving it as a tip. Further research is needed so we will come back next month and decide.

Tech Talk

The head brewer at Southbound gave an introduction and let us know about some beers that are going to be on tap as well as some other changes that will be coming in the. near future.