The Carolina Brewmasters would like to thank the staff of the Mellow Mushroom at Carmel Road for their excellent hospitality.  Approximately 50 members were in attendance and, though it was a little warm, there was plenty of beer to keep everyone cool.  Hey, it’s summer, it’s the South, deal with it!

President

·        The August 3 meeting will be held at Rock Bottom Brewery in Uptown Charlotte at 6:30

·        As usual, a canvass of the crowd revealed that many members had been active brewing during June.  Who said you can’t brew during the summer?

·        The AHA club only competition will be held at the August meeting; French and Belgian Ales, Category 16 which consists of witbiers, Belgian pale ales, saisons, biere de gardes and Belgian specialty ales

·        PTC news – HB392 has passed the Senate Commerce Committee with very little opposition; please check www.popthecap.org for any updated information

·        We are still planning a Pop the Cap fund raiser to be held in September at Bruno Wichnoski’s home.  It will be a Belgian beer tasting and we will be charging $25 per person to attend.   We will also be holding a silent auction which will consist of some very fine beers.   The club will provide the meat (Bruno’s smoked pork butts) and side dishes are welcomed.  We are limiting the attendance to 50 people.  We need a couple of volunteers to pull this off; a beer coordinator (or two) and an auction organizer

·        The 1^st Summertime Brews Festival at the new First Horizon’s Park on Saturday July 30 from 4-8 p.m.  Info at www.summertimebrews.com.

·        HBA is moving!  The new address is 526 Griffith Road in Charlotte.  It is located just south of Tyvola Road between South Blvd and I-77.  Ale has requested that anyone that can spare coolers and ice packs to hold stock while the coolers are moving.  Please contact him ASAP

·        Gary Cathey will be celebrating National Mead Day in style by holding a mead brew session.  This will be a really great event with various varieties of honey to be tasted, beekeepers will be on hand, commercial and homebrewed meads will be available for tasting, all will have an opportunity to purchase ingredients to make a batch of mead (all using a different yeast strain!) and homemade brats for lunch.  Contact the website for complete details.

Recruiting

• We welcomed new club members which has grown our current roster to 112 members

Education

• Bill Lynch will be holding a brew session on Saturday Juy 9^th.  He will be doing one all grain (probably an imperial IPA) and one or two extract brews (American wheat and ??).  Directions are on the website
• Roman Davis had a brew session on Saturday June 25.
• BJCP study sessions.  The fourth study session was held on June 8; the fifth study session is scheduled for July 20; attendees, don’t forget your reading assignments           
• Club will subsidize any exam takers whether first timers or judges looking to move up in the ranks
• We are looking for volunteers to hold brew sessions at their homes from August to the end of the year

Competitions

• Next competition is MALT in Asheville on September 24; we need entries to keep our lead!  They will offer on line registration and we will advise when it’s active.  We would like to have a strong presence (attendance-wise) in Asheville since it is such a huge competition (450+ entries expected)
• We didn’t do bad at the DEA competition given the few amount of entries we had.  Brian Beauchemin, Bill Lynch, Spencer Stubbs, Kevin Deaton, Gary Cathey, Jessica/Justin Mitchell all took ribbons
• CBM currently leads in the CBOY brewclub of the year 104-78 over the Palmetto State Brewers; they are energized and looking to kick our butts!! DEA is in 3^rd place with 49 points

• Reminder:  The schedule for 2005 AHA Club Only Competitions is:
  • August  – French and Belgian Ales – Category 16
  • September/October – European Amber Lager – Category 3
  • November/December – Baltic Porter – Category 12C

Social Events

• Social events for 2005 have been posted on the website
• A total of 6 members attended the AHA National Conference in Baltimore.  What a blast!!!  It was well worth it and next year’s conference will be held in Orlando
• We are planning a club sponsored Charlotte Knights game; details to follow

Oktoberfest/Treasurer

• The 2005 Oktoberfest will take place on Saturday October 1.  It will be held at the same site as last year and we will be incorporating a series of changes to the event as suggested at the committee’s post-fest meeting. 
• Brewers Support Committee – we currently have commitments from 16 micros, only 3 short of last year’s total.  We should easily break 20 with 25 not out of the question
• Ale Clayson has requested that we supply him with a number of Oktoberfest flyers that he can include in outgoing orders.  We will supply them to Jess also.
• We are taking volunteers tonight for the various committees.  Please consider joining one when they are announced