June 2025 Meeting Minutes

Ben Farhner

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June 19, 2025

Fossil Cove Brewery, Fayetteville, AR

  • Attendance: 10
  • Homebrews: 10

Kevin Elsken started the meeting at 7:11 PM. Keith Linn opened the meeting with a toast. Greg Newmann live-streamed the meeting.

Last Month

  • Brewer of the Month: Ric Bailey & Ben Farhner
  • Beer of the Month: Ric Bailey’s Double IPA, Ben Farhner’s Dreamweaver botanical wheat
  • Ass of the Month: Tom Maddock (left cheek), Ken Gill (right cheek)

Guests

  • Dean McDonald, used to brew but sold his kit when he moved in 2010, stopped by Ric Bailey’s house when he saw that Ric was brewing.

Beers were introduced. Discussed improving the beer feedback system. Practiced a roundtable discussion format on Kevin’s Belgian golden strong ale to get a feel for it. The club will try it quarterly going forward. An intermission taken to sample the beers.

Old Business

Weiz Guys Big Brew Day Competition

  • One entry per club, due September 1–October 21
  • Competition is held on November 8
  • Winner will be featured in Zymurgy and designate a charitable organization for donations

Iron Brewer Competition

  • Q2 2025: Kentucky Common (27), due July 1, 2025 at OZ

Historic Arkansas Museum Hop-Off

  • July 11, 5–8 PM, in Little Rock, AR
  • 5 members from OZ are going for the weekend and FLOPS members are invited to join them. OZ and FLOPS will be going together as one team for the event.

New Business

Organizing the FLOPS Web Presence

  • The officers would like to transfer ownership of web assets to club-owned accounts and make sure at least 2 officers have access to them.
  • Assets and accounts include the following:
    • Website (hosting and domain current owned by Keith Linn)
    • Gmail account (currently owned by Keith Linn)
    • Facebook pages (public and members-only)
    • SMS service (currently owned by Keith Linn)
    • PayPal (currently owned by Keith Linn)
  • There was a motion to form a committee comprised of Greg Newman, Ben Farhner, Ric Bailey, and Keith Linn to oversee the transfer of web assets and accounts. The motion was seconded and approved by vote of the members. The committee has a goal of moving everything over to club ownership by January.

Volunteering

  • The FLOPS Board of Directors would like to see the club increase its volunteer efforts similar to OZ (3–4 times per year).
  • Kevin Elsken suggested forming a committee of 2–3 members to identify volunteer opportunities.

Club Exposure

  • Kevin Elsken proposed distributing flyers with AHA and club information to local breweries and homebrew-related businesses like Anyway.
    • James Harvey has ordered AHA flyers that can be distributed with FLOPS stickers in them.
    • Greg Newman said that the club also has FLOPS flyers somewhere.
  • Discussed improved signage at Fossil Cove to be more inviting to people who might be interested in homebrewing.
  • Kevin Elsken said that James Harvey is also looking into including FLOPS in the Fayetteville Ale Trail passport.
  • Kevin Elsken suggested forming a committee of 2–3 people to devise a strategy and reach out to local businesses. It was decided that this committee should be combined with the volunteering effort and should be comprised of James Harvey, Kevin Elsken, and Ric Bailey.

Miscellaneous

  • Kevin Elsken proposed presenting a plaque to Ben Mills of Fossil Cove and making him an honorary lifetime member of FLOPS for his support of the club. A motion was made to move forward with this, and the motion was seconded and approved by a vote of the members.
  • Kevin Elsken mentioned getting old homebrew shop recipes from Daniel Stubblefield to make available to club members. David Johnson confirmed that Daniel Stubblefield does still have the recipes from the homebrew shop. Recipes could be put in a physical binder to bring to meetings as well as made available on the website.
  • Discussed putting club socials on a regular cadence like OZ.
    • One downside is that this could lead to missing one-off opportunities like a new brewery opening.
    • Discussed making socials more of an outreach opportunity by bringing signage and wearing club swag.
    • It was decided to roll this effort into the Outreach Committee that is also overseeing volunteering and club exposure.
  • The next club social will be Mad Rooster’s 2nd anniversary party on Saturday, June 28 at 2 PM.

Financial Status

  • Kevin Elsken presented the club’s current assets. Balance is up year-over-year as of May 1.
  • Greg proposed increasing CD amount after determining budget for the rest of the year
    • It was proposed to form a committee to review the budget and financial decisions for the rest of the year. It was decided that this should be rolled into the Outreach Committee that is also overseeing volunteering, club exposure, and club socials.

Hop Schedule

  • Summer SMaSH 2025
    • July 12 in St. Louis, MO
    • $10 entry fee
    • Entries due June 25
    • More info here
  • 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

Education

No education segment was presented this month, being replaced with the beer feedback roundtable discussion at the beginning of the meeting. Instead, Kevin Elsken provided this quote:

“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”
—Michael Corleone

Meeting closed at 8:24 PM, opening up to GODS, the Greater Ozark Drinking Society.

Brewer of the Month

  1. Kevin Elsken
  2. Alex Smith
  3. Ben Farhner

Beer of the Month

  • Kevin Elsken’s Belgian golden strong ale

Ass of the Month

  • Ric Bailey for not posting the meeting reminder in the Facebook group

Meeting concluded at 8:44 PM.

Ben Farhner