46
Events / Re: GABF Members Only Entrance?
« on: October 01, 2012, 08:38:21 pm »
If the ticket does not also say "Member's Entrance", then you'll need to get into the general admission line.
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47
Homebrew Clubs / Re: Any help on protection the Club from liability?
« on: September 29, 2012, 08:48:33 pm »Our club has rudimentary (and out-dated) bylaws, but we never incorporated. The only reason we have a federal Tax ID number is because we needed it to open a checking account. Sheesh, we even have a PayPal account linked to it.
FWIW, u don't need a TIN to have a bank account, most banks can open it as an unaffliated unincorporated association, like a cub scout troop. Members' names/SSNs are on the account as authorized signers, but I don't see how that would impose liability.
Which club are u associated with? I just did the above for Baltibrew's checking acct!
Midnight Homebrewers' League (in my signature, and one of the Guild member clubs). When we opened our checking account many years ago, the bank did indeed want a TIN. Otherwise we'd'a'never done it.
48
Homebrew Clubs / Re: Any help on protection the Club from liability?
« on: September 06, 2012, 08:00:21 pm »
Our club has rudimentary (and out-dated) bylaws, but we never incorporated. The only reason we have a federal Tax ID number is because we needed it to open a checking account. Sheesh, we even have a PayPal account linked to it.
Nothing I'm aware of in the law requires us to incorporate. We don't ever report squat to either the state or the feds. In Maryland, we are an unincorporated association. In 18 years, we have seen no reason to either incorporate or get liability insurance, except to spend time, money, and frayed nerves on things that are the exact opposite of fun. We have somewhere around 80 members, and I promise that not one of them wants to spend even a minute filling out tax/information returns to the state or to the feds, or keeping the records necessary to do that. We almost did it a year or so ago because one of us
thought it might be cool to get organizational license plates with our logo from the state, but the feeling passed at seeing the daunting paperwork.
We do many things as a club, butmost all of our alcohol-related events are at members' homes. At least in Maryland, there is no host liability for alcohol-related incidents if someone leaves an event impaired and causes damage or injury. That's not to say we are cavalier about that, because we're not and we very much look out for each other. But it just is not a matter of either individual or club liability to us.
We do public brewing demonstrations and run a competition at an annual beer festival. We're not serving or giving away homebrew to the public, just making it. We're there at the invitation/request of the event host and property owner. They have insurance for the event which will respond if someone gets scalded by boiling wort. But if someone among us acts negligently or recklessly and causes harm and gets sued personally, I supposed it's conceivable that it's their homeowner policy's baby as well as the event host's. We're just not worried about it. Someone could probably make an argument to make me reconsider these positions, but at least for now, I've said my piece and counted to three.
We like spending our scarce club resources on fun stuff like food for club events, subsidizing the cost of club t-shirts and tasting mugs, paying members' costs for taking the local BJCP exam prep course, paying for a communal brewing and dining site at BrewCamp, paying for our web domain, and of course, hauling the best beers to be tasted in the whole room at Club Night next year in Philly.
Cheers!
[The lawyer in me reminds me to say that this is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Seek competent legal counsel in your own state, for your own unique circumstances. Everyone has to find their own comfort level with this issue in order to be able to sleep at night. We've found ours.]
Nothing I'm aware of in the law requires us to incorporate. We don't ever report squat to either the state or the feds. In Maryland, we are an unincorporated association. In 18 years, we have seen no reason to either incorporate or get liability insurance, except to spend time, money, and frayed nerves on things that are the exact opposite of fun. We have somewhere around 80 members, and I promise that not one of them wants to spend even a minute filling out tax/information returns to the state or to the feds, or keeping the records necessary to do that. We almost did it a year or so ago because one of us
thought it might be cool to get organizational license plates with our logo from the state, but the feeling passed at seeing the daunting paperwork. We do many things as a club, but
We do public brewing demonstrations and run a competition at an annual beer festival. We're not serving or giving away homebrew to the public, just making it. We're there at the invitation/request of the event host and property owner. They have insurance for the event which will respond if someone gets scalded by boiling wort. But if someone among us acts negligently or recklessly and causes harm and gets sued personally, I supposed it's conceivable that it's their homeowner policy's baby as well as the event host's. We're just not worried about it. Someone could probably make an argument to make me reconsider these positions, but at least for now, I've said my piece and counted to three.
We like spending our scarce club resources on fun stuff like food for club events, subsidizing the cost of club t-shirts and tasting mugs, paying members' costs for taking the local BJCP exam prep course, paying for a communal brewing and dining site at BrewCamp, paying for our web domain, and of course, hauling the best beers to be tasted in the whole room at Club Night next year in Philly.
Cheers!
[The lawyer in me reminds me to say that this is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Seek competent legal counsel in your own state, for your own unique circumstances. Everyone has to find their own comfort level with this issue in order to be able to sleep at night. We've found ours.]
49
The Pub / Re: Beer Connoissuer Mag
« on: September 02, 2012, 06:16:37 am »
I enjoy it. Only quarterly. Not too much "fluff", interesting articles. Nice beer-travel articles (e.g. "The Farmhouse Traditions of Lithuania" - who knew??). Brewpub, brewery and restaurant "tours". An "International" beer news section with more detailed articles about non-US breweries and brewing practices. The magazine is a slightly larger format, and while the current issue is only 64 pages, it's mostly content and seemimgly not much advertising. And it has the obligatory beer reviews, which seem pretty legit (and include food pairing recommendations).
50
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What do you think of this commercial
« on: August 29, 2012, 04:01:36 pm »
That's funny right there...maybe cuz it hits a little close to home
BWW's food in my town is pretty good IMHO. Their craft beer menu is a huge improvement, too.
Full Disclosure: BWW sponsors our comp in several ways, including selling the BOS winning homebrew, scaled up and brewed commercially, on draft throughout their Maryland locations. That's a pretty cool prize for your average Joe Homebrewers...complete with tapping parties at several restaurants. They are homebrewer-friendly, they try to help make a pretty big deal out of the competition, and we give one of their more knowledgeable beer managers a seat at the BOS table (with a pro brewer and 2-3 Cert or higher judges).
BWW's food in my town is pretty good IMHO. Their craft beer menu is a huge improvement, too.
Full Disclosure: BWW sponsors our comp in several ways, including selling the BOS winning homebrew, scaled up and brewed commercially, on draft throughout their Maryland locations. That's a pretty cool prize for your average Joe Homebrewers...complete with tapping parties at several restaurants. They are homebrewer-friendly, they try to help make a pretty big deal out of the competition, and we give one of their more knowledgeable beer managers a seat at the BOS table (with a pro brewer and 2-3 Cert or higher judges).
51
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Style Guidelines and Judging
« on: August 25, 2012, 09:48:03 pm »
To the extent judges can tell a beer is out of style, they will call it out, and score it accordingly. I've done it, and had it done to me.
But judges do not have recipe information on an entry when judging a beer. Alcohol level can be one of the more difficult things to discern, unless it's really obvious. So something that stands out might still score well even if it's out of style on paper.
But judges do not have recipe information on an entry when judging a beer. Alcohol level can be one of the more difficult things to discern, unless it's really obvious. So something that stands out might still score well even if it's out of style on paper.
52
Pimp My System / Re: Contained heating space for conical fermenter
« on: August 24, 2012, 05:04:53 pm »
Hi, Jim. No, I generally pitch this yeast at or around 80°, let it rise on its own for a few days, then keep it up there (artificially if necessary) for at least a week. Made a bunch of Saisons with it this way and have had good success so far. My current process with this yeast is based on the pretty detailed description of Brasserie Dupont's process in Farmhouse Ales. Seems to work well for me.
p.s. The book's description of the "rising temperature mash" they use has also worked well.
p.s. The book's description of the "rising temperature mash" they use has also worked well.
53
Pimp My System / Re: Contained heating space for conical fermenter
« on: August 21, 2012, 08:27:36 pm »
Working perfectly after 3 days. The probe is inside the wort in a thermowell. Basement temp is about 70°. Got fermenter at 89°, probably add another degree or two tomorrow, then hold a week. Yeast still putting out nicely.
54
Pimp My System / Contained heating space for conical fermenter
« on: August 20, 2012, 03:15:58 pm »
Just threw this together to help keep the temperature up (85° and higher) for a new Saison with WLP565 yeast. It's comprised of two collapsible "pop-up" trash/yard waste cans (found @ Target), a space heater, and a Ranco digital controller:
The bottom "can" is narrower (19" dia.) than the top one, but the legs of the conical just fit. The top can lowers down over the whole thing. It's 22" in diameter. The space heater sits on the floor, plugged into a Ranco controller. Thermowell for the Ranco sensor inserts in a hold drilled in the top of a Plexiglas lid I made for the conical. Visit the photobucket Album to see a couple other shots:
http://s678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/smkranz/Compact%20Conical%20Chamber/
Instead of an airlock, I have a blowoff hose that feeds through the gap between the top and bottom cans, and into a bucket.
Spousal Unit made some distressed noise about the risk of fire, which I countered with some Male Pattern Deafness. I had thought about it, though. The space heater is plastic, so how hot can it really get anyway? Plus it doesn't touch anything. Heat and fan are set to mid-range settings. It has a shut-off if it tips over. And if something went FUBAR and overheated, the excess heat can get out through the substantial gap between the top and bottom trash cans. The top can still contains the heat around the conical, and increased the wort temp from pitching (82°) to 85 in about two hours.
The bottom "can" is narrower (19" dia.) than the top one, but the legs of the conical just fit. The top can lowers down over the whole thing. It's 22" in diameter. The space heater sits on the floor, plugged into a Ranco controller. Thermowell for the Ranco sensor inserts in a hold drilled in the top of a Plexiglas lid I made for the conical. Visit the photobucket Album to see a couple other shots:
http://s678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/smkranz/Compact%20Conical%20Chamber/
Instead of an airlock, I have a blowoff hose that feeds through the gap between the top and bottom cans, and into a bucket.
Spousal Unit made some distressed noise about the risk of fire, which I countered with some Male Pattern Deafness. I had thought about it, though. The space heater is plastic, so how hot can it really get anyway? Plus it doesn't touch anything. Heat and fan are set to mid-range settings. It has a shut-off if it tips over. And if something went FUBAR and overheated, the excess heat can get out through the substantial gap between the top and bottom trash cans. The top can still contains the heat around the conical, and increased the wort temp from pitching (82°) to 85 in about two hours.
55
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: White Labs vials?
« on: August 18, 2012, 05:51:38 am »
When the Spousal Unit packs me a salad for lunch, she uses an empty vial for salad dressing.
56
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Getting started
« on: August 16, 2012, 10:06:27 pm »
About every third beer I brew seems to be a Saison. Using WLP565 pitch it at about 80°, with lots of oxygen (and if it is a high gravity Saison, add more oxygen after about 15 hours). Let it rise on its own to as high as it will go, probably 86-88. When it starts to slow down after a couple days, I personally would keep the temp artificially elevated (space heater in the bathroom?) for at least a few more days to encourage those yeasties to keep going and not stall. You want it to dry out, and letting this yeast cool down early will pretty much shut it down. It is a characterful yeast that likes it hot. My nicest Saison topped out at about 92°.
57
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: GABF Members Only Line
« on: August 16, 2012, 09:39:08 pm »
Received all my tickets in the mail last week. They all have "Members Entrance" on them, as well as "Member" at the top under "Admission", except for the Saturday noon Members Only session tickets which have General Admission instead of Members Entrance because there's only one entrance for that session.
If the ticket does not have Members Entrance printed on it, then it is a General Admission ticket, and the word "Member" at the top does not help.
My guess is that if one is in the wrong line for your ticket, the staff will probably direct you to the [end of] the correct line. I believe there also have in the past been staff outside with bullhorns directing peeps to the right lines.
If the ticket does not have Members Entrance printed on it, then it is a General Admission ticket, and the word "Member" at the top does not help.
My guess is that if one is in the wrong line for your ticket, the staff will probably direct you to the [end of] the correct line. I believe there also have in the past been staff outside with bullhorns directing peeps to the right lines.
58
Kegging and Bottling / User review: grogtag.com vinyl reuseable labels
« on: August 09, 2012, 08:39:13 pm »
We ran into GrogTag at the NHC in Seattle. They had a nice display and gave out samples. They produce custom designed vinyl peel-off beer & wine bottle and ngeck abels which are reuseable, and write-able on with eraseable crayons. Their stock designs are a little limited, but the info is customizable and you can upload custom graphics on most of them. Or upload your own complete label design.
My favorite label is the blank with spaces for beer name/batch, dates, gravities, and moving dates. Because they are waterproof, reuseable, and eraseable with Crayola eraseable crayons, I use these to follow my beers from primary, to secondary, to kegs, updating the info with each move. Then wipe clean and re-use.
I have ordered twice now. Service is very prompt. Production quality exceeds my expectations. Depending on the label template and the graphic you want to upload, you might have to play with the size of the upload file to make it display the way you like.
They also have an affiliate program for clubs, 10% discount when purchased through your link, and 1o% rebate to your club. Check out the link on our club's home page in my signature.
My favorite label is the blank with spaces for beer name/batch, dates, gravities, and moving dates. Because they are waterproof, reuseable, and eraseable with Crayola eraseable crayons, I use these to follow my beers from primary, to secondary, to kegs, updating the info with each move. Then wipe clean and re-use.
I have ordered twice now. Service is very prompt. Production quality exceeds my expectations. Depending on the label template and the graphic you want to upload, you might have to play with the size of the upload file to make it display the way you like.
They also have an affiliate program for clubs, 10% discount when purchased through your link, and 1o% rebate to your club. Check out the link on our club's home page in my signature.
59
Wood/Casks / Re: Oak Chips in a Farmhouse?
« on: August 09, 2012, 06:32:34 pm »
I'd split the batch if I were you. Oak half of it. If you don't like how it turns out you can blend the non-oaked half back in. If you do like it, then oak the other half and put them together.
60
Wood/Casks / Re: Woodinville Whiskey Co. barrel
« on: August 05, 2012, 11:36:14 am »
1. Did you notice any oxidation flavors in the first two beers? O2 diffusion is my biggest fear.
Nope, not yet at least. It might also be too soon to know. I wouldn't worry about it. I'd suggest you make a batch that will pretty much top off the barrel with 8 gallons of fermented beer. Flush the barrel with CO2 if you can, before you fill it. Commercial brewers are making barrel-aged beers to beat the band these days, and most of them are great.
2. Have you funkified it yet?
Not yet, but I'm thinking the Cherry Wheat that's going in shortly will get funked w/brett. I also have a few gallons that won't fit into the barrel, which I will keg and carb normally.
3. Would you say its worth the investment?
I recognize that lots of what I spend on this hobby falls way outside of the realm of "worth the investment", but rather is spent because I want to, and I can. In the case of this barrel:
- I wanted more bourbon barrel beers of my own, on my schedule rather than brewing with others to fill a large barrel;
- it was relatively affordable (compared with $300-$400 for a new oak barrel);
- it fits on a shelf in my basement;
- the Spousal Unit didn't beat me with a 2x4 because of the barrel;
- the beers are coming out of it mighty good;
- and I will definitely do it again.
So by all of those measures, I guess that's a long way to say yes
.
Nope, not yet at least. It might also be too soon to know. I wouldn't worry about it. I'd suggest you make a batch that will pretty much top off the barrel with 8 gallons of fermented beer. Flush the barrel with CO2 if you can, before you fill it. Commercial brewers are making barrel-aged beers to beat the band these days, and most of them are great.
2. Have you funkified it yet?
Not yet, but I'm thinking the Cherry Wheat that's going in shortly will get funked w/brett. I also have a few gallons that won't fit into the barrel, which I will keg and carb normally.
3. Would you say its worth the investment?
I recognize that lots of what I spend on this hobby falls way outside of the realm of "worth the investment", but rather is spent because I want to, and I can. In the case of this barrel:
- I wanted more bourbon barrel beers of my own, on my schedule rather than brewing with others to fill a large barrel;
- it was relatively affordable (compared with $300-$400 for a new oak barrel);
- it fits on a shelf in my basement;
- the Spousal Unit didn't beat me with a 2x4 because of the barrel;
- the beers are coming out of it mighty good;
- and I will definitely do it again.
So by all of those measures, I guess that's a long way to say yes
.