February 1, 2010 – Jim Grant
As the first meeting of the Mountain Brew Club convened, it quickly became clear that this was going to be a great group! Even with three enthusiastic members unable to attend, there were still around a dozen in attendance.
Ryan Gil de Montes from Inland Empire Brewing Company (Riverside, CA) made the drive up the mountain and brought two of their recent brews for us to taste. Over the course of the evening he shared with the group some history of their company, some successes, hopes for the future, and some great stories about what they have experienced along the way. Without exposing any trade secrets, I’ll simply mention that part of what he shared illustrated how incredibly cooperative the medium-size brewers are with the smaller, younger operations. Cooperation like this is something we don’t see in any other industry, and it’s refreshing to know that brewers of all sizes are still out there for the sake of encouraging great brew rather than trying to keep secrets.
We were also lucky enough to have Christian Sierra, treasurer of the Inland Empire Brewers Club, join us. Christian brought a wealth of knowledge and experience in the art of home brewing to the meeting, and was generous in sharing. From suggestions on technique to assistance with conversion of whole-grain recipes, Christian was right there to help out with anything we needed and to extend invitations to his club’s meetings and other upcoming events. And not least of his contributions was a tray of Scotch eggs… possibly the best food pairing one could ask for with a fine porter.
For those with appetite to enjoy food pairings with their beer, many of the members of the group brought tasty finger foods to share. Among the offerings were gingerbread, scotch eggs, spiced beef wrapped in prosciutto, bowls of pretzels & popcorn, and much more. It quickly became clear that more than a few of the members enjoy cooking as much as they do brewing, as numerous conversations of recipes for pairings and breads using steeped grains began floating around the room.
The theme for the first meeting was porters and stouts. Being the first meeting though, many people didn’t have brews that fit into those categories ready. That didn’t stop us from bringing what we had though. In addition to the highlights of the evening (IEBC’s Brown Ale, Steve Keefe’s Bourbon Oak Stout), some of the other flavors shared were several assorted stouts, an American Amber, an Irish Red, and some remarkable porters, including one with strong hints of anise.
This first meeting was kept nice and light, with Steve only briefly discussing the future of the club as he envisions it. It was clear though, from the number of us present and reports of many more planning on coming to future meetings, that we would need to get a grasp on club and meeting management very quickly. Some of the topics briefly touched on at this first meeting were the future of the club web site, desire for a logo, shirts and glasses, larger meeting locations, liability and code of responsibility, and possible events to participate in outside of meetings.
And so came to a close the first meeting of the Mountain Brew Club. Many brews were tasted, many ideas shared, many friends made. This is going to be a great group, and I am looking forward to being a part of it.
Jim Grant
Mountain Brew Club
“Achieving lower gravity at higher elevation”.
