As best as I’m able to ascertain the entire story, the Honorarium Board pressed the issue of whether non-fermented brewing instruction should be allowed at DMS by vetoing an otherwise very well put together presentation and demonstration by Ian. Science Committee appealed this decision and it fell to the Directors to rule on whether or not brewing be allowed to take place in any form at DMS because of a clause in our lease. The management company’s response to our Directors was that the landlord said no. I spent too much of my time last week fighting to keep beer brewing alive at DMS and would like to thank the Honorarium Auditors that stood behind their decisions openly for their candor which lead to a vast reduction in my time and energy.
If you have any pieces of beer brewing on loan to the Science Committee please contact me ASAP. In one week’s time, we’ll evaluate how the brewing equipment can be converted for our more hard Science applications providing expanded opportunities for DMS members or donating it to another brew group or worthy cause.
Having shook hands and spoken to several brewers, two of which had a plan in mind for classes, brew days, contests, sponsorships, outreach, and procuring advanced technical grade equipment, I believe we still have enough of a basis and fervent interest to provide brewing education and opportunities to DMS members in some way shape or form. I’m still speaking with these two brewers about how we can make this happen.
Congratulations on meeting the end result of bureaucracy. The ability to make an issue of a non-issue always impresses me. Good luck on your future brewing endeavors.
A question, @AlexRhodes was talking about a temporary walk in fridge being setup for a beer contest of some sort at the board meeting. Was that idea also killed by this step?
I brought up the issue, because I had asked before we started up brewing over the summer if this was going to be a problem. I didn’t receive a straight answer. So we brewed and received honorarium.
This last week we were going to continue…brew and receive honorarium. If we couldn’t receive honorarium then at least we could still brew. However cooking isn’t allowed. We knew this beforehand but thought brewing beverages was still allowed.
Here are the problems that I saw:
Anybody gives a tour of Science, the number one thing that is advertised is that we brew beer. The fact that it was denied based on it being considered as cooking, when we’ve done this multiple times in the past, is when it became an issue.
2.The reality is we wasted our time recruiting people for this cause when it was only going to be denied because it was classified as cooking. We actively are working to recruit people in our area to prove that Science has something to offer to DMS. So it is frustrating when you do have something going and it only being denied because things aren’t being clarified.
The BoD has recently made a request of the landlord to clarify if boiling wort in the back lot is “cooking”. To my knowledge, the BoD has not gotten a reply yet. I think it is premature to declare beer brewing “dead”.
[color=#fff000000]“After speaking with the LL they will not approve a grill / burner.”[/color]
Unless you can brew in a coffee pot or microwave, no can do. We held off as long as we could. This makes me sad since I would like DMS to do group cooking things like a BBQ smoker, wood fired pizza oven, etc.
I don’t know much about beer brewing, but couldn’t the cooking portion be done off-site (garage) and then brought to Science and fermented, etc. Could still hold classes and discuss process and options and ideas.
That event will still be taking place as all of that beer will be bottled already and nothing will be cooked on site. That event will take place end of February through most of March on the weekends. There will be beer judging classes along with their beer judging event. More details will be coming out in the future when they are more ironed out.
First check out the Texas laws concerning home brewing of beer.
The law limits beer production to a maximum of 200 gallons per household per year. If the fermentation is being done at DMS, then is 200 gallons the maximum that can be made by all participants at DMS?
So I don’t know jack about brewing. Can we pull a vacuum on the mix to get it to boil at a lower temp? Then say use a “coffee” hot plate to bring to a boil?
Look up “electric brewery”. I have a good friend who uses this method for both his private brewing and his commercial micro brand. It seems to be a superior method to flame-driven boilers.
Well, I’m glad this has garnered quite a response, to which I can only add: I’m deeply disappointed with the way this played out. I had a great presentation set up for the class and someone on the board just flat out denied the event. I had a brew day scheduled, and that too was denied. This is how you lose interest from members wanting to spend their time on making the community work better. Honestly, I have little interest left in doing anything more than a small class - now likely off site - for a few of the people who have been interested since the beginning.
Zach is right on the money about the Electric Brewery, and I was busy working several leads to get this type of setup in place at DMS. I was at the point where I was discussing serious financial backing from a few of the local brew shops who seemed THRILLED at the idea of having a place where people could learn about brewing.
We also were not planning on doing any of the fermenting at the space itself - all we were planning on doing was heating the liquids and making the sweet wort which would be taken to one of the member’s homes and fermented there. The last thing we wanted was for several large glass fermenters sitting around gathering dust in a not-very-well temperature controlled space.
So that’s about it. Y’all killed a HUGE draw to the space that had lots of interest from members of local brewing community who were willing to come in and spend their time teaching us the basics AND advanced brewing techniques that are allowing for a HUGE resurgence in the microbrew and homebrew industries. Good on us.
And, yes, I’m kind of ticked that it played out the way it did. I will not add further to this discussion however.
I have an electric system, that I have been meaning to bring by for a class, it needs a 240/50amp circuit though. I have been so busy lately that I haven’t been able to do any brewing lateley.
I built my system based on Kal’s Electric Brewery.
Until our fearless directors begin lease negotiations in a few months or begin new negotiations on a different lease in a few months or whatever the case might turn out to be in a few months when the brewing issue will be revisited, I suggest we think outside the box for how to keep the current momentum in brewing going. @the_pi_rho, perhaps your class can still describe how to use the equipment in the brew process and the various caveats of the equipment and how they affect the brewing process? I’m looking into finding us space close by to brew at in the meantime
Thank you Ken, we’re looking for novel, outside the box solutions like these! We’re looking into places closer to DMS first before we take you up on your offer. We’re also looking into insurance policies tailored to home brew clubs.
We’re looking into places that also make sense in terms of a good fit for brewing like middle schools, nursing homes, and Baptist churches. If somebody can manage better suggestions than these we’d love to hear them.
since I would like DMS to do group cooking things like a BBQ smoker, wood fired pizza oven, etc.
