February 2018 Minutes

Chris and Elizabeth Ackman hosted the Mardi Gras-themed February B.A.S.H. meeting on Sunday the 11th at their home in frigid Portland. Wild Bill Lehfeld passed out beads to female attendees. Uncharacteristically for such a known pervert, he asked for nothing but homebrew in return. Go figure! El Presidente Mike Wojdyla called the meeting to order and thanked our hosts.  Tom Fruend’s treasurer’s report was superlative.

In new business, VP for Policies Jessica Fearn announced a brewing education schedule: 2/18 Improving Extract Beers (Paul Holder), 3/18 Hops (Tom Freund), 4/18 Lambics (Aggie Bill Hughen), 5/18 Iodine Mash Conversion Test (Wild Bill Lehfeld), 6/18 ?, 7/18 Fermentation (Cory Mathews), 8/18 ?, 9/18 ?, 10/18 Yeast and History of Beer (Mark Quade). Paul gave us four tips to improve extract beers:

1. Use water with no minerals (such as Windmill or Glacier RO machine water) because extract already contains needed minerals.
2. Hops need to be boiled for at least one hour to get the flavor, but extract does not. Only add 1/3 to ½ of extract at the beginning of the boil, with the remainder added during the last ten minutes.
3. Dark, crystal and caramel malts added to extract beers for color and flavor do not need to be mashed because their starch has already been converted to sugar. They just need to be steeped in 100 – 150F water. Other grains (2-row/pilsner/Munich/etc.) must be mashed.
4. Extra light DME contains no crystal malt. Light, amber and dark DME contain increasing amounts of crystal malt.

We feasted on jambalaya and enjoyed new homebrews from host Chris (porter/brown ale), Paul (best bitter) and Mark (weizenbock).  Interesting commercial brews were provided by Aggie Bill (Lindeman’s Faro Lambic), Brad Klager (Dogfish Head Sea Quench Session Sour) and Cory ( Lazy Beach Kombucha/Crawfish Ale).

This month marked our inaugural dual competition format. Beers were collected for Best of Show (open category) and Homebrewer of the Year (European sour ale, BJCP 23A-F). VP for Competitions Daniel Fearn announced that the judging will take place at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, 2/22. Results will be revealed at the March meeting.

Upcoming B.A.S.H. events:

25-Feb-18: Club brew event at Lazy Beach, 10 a.m.

11-Mar-18: B.A.S.H. meeting (Brad Klager, “grain tea” brewing demonstration)

8 –Apr-18: B.A.S.H. meeting (Walt Crawford, competition: BOS open/HBOY CA and KY common, BJCP 19B/27B)

5-May-18: Big Brew (B&J’s Pizza on Staples at Timbergate, multiple brewing demonstrations)

20-May-18: B.A.S.H. meeting (John Daniels, NOTE: 3RD SUNDAY)

10-Jun-18: B.A.S.H. meeting (need host, competition: BOS open/HBOY Czech lager, BJCP 3A-D)

8-Jul-18: B.A.S.H. meeting (B&J’s Pizza on Staples at Timbergate, hosted by Paul Holder)

12-Aug-18: B.A.S.H. meeting (need host, competition: BOS open/HBOY >51% extract challenge)

Thanks again Chris and Elizabeth, keep on brewin’ and we’ll see you next month at Brad Klager’s !