MBAA District Northwest
May 16-17, 2008
Meeting Recap

The 155th meeting of the NW Section of the MBAA was held in at the Hood River Hood River, Oregon on the weekend of May 16-17, 2008. President Al Triplett (Redhook Brewing, retired) officiated his last meeting before retiring. Nine new members were inducted into the district to bring the total membership of District NW to 147. Prior to the business meeting we had presentations from Brad McQhae of NSI (speaking on kettle design technology), and Fritz Banke of Banke Brewing Systems explaining his novel grist hydrator system, “Alloy Suis”. On Saturday morning, Dave Kapral, retired Aheuser Busch brewmaster, gave a detailed three-part presentation on Brewhouse Management.

Larry Sidor presented the nomination committee’s recommendations for a new slate of officers: Matt Swihart of Double Mountain brewing for President, Jeff Edgerton of BridgePort Brewing for Vice-President, Brett Porter of Deschutes Brewery for Secretary-Treasurer, and Brad Loucks of Great Western Malting for Technical Committee Chair. The nominations were unanimously accepted. Tom Shellhammer of Oregon State University gave a report on the International Brewing Symposium held last summer at OSU. The manuscripts from the Symposium are in process and on schedule to be delivered sometime in late summer or early fall.

Attendees of the spring meeting chose from several outdoor activities including Golf, whitewater rafting, fishing, a bike ride, and horseback riding to round out their weekend in Hood River. The next meeting for the NW Section will be this fall in Yakima. Tentative dates are November 7-8, venue still to be determined. The spring meeting of 2009 wll return to Hood River with Joe Casey of Widmer Bros. Brewing company to host.

District NW officers are from left to right: Bill Pengelly, BOG Representative; Matt Swihart, President; Brad Loucks, Technical Committee Chair; Brett Porter, Secretary-Treasurer; and Jeff Edgerton, Vice-President.

6 of our 9 new members: Left to right: Tom Bleigh of Pyramid Brewing, Bryan Kelty, Kristy Holsopple of Full Sail Brewing, Sam Orlansky of BridgePort Brewing, Maryanne French of BridgePort Brewing, and Jonathan Berry of Lucky Lab Brewing.

Technical Sessions