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
