The November meeting was hosted by our friends at BSG Canada in Guelph. Big thanks to Shelley and Andrew for opening the doors to us and their hospitality. Shelley had the tunes playing, BSG swag for all and took us on a tour of the facilities.
Tour Highlights
The BSG warehouse is a big and clean space, about 3 stories tall full of malts and cans. Upon entry you see pallets of QAQC’d malts and cans destined for Left Field, Jackass and Hockley to name a few.
Walking around the aromas are constantly shifting from bready, sweet, roasty then chocolate. You had to stop and take it in every now and again.
We got a sneak peak of their canning line that includes some yet to be released products. No cameras allowed in this area. We also learned that for every 1000 cans recycled 998 are reproduced.
Club Announcements
- Cider Buy wrap up – nearly 1947L of cider purchased through our Bulk Buy organized through Kamil Juices
- BSG Bulk Buy wrap up – Thanks to Kamil Juices for helping with the bulk buy and to our volunteers for sorting out the orders.
- Competitions – Congratulations to Chris Luederitz who took home the 2019 Funks Best of Show honours. At time of posting (but not at meeting) results are now up for Saskatoon Headhunters and GTA Brews Brew Slam – congrats to the True Grist medalists!
- Don’t forget to update the Club brews tally on the forum before December 11th so we have a (close to) end of year brew count
True Brewer Swap
The True Brewer swap went really well in the huge space available. We learned after running the swap at Fixed Gear in Guelph last year that a little extra space makes the sorting all that much easier. A few of the 28 participants could not make it, but their bottles will be available at upcoming events – Sensory Training at Rhythm and Brews and our Special December meeting at SFBC (details below).
Some folks are dipping into their packs already and providing feedback on the forum. Sounds like we all have a lot of tasty brews to look forward to from talented brewers. Remember to track your favourite brews so that come January you can vote for them, to determine our 2019 True Brewer.
Fermentis Presentation
José Pizarro of Fermentis delivered a presentation on their dried yeast and pitching practices, with emphasis on their rehydration studies.
Takeaway messages were:
- Do not agitate dry yeast for the first 15 minutes after pitching.
- No difference in viability whether you rehydrate in water, wort or direct pitch. Do not rehydrate in an alcohol environment.
- Pitching temperature (between 10 and 35 degrees C) does not impact viability
- Check out the Fermentis Tips and Tricks PDF on their website for more information
December Special Event
On December 11th we will be having a special event at Short Finger Brewing Company from 7pm – til they kick us out. The event will include a Tap takeover + homebrew share (contact Steven Oliver if you would like to bring a keg!), some snack foods and a fundraising raffle. All money raised is going to the Working Center. Last year we raised $1000 for our chosen charity – let’s see if we can beat that!
An amazing raffle is being put together including:
- Signed copies of Water and How to Brew by the one and only John Palmer
- Ontario grown hops from Tavistock and from Hayhoe
- the last few True Grist mugs and teku-style glasses
- Beer. Diversity. shirts
- 8000 bottle caps!
- Inkbird ITC-308 Temperature controller
- BSG Canada swag
- and more!
We encourage you to bring a friend and/or spouse along. Hope to see you there!