For March, True Grist members were invited into Revel Cider in Guelph, ON. This was a look into the production of the excellent dry ciders Revel has become known for. Tariq and Stephen discussed their fermentation philosophies and methods, and touched on topics including aging, blending, tannin in cider, and more. Huge thanks to this duo for having the club, and sharing some of their latest creations and knowledge with us.
Many took the opportunity to solicit feedback from the experts on cider that came from the club’s 2017 Cider Bulk Buy. Quite fascinating was the variety of finished products from the same juice – with different additions to the cider (fruit, herbs, etc), fermentation cultures and conditions (temperature, oxygen exposure, nutrient).
There is always lots going on with the club, and March was no exception. One of the most important things to discuss was our Big Brew Event at Short Finger Brewing Company on May 5th. This will be a tonne of fun, and an excellent outreach event for our club. We’re looking for willing and reasonably mobile brewers to set up in the SFBC parking lot for this event. We would love to have a variety of setups and methods in action to really showcase what’s possible for ourselves and for our visitors. Get in touch if you can be there with your brewery!
We also announced that the club will be visiting Escarpment Labs again this Spring – targeting May, for a tour/Q&A, and yeast buy. This will be open to all of our Full Members. This event was very popular (and super informative) last year. We also teased a special blog post on everything-yeast starters, with a special Q&A with Richard Preiss, co-founder of Escarpment Labs. Look for that on the club blog sometime in the near future!
We added a new Executive Member this week. Andrew Ash, who has been active in the club since its beginnings, has taken up the role of Equipment Director. As his first act, Andrew has acquired a projector for the club, which we will use for our education initiatives.
Speaking about the executive – we still have room for more passionate True Grist members on it. Whether for a currently listed vacancy, or in some other capacity that leverages your special skills or interests.
Many things are happening on the education front with the club. We will be putting the aforementioned projector to work by doubling up on our presentations at future meetings. At least one of these presentations will be a member presentation on some topic of interest. This may be something you’ve been researching related to brewing, a summary of a popular forum topic in the past month, details on a recent brewery DIY project, super open ended. There is also opportunity to write posts in the club blog complimenting these presentations (and standalone posts too!).
We also have off flavour kits coming, and we’re looking to start facilitating some BJCP study groups.
Our Troubleshooting Corner continued this month, again with Chris Williams, professional sensory analyst and pilot brewer at Sleeman and BJCP judge; and Kat Rogers-Hern, Education and Social Media extraordinaire at Short Finger Brewing Company, beer sommelier, and experienced BJCP competition organizer and judge. We had a handful of beers come through for identification of off flavours and correctional advice. We plan to continue to offer this as volunteers and beers allows! Thanks Kat and Chris!
Thanks to everyone who shared beer, sourdough, cider, and conversation at this meeting. Our next meeting is April 11th at Rhythm and Brews Brewing Company as we move towards having more regular meeting spots in Cambridge, Guelph, Kitchener and Waterloo.