MBAA District Michigan Minutes

General Meeting Minutes
March 23, 2006
Etouffee, Southfield, MI

12:50PM, Meeting called to order by President Alec Mull.


In attendance Eric Briggeman, Greg Burke, Wayne Burns, John Hagerty, Mary Halfpenny, Rex Halfpenny, Eric Harms, Scott King, Brett Kuhnhenn, Eric Kuhnhenn, Alec Mull, Jan Muuse, Gary Nicholas, Todd Parker, Marty Rapnicki, Andy Rathus, Dan Rogers, Kevin Rogers, Dave Shaw, Sam Sherwood, Geoff Town, Bill Wamby, and Mike Wachowski.

Alec introduced our technical speaker, Geoff Town from Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland to speak to the members on dissolved Oxygen.

Summary: Oxygen is required in brewing for yeast metabolism. After that early stage of the fermentation process oxygen, any additional oxygen can contribute to off-flavors in the finished product. For this reason maintaining the lowest possible oxygen levels through the brewing process is very important. Using a power point presentation Geoff talked about the off flavors associated with the chemical compound trans-2-nonenal, most frequently described as papery and cardboardy. He showed where oxygen is scrubbed off and places where it can be added back in during the brewing process. There was some discussion about what kind of oxygen brewers should use when adding oxygen to help yeast metabolism. Welder and aviation grades are not suitable, only pure medical grade oxygen should be used. DO is at its lowest point when fermentation is complete. Too much yeast leaves DO and promotes ester formation and off-flavors. All post process activity can add DO; transfers, pumps, fittings, lines, filtering, packaging and even leaks in the CO2 system. Geoff suggests flushing hoses, running off 1st runnings from hoses onto the floor and racking as little as possible. Monitor each step of the process with a DO meter to isolate where a problem may exist. Make readings constant, same time and temperature. A discussion on oxygen barrier caps led to Gary Nicholas experience at Bells where they found the caps to be short term and do not work as intended past about 2 months.

1:35 at the conclusion of the talk lunch was called.

3:00PM the meeting was called back to order.

Alec recognized new (and returning) members Eric Briggeman, Gary Nicholas, Mike Wachowski, Greg Burke, Kevin Rogers, Todd Parker, Scott King, and Wayne Burns.

Board Member Reports:

Treasurer's Report, Marty Rapnicki. The district has $1905.67 in the checking account and $9,175.00 in a CD maturing the end of June. When the CD matures, the district will pull out some of the money to meet current obligations and open a new 12-month CD with the balance.

Secretary's Report, Rex Halfpenny. The national folks are very helpful with posting our information on the district page of the MBAA national website. Members are encouraged to use the site to keep up to date with what is going on in the district as well as with the MBAA. All of our meeting minutes are posted there as well.

Vice President's Report was made by Alec Mull standing in for Chad McDaniels who was out of the country. Chad has initiated a membership drive, sending materials to all the Michigan brewers who are not members. His efforts have clearly paid off as evidenced by the fact that we had a large number of new faces show up at this meeting and join. Chad has is also chairing a social outing for district members and encourages everyone to show up 7-10PM at the Cadieux Cafe on May 1st for our third annual Feather bowling tournament. The district will absorb a portion of the cost.

Alec then summarized the Winter Conference (held January 4-5, 2006 in Grand Rapids) that the district cosponsored with the Michigan Brewers Guild. By show of hands Alec lead a polling of members and how they felt about the conference. Most were in favor of the location, but a new location for next year is open for discussion. Most enjoyed the presentations, though some felt they did not learn anything new or useful. An idea of having a panel discussion was brought up but it did not get any response. The food was so-so, some like it and some felt it lacked. Overall the event was deemed by popular vote to be acceptable and worthwhile (neither poor no great).

The bad news was the Alec was finally presented with a P&L for the conference just days before this meeting and it showed sever cost overruns in spite of a solid turnout and great weather. The bottom line of the P&L showed a negative $8,053.18. The majority of the cost overruns were attributed to the food and beer. The good news is that the Guild has agreed to only charge the district $1,000.00 and invites the district to have the same involvement next year at no cost to the district. This offer defused any further objections.

A couple problems were brought up for consideration in making next year's event better. The first was dueling speakers, which attending one session folks had to miss another. The other problem was concurrent annual meeting of the guild and the district where members belonged to both organizations and could only attend one of the two meetings.

Eric Briggeman said they will try to pay more attention to conflicting dates and that the Guild has already decided to move the conference back a week to January 10-12, 2007.

Scott Isham said he believed it best for the district to stay about education and not about money. Make some money, use it on education. He noted that it appeared the two organizations were founded for two paths but they are beginning to blend. He cautioned that one should be about promotion and the other about education.

The final order of business was the Summer Social, to take place on August 5, 2006 at Fitzgerald Park in Grand Ledge. (Details are available elsewhere on this site.) This is the key event to raise funds for our district and for our $1000 Peter Blum Memorial Scholarship. Everyone was reminded that every meeting attended adds a chance to win and every ticket a member sells adds a chance to win. This year there will be a runner up award. This person will get the scholarship in the event the primary winner cannot attend. The runner up (the person not attending the annual conference) will have his/her annual dues paid by the district for the following year (2007).

Delegation of responsibilities was reviewed.

Jan Muuse will handle all ticket sales. Advance member price is $20.00. Non-member is $30.00. Advance price must be paid no later than July 28, 2006. All tickets will be $30.00 after July 28th, including the door. A DD and non-drinking teen (13-20) price was set at $10.00. Children under 13 are free. The first 100 tickets sold will get this years FREE T-Shirt.

Food and serving will be handled by the same caterer using same menu as last year.
Sam Sherwood and Nate Walser will coordinate the disc golf tournament
The horseshoe tournament will be in the care of Andy Rathus.
Camping coordinator is Karl Glarner.
Snacks is Mary Halfpenny
Beer dispense, Alec Mull and John Haggerty.
Food coordination with caterer by Alec Mull.
John Haggerty will coordinate beer donations.
Rex Halfpenny will send acknowledgements to appropriate contributors.
The gate will be manned rotationally by the board and at least on volunteer, Eric Harms and Andy Rathus volunteered.
Rex Halfpenny will secure enough prizes for the athletic events.
Marty Rapnicki will work on soda and water.
(Chad McDaniels is committee oversight and will bring ice and help with soda and water.)

The next General Meeting and Technical Presentation will be October 19 at Bell's Brewery in Galesburg. The speaker will be Gary Nicholas on yeast management.

4:20PM Meeting adjourned.