Minutes from Mar. 21, 2024

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Meeting called to order (JB)
Updates to the Club (SK)
- Insurance has been purchased, individuals are now covered for incidents that arise as a result of Brew Club activities
- Paperwork has been filed with the Ohio Secretary of State for incorporation
  - Still haven't gotten the business certificate yet
  - Will post on the news page when we get a business license
- Additional documents will be filed with the IRS for tax-exemption status under 501(c)(7) (Social Clubs)
CB's gruet
- A beer from pre-hop era
- Smells like grapefruit
- Carbed on Tuesday
- Some sour notes
- Lots of evergreen "stuff"
  - Juniper
  - Fir needls
  - Fennel frond leaves
  - Bay leaves
- Oats, pale ale malt, wheat
- Age seems to help
- 5% ABV, not very hot, seems lower
- Bay leaves punch through the more you drink, contributes to a "soupy" aroma
- Two weeks of primary straight into keg
- Perhaps taste again next month? Should age a decent amount...
- Hazy color, could've cleared out some of the haze and clarified, maybe also add some Irish moss
Discussion on secondary fermentation
- Purpose -> get beer off of bad yeast
- A product of when yeast wasn't as good as it is now
- Risk when racking into secondary is oxidation, contamination
- Consensus among members seems to be to not worry about secondary if not fermenting beyond 4 weeks (to avoid autolysis)
- OK to keg right after primary, especially if yeast is healthy
TG's ale
- Washington's ale would've also been cut 50/50 with water
- Strong aroma, light taste
- Amber malt, caramel malt, molasses
- Caramel notes come out strong
- Little bit of cluster and Hollertau hops
- Smells like strawberries, tastes like molasses
- Uncut with water
  - Tart
  - 5.5%
  - Not much hop bitterness, so mostly alcohol bitterness
MP's Dirt Road Dunkel
- Strong banana esters
- Some spiciness/band-aid-ness from phenols
- Banana is intentional
- 5.4%
SK's commercial Berry Weiss
- Good, sweet, sugary
- Commercial tasting
- Mixing with CB's gruet
  - Makes the pine in the gruet come way out
  - Sweetness probably makes the pine come out
SK's commercial IPA
- Definitely an IPA
- Because it's low-gravity, it seems "thin" or to not have a bottom
- Hops really punch through, good!
- Needs more body, seems hollow
Starting a spontaneous ferment (AW)
- AW used sourdough starter, maybe that'll get it started?
  - 4 cycles of incubation, started smelling really bad
  - Pitched it
- How many cycles would it take to culture the yeast (from the sourdough starter) into liking DME?
- BM suggests just using sugar water, 80:20 water:sugar mixture to get wild yeasts started and propagating
- Gelatinous or gooey texture might result with wild yeasts with sugar
JB's commercial 5yo sour red
- Sour red ale, but from BW's basement freezer of horrors
- Held up well for being a 5yo beer
- Strong smell, aroma was detected immediately
- Is there a live culture in the bottle?
  - Would a live culture in the bottle cause it to become more sour?
  - Probably not live...
  - It seems to taste not dissimilar to a freshly fermented sour
JB's wild fermented elderberry wine
- 4oz water:2tbsp sugar to make syrup
- Syrup takes the edge off, 1-4tsp of syrup per taster
- Slight band-aid aroma
- Wild yeast
- Hot, alcohol heat
- Might be good if it's cut with something else?
Yeast question: yeast starters for beers? Are stir plates necessary? (CB)
- Stir plates give you the oxygenation you need, but it's not strictly necessary
- When racking from primary, AW fills the carboy halfway with the wort and yeast, plugs the carboy's opening, and shakes the begeebers out of it for oxygenation before adding the rest of the wort
- Won't be as effective as creating a starter with a stir plate, but AW had good results
- The science says that a stir plate should be used for best results, but it doesn't really matter in the real world
Time question: if the temperature is right and the beer ferments fast, does time really matter? (CB)
- Remember, yeast warms up when it's happy, so control the temperature
- 4-5 weeks with yeast is a general max to avoid autolysis
- Otherwise, it'll just take as long as it takes
- If it's too slow, other stuff can get in and cause infection
- If it's fast, no real worries
AW's "historical" (old) cider
- Thin, a little hot
- Maybe with some more carb, it might come out brighter
- Bottle-conditioned for years
- Probably not acid-adjusted (can't remember)
CB's cider
- In comparison to AW's, this one was better
- Heat turns into tartness
- Textures were very similar