March 2024 Meeting Minutes

March 21, 2024

Fossil Cove Brewery, Fayetteville, AR

• Attendance: 18
• Homebrews: 19

Meeting called to order at 7:15PM with an airhorn and toast by Kevin Elsken.

Reviewed new beer voting and feedback tag system for members to use throughout the meeting.

New Attendees

• Ric, just moved to Springdale, was a member of CAF
• Jeff, friend of Greg’s from outside Oklahoma City
• Matt, friend of Greg’s from outside Oklahoma City

Old Business

Reigning Brewer of the Month

• Larry McCallister

Reigning Ass of the Month

• Tom Maddock

Membership

• Kevin Elsken reminded members to renew their membership for 2024 if they haven’t already.
• Kevin Elsken encouraged members to consider AHA membership, which benefits the club through insurance reimbursement.
  • The AHA is rolling Homebrew Con into GABF for 2024.

Iron Brewer Competition

• Q1 2024: Specialty Cider (C2F), April 18 (FLOPS)
  • The club discussed reaching out to Black Apple about partnering for judging this round.
• Q2 2024: Pepper Beer (30A), July 2 (OZ)
• Q3 2024: Imperial Stout (20C), October 17 (FLOPS)
• Q4 2024: Bière de Garde (24C), January 7 (OZ)

Great Southern Beer Fest

• Saturday, April 27. More info here.
• The club discussed available jockey boxes to bring to the club tent in the Homebrew Holler.
• Larry McCallister announced a paid opportunity to help move the stage the day before and the day after the event.

New Business

Brewer of the Year Points

• Kevin Elsken presented the updated Brewer of the Year point schedule to the club, and clarified requirements to communicate participation to Greg for accurate scoring.

Events of Interest

• Mead Stampede
  • Entries will be accepted April 1–June 30.
• Joint event with CAF
  • The event is still in the early stages of planning, but may take place in the Clarksville area.
  • The club discussed forming a more concrete vision of the event to keep the planning process moving forward.
  • James Harvey mentioned pairing the event with a visit to the University of Arkansas’ hop research station in Clarksville.
• Big Brew Day
  • Saturday, May 4. More info here.
  • Patrick Bohannan volunteered to host at Black Howler. James Harvey made a motion to have Big Brew Day at Black Howler, Kevin Elsken seconded, and the club passed the motion.
• The Art of Homebrew Showcase
  • Saturday, May 11. More info here.
  • Patrick Bohannan said it would be a pro-am competition, and the winning beer would get brewed as a commercial 1 bbl batch.

Tent and Banner

• The club has a new banner. And Kevin Elsken found the old banner… it was at Fossil Cove the whole time!
• A club tent has been ordered.

Club Administration

• Club officers have been tasked with writing new bylaws for the club.
• Kevin Elsken filed form 990-N with the IRS as well as submitted the Arkansas annual report with the Secratary of State, both of which need to be done annually for the club’s 501(c)3 status.
• Bank of Fayetteville checking account approved check signers
  • The club officers need to remove the following people as check signers as they are no longer current members:
    • Andrew Sparks
    • Katherine McGraw
    • William Gibson
  • The club officers need to add the following current members as check signers:
    • Kevin Elsken
    • Greg Newman
    • Ben Farhner
  • The club officers proposed opening a CD in the amount of $4,000.00 at the Bank of Fayetteville.
  • Ben Farhner made a motion to approve removing old check signers, adding new check signers, and opening the CD. The motion was seconded by Kevin Elsken and approved by the club officers.

Upcoming Education

• April–December education topics still to be determined
  • David Johnson had volunteered to do a presentation on koji starters for sake, but was not present at the meeting.
  • Connor had volunteered to do a presentation on building a keezer, but was not present at the meeting.
  • Randy had volunteered to do a presentation on making ciders and/or lagers, but was not present at the meeting.
• Potential topics:
  • Managing yeast
  • Biotransformation in dry hopping
  • Hops (could we get someone from the U of A to do a presentation?)
  • Water
  • Lagering beer
  • Oaking beer
  • Impact of mash temperature
• James Harvey mentioned that he’ll be building a Son of Fermentation Chiller soon and could do a presentation on that process.

Miscellaneous

• Club social for March/April
  • Greg Newman made a motion to join OZ at Bike Rack Brewing on Saturday, March 23 at 12:30pm for this month’s social, Kevin Elsken seconded, and the club passed the motion.

Education

• Kevin Elsken shared some brief stats about the Beaver Water District water quality.
• Greg Newman presented his process for using the Bru’n Water spreadsheet for water adjustment.

Kevin Elsken closed the meeting at 8:25pm, opening GODS.

Brewer of the Month

• 1st place: Alex Smith
• 2nd place: Matt Daniels
• 3rd place: Ben Farhner

Beer of the Month

• Alex Smith’s Hazy IPA

Ass of the Month

• Randy Germann for choosing his family over the club during spring break

Meeting concluded at 9:01pm.