Hi Everyone,
First off, a huge thank you to Ghost Town Brewing for hosting us last week at their facility in Oakland, and a thank you to everyone who came out to join us. We had about 40 people in attendance.
News for MBAA national:
-Nationally the budget was low, but only by a small amount. Book sales have trended down, but income generated from advertisements during the MBAA Podcast have been higher than expected. If you have not had a chance yet, I highly recommend checking them out.
-Overall membership is above pre-pandemic numbers but has trended down slightly from last year.
-Some chapters have been dissolved, including European chapter, Venezuela, and the Northern Rockies territory.
News for the Northern California District:
-I introduced Roger Herpst (Hopsteiner) as our new Secretary for the Northern California District.
-Financials remain stable, as does membership.
-We will be doing an overhaul on scholarships, led by our Scholarship chairman George Flickinger (Prairie Malt). We will move to a quarterly system, with an updated online form, and clear rules/expectations in place. More details to come, I will send out an email to the community as this becomes finalized.
-Our next meeting will be at Sudwerks in Davis in November and will feature presentations from UC Davis students. The tentative date for this is 11/8 (but might need to be moved to the following week). I will of course post updates and announcements as this is planned out and finalized.
We had two presentations. First was a brief update on the current barley crop for North America and the global market place from George (as mentioned above). My main takeaways: Soil moisture is still low from the drought over the previous few years but is recovering. Prices on grain are still high due to China and Australia's ongoing trade dispute, as well as Russia's continued war on Ukraine.
The other presentation was on waste water and waste water management. This provided context for what municipalities will look at for determining the cost for treatment, as well as providing options for short term and long term solutions for waste water management.
Just as a reminder, we are always looking for breweries able to host events for our group. Ideally it will need to fit up to ~80 people and have a space for presentations. Please reach out if you think your space will work!
Remember to drink lots of water, and I look forward to talking with you all soon!
Cheers,
Kyle Somers
President of the Northern California District
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Kyle Somers
Technical Sales Manager
Lallemand Brewing
Santa Rosa CA
(925) 708-4588
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