More local club activity

[nigel_c]

As a local club is there any other activities we can do as a group?

Talking to James the other day and he came up the the idea of a periodic trip to AJ's for co2. Its a fair run from out side of town but a group between us a quarterly run wouldn't be that bad.

We have the group buy on grains and hops which is great but i'd also like to look into the group yeast bank again. I know I have a load of years and am willing to build up and pass on any. I'm sure I'm not the only one with a fridge full of yeasts. A regular update of whats available would be in everyone's interest.

I brew every few weeks and have no problem going through the process with anyone who is looking to get into all grain. After one or two of these you'll be rand on your own. Its always better brewing with someone so the more the merrier.

Collaboration. 2 brewers team up for am epic beer. Enough said.

Just a god old fashioned  "Anyone fancy a pint?" We are great with our monthly meet ups but there is nothing stopping people just meeting up for a beer mid week for a pint and a yap.

Loads of other stuff.

[Jacob]

+1 to collaboration brewing, mid week pint and other activities. Great idea!
Also good to know that someone is doing slants. Got equipment some time ago but never had time to actually use it.

[irish_goat]

Not sure if the rule is enforced or not but technically collaboration brews can't be entered in the comp, for what it's worth.

Each entry must be brewed solely by the entrant.

http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/competition/rules

[mcgrath]

A swap process for speciality malt would be handy. Some sort of list of what you have excess of and what you are looking for would be useful. You could exchange grain then at the meets.

[nigel_c]

Not sure if the rule is enforced or not but technically collaboration brews can't be entered in the comp, for what it's worth.

Each entry must be brewed solely by the entrant.

http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/competition/rules

Doesn't have to be for competition. Splitting a batch of big RIS or DIPA makes it look like your may not be as big of a dipso as you actually may be. 

[DEMPSEY]

Not sure if the rule is enforced or not but technically collaboration brews can't be entered in the comp, for what it's worth.

Each entry must be brewed solely by the entrant.

http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/competition/rules

Spoil sport

[nigel_c]

I'm not doing slants yet. Just try to keep a few tubes of washed yeast in the fridge. Keep them rotated and refreshed. Slants are on my to do list in the new year.

[Partridge9]

I streaked a couple of WLP380 slants last night.

Basically when I buy a white labs vial, I always try to steak 2 or 3 of slants from it

The only downsides are

1:) the slants are only good for 6 months (and that goes fast !)
2:) It takes the guts of 4 days to build it up.

But I'm slightly off topic

I am up for all those suggestions.


We could try to get our yeast bank sorted
Meet up for a pint ..
AJ Edge Runs
Hop exchanges ..
Grain exchanges..

[Pat_buttercups]

Im trying to figure out yeast slants soon then ill contribute to that,
extra spialty malts trade sounds good expecially if ppl are buying in bulk
personally i can barely find time for the monthly meets so odd pint days arent looking feesable on my end anyway for a bit yet maybe ina few months

[molc]

The yeast bank is great. I get liquid yeast and try to reuse it for a few generations, but only brewing a few batches a yeast means it dies off pretty fast. Having a way of keeping it in circulation would be great.

Grain and hop exchanges are a great idea, especially with the group buys coming up. If everyone bought a different specialty 25kg bag of grain, you could easily keep people stocked for the year by doing 1:1 swaps of the different grains.

What we need is a club room somewhere where members are able to pickup and drop-off things. You could have a fridge with hops and yeast, grain bins for drop off and pickup. Oh the possibilities >

[Partridge9]

With regards to the bank

I dont mind maintaining it

I have a few already in there but my problem is that I dont use it enough to keep things turned over

We could have a system -

Everytime you buy a white labs vial - you pop over and we streak 3/4 slants from it

That gets you two credits - where you can take two slants whenever you are brewing.

Making the slants is a bit of a pain in the hoop but streaking them is a doddle - takes < 5 minutes.

We could have a google docs spreadsheet containing the yeasts and the time they were entered -

So basically if you were doing 3 brews - you would buy one yeast and get two free.



would that work ??

I would also need to re-org the fridge to be yeast only.

[molc]

Sounds good to me!

[nigel_c]

Sound like the makings of a plan 
WLP slants are great but we could also do harvested strains from bottles. Pacman from Rogue and some of the Belgian beers.

[johnrm]

What if the power fails?
You might need A and B power, 2 x UPS and a Genny!

[Jacob]

WLP slants are great but we could also do harvested strains from bottles. Pacman from Rogue and some of the Belgian beers.

Harvesting yeast from Aventinus now. Have to say that prefer that method then slants. Waaaaay faster.