[Trubmeisters] February Meading Notes
Date: 2003-02-07 10:36

Hi all,  Gotta be quick this month, but here's the run down on what
happened.

We met at Larry and Donna's place this month in Grafton.  I think this
is the second time we've been there.  I am pretty sure it is the second
time we had to fish Steve out of the hot tub.  Of course, tossing him in
the snow bank beat just seeing him climb out last summer.

Of course, Larry made lots of pizza.  It is all home / hand made, and is
fantastic.  Even the one with potatoes.  I really liked that one.  He
also had some sweaty & salty kettled poop corn.  Thanks Larry for
letting us be at your house and eat all of your food!

There was other food too.  Rick brought some cheese, "hot" bean dip,
crackers, and chips.  Sue and Jim brought some crackers, cheese, and
sausage.  We never go hungry at these monthly meadings.

There was a motion to change the name of our gathering to a Meading
instead of a Meeting.  All in favor voted yea, and all opposed voted
nah.  Everyone started jabbering before a final tally could be taken.
So, that leaves it up to he who writes the meading notes.  And I say nah
to everything.  You will never see this group called a meading
especially in these meading notes you are reading right now.

Speaking of mead, here's the run down.

Dan brought a few bottles of a sweeter mead.  Very yummy, and gets my
vote for best of show.

Steve S brought a bottle of a dryer, older mead.  It was really great.
It caught my nose before getting to my mouth.  There was some alcohol in
that bottle!

Jim & Sue went all out.  They had 2 meads.  A hippocras which was a red
whine and honey base with lots of nutmeg and probably some other spices
that were masked by the nutmeg.  It was 4 years old, and still very
yummy.  It probably could go another year, but let's drink it now just
to be sure it gets drank while good.  They also had a white pyment.
Pyment is honey and grapes.  So, I imagine this was a white whine.  Very
good also as always.

Jeff N brought a Ginger mead.  It was slightly carbonated and a nice
amount of ginger.  Like drinking soda even.  Mmmmmmmm!!!


Since man can not live on mead alone, there was beer too.
Jeff and Diana brought some Mackson XXX stout.  It is one of my favorite
commercial beers.  Since I make so little beer since being turned on to
whine, I thought a beer would be nice instead this month.

Larry had a smoked porter, but even as the second person there, I missed
out on it.  :-(  I'll bet it was good since it went so fast.

Betty and Brian smashed some raspberries in an ale and served it in a
keg.  A really amazing beer.  I didn't think I would like it, but I did!
I heard others also complement it for flavor and hop / raspberry
balance.

Rick stopped at Harbor City and had a growler filled with Mile Rock Ale.
He shared it with all of us.

Jim and Sue had a Sasson which is a Belgian or French thing.  I forget
which.  I didn't get a chance to taste it.  To many other open bottles
lying around.

Ken brought along a Rustling Leaves Lager, according to his fancy label.
Very well done.

Someone also brought a Swede Stout or something like that.  It was very
nice and heavy.  I could drink a lot of that.

There was some rolling rock and a couple other miscellaneous beers I
forget the names of.  There was plenty of variety in the beer category
at this meading.

You are asking what happened to the wine right?  Larry offered up a
Riesling, and someone left a bottle of Yellow Tail Cabernet Savonough
laying around.  Both were yummy and went well with the pizza.  ;-)

We had a couple of new people take the chance of being seen with our
band of merry meaders.  Rick brought a couple of girlfriends with him.
Not sure how he gets away with that.  I wish my wife would let me go out
drinking with a couple of hot babes!  Their names were Connie and
Natalie.  I guess they are teachers or something.  But even with all the
edumacation in the room, no one could explain what the difference was
between median, mean, and mode!  That's too bad.  As I have said before,
if you don't know, I'm not going to tell you either.  :-)

Brother Ken brought along a date too.  Her name was Kim.  Not sure how
he met her, or what the affiliation is.  She seemed to fit in quite
well.

Welcome all of you, and hope to see everyone again at future meadings.

Now for the moment you've all been waiting for.  Dan has hunted high and
low for years and years across field and stream over plain and mountain.
Yet, in all his travels he never found that perfect T-shirt that
explains all of life's mysteries.  So ... he had one made to his
personal specifications.  If you missed the meeting, you missed the
T-shirt.  If you were there, you now know the real meaning of "You Suck"
and "You Blow"!

Next month is at Jeff & Diana's house.  Not sure what the food will be,
but I can say that there will be some 10 year old Barley wine.  I have
to review the storage, but I am pretty sure I started collecting them in
1993.  I figure it is time to break some out and see how sour it has
turned.

See you all next month, and enjoy the cold while it lasts.  It will be
that horrible 70 degree weather before you know it, and everyone will be
complaining again.

A Good Beer To All, And To All A Good Beer!
                                          Jeff Kane