November '25 Meeting Recap

[Justin Gerharter]

Thanks to Tom for hosting us last night. While the meeting was on the shorter side for most, it was still a great evening with a lot of great beer. A few of the beers that stood out to me were Cool Justin's rice lager, El Presidente's American Lager, and Tom's Brut IPA (who knew that people were still brewing Brut IPA??). A special callout about the Monolithic brew day on Monday, 11/17; Shane and Todd are opening up their brewhouse to the Local 402s to help brew their Czech Your Gravity Czech Pils. This beer has been brewed before with our assistance and is excellent in every way. The brew day will start at 7:30 AM and will be a hands-on experience for those in attendance.

On to your recap...

• New Member Introduction - Thanks to Todd and Christian for joining us. I hope I spelled that correctly. 
• Treasurer's Report - We're still in the black. The Club Brew Day on the 1BBL system was a ~$140 spend for ingredients. 
• Comps and Festivals
• Happy Holidays Homebrew Competition (St. Louis) - Registration opens on 11/17 and closes on 12/5. Sign up here (link is currently having issues) 
• Kansas City Bier Meister's - February '26 - Registration opens in early December. Sign up here (link is currently having issues)
• IBU Open (Des Moines) - March '26 - Registration likely opens later in December or early January. Sign up here (link is currently having issues)
• Tom is going to reach out to the Ultimate Beerfest organizers to see if homebrewers will be allowed in 2026.
• December Meeting/Christmas Party - FRIDAY, 12/5. This is our annual holiday party/meeting, where we do a white elephant bottle exchange. Start hunting for a nice beer to be part of the exchange. This meeting is much more of a party than a meeting. Significant others are welcome to help us put a bow on 2025.
• Brewdown - Fairy Nectar Brewdown - April 2026. We had some interest in doing this and thought Spring would be a good time. More details as we get closer.
• 2026 Officers - I included this topic to see if anyone was interested in having a position. Nobody in attendance did, but if anyone else does, please let us know. The current officers have been in their roles for several years now, and none of us would be opposed to letting someone else get involved.
• Club Social - We're going to have one in January. Details will be shared in next month's recap.
• Bockfest - the Cheneys are looking to host another Bockfest. More details will be shared on that as we get into 2026.
• Off-flavor tasting - We sampled two off-flavors this month, DMS and Acetaldehyde. The DMS was hard to detect in Busch Light, and the Acetaldehyde tasted way different to me than the last time we did this off-flavor kit.
• Monolithic Brew Day - Czech Pils collab on 11/17 at 7:30 AM

That's all for this month.

Keep those fermenters full,

JG