Our September 2003 meeting was at the Columbia St. Tap Room in Covington, La.

        Jason, a guest of Craig Sollberger joined our clan for the evening.

        Chet, was a guest of Jean Junius.

        Chris Wallace also joined our meeting.  His host was not made clear….

        Patrick Oneal of Zea’s was on hand to make a special announcement.

        Bryce Patton was given credit for the great pictures captured during the Pensacola Beer Olympics held September 5-7th.   

Al, our secretary read the minutes from the August 20^th, 2003 meeting.

Calvin, our treasurer, reported that we had $1970.86 in our club account.

Old Business

        The Zea’s brew off held on   August 9th was a success and enjoyed by all.  A total of $80.00 was raised by the wort charge and will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House.

        Craig gave us his view of the events witnessed during the Pensacola Beer Olympic weekend.  He said that they arrived Friday afternoon on the McGuire’s bus.  The fun times commenced and didn’t let up until they left on Sunday.  Some of the comments were as follows….

Good time… plenty of beer… hot air balloon… plenty of beer… loud bagpipes… swimming…  mass quantities of beer… and so on.

        Larry arrived later in the evening and enjoyed a nice dinner before partaking in the ensuing festivities.  Saturday involved drinking more great beer.  The accommodations were nice, and they enjoyed fine 60’s-70’s/Classic Rock tunes from the Bud Zephyr Band as well as a bit of wine tasting.

        Some moments of note were the Hoola-Hoop contest, Big Bob loosing his “Chug-a-lug” title, and the Last Man Standing event.  It was reported that the club team did “pretty good” in the competition.

New Business

        Jason Hayes has taken over the maintenance of the club website and has done a fantastic job of sprucing it up and adding great new content.  Please send all club pictures, home brewing setup pictures, announcements, recipes, and anything else you think would enhance the web site, to Jason.  The new address is http://www.mkob.com.  Also, if you would like an email account at mkob.com, just ask Jason and he will get you set up. 

        Chimay glasses are available again.  The price in $2.75 per glass, $5.00 if engraved.

        It was announced that Jean Junius will spearhead another brewing event to be held during an upcoming Mandeville Trailhead market weekend, once the weather has cooled down.  Contact Jean to get involved with this effort.

        Peter Cado asked for clarification of our member policy for brew competition entrance fees.  It was reported that the club will pay for up to 5 entries per member, per competition.

        If was announced that the Dixie Cup competition will be held in Houston, TX on October 16-18, 2003.  They will have lots of beer on tap and Southwest Airlines flies to Houston several times per day for a reasonable rate.

        Peter Caddoo asked for sponsorship in the upcoming “Tour for the cure” bikathon.  A motion was made for the club to sponsor him at $50.00.  A second to the motion was made, and a unanimous vote was recorded.

        2004 club officer nominations were held.  The following is a list of positions and members nominated for each.

        President         Jack Shugg

        Vice                  Craig Solberger
                                 Jim Boucher
                                 Mike Owings

        Treasurer        Calvin Moorman

        Secretary        Jason Hayes

        Events

The final nominations and voting will be held at the October meeting.

        Patrick Oneal of Zea’s announced that Zea’s will be hosting a FREE Stout competition.  Entries are due no later than January 3, 2004 and that judging will be held January 17, 2004.  The category winners will be awarded a 20# bag of grain.  The Best of Show winner will get a 20# bag of grain, dinner with Patrick, and best of all….. Your recipe will be brewed and served at Zea’s during the month of March!

Show and Tell

        George Parr showed us the gasket he found for his mini-keg.  He’s been looking for years, and we know he has a few years under his belt, and he finally found one.  If you have a keg like his and need a gasket, contact George and he’ll get it for $7.15.

        Larry Hartzog passed around some commercially available American and Indian Coriander… Interesting stuff….

Raffle

        Hat          Ron Laborde

        Scotch     Jessie

        T-Shirt     Jim

        T-Shirt     Jason

Beer Tasting – please remember to be polite and try to stretch the beers so everyone can get a taste…

        Yummy, most were delicious and the rest were good too.

Keep up the great brewing and know when to say when…