OCTOBER MINUTES

“Those subs are everywhere! I dropped a coupla lines of sonobuoys and I’m on station flying a figure eight pattern. Aggie Bill’s surface squadron is on the way loaded to the gills with depth charges. Jason and Nick are bringin’ half the Coast Guard as backup. Dammit! I bet that sumbitch Travis is down there right now laughin’ at me through his periscope!” Calm down, Paul, the Russkies are still in Murmansk. The only submersibles were host Lou Needleman’s meatball subs at the October B.A.S.H. meeting held on Sunday the 13th.

President Adam Klager called the meeting to order and welcomed guest Rene, a friend of Claudio Montiel. Treasurer-Of-The-Nanosecond Carroll Pate continued his unbroken streak of rosy reports. Tom Freund previewed next months’ Iron Mash X. Participating teams need to provide Tom with their roster by the end of this week. Adam reminded everyone that the Dixie Cup regional beer competition is next weekend in Houston. If interested, info is available on the Foam Rangers’ web site. Also next weekend, member Kevin Ramler is holding a ceramic art exhibition at Weil Art Gallery, TAMUCC Center for the Arts on Saturday night the 19th at 6:00 p.m.

The competition this month was for American pale ale, BJCP category 10A. Four commercial beers were thrown in to confuse the judges. The professional efforts topped the homebrews, with Oskar Blue’s Dale’s Pale Ale finishing first, followed by Stone Pale Ale, Southern Star Pale Ale and Real Ale Rio Blanco Pale Ale. Of course, we didn’t award any points to these ringers. Capturing 1st among the homebrews was Cory Mathews and Drew Burkhardt (3 points). Mark Woerner finished 2nd (2 points) and Paul Holder earned one point for 3rd place. Heading into next months’ final club competition Mark Woerner holds a commanding lead with 8 points, followed by Cory/Drew with 4, Paul with 3 and Mark Quade and Wild Bill Lehfeld with 2 points each.

Lou, assisted by Melissa and Mike Wojdyla provided three varieties of meatball subs, two types of grilled sausages and pizza casserole. John Milan (who is STILL not dead) kept us hoppin’ with several types of gourmet appetizers, from ahi tuna to oyster shooters. Besides competition beers, we enjoyed Drew and Cory’s prickly pear blonde ale (last moths’ demonstration brew) and witbier, John Daniels’ Oktoberfest, Claudio’s Rye kvass (light Russian ale), Mark Quade’s Oktoberfest and Kevin’s Cold Front Kölsch. Interesting commercial beers included John Cicala’s Dundee’s Honey Brown, Andrew Herzig/Sabrina Krueger’s Weihenstephaner Korbinian Doppelbock and John Milan’s Paulaner Hefeweizen and Samuel Smith’s Organic Pale Ale and Raspberry Ale.

Upcoming B.A.S.H. events:

• 2-Nov-13: Iron Mash X (B&J’s Pizza on Staples at Timbergate) 
• 10-Nov-13: B.A.S.H. meeting (Claudio Montiel, American brown ale competition, BJCP 10C) 
• 8-Dec-13: B.A.S.H. meeting (Carroll Pate, brewing demonstration) 
• 12-January-14: B.A.S.H. meeting (Tom Freund, Iron Mash X judging) 

Thanks again Lou, Melissa, Mike and John, keep on brewin’ and we’ll see you next month at Claudio’s (as always, with your own glass)!