September 2006 Meeting - Back From Summer

     On Saturday, September 9, 2006, the Wootown Brewers met for their return from summer group brew and meeting at the house of Club President Tom Davidson.

     The Wootown Brewers perform a group brew activity four times a year. The September 2006 meeting was one such meeting where the group brewed 90 gallons of a Porter-style beer. The brew was made in the club's new 55-gallon stainless steel drums.

     The hot liquor tanks for the beer were fired up at 9 a.m., and milling began shortly thereafter. Over 250 pounds of grain were milled for this dark brown porter, which was mashed in four separate coolers by club members.

     A number of members and officers took home quantities of wort for fermentation.

     Club President Tom smoked a boneless pork loin out back, and the group enjoyed a number of other food items contributed by members.

     The group also held a club meeting later in the afternoon during which a number of items were discussed and put to a vote. The minutes of that session follow.

     Noted one member for whom the September meeting was his first, "This was great. Getting to try different brews, eat and brew together. Perfect."

Meeting Resolutions

     A number of items, including the club calendar, were discussed at the meeting, and were put to a vote by voting members of the organization. Those items include:

     President Davidson noted that October 2006 meeting will include nominations for club officers. Elections for those officers will take place at the November 2006 meeting.

     The club recognized its two new members, and welcomed them to the club.

     President Davidson re-capped the new dues procedure for those members who missed the June 2006 meeting, and stated how it will be implemented.

     President Davidson also solicited responses for various club activities, including

•           * The First Annual Maryland Microbrewery Festival at the Union Mills on September 30, 2006
•           * The German club's Oktoberfest at the 5th Regiment Armory on the weekend of October 7th and 8th, 2006
•           * The Maryland Brewers Oktoberfest at the Timonium Fairgrounds and The Stoudts Microfest on October 14th
•           * Oktoberfest at Blob's Park on October 28th
•           * Annual holiday party at Clipper City for the Free State Homebrewers Club Guild and Wootown Brewers December meeting on December 2, 2006

     Those wishing to attend the Stoudt's Microfest or Blob's Park should contact Tom immediately.

     Communications Director Jeff Sanders then covered a number of web site-related issues. He announced the availability of the new web site, and "highly" encouraged members to register for the forums.

     Jeff spoke of how those club members who wished for an additional club e-mail address could apply for one by contacting him. The cost is free and is subsidized by the club. It is available for current club members only.

     Jeff held a discussion on web site forum etiquette and how everyone could sign up. The club voted to allow the forums to be accessed freely by anyone, and that non-club members could contribute to them, however, only club members would be allowed to view specific "Members Only" forums. The using of the term "Members Only" got a few chuckles.

     The club voted that the forums were not to be filtered and that there would be no blacklist of forbidden words. However, they did vote to remove any content that was deemed illegal and stated it was the job of the Communications Director to do so.

     The club voted to allow for a two-prong approach on posting recipes to the web site. The forum section of the site was to be used for any recipe posted by any contributor of the forum. The main recipe section of the web site is to be used for "club recognized and club approved" recipes that have been voted upon at a club function as representative of the quality of club member brews.

     The club voted to allow forum users to post as little or as much information about themselves as they desired in the forum member profiles. It was asked by Communications Director Jeff Sanders for all users to PLEASE submit pictures of themselves for the forums.

     Jeff noted that the events page includes a number of not only beer, but wine and mead-related events and that the club, traditionally, has been a beer-only organization. He asked the club to vote on whether or not they wanted to remove or filter any of the wine or mead-related events. The club voted to keep all events and agreed that those interested in only a specific type of event could skip over the other event types.

     Jeff asked for feedback on the Beer Gear column as well as ideas for any other topics the members wished to have addressed on the site. He requested this information be sent to him via e-mail.

     The items were addressed and passed. It was noted that any further issues would be addressed on an as needed basis at future meetings.

Pictures from the Meeting

2008

2007

2006