Minutes from Dec. 19, 2024

Friday, December 20, 2024

Meeting called to order
MP's and TS's homebrew milk stout
- Inky black
- Chocolatey (without being chocolate)
- Dry
- Nice and gentle on the nose
- Has a caramel malt, but doesn't have any caramel notes — probably contributes to the chocolate malt not being very chocolatey
JB's Bickerdyke Rye Catcher red ale (Mount Vernon)
- Accidentally added the roast malt at the beginning of the mash instead of at the tail end, which caused it to come out darker than expected, almost brown
- Flavor is still as expected as a red ale
TG's homebrew stout
- Very different from MP's and TS's
- Maybe a hint of banana
- Less bitter and less traditional than MP's and TS's, but not in a bad way!
CB's homebrew Mexican lager
- "Looks a little bit like dirty bath water but doesn't taste bad"
- Carb is weaker, but still pretty good
- Digression on carbonation
  - Short carbonation time doesn't allow water and carbon dioxide to form the carbonic acid that gives that sharper mouthfeel compared to just carbon dioxide in suspension
  - Two to three weeks seems to be the consensus for carbonic acid formation that gives that nice mouthfeel
- Almost all pilsner malt, but still has a hint of lime at the very end, probably from the yeast
CB's homebrew porter
- Good (on accident)
- Could use some more carbonation (or some more time being carbonated), but it's not flat
JB's Bickerdyke Moonshadow porter (Mount Vernon)
- More bitter than MP's and TS's
- More American style as a porter goes, more bitter too
- Completely different bitter ending notes, almost IPA-like hop ending
MP's and TS's homebrew 223 lager
- Clone of classic American lagers
- Corn, rice hulls, pilsner malt
- Easy drinking, pleasant sweetness
- Very sessionable, though it came out with a higher alcohol content (5.5%) than the target (~4.5%)
MP's JAFB (Wooster) Maximum Christmas Holiday Ale
- Good
- Solid example of a Christmas ale
- Good color, good clarity
SK's BrewDog USA (Columbus) Winter Staycation Holiday Ale
- Like a vanilla coffee latte thing
- Tastes like a Werther's Original
- Tastes like coffee and pecans
- Might go great with heavy cream as a dessert beer
AW's AleSmith (San Diego, CA) Barrel-Aged Speedway Stout with Vietnamese Coffee
- Hot (which was to be expected, it's 13.6%)
- Smells hot
- Very strong reactions throughout
- Thick
- Almost Jägermeister
- Syrupy
- Reminiscent of used motor oil
CB's homebrew jalapeño pepper mead
- Oops, opened the wrong one — we were expecting a regular mead!
- Strong reactions off the bat
- The spiciness cut through the motor oil that we just drank
CB's regular mead
- Much more mead-like