[Makerspace-keymembers] Possible future SCA-and-Makerspace brew days, and a quick breakdown of this one?

Sun Apr 24 22:15:07 EDT 2016

I was hoping to hear back from the chemistry group on whether they have a
weekend preference, but they're pretty swamped with finals prep. How about
the 16th or 23rd?

On Sun, Apr 24, 2016 at 6:46 PM, Emily Knox <emilyknox at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Any weekends in July that work for everyone?  Probably the 9th, 16th, or
> 23rd since the first weekend is July 4th.
>
> Emily
>
> On Wed, Mar 30, 2016 at 9:59 AM, Gergana Slavova <
> gergana.s.slavova at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Let's do July, in this case.  Pick a weekend that's good for you and
>> we'll bookmark that date.
>>
>> ~Gergana
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 11:11 PM, Dena Strong <dena.strong at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Yay, more brewing collaborations! :)
>>>
>>> What's the most appealing time frame for folks? Close-term, medium-term,
>>> or summer?
>>>
>>> How much I personally could be involved would depend on the specific
>>> month as much as the specific weekend. My own schedule is kind of crazy for
>>> the next three months - I could help with something on April 16 (if it's
>>> mead or cider), May 14-ish or 28-ish, or some time in July or August.
>>>
>>> However, I suspect April 16 would be a pretty tight advertising and
>>> scheduling turnaround and it'd have to be cider or mead because I don't
>>> think we'd have time to prep a batch of TV-magic pre-brewed-and-racked
>>> beer. May 14 may be too close to finals for most students. May 28 would
>>> probably be good for in-town students but would be bad for some of the SCA
>>> folks who are going to a big event that weekend, so we'd have to lean more
>>> on Makerspace folks if that was the chosen weekend.
>>>
>>> May 21 might also be a good option for folks who aren't me - it'd be
>>> after the end of finals and there doesn't look to be a big SCA thing that
>>> weekend, but I'll be in Chicago for two back to back conferences. So if
>>> someone else wants to run one on the 21st I'll happily cheer you on
>>> remotely!
>>>
>>> June or July may have more openings in general too? For me June is out,
>>> but for a lot of folks it's past finals and pre school work.
>>>
>>> (For reference, the Women in Chemistry group's also interested in
>>> collaborating on a brewing type of event over the summer - they didn't want
>>> to try to fit anything else into the school year themselves, and they would
>>> be interested in somewhere between late May and early August.)
>>>
>>> Thoughts?
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 8:01 PM, Andy Gibbs <andygibbs at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm also interested in helping with this.  I have two cappers that I
>>>> can bring if we're bottling anything, among other miscellaneous brewing
>>>> supplies.
>>>>
>>>> Andy
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Mar 27, 2016 at 11:42 PM, Gergana Slavova <
>>>> gergana.s.slavova at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I can definitely help out with this.  Dena, pick a day (or a couple of
>>>>> dates) that are convenient for you and we'll narrow it down to just 1
>>>>> that's good for everyone.
>>>>>
>>>>> ~Gergana
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 3:11 PM, Emily Knox <emilyknox at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Dena,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thank you so much for all your work last week! We can make a quick
>>>>>> list for anyone that's interested in helping out. (Keymembers, let me know
>>>>>> and we'll just make a group from the Makerspace email.)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What dates/times work for you?  It doesn't need to be anytime soon.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Emily
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 8:50 PM, Dena Strong <dena.strong at gmail.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi all! I'm not 100% sure whether having both a mailing list and
>>>>>>> individual folks on an email thread will keep the individual folks once
>>>>>>> replies happen, but I thought it would be worth a try? (If anyone SCA-side
>>>>>>> knows Terra's email address, she'd probably be a good person to talk with
>>>>>>> too.)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Part 1:
>>>>>>> Emily and I had a really nice chat-slash-debriefing over tea tonight
>>>>>>> after work and she said that the Makerspace crew is also excited by how
>>>>>>> many folks are interested in brewing and that the Makerspace can contribute
>>>>>>> more hands and more equipment (ranging from brew-type to things like the
>>>>>>> Square card reader for credit card taking) to future joint endeavors. She
>>>>>>> suggested starting a joint email thread to discuss the possibility of more
>>>>>>> like this.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Since it seems like there's definitely untapped interest out there,
>>>>>>> what do folks in both groups think about the possibility of some future
>>>>>>> brew workshops?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If so, do any particular dates look appealing to folks?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Part 2, the recap and review:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> What went well this time:
>>>>>>> Using the St John basement and kitchen for brewing or cooking
>>>>>>> workshops is *fantastic.* There was plenty of room to have the sanitizing
>>>>>>> and bottling and capping stations out in the main room and reserving the
>>>>>>> kitchen for things that need the six burners.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Logistically (water, heat, and seating-wise), it was a ton easier to
>>>>>>> do a brew day in the church basement and kitchen than it had been when Ro
>>>>>>> and I did it in the Makerspace itself. And the reservation fee was only
>>>>>>> $50, which we could math in to the workshop fees.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Bringing a portable projector and projecting the slides on the wall
>>>>>>> worked well too - since it's in the basement, dimming a bank of lights was
>>>>>>> enough to let the projector be visible on the wall.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It was also really helpful having Stephanie teaching coffee and Rick
>>>>>>> teaching sake at the same time -- not everyone can be hands-on at the same
>>>>>>> time when you're bottling and capping, so having them both taking part of
>>>>>>> the group while other people were individually cycling through the
>>>>>>> sterilize-rinse-bottle-cap-label dance helped keep more of the crowd
>>>>>>> occupied.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Pre-loading the stuff into the storage under the church stairwell on
>>>>>>> Friday was really key to being able to set up and get going on time.
>>>>>>> (Thanks again for the tour and the storage key, Liz!)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Having people sign up in advance for the hands-on slots and pay
>>>>>>> online in advance gave me both a built-in way to cap the attendance and a
>>>>>>> guaranteed pool of cash to buy the ingredients from. We could control the
>>>>>>> hands-on numbers that way (though in hindsight I shouldn't have added the
>>>>>>> extra 5 gallons to let more people in; I should've just said 'sorry, next
>>>>>>> time').
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> What didn't go so well:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Friday's hauling-in took me about 4 hours, so next time let's put
>>>>>>> out a call for more stuff-hauling crew during prep day.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It takes a long time to bottle ten gallons of beer, even if there
>>>>>>> are a ton of people interested in doing it; next time, I'd say we should
>>>>>>> cap a hands-on beer segment at the number of people who can get 6-packs out
>>>>>>> of one five gallon batch (I think about 8?)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Math fail: I wasn't aiming for anything resembling a profit, I was
>>>>>>> trying to make the workshop cost match the materials cost. But I'd
>>>>>>> miscalculated how expensive the honey would be in bulk from Amazon, so I
>>>>>>> didn't break even. I now know the cost of honey better; I'm chalking that
>>>>>>> up to learning curve.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Also, Emily says it's OK to calculate a profit in for future
>>>>>>> workshop cost math, and we could split a profit between the groups.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Emily's recommendation of one teacher per ten students sounds like a
>>>>>>> good ratio to me. We had about one per twelve to fifteen this time, I
>>>>>>> think?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> (I'm not entirely sure if everyone signed in on the sign-in sheets,
>>>>>>> which I'm still trying to find - if anyone sees a small black messenger bag
>>>>>>> at St John with a couple brewing books and a bunch of handouts in it, that
>>>>>>> would be it.)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Planning ahead for extra and/or backup teachers in case someone gets
>>>>>>> called away on the day-of is sounding like a good idea too.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I think that's the highlights?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>> Dena
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> Makerspace-keymembers mailing list
>>>>>>> Makerspace-keymembers at lists.chambana.net
>>>>>>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/makerspace-keymembers
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
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