High Plains Drafters
Homebrew Club
Cheyenne, Wyoming USA

Meetings: 1st Wednesday of every month, 7:00pm at Uncle Charlie's in Cheyenne
Dues: $15/year single, $20/year per couple
Brent Wickham........President
Bill Briggs................Vice President - share Education
Brian Mertz.............Vice President - and Competitions
Orris Wickham........Treasurer
Chris Brown............Secretary
Paul Dey..................Historian
May 6, 2009 Meeting notes...
Convened at Uncle Charlie’s at 7:00 PM.

“My Last Beer”   Had a round table discussion of all the beers brewed at Big Brew Day. Tip of the month Chris mentioned getting into a routine when brewing, doing things the same way each time unless there is a good reason to change something. This takes another variable out of your bew process and leaves less to chance..

Beer First!  Beer of the Month: Bill was up tis month with the following Pale Ales and IPAs. Michelob Pale Ale, Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Mikkeller All Others Pale Ale (Orbaek, Denmark), Avery IPA, Southampton Publick House IPA (PA), Stone IPA, Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi IPA, Greenwick Brewery (London) Meantime IPA, and Smuttynose IPA (NH).
June is Ted with Vegas Beers, July-Paul will bring Wisconsin Beers, August-Gus will bring something.
Volunteer for BOTM via the listserver, for any available meeting or style. First one to speak up gets first choice.

Treasurers Report: Orris reports a balance of $987.00.

New Business:
Brian talked about the AHA Rally at New Belgium.
Big Brew Day had 12 participants make 31 gallons of beer and tons of food including Orris' Beer/V8 can chicken. I will try to post a link to some photos next week.

Old Business:
Brian has signed us up to 'Adopt A Highway'. We have two miles of US85 from MM-27 to MM-29, conveniently just north of Paul's house.
We previously voted to sponsor a club only competition , the first available date looks like 2011.
We voted to give Brian up to $50.00 for gas money to collect entries from the front range.
Voted to split the cost of the Siebel Institute Test Kit with members paying $10.00 each, and the club picking up the remainder of the $160.00 total cost. $90.00 has been collected so far, if anyone else wants to participate let Paul know. Expect to start in October.

Upcoming Events:  
Plan on club participation in Mead Day in Boulder August 1st. Several members expressed interest in this event.
Eight Seconds of Froth for 2009 is May 9th, entries due May 2nd. Volunteer to Bill or Brian if you can help out.
Mead Day is August 1st.
Scheduled an attempt to do the Adopt-A-Highway trash pickup on May 10th at Pauls house, weather and snow cover permitting.

Eight Seconds of Froth and Ace of Clubs:       Update:  Winners list is posted - http://www.bbriggs.vcn.com/09WinnersList.html
This year's competition was held May 9th in the the Wind River Room at the historic Plains Hotel in downtown Cheyenne. The Plains catered the lunch and offered a great rate of $69.00 on guest rooms for those who wanted to stay over. Best of Show Beer went to a Russian Imperial Stout by Nick & Chris Orton of Indian Peak Alers club of Longmont CO, BOS Mead was awarded to Brian Mertz of the High Plains Drafters for his Maple Vanilla Mead. Check the competition page http://www.bbriggs.vcn.com/8seconds.html for more info. We had 178 entries from 10 states, farthest being North Carolina.

Also, 2009 was the fifth year of our Ace of Clubs competition within a competition, this year the travelling trophy went with Superior HBC.
Homebrew clubs are awarded points for total number of entries and judges, and for all top three finishes by their members in each category and BOS. Winning club receives a travelling trophy plus other goodies. The winning club keeps the trophy for the year and then returns it at next year's Dredhop to be made ready for the upcoming Eight Seconds of Froth and Ace of Clubs competitions.
Points are awarded as follows:
Each entry gets your club      1 Point
Each Judge gets your club     1 Point
Each Steward gets your club 1 Point
1st Place in a category gets   5 Points
2nd Place in a ctaegory gets  3 Points
3rd Place in a category gets   2 Points
Best Of Show gets                5 Points
Tell your members to be sure to list the club name on the entry. Only one club per entry. No Club=No Credit.

The following businesses have helped make Eight Seconds of Froth happen. Please support them as well.
The Historic Plains Hotel
Depot Street Merchants
Cargill Malt
Briess Malting Co.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
L.D.Carlson Co.
Widmer Brothers Brewing Co.
Outback Steakhouse-Cheyenne
Escali Digital Scales
White Labs
Odell Brewing Co.
Taphandles, Inc.

Remember that the AHA is promoting a program in which members can get discounts at places like the Rock Bottom in Denver. You must show your AHA card to get a discount on food or beer.

Next meeting is on Wednesday, June3, 2009 at 7:00 pm at Uncle Charlies.

 E-Mail listserver:
We have an e-mail list for club members to exchange ideas, recipes, or any club or brewing related information. Simply send an E-Mail message to drafters@yahoogroups.com and it will automatically be sent to everyone's mailbox. Replies also goto evreyone and anyone can reply to any message they want to. You can also go to http://www.yahoogoups.com/list/drafters/ to view all the messages on the list and/or join. You can join by sending an e-mail to: drafters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com , (drafters-unsubscribe works to get off of the list). Maybe this will stimulate more open discussion among members and generate some ideas for events and ways to improve our club. Steve Papenfuss will also be sending meeting minutes this way to those who subscribe.

 E-Mail addresses and club links:
Brent Wickham, ogre@bresnan.net
Brian Mertz,   windywy@aol.com
Paul Dey,   beerman@myxmail.net
Richard Mincer,   rmincer@hirstapplegate.com
Chris Brown,  trtbum@gmail.com
Bill Briggs,   bbriggs@vcn.com
Web Page (Home) http://www.bbriggs.vcn.com/drafters.html
  (8 Seconds)     http://www.bbriggs.vcn.com/8seconds.html
  (Judges)         http://www.bbriggs.vcn.com/8secjudg.html
  (Entry page)   http://www.bbriggs.vcn.com/8sec_ent.html
  (Winners List) http://www.bbriggs.vcn.com/2004Winners.html


BrewLinks

American Homebrewers Association Contest calendar, style guidelines, etc...
Real Beer Page and we all like real beer, right?
Beer Judge CertificationProgram become a certified judge
WWW Virtual Libarary:Beer and Brewing a good source of info



Questions? Comments... E-mail me at: bbriggs@vcn.com

Last updated May 13, 2009  08:38:45 MST