14 September
Royal Ettrick Hotel
Edinburgh
Talk by Roger Ryman of Maclays Brewery.
11 May 1997
Inaugural meeting
Balerno
MINUTES OF THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE SCOTTISH CRAFT BREWERS
KESTREL HOTEL BALERNO 11. 5. 1997
Present:- , Ian McNeill (in the chair);. John Barber, Ken Broadbent, Bill Cooper, Tom Crawford, Alan Dell, Gordon Douglass, Hayley Griffin. Ian McKernan, Ian McManus, Bill Moffat, Peter Sheppard, Ken Stubbington, Andy Tinto, and John Wright.
This turned out to be the inaugural meeting of the group which adopted the above name. Alan Dell was elected President, Bill Cooper Secretary, and Andy Tinto Treasurer. It was decided to elect 2 committee members, Ian McKernan and Ian McManus. Ian McNeill and Tom Crawford had both said they were unable to be office holders because of other commitments but agreed to act as advisers to the group for the first 12 months. Ian would be able to be the contact with the Craft Brewers Association (U.K.) and Tom with the Scottish Amateur Winemakers.
It was decided the aims of the organisation should be:-
1 To further the development of craft brewing.
2 To provide training and information to members.
3. To provide mutual support.
4 To help beginners to progress from kits to full mash.
5 To organise events.
6 To provide friendship.
It was agreed to have a membership fee of £5 to cover setting up expenses and there would be a charge for events according to cost.
Ian McNeill strongly recommended that the group should take out group membership of the C.B.A. to be able to access their extensive sources of brewing information. No one objected to this proposal.
It was decided to aim to meet 4 times a year, avoiding June, July and early August, preferably at venues that could readily be reached by public transport and that events should be held at weekends. The next meeting should planned for 14th September, if possible at the Royal Ettrick hotel in Edinburgh. Each meeting should include an open forum for the exchange of views and experiences, and a tasting session which should be reasonably early in the agenda for the benefit of drivers.
Subjects suggested for future meetings were:- bottling v. kegging; new hops; malts; yeasts; new equipment particularly items of d.i.y. application; CBA feedback (e.g. technical articles from Brewers Contact)
It was suggested that brewery visits should be arranged ,e.g. to Caledonian, Maclays, Belhaven, Border, Harviestoun, the maltings at Kirkliston, and Heriot Watt university.
After lunch the visiting speaker was Donald McIntyre of Edina Homebrew who showed a range of new equipment and a range of malts including a peat smoked malt. (It was later demonstrated that this needed to be used cautiously. 500 g, mashed and sparged and added to 1 gallon of ready prepared must produced a beer that was far too smoky for most tastes.) Donald also talked about sterilisation. Both chlorine based products such as Chempro, and sodium metabisulphite were effective and the stronger the solution the quicker the sterilisation. Both would lose effectiveness with time, they would begin to lose effectiveness after a day. Citric acid added to sod. met. would enhance its effectiveness but care was needed because of the dangerous fumes that would bereleased. Chlorine based products needed to be rinsed away thoroughly but sod. met. had the capacity to neutralise chlorine and could be used to ensure that items sterilised in chlorine retained no trace of it.
The Kestrel was a pleasant venue with a good lunch and beer selection, but was a bit off track and not quickly accessible by public transport.
Bill Cooper