Greetings all and sorry about the lack of information about the March Meeting. The lack of information is actually on purpose since we did make plans a long time ago but Hansons Homebrew is no longer in business. What is a VP to do; Brew beer? March includes some interesting events in St. Cloud and is a great opportunity for some "soon to be certified" BJCP judged to wet their whistles. Please Let Eric Nelson know if you can attend, assist, or need more information. Mike Valentiner has graciously offered to assist with the beer collection for the St. Cloud event and information and a map site were sent out to MBA earlier today. April 2nd is a fun meeting at Rock Bottom with special guest Charlie P. (you know I would spell it wrong - don't you). May appears to be a outdoor brew fest at Norther Brewer. Not exactly sure if this will occur but we have not had great success with the all grain brew at the CSPS kitchen for the past few years. The kitchen is ok but the view is quite limited and the length of time required for a full grain batch exceeds the concentration limits of the students - besides, everything at my house now runs on N.G. and my old car finally bit the dust. So there you have some of it. The Boiler is in the mail and should arrive this week-end or early next week. On a depressing note, some unwelcome guest visited my brewery. I can't see who they were but I discovered some very excited beers carbonated well beyond safe limits. Not sure what their name is but they seem to be little dinky critters that didn't even leave a little ring around the top. Now it could be that my problem was with cool temperature causing those slacker yeasts to stop working or it could be that there were some critters that arrived in some grain dust, remained on the lip of a carboy or cornie. I suspect critters since my honey porter ended up at 1.00 TG Good news is the recent batches worked very well so I believe I am beyond this problem. Brewing, always interesting, challenging, and many opportunities for "growth!!!" So there you really have it. Take care. Check your mail boxes. What did you brew last week? Sincerely, Rick Oftel VP MHBA