District Michigan
Winter Conference Meeting Minutes

January 10-11th, 2008
Detroit Hilton Garden Inn

This meeting, as were the last two year’s conferences, was held in cooperation with the Michigan Brewers Guild Winter Conference. An estimated 100 were in attendance for some or all of the conference. MBAA District Michigan’s role in the conference was the technical presentations carried out by technical chairperson John Haggerty.

The conference began Thursday, January 10th at 11:00 A.M. with a sensory workshop on beer. Rex Halfpenny is a BJCP competition organizer and former BJCP Midwest board representative. His technical presentation overviewed the Beer Judge Certification Program (www.bjcp.org). Rex introduced Umami, the fifth taste, that gets it name from the Japanese word for “deliciousness.” Rex conducted exercises on how to properly taste beer and educate panels for sensory analysis.

Following lunch Scott Shirley of Harpoon Brewing gave a technical presentation on beer filtration. Scott presented an overview of various coarse and fine filtration media and their advantages & limitations, along with various techniques to improve filter lengths while producing beers that are challenging to clarify, such as IPAs. He also discussed different filter hardware and fielded questions from the audience.

The last technical presentation on Thursday was presented by Jim VanderGiessen Jr. on refrigeration. Jim is the GM and CEO of Pro Refrigeration Inc. a manufacture of glycol chiller systems for the brewing industry for almost 20 years. His presentation covered new technology in glycol systems for reclaiming heat, calculations on sizing your glycol system, adding variable speed pumps and circuitry to add efficiencies as demand changes.

On Friday Mike Sutton of SS Steiner gave a technical presentation on the current state of the hop industry, beginning with concerns contributing to the current hop shortage including weather problems, lack of contracting to insure demand for growers, steady volume growth in emerging markets such as China, and various disease challenges for growers. Mike then detailed future prospects for hop growers and hop varieties along with buying and contracting strategies for craft breweries in the new and challenging market over the next several years. The last technical presentation on Friday was given by Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker Brewing Company on the topic of strategies for getting volatile hop aroma into beers while dealing with the challenges of the world hop market detailed in the previous presentation. Matt discussed various concerns which can arise when doing late hopping on beers such as oxygen introduction through dry hopping and ways to remedy them; he also suggested ways to cultivate new ester aromas in beers by, for example, introducing dry hops while the yeast has not yet completed primary fermentation and may catalyze ester formation with hop aroma compounds.

Concurrent with the technical track, the Michigan Brewers Guild ran a Business of Beer Track with an equal number of quality presentations. The whole conference concluded with a beer dinner held at the Detroit Historic Society a few miles from the conference site.

Board Meeting

Meeting called to order by Chad McDaniels at 9:53 a.m.

In attendance were President Chad McDaniels, V.P. Marty Rapnicki, Treasurer Rex Halfpenny, Secretary Eric Kuhnhenn, Technical Chairperson John Haggerty and Ken Belau. Absent was Board of Governor Representative Jan Muuse.

The brief meeting was called to review business for the general meeting taking place the following morning before the next round of technical presentations.

Chad took us through a quick run down on his resignation and a discussion on how the board positions would change. The board agreed that Marty Rapnicki would step in as acting president, Technical Chair John Haggerty would step in a acting Vice President, and Ken Belau would step up to Technical Chair. All other board positions would remain the same. Thanks were made to Chad McDaniels for his years of service and to John Haggerty for his coordination of the technical guest speakers for the conference.

Meeting adjourned 11:15 a.m.

General Meeting

January 11, 2008
Meeting called to order by Chad McDaniels at 9:45 a.m.

In attendance were Marty Rapnicki, Ken Belau, Mike Grossman, Paul Popa, Alec Mull, Konrad Connor, Bill Gerds, Bill Wamby, Kevin Rodger, Eric Briggeman, Todd Parker, Dan Rogers, Jason Giroux, Erik Harms, Jim Graber, Wayne Burns, Nathan Rykse, John Haggerty, Eric Kuhnhenn, Rex Halfpenny, Dan Rogers, Dave Radzanowski, Scott Graham.

Chad opened the meeting with a summary of 2007, one of the district’s most successful years, highlighted by a very successful Summer Social. The 2008 calendar was announced:

• March 20, 2008, New Holland BC, Holland, hosted by John Haggerty


• July 12, 2008, Summer Social, Fitzgerald Park, Grand Ledge


• October 23, Waldorf BC in Hastings, hosted by Sam Sherwood

Treasurer’s report
Treasurer Rex Halfpenny reported we have $6796.05 in our checking account and a CD that matures on June 29, 2008 currently at $7912.25. The Frankenmuth Jaycees, producers of the World Expo of Beer gave our district a check for $1500 in recognition of our service to the brewing community. All the Pig Roast sponsor pledges have been received with the exception of the Beer Co.'s

Vice President’s report
Marty Rapnicki presented the VP report stating that to date we have 79 active members in the district. Of these 15 are past due. He encouraged members to pay their dues and stay current.

No other reports given.

Old Business
A change was made to our annual scholarship, increasing the award from $1000.00 to $3000.00, allowing our district to send an active member to an MBAA brewing course in 2008. Winner must be present at the Summer Social to win. Person on ticket must be the one to use scholarship (non-transferable). Expiration date is that year or roll over to next year’s first available class if brewer can’t use in year of award.

Board is seeking support volunteers for the next summer social. Karl Glarner has secured a site at Fitzgerald Park for the event.

Rex reviewed the rules for entering the scholarship drawing. Must be present at the social to win. Each time a member attends a meeting he/she gets another entry into the drawing. A runner up will get the next year’s MBAA dues paid by the district. In the event the grand prizewinner cannot attend a brewing course the runner up will go in his place.

New Business
Chad McDaniel’s announced that he is stepping down as President. The board has decided that Marty Rapnicki will take over as President. John Haggerty will take over as Vice-President. Ken Belau will step in as Technical chairperson in place of John Haggerty. Rex Halfpenny will remain Treasurer and Eric Kuhnhenn will remain Secretary. All board positions will be up for election at the end of this year. The membership approved.

Chad was thanked by Marty on behalf of all the board members for his dedication to the MBAA for the last five years of service.

Members were reminded that we welcome technical topics and speaker suggestions. Such suggestions now need to go the Ken Belau.

Marty Rapnicki showed off the new travel Mugs with the MBAA logo. They are made of porcelain and stainless and will sell for $20.00.

Ken Belau will work to secure speaker presentations for posting on our webpage. John reminded Ken that he needs to secure a speaker right away for our next meeting in March.

Michigan Brewers Guild Executive Director Scott Graham thanked the board for their work to secure technical speakers and for contributing to the success of the Winter Conference.

Meeting adjourned by Marty Rapnicki at 10:50 a.m.

Eric Kuhnhenn, Secretatry, ekuhnhenn@wowway.com