The Black Star Co-op Board of Directors will hold a working meeting on Wednesday, June 1st. In addition to our monthly board meetings, we are currently holding a monthly working meeting, where we will discuss Co-op business but not make any formal decisions.

The meeting will be from 7-9pm. Location is to-be-announced, so check back.

We write to tell you that Steven Yarak has decided to move on from his position at Black Star Co-op. We don’t usually inform you of worker turnover, but as many of you know, Steven is one of our founding members and the man with the idea that ultimately became Black Star Co-op.

Steven shared his plans with us, writing: “I am extremely proud of both what I’ve accomplished and what we have built together, but it is time for me to leave Black Star Co-op in search of new challenges and opportunities.” Not only are we also proud of what we have accomplished and built, but we are grateful for Steven’s vision and dedication to this Co-op for the last five years. We wish Steven the best in his next adventure.

This morning’s rain (much needed!) brought back memories of the day our brewhouse arrived. It came on truck, which was itself on a truck. Needless to say, unloading it in the pouring the rain with nothing more than a warehouse forklift and a pallet jack was less than fun.

Almost all of our house beers were designed with by our community of member-owners. The vision for those beers was set several years ago, and the membership has grown by leaps and bounds since then.

We want to recapture that community participation in the design of our house beers, so to kick off American Craft Beer Week we’ll be hosting our first ever Member-Owner Beer Design Forum. All member-owners are invited to participate in the design of the newest Black Star Co-op beer!

Attendees will be given some general parameters to work within, and then the rest will come out of the brainstorming session. So where do we start? Well, as the weather heats up, we need a lighter beer on tap to replace Recalcitrant Dockhand (it’ll be back once the temperature drops again, so don’t worry!). The newest beer, named “Elba” will be an American wheat beer fermented with our house yeast, Cali Ale V. Our brewer, Jeff Young, will lead the brainstorming forum and will have spices and other ingredients available to sample and see what we can come up with.

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Each month members of our Board of Directors gather in our brewpub to share a pint with YOU, our member-owners. This tradition goes back several years (before we even had a brewpub!), but starting last month we added a new twist: discounts for member-owners!

All member-owners attending the Pub Hours with the Board will enjoy $3 Rational pints. That’ll have you covered through 9PM, and then our new Inverse Happy Hour kicks in until 11PM, so feel free to stick around after the Pub Hours are over.

As always, these gatherings are not formal meetings, but are a great way to get to know your Board and get involved in your Co-op. We also love meeting prospective member-owners, so we hope to see you even if you’re not yet a part of Black Star Co-op.

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You’re probably familiar with local charcuterie producer Salt & Time from their products we offer on our snack plates, but they make other products as well.

One of those is a mortadella hot dog, and as part of American Craft Beer Week we’ll be serving them as part of a “dog & draft” combo meal. Order a Salt & Time mortadella dog and it’ll come paired with a pint of our High Esteem!

Oh, and in keeping with the dog theme, don’t forget that your four legged friends are always welcome on our patio!

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All day long we’re offering $3 Rational pints and 15% off food for our member-owners.

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The Board has decided to schedule a working meeting, which will occur on May 10, 2011. I’ve attached the agenda for this meeting, which can be found here. The meeting will be held at a location to be determined, so check back for more information.

We’re up to our 30th batch of Black Star Co-op beer and things are going great! Efficiencies are up, recipes are being refined, and the creative juices are flowing like the run-off of a highly-modified malted barley mash.

So what’s new? Rover just went on tap as our spring seasonal Irrational Series beer. The inspiration for Rover is simply the aromas of Spring. A simple fermentable bill comprises of 400lb of pale malt and 100lb of Goodflow Local Wildflower Honey. Rover is fermented with a Trappist Ale yeast to give it spice and fruit notes while letting some of the honey shine through. Also “new” is the newest version of our best-seller Vulcan. The newest batch uses our new house yeast which gives it a fuller body and accents the rye malts more, while a refined dry-hopping addition adds a burst of Amarillo hop aroma.

And finally, we’ve started keg sales! There is a limited availability, but we should always have something delicious kegged up to purchase for your Summer backyard parties. Contact us for our current stock or inquire in the pub.

Some things in the works are: Dubbel Dee; the combination of Belgian yeast and a modified version of our Rational beer Double Dee, and Elba; this will be the very first member-owner designed beer! We will have a forum to kick off American Craft Beer Week on May 15th to help pick spices and other ingredients to make a Summer-Fall Rational wheat beer, which will take the place of Recalcitrant Dockhand.

Our focus on Belgian-inspired brews continues with $1 off all bottles of Belgian-style ales. This is a discount on at least 16 of our bottled commercial beverages, including a cider as well as a few gluten-free options. With this Belgian theme on the tap wall, we’re currently pouring Independence Rood, New Belgium Le Terroir Dry-Hopped Sour, Stone Old Guardian Belgo Barleywine, Unibroue Ephemere, and Victory Golden Monkey Tripel. Upcoming Wednesday Special Taps will finish the theme, with Brooklyn Brewmaster’s Reserve Main Engine Start on May 4 and then a very special version of Ranger Creek’s La Bestia Aimable to be tapped on May 11.

Our next focus will feature Summertime Beers with Summer Seasonals and other sunny weather brews.

Soon after our soft opening in September, we starting doing Glass Night promotions every Monday–which were a big hit with our member-owners. We’ve now featured all the local breweries and it seems most of y’all have stocked up your cabinets, so these will now be more sporatic. Please stay tuned to our social media outlets for upcoming Glass Nights, as well as promotional nights with new breweries as they open up. And we will continue to sell good-looking Black Star Co-op logo pint glasses for $5.

P.S. Did you happen to miss out on Saint Arnold’s Divine Reserve #11 Imperial IPA? We still have some available in bottles!