August 2023 - Meeting Minutes

The Grove Comedy Club, Lowell

​

Meeting called to order with a toast by our President Larry McCallister

​

​

Education Piece: None. Officers took a break this month

​

The officers need help in presenting a monthly educational piece. We are looking for volunteers to present. Remember, this is YOUR club so jump on in and contribute!​

​

​

Old Business:

​

• August 8th trip to the UofA hop farm. Lewie has not gotten confirmation on this so it looks like possibly the lack of rain and intense heat may have damaged the crop this year. Most likely this outing will be canceled.

​

• New Member Packet - Larry revealed that the officers are in the process of creating a new member packet that we will hand out to every new member that joins our non-profit by paying dues. The packets will include info about the club and a bit of swag from local breweries

  • James propossed that the Social Chair becomes the new member ambassador that can delegate help from members in making sure our new members are properly welcomed at meetings. Motion passes and will go into effect 4th quarter this year.

​

• Voting for our Fall Community project - We did have a quorum this month, but somehow missed this on the agenda. We will vote on this in September. Please bring any ideas you may have.

​

​

Remaining Iron Brewer comps for the year:

Q3 Kolsch (October 3rd @ OZ)

Q4 English Porter (January 18th @ FLOPS)

​

​

New Members/Visitors:

​

• Geoff Allen just moved here from Houston and found our non-profit via a google search. We welcomed him with open arms and he seemed really excited to join us.

​

​

​

New Business:

• We will be voting for the Fall Community Service Project at the September meeting. Please be ready to present your charity ideas.

​

• Festbier Updates:

  • James reported that both beers have successfully made it through fermentation and are comfortably lagering at a cool 34 degrees. They are starting to be carbonated and will be ready in plenty of time for the event next month.

​

• Saison Judging Report

  • James reported that the judging went well and there were some great beers there!

  • A few notes: We need to make sure we have the correct supplies for judging: pencils, enough score sheets for every judge, etc...

  • Better communication between clubs will alleviate this.

  • Remember, the point is to provide more feedback to members while ALSO gaining BJCP judging experience.

​

• Club Merch is still pending. There has not been a great solution as of yet. Please help us out if you know of a cost effective way to get the brewing/work shirts and T-shirts printed for us on the cheap. In a perfect world we would love to have a marketplace set up on our website where folks can order as they wish, but we may have to just put in orders twice a year to save money and avoid holding physical stock.

​

• Potential educational pieces upcoming (Please bring your ideas to a meeting and/or consider presenting something)

  • Getting ready for festival season

  • How to brew an award winning Kolsch

​

• Replacement of the OZ festival Tent. Due to a rodent problem, the tent was damaged. Jason made a motion that the club replaces the canopy at a cost of approximately $350. Motion passed.

  • The canopy will no longer be stored on the ground, near the grains in Larry's garage. This should alleviate the issue.

​

• Darin Dickson asked for help in naming his Festbier for the NWA Oktoberfest Fundraiser. Many great names were presented but the results are in and the club voted to name it "OZtoberfest"

​

​

Upcoming Events:

​

• NWA Oktoberfest Fundraiser - Sept 23rd

• Girls on the Run - Oct 6th

• Rogers Octoberfest - Oct 14th

• Brewtoberfest - October 28th

• Germannfest - November 4th

​

​

Closing Minutes:

​

• Identifying beers that were brought (11 total homebrews!)

• Meeting Attendees: 14

​

Brewer of the month results:

1. Larry McCallister - Super Saison

2. Craig Murphree - LUGH

3. Doc - Pale New World

4. Honerable Mention goes to Dave Kapple - Berry Mead

​

​

• Equiment Share:

  • David Johnson has an extra Blichmann beer gun he would like to offload. Holla at him!

  • Justin Hart has a ton of glass growlers. Randy said he is out because they aren't plastic! Justin will bring them to the next meeting.

​

​

• Call for Feeback

  • Craig Murphree discussed how the club feels a bit disconnected. Asked about doing learn to brew days and more social meet-ups.

  • Doc called out James for being a slacker and not updating the website for a month.

​

​

Motion to close