February DUFF club meeting report

The DUFF Club met at the Corner Pub in Reedsburg on Friday evening. We sampled Pete's micro-brewed beers. Personally, I thought the Rye Pale Ale was very good and after the first glass, I stuck with that beer through the evening as I enjoyed poor-man's lobster from the grill.

I hope I haven't forgotten anyone, but if my memory serves me correctly there were thirteen members present at the February meeting: Randy & Carolyn, Jim & Kathy, Christin & Mike, Joe & Theresa, Dave, Aaron, Fritz, Sandy, and I. We missed everyone that couldn't make it and look forward to seeing you all next month.

We didn't cover a lot of business at the February meeting, but Christin did give the following information about the Barn event held last June.

We helped raise nearly $2100 dollars for the Wisconsin MS Society with last year's Homebrew event at the Barn in Baraboo! According to Christin, this was by far the most successful fund-raising venture she has held so far.

Will we do it again this year? God willing and the creek don't rise, we will!

The Barn Homebrew competition & sampling will be held again on the first Sunday in June, the 5^th 2011. Christin wants to expand on what was done last year by publishing a book that includes information about each home-brewer and each home-brewed beer for distribution to the guests at the tasting. She's planning to start a web site for the event by next month.

Entrants should be able to provide 5 gallons of beer for tasting and donations to the Wisconsin MS Society are tax deductible.

A second item of business discussion was this fall's Fermentation Fest in Reedsburg, it'll be the weekend from the 7th through the 16th of October. How will the DUFF participate? Dave Dietz 608-963-4532 is the contact person for information on this event.

Our next meeting will take place in Hillsboro at Beezer's Hotel Bar and Grill on March 4th. A conference room has been reserved at the hotel from 6:00 to 9:00 pm for our meeting (in my name). The cost will be $35.00 and we may order off the grill and discretely bring homebrew samples to this meeting as I didn't really get into a discussion of that aspect of our meetings with the young lady taking the reservation.

If someone is good with designing fliers, we should try to get some out and tacked up on bulletin boards in the Hillsboro and surrounding area. Also, since one of the purposes of our club is to promote the hobby of homebrewing and the Hillsboro area is somewhat new territory for our meetings, I think we should use this meeting as an introductory event for any new-comers to the hobby of homebrewing. Maybe a basic display/presentation of how to make home-brewed beer and if no newcomers show up, a more in-depth presentation by some knowledgeable member of the club on some aspect of homebrewing???

A 15 to 30 minute educational demonstration and talk on some facet of homebrewing may be beneficial for our group and for future attendance at home-brew meetings. Anyone agree? Anyone want to tackle the first attempt? Give me a call or start a discussion on DUFF Facebook or DUFF Groups. I would be very interested in learning more about yeast, acid testing, the fine art of milling malt, or just a recap and articulation of the phases of lagering with respect to temperature and taste. So much to learn.... so little time!

Have a great week.

Mel

Ps. I generally send club emails with everyone's email address hidden for privacy. I left them visible today because some other club members need the list and this is the easiest to just share with everyone, so add the rest of the club members from this email to your contact list if you want or need them.