Our Club’s January meeting seemed to roll around quickly after December’s Holiday Season extravaganza, and was once again held virtually via zoom, with 24 attendees at its peak.
Our president, Justin, opened the meeting with a number of announcements:
- We are once again running a club glassware buy this year, with a choice of two glass designs. We are hoping to get orders for at least 100 in order to reduce the cost per glass. See the club Forum for more details and a link for orders.
- Justin thanked Jamie and Vincenz for getting entry bottles to the Rorschach competition in Toronto, where proceeds went to Thunder Woman Healing Lodge Society
- Jamie announced that the Cowtown Yeast Wranglers competition in Calgary is going ahead this year, with all interested brewers to submit three bottles. Anybody interested in entering needs to get their bottles to Jamie by the end of January at the latest. See the Forum or contact Jamie Fowler for more details.
- Justin addressed some questions about club bulk buys for this year. He suggested that a bulk hop buy is a good possibility, but a bulk malt buy presents more problems due to difficulties in maintaining social distancing while filling orders, unless COVID numbers improve significantly by spring
Justin followed the announcements by revealing the winner of this year’s True Brewer competition. We had 27 participants this year, with nearly every entry receiving at least one vote for 1,2 or 3! Congratulations to everybody who participated for their creativity and brewing skill! The winners were:
- 1st Place & Winner of the Mash Paddle of Destiny: Jamie Fowler for his “Quetzal”, a raw pale ale with Mango
- 2nd Place: Vinzenz B. for his “Coconot” Imperial Stout
- 3rd Place: Meghan C. for her “45 rpm” Belgian Table Beer
- Best Presentation: Daniel D. for his “Cafecito” Coffee Stout
Our special guest, Kevin Freer of Block 3 Brewery in St. Jacobs, gave a presentation on Lager Brewing, noting that his brewery has shifted more towards brewing lagers over the past three or four years. He gave a summary of a few of their lager recipes, followed by some tips on lagering techniques, dry hopping, using finings, yeast selection, and reducing off flavours. Thank you Kevin.
True Grist made $100 donation to African Caribbean and Black (ACB) Network Waterloo Region, the local charity of Kevin’s choice. The Club is making a donation for each meeting held in 2021, which will be chosen by the presenter. This is being done in appreciation of the presenter sharing their experience, and recognizing need and inequity in our community.
Thank you to everybody who attended the meeting. See you all on February 10 for our next meeting!