July 2025 Meeting Minutes

Ben Farhner

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July 17, 2025

Fossil Cove Brewery, Fayetteville, AR

  • Attendance: 14
  • Homebrews: 20

Kevin Elsken started the meeting at 7:09 PM. Keith Linn opened the meeting with a toast to Jack McAuliffe, who recently passed away, with a 12.5% ABV version of Jack’s Old Toe Sucker that Keith brewed.

Last Month

  • Brewer of the Month: Kevin Elsken
  • Beer of the Month: Kevin Elsken’s Belgian golden strong ale
  • Ass of the Month: Ric Bailey

Guests

  • No guests were present.

Beers were introduced and an intermission taken to sample the beers.

Old Business

Iron Brewer

  • Q2 2025: Kentucky Common (27)
    • 1st place: Randy Germann
    • 2nd place: Dave Kappel
    • 3rd place: Doc Farmer
  • Q3 2025: Doppelbock (9A), due October 7, 2025 at FLOPS
  • Q4 2025: Belgian Dark Strong (26D), due January 15, 2026 at OZ
  • Q1 2026: Vienna Lager (7A), due April 16, 2026 at FLOPS
  • Q2 2026: Irish Red (15A), due July 7, 2026 at OZ

Subcommittees

  • Website migration and update
    • There is an organization in Rogers that does website updates for non-profits, which the club may consider utilizing.
  • Club awareness
    • AHA flyers have been ordered, but there is still a need for flyer holders and labels.
      • Ben Farhner made a motion to purchase flyer holders, the motion was seconded, and members approved it with a vote.
    • More inviting signs have been installed on the doors at Fossil Cove.
    • James Harvey said Experience Fayetteville liked the idea of putting club information in the back of the Fayetteville Ale Trail booklet, but they have ghosted James for the last 3 weeks.

Big Brew Day Big Blimp! Barleywine

  • Weiz Guys BBD Competition
    • Entry are accepted through October 21, 2025
    • Members had no objections to combine FLOPS and OZ as a single club entry for the competition.
    • More info here
  • Fossil Cove’s Big Brew Day batch is ready to tap
    • Ben Mills offered to host a tasting next month, and asked if we wanted to do an event around the batch release.
    • Discussed rolling it into Learn to Homebrew Day on November 1st, 2025 and potentially advertising it locally, such as in the Fayetteville Flyer or NWA Daily.
    • James Harvey suggested that someone bring in equipment and do a brewing demonstration during the event.
    • Kevin Elsken will pitch the idea to Ben Mills and the club will continue to discuss details.

Recognizing Ben Mills

  • Ken Gill suggested a custom 64 oz ceramic growler with the Fossil Cove logo stamped on it.
    • James Harvey made a motion to budget $150 for this, Ben Farhner seconded the motion, and members approved it with a vote.

New Business

Club Insurance

  • Need 75% of members to be AHA members to get the insurance discount.

Fall Events

  • Fayetteville, Falltoberfest
    • Sunday, October 5, 2025
    • Arkansas Brewers Guild is not participating, so there will likely be no homebrew at the event.
  • Rogers Oktoberfest
    • Saturday, October 18, 2025
    • N.B. this is the same date as Tulsa’s Oktoberfest.
    • OZ is involved in the event, and they want FLOPS to be involved too.
  • Little Rocktoberfest
    • Saturday, October 11, 2025
    • CAF wants to see NWA represented; there is a big emphasis on homebrews at this event.
    • CAF has worked with Hotel Windon to block out rooms for $119 per night, with shuttles from the hotel to the event.
  • Kevin Elsken suggested having a central calendar with the main events for the year.
    • This is something that can be added to the website as part of the updates.

Hop Scheduler

  • Honey Beer Competition
  • MO MASH In 2025
    • August 23 in Rolla, MO
    • $10 entry fee
    • Entries due August 16
    • More info here
  • Mead Stampede
    • July 10 in Oklahoma City, OK
    • $10 entry fee
    • Entries due June 15
    • More info here
  • Historic Arkansas Museum Hop-Off
  • Mead Me in St. Louis
    • September 6 in St. Louis, MO
    • $10 entry fee
    • Entries due August 29
    • More info here

Moody Brews

  • There was an article in the Arkansas Times about Isbell Farms, which supplies rice to Origami Sake, providing rice flour, a byproduct, to Moody Brews for brewing.

Miscellaneous

  • The Fermentary’s grand opening has been pushed back to August; no specific date yet.
  • David Johnson shared that OZ will be meeting at Stoic in Bentonville on Saturday 12:30pm
    • FLOPS agreed to join OZ for this month’s social.
  • There was an event at Creekside Taproom in Siloam Springs, on Saturday, July 19 at 8pm to honor Jack McAuliffe.
  • Tom Maddock had some homebrew equipment to give away.

Education

  • Randy Germann presented an education segment on brewing Doppelbock.

Meeting closed at 9:07 PM, opening up to GODS, the Greater Ozark Drinking Society.

Brewer of the Month

  1. Kevin Elsken
  2. Randy Germann & Ty Weston
  3. Tom Maddock

Beer of the Month

  • Kevin Elsken’s “Belgian common”

Ass of the Month

  • Kevin Elsken by unanimous vote

Meeting concluded at 9:08 PM.

Ben Farhner