Hello Everyone,

• We had a great turnout for our October meeting. About 20 members plus a couple of interested future members.
• Old business discussion included recapping Buffalo Beer week activities and review of the Brewed & Bottled social.
• The educational portion of the night consisted of learning about Dunkel Weissbier and tasting 2 commercial and one homebrew variety. Next month the style will be Black IPA presented by Tom.
• The November social location is Craft Beer and Wine in Orchard Park on Tuesday, November 14th from 7pm to 10pm. Hope to see you there.
• Upcoming BJCP competitions include Son of Brewzilla on Saturday, October 28th held at Fat Head’s in the Cleveland area (http://beersnobs.org/cbwcomp/) and Toronto Beer Slam on November 10th through 12th held at Amsterdam Brewery in Toronto(https://www.gtabrews.ca/brew-slam/).
• The beer advent still has spots open so contact Ken D if you are interested. Submit a case of homebrew or good commercial beer and get back 24 different beers to drink starting on December 1st.
• An event to take note of is a Swaen malt tasting and learn to brew demo at Niagara Tradition this Saturday, November 4th. If you brewed with some of the Swaen malt that was provided, stop on by and bring some of the beer to taste. They are also running a Beginning Homebrewing class from 11am to 1pm (http://www.nthomebrew.com/class-beginning-homebrewing/). See the link for more details.
• The 2017 holiday party will be a joint affair with the other area homebrew clubs. The date is Monday, December 4th at Flying Bison with the start time TBD. Bring some beer and a dish to pass and get ready for a great night. We will be having a bottle share so bring one of your great homebrews or commercial beer and get one back in return. The party if free for members and $5 for non-members.
• The last item of note is the Santas of Swig fundraiser for Matt Urban’s Center for Hope House Homeless Shelter for Women and Children (http://sultansofswig.wixsite.com/sultans/santasofswig). Donate and serve a beer to help raise funds for a great cause, or buy a ticket for $20 and get to sample numerous homebrews. The winning homebrewer will brew their beer at Pearl Street or Pan-American Grill.
• With that, it was motioned to close business and drink beer.

• We had a great turnout for our September meeting.  Over 20 members plus a couple of guests.  We welcomed in one new member and had some first-time attendees.
• Business discussion included Buffalo Beer Week activities, review of the Gordon Biersch September social, the BJCP tasting exam Saturday, October 7th (there is still space to sign up), supporting a Taste of Buffalo homebrew competition, and dues payments by members.
• The October social location is Brewed and Bottled in Lewiston on Tuesday, October 10th.  Hope to see you there.
• An event to take note of is a homebrew exchange from noon until 3pm at Niagara Tradition this Saturday, September 30th.  Bring some homebrew to share and exchange with fellow homebrewers.
• One of the meeting highlights was a Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine vertical tasting consisting of beers from 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 20012, & 2017 painstakingly assemble by Keith Curtachio.  Thank you Keith for sharing and presenting.  Next month the tasting style will be Schwarzbier.
• Another highlight was the off flavor tasting in preparation for the BJCP exam.  Thank you Tim Belczak for preparing some delicious off flavors.
• The final piece of business was the election of our next vice president.  Ken DeMarree and Tom Piwtorak were both gracious enough to throw their hat in the ring.  After all the votes were counted, Ken DeMarree is now our new Vice President.  With the election completed, Marcus Palmisano has completed his term as President.  Thank you Marcus for your time and efforts as President.  Scott Kroon has now taken over as President after serving as Vice President for the last year.