April 17, 2016
Good Afternoon fellow L.A.B. members.
  First of all, A huge ThankYou to our, Brewers Challenge participants. I would like to also Thank our judges who helped us out. Thank You to Pat, Rachele, Dan and John. You guys had some interesting and helpful comments for our brewers, I'm sure.  We had 7 entries. Mostly porters. But, as always we have a group of very outstanding brewers. Congratulations go out to our 1st place winner: Fred Folts for his Imperial Stout ( My Ryes Better). Our 2nd Place was taken once again by Tony Terry for his Porter (Black Sails). And 3rd place was Ken Slater for his Porter (Wry). And Mike Bammer got an Honorable Mention for his American Stout (Black Stuff). Congrates to you all and to everyone who entered. Thanks to Ben Ruppel For helping us out with the gift certificates and Thanks to Fred Folts for setting up the prizes. Looking forward to the next comp.
  Just a few things to get out to the club. Mike Mullins and Dan McDaniel, Tony and Nancy Terry will be brewing Saturday April 30th at Rochester Mills Big Brew Day. Which will be at their Production facility off M24. Come on out and check out the other clubs and brewers that will be there. This is a great event, can't say enough about it. Come on out and support your club and homebrewing. HUZZAH!!!
  May 7th is National Homebrew Day. Our club will be out at Tilted Axis to brew once again. Like last year the club brewed a group recipe on site (Hoppy Beligan Red) and it was fermented and later served and well received by all. This year the club will be brewing again but, Doug will be providing the ingredients and the club will brew a  traditional Bock. We still could use a couple more brewers for this event. Let Mike Mullins or Nancy Terry  or Dan McDaniel know. If you aren't brewing we would still love to have ya come out and support your local brewers and toast National Homebrew Day with us.
  If you have not heard, the bus beer brewery tour that Chris Payne and Donna Zaiki were organizing, has been Cancelled. Due to lack of interest.
  Also as far as the nonprofit status, Chris Payne and Donna Zaiki are working and researching it currently.
The May meeting will be at Redline Brewing Company in Burton. Same time as usual. The brewer will be giving a tour of the brewery. If you had seen any of the postings about this brewery, you probably know that they were only in business for a short time before a fire closed his doors. Fortunately the brewing community rallied and they didn't lose hope and were up and running pretty quickly. Come on out and raise a pint to hope, prayer and persistence and good beer. Congrates to Redline!
  We didn't get a chance to talk about the June meeting. If you look at the calendar it falls on Father's day. So we will be holding a BBQ on Saturday June 18th, 2016 at Mike and Alice Mullins place in lovely Lapeer. More info to follow regarding that meeting.
  The club has been invited to brew at Seven Ponds, once again. That will be in September. More info to follow.
  Also a new brew comp is in the works. We are currently working out the details with Doug and Tilted Axis. But it will be a Wort Challenge. Doug will have 5 gallons of base wort that you will pick up from him and  brew your recipe. More details as they are available.
  Some other tidbits that were talked about:
  The club would like to start holding a couple of raffles at future meetings. We have some hops that are being donated from Top Hop Farms. Thank You Sean. And Maybe some rhizones or plants also, Maybe a bottle pass raffle too. Mike Mullins and Nancy Terry will be discussing and organizing some tasting classes in the coming months. These are very interesting and very informative. The club has done these before and they were also fun. Location and classes TBA.
  As you may have noticed on the Facebook Page, there are a lot of up coming events being posted.. If you have a free night, go check one or more of them out. You can also check out the Michigan Beer Guide for a more detailed list of times, dates and locations.
  A finall quick post for our treasurer, For those that have paid your dues, You are AWESOME! For those that have not, What are ya waiting for? LOL.  Please see Donna Zaiki at one of our meeting or use the PayPal option.
  As Always I leave you with these thoughts: Tell a Pal, Bring a Buddy, Meet a Friend! Brew Strong my friends.  May the 4th be with you!