Mid South District
Inaugural Meeting Recap

December 15, 2007
at Blackstone Brewery and Restaurant, Nashville, TN

The newly formed MBAA District Mid South inaugural and organizational meeting was held on December 15, 2007. A total of 25 people, MBAA members and guests showed up at our Host, Blackstone Brewery and Restaurant.

Before the meeting convened, the attendees were able to taste and sample many of the fine beers brewed by Dave Miller and Travis Hixon.

The inaugural meeting was called to order by District President/BOG Fred Scheer.

He welcomed all members and guests; Roy Thomson (Haffmanns and MBAA Membership Chair); Irwin Sid (American Yeast, Memphis, TN); Jim Hoeft (Cargill Malting). Members agreed to meet 4 times per year, the dates are set as follows:

• March 8, 2008
  Nashville, TN
• June 14, 2008 (Father's Day June 15 in 2008)
  Chattanooga, TN
• September 13, 2008
  Nashville, TN
• December 13, 2008
  MBAA District Mid South "One Day Technical Conference" either in Gatlinburg or Knoxville, TN

The District dues for 2008/09 are $25 per year. District Treasurer Mike Sutton informed us of the GOLD Sponsors for 2008; S.S.Steiner Hops; Cargill Malting; Briess Malting.

Thanks to all of them.

We agreed to have an annual “One Day Technical Conference”; the first one in December 2008. Details on location etc will follow soon. Fred reported that our District web site is up and running and acknowledged the hard work of the people in the National Office. One of the highlights of our meeting was Mike Sutton’s demonstration of the speaker’s gift, a “flash light”.

Following the Business meeting was our Technical presentation. Speaker was Dr. Gary Spedding and his talk ““Critical Areas of Modern Brewing Research Overlooked by the Modern Craft Brewer”, found great response by all in attendees. A link to Gary’s talk and the question/answer session can be found on our District web site.

Following the Technical presentation, attendees reassembled with their Family members for a GREAT Dinner at Blackstone Restaurant. This was a great start for our District Mid South and for the Master Brewers Association.