The next meeting is planned for August 26th, 2010 at 7:30PM at Custom Data World Headquarters, 677 10th Street East, Dickinson, ND. We usually meet on the fourth Thursday of each month.

“Give a man a pint of beer and he will drink it……

……But teach a man to brew, and he will rule the world”

Well guys with this years hop harvest on the near horizon I thought I better list some of the inventory I have and hopefully get some of them on your fall brewing schedule so that they can get used up.  I really don’t want to wast any of these.  Here is a list of the ones I have and the quantities.

Whole Leaf Hops:
20 oz. Willamette (unknown AA)
6 oz. Cascade 7.0% & 7.2% (2 oz to Jon)
3 oz. Simcoe 12.9%
6 oz. Amarillo 9.3% & 9.0%
2 oz. Fuggle 4.7% (gone to Jon)
16 oz. Fuggle Homegrown
8 oz. Centennial Homegrown

Pellet Hops:
0.5 oz Sterling 6.0%
1 oz. Hallertau 1.5% (gone to Jon)
1 oz. German Spalt 4.0% (gone to Jon)
2 oz. Cascade 6.0% & 5.6% (1 oz to Jon)

Old Hops (greater than one year or questionable age)
2 oz. Goldings 3.3% (gone to Jon)
3 oz. Cluster 6.8%
1 oz. Saaz 3.5%

If you are interested please let me know and I’ll reserver them for you.  Here are pictures of my hops this year and I’m thinking I’ll be good on Fuggle and Centennial again this fall!!

Cheers, Ryan

Present: Ryan Jilek, Jerry Ford, Rocky Stoltz, Jon Stika, David Lehman and his friend Kira.

Town and Country beer of the month was Samuel Adams Coastal Wheat.  This was a light American style wheat beer with lemon.  The Coastal Wheat was a light wheat ale with good malt body and flavor up front with a nice refreshing lemon finish.

Jon brought New Glarus Brewing Stone Soup, a Belgian ale with spicy flavors from the Abbey yeast and Stevens Point Brewery 2012 Black Ale which was not sampled, but stored for the next meeting.  Ryan brought his chokecherry stout which had good roast and malt flavors with a port-like chokecherry finish, plus some home made June berry pie.  Rocky brought his chokecherry stout which had more pronounced roast flavor with a subtle chokecherry finish, plus some pickled eggs from Upin Thai take-out restaurant.  Jerry brought some Summit India Pale ale style Rye ale which was very hoppy with a good rye finish.  Jerry also brought some wine made by a friend of his from Concord grapes grown in Bismarck.  The wine was deep red, balanced and flavorful.

Rocky reported that the balance of the club account as of the end of June 2010 was $214.71.

Ryan updated us on the Oktoberfest plans in which Town and Country was planning to stock several brands of Oktoberfest beer in the store.  This would also coincide with St. Joseph’s hospital fall cook out.  Ryan suggested the club perform a brewing demonstration during the cook out and have some member-brewed beers for others to sample.  Rocky will plan to make a table banner with the club logo and web address for the event.

Ryan suggested having members brew a beer in the spirit of the “Iron Chef”.  Peated malt, Fuggles hops and honey were suggested as the three required ingredients for the Iron Chef brew.  Jon suggested we pursue this during the winter when most members do the majority of their brewing.

Jon Stika
Secretary

Present: Rocky Stoltz, Dale Sattler, Paul Ellerkamp and Ryan Jilek

Beer of the Month was a Schell Maifest from Town & Country Liquors. This beer was a very nice golden color with excellent clarity. Malty and subtle hops on the nose with a good balance of hops and bready malt on the palate. Very slight fruity flavor and maybe not quite as malty as one would expect from a Maibock style beer.

Paul brought a bottle of his Custer’s Curly-cue Honey Ale. Paul’s beer had a malty nose. It was dry and slightly bitter but nice balance of flavors with the honey mostly coming out in the finish.

Dale brought us some Honey Lemon Basil Celebration Ale made from a special run of kits from Midwest Homebrewing Supplies. This beer was malty with a light golden color. The Basil comes out only in the finish. There was a nice spiciness in the aroma from the honey and almost no detectable hops in both the aroma or taste.

Ryan brought his Hops Concentrate which is a double IPA coming in at 10% ABV and approximately 120 IBU’s. Ryan said roughly a pound of hops went into this 5 gallon batch. The aroma was pretty much like freshly opening a bag of hops. A very complex combination of hops make up the flavor with a good dose of malt to attempt to provide balance. The alcohol blends nicely and provides a nice warming in the mouth.

New business discussed included the Octoberfest celebration. We may team up with Town & Country Liquors to get the ball rolling. Expanding it to include a competition and raffle were also discussed. The discussion included the possibility of taking the event indoors to eliminate the need to plan for alternate locations in case of weather. The possibility of tying it to the Badlands Activity Center and using one of their rooms with the possibility of doing so on a weekend of an away DSU game. The decision for this year was to go with the recommendation of Town & Country and continue discussions for taking the event on as a club in subsequent years.

A motion was made by Dale to purchase a jar of Pickled eggs from the Tai food restaurant in Dickinson for our next meeting. Rocky seconded and volunteered to purchase and deliver the eggs.

Meeting adjourned.
Ryan Jilek
Vice President

Present: Ryan Jilek, Rocky Stoltz, Dale Sattler, Jerry Ford and Jon Stika.

No Beer of the Month.

Rocky provided a brief Treasurers report and discussed the issue regarding filing federal tax return for non-profit status.  Since our non-profit designation is with the state of North Dakota, it was decided that we did not need to act on this issue.

Dale brought Raddlefish Stout from Beaver Creek Brewery in Wibaux, MT and Ferocious Ale, a very hoppy Pale Ale.  Jerry brought an IPA made with homegrown Perle hops.  The beer was very good.  He also brought an Irish Stout made with homemade malt which was nice and roasty and a bottle of wine made by a friend of his.  The wine was cellared until next meeting.  Jon brought a Dopplebock he brewed in 1995 that has been aged in his basement.  It was very smooth, slightly sweet and chocolate-like.  Ryan brought a Classic American Pilsner that included some corn, but had more body than commercial examples.  Rocky brought a European Pilsner which was very smooth and balanced.  Jerry paid annual dues and is now a member in good standing.

Hop growing was discussed, as was the idea of posting everyone’s hop production on the web site so hops might be shared and/or traded between members.

Jon Stika
Secretary

Ryan, Rocky and Jon bottled the batch of Kolsch that was brewed at the KC Beer Taste.  We bottled it in 50 – 12 ounce brown bottles secured with crown caps.  We also sampled the beers Ryan had on tap: Chokecherry Stout, IPA and Belgian Wit.  Cheers!

Prairie Homebrewers

I thought many of you might like to see what our fellow homebrewers are up to in the Fargo area.

http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/32466/publisher_ID/29/

“On Saturday April 17th, several members of the Prairie Homebrewing Companions spent the day together brewing a bunch of beer to go into a Jack Daniels barrel.  That evening, WDAY news featured that group in their news.”

Present: Ryan Jilek, Rocky Stoltz, Dale Sattler, Jerry Ford and Jon Stika.

Beer of the Month was Michelob’s Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale from Town & Country Liquors. This beer had a nice pumpkin and spice aroma with a medium body and deep golden color. Clove, cinnamon and nutmeg are very evident in the aroma and first sip. Good malt flavor that slightly overshadowed the hops with a slightly sweet finish.

Rocky provided a brief Treasurers report showing a net balance of $189.71.

Ryan and Jon plan to bottle the Kolsch Ale brewed at the KC taste early this month. This will make the beer more easily transported and distributed at a later date.

Tentative date for the club summer picnic is September 11, 2010 at Stika’s. More details coming soon…

Rocky moved to change the meeting time from 6:30PM to 7:30PM, seconded by Ryan. Motion passed. Meeting time will be 7:30PM effective with the May 2010 meeting.

Discussed KC beer taste event and the club’s future role in the event for next year. Ryan and Rocky suggested the club have more members available to help with answering questions and the brewing demonstration.

Ryan has back issues of Brew Your Own donated by Alan Church. Ryan will sort the issues so they can be listed in the club library.

Jon Stika
Secretary

Present: Paul Ellerkamp, Dennis Froemke, Rocky Stoltz, Jon Stika, Ryan Jilek and Dale Sattler.

No beer of the month.  Dennis paid his annual dues of $25.  Discussed and planned the April 6, 2010 Homebrew Taste sponsored by the Dickinson K of C to be held at Garvin Hall of St. Patrick’s.  Jon has brewed a Kolsch kit from Midwest Brewing that is currently in the keg under pressurized carbon dioxide.  Ryan will acquire this keg of beer to take to the Taste.  Ryan and Rocky will plan to brew an idetical Kolsch kit at the event.  They will coordinate with Paul to scope the facility prior to the event to determine a course of action for the brewing demonstration.

Discussed correspondence from Randi Neuberger of the Muddy River Mashers in Mandan, ND to establish a ND homebrewers hub website.  We decided to participate in this statewide home brewers site, with Jon serving as the contributor of content and point of contact.

Ryan brought some Cream Ale.  Jon brought some Pale Ale.  Rocky brought some Simcoe IPA.  Paul brought some Fat Tire and Widmer Pitch Black IPA.  Dale brought some apple-grape wine.

Jon Stika
Secretary

Present: Ryan Jilek, Paul Ellerkamp, Rocky Stoltz and Jon Stika.

Beer of the Month was Red Hook Mudslinger Spring (Nut Brown) Ale.  Mudslinger had a dark amber color with good caramel and nut flavors from the malt.  The malt flavor was evident up front and all the way through the flavor profile, while the hops were most prominent in the middle of the flavor profile.  A full-bodied, flavorful Brown Ale.

Rocky reported that Jeremy Jahner had paid his dues of $25 for 2010.  Ryan provided laminated membership cards to the members present.  Rocky provided a Treasurer’s report.  Rocky moved (seconded by Jon) to reimburse Ryan $5.88 for membership card materials.  Motion passed.

Paul brought up the Knight’s of Columbus homebrew tasting night scheduled for April 6th and asked if the club should participate as an opportunity to recruit new members.  After some discussion, it was agreed that the HRHB would have a presence at the event.  Ryan moved (seconded by Jon) to purchase two Kolsch extract kits from Midwest Brewing and that one kit be brewed ASAP for sampling at the KC tasting event and the other kit be brewed during the KC tasting event as a demonstration.  Motion passed.  Jon agreed to brew and keg one of the kits for sampling at the KC event.

Jon brought homebrewed Robust Porter.  Ryan brought some hard cider he made from apples from his trees.  He also brought some home made absinthe made from a Midwest Brewing kit.  Jon prepared a small glass of the absinthe with sugar and cold water for everyone to sample.  The cider was tart and refreshing.  Rocky brought homebrewed Simcoe IPA which was very hoppy and very good.  Paul brought homebrewed Imperial Slavic Ale brewed from a Northern Brewer kit.  The Imperial Slavic Ale was very good with an unusual flavor profile of malt and hops with a lingering sweetness.

Jon Stika
Secretary

“Hey Dad,
I finally got a chance to try Coopers Sparkling Ale.  So far, so good. I noticed it’s slightly bitter upon first taste and follows with a strong hops flavor. It’s not as mild as other ales that I have tried. Something I thought was neat is how you can see residue of yeast in the bottle. The label explains the reasoning for this in more detail: “Coopers Ale is brewed and fermented using a unique, centuries-old, method of top primary fermentation and natural bottle conditioning. Coopers are famous for this process which leaves a natural residue of yeast during maturation and gives a cloudy appearance with an enhanced flavour.” The clarity of this ale is definitely on the cloudy side and is a golden yellow color, giving it an appearance similar to honey. Overall, I would have to say Coopers Sparkling Ale is a nice brew with an abundance of texture and flavor.”

Cheers!

Moe