[Trubmeisters] August Meeting Notes
Date: 2001-08-03 12:50

Now that the wheat beer meeting is over, we can all get back to "real"
beer drinking.  Actually, there were only 3 of them, so it wasn't that
bad.  I found a good selection of other beers that more than made up for
the fresh mown lawn taste of wheats.  I brought a Summer Dopple from
Capitol that Kirby was trying out.  It had 40% wheat in it, and was 8%
alcohol.  Kirby said next year he will lower the alcohol and increase
the hops.

I did not participate in the official beer tasting.  I have this thing
against communal tasting glasses.  I don't even know which beer was
chosen as the winner of the belchin' wheat contest.  (I've said it
before, if you want useful information in this letter, do it yourself.) 
I personally chose the one on the right.  That way I know the right beer
won. :-)

Thanks to Jim and Sue for cleaning up their house after us.  The food
was great.  Sue made some quesidillia (spelling?) kind of things.
Chicken, veggies and cheese.  Quite good.  They also had home made
salsa, and a garden fresh veggie tray.  The teeny peppers were so sweet
and juicy, that even I liked them.  She had a pickled kind of veggie mix
also.  Ask Steve how yummy the center of a cob of corn tastes pickled.
There were complaints to the chef about the mildness of the fresh salsa.
One dob, the size of a pencil eraser, of Dave's Insanity sauce, and
people started complaining it was too hot.  You just can't please some
people!  We finished the evening off with fresh picked (from the side of
the house) raspberry sorbet.  Sue made it in an ice cream maker while we
drank beer.  It was really a treat.

The dogs took Sue outside and walked her through an obstacle course.
She did very well, but was panting a lot due to the heat near the end.
Steve also tried to work his way through the course.  He had a surprise
as he came out of the tunnel.  The dog was waiting for him, and found
his rear end to have an interesting aroma.  It just wouldn't leave him
alone after that.

So many brews to taste, that I really should start taking notes.  There
was Oatmeal Stout, Vanilla Porter, Spruce Beer, Brown Ale, and a couple
more that I drank WAY too much of.  Besides the beer, we had quite a few
meads.  There was Rose mead, Ginger mead, plain mead, and prickly pear
mesquite mead.  Seems like there was another one too.  I don't recall
any wines this time.

We had a fair sized crowd.  My girlfriend even came along.  Just don't
tell my wife. :-)  The more the merrier.  I know it is tough to bring
yourself to make that first meeting, but once you do, trust me, you will
be hooked.  These people are so friendly that you should already know
you are welcome.  We put up with Steve, and that's proof enough.  Julie
is doing well, and you can't even tell she is 6 months into her 30 year
nightmare.  She promised us she would deliver her baby at the December
meeting into a kettle of fresh wort.  

Speaking of Steve (I always do), You need to stop by the store and ask
him about the special on glasses.  He had some Mambo beer glasses made
that have a pink thingy between the dog's legs.  He was selling them
last night at 2 for a dollar.  Get them while they are hot.  If he says
he wasn't, and refuses to let you have them for that low cost, just tell
him I said he should.  You all know how much weight I have with Steve.
OK, so I have lot's of weight everywhere I go.

Really though, you missed a great raffle.  We started with a beer mug
with the old beer saying that is like this ...

There are a lot of good reasons to drink,
And one has just come into my head.
If a man can't drink when he's living,
How in the hell can he drink when he's dead?

After giving that away to Beer Drinker # 1, Steve gave away 2 of his
special glasses.  That was very generous of him.  I think Beer Drinker #
2 and Beer Drinker # 3 won those.  Then Jim and Sue started giving away
all the glassware on their shelves.  Before we were done, their shelves
were clean, and all the Beer Drinkers had a prize to take home.

Since we always have the 4 topics to cover, I will see if we made it
this month.

Religion:  Brian told a joke.  He walked his first 2 fingers back and
forth across his head and asked what that was.  ...   It was a Rabbi
walking from temple to temple.

Sex:  Steve wanted to raffle 5 minutes alone with the dog of your
choice.  (OK, so it wasn't Steve who asked for this, but I can use his
name anyhow.)

Politics:  I heard a joke yesterday and had to tell it.  There are a
number of things we learned from the Clinton Administration.  One of
them is the you CAN get SEX from AIDS.

Rock and Roll:  Isn't Bag Pipe music Rock n Roll?  Well, I think I heard
some in the back ground.

You guys and gals really need to stay focused.  It is getting harder and
harder to make this stuff up when you forget to talk about it.

Next Months meeting which was suppose to be hosted by Ken, has been
reassigned to Dan.  I am sure he will send out very explicit
instructions on how to get there in 3-4 weeks.  Ken and George are
fighting over who gets December, and who gets November.  When the blood
settles, the winner will inform us of the hosts for those months.