December Club Meeting

The December club meeting will be held on Tue Dec 9 at 8pm at The Coney.

November Homebrew Club Meeting and a Bit of Catch-Up

This month's meeting will be held tonight at 8pm at Brunzies.  Due to the Pens game tonight, we'll most likely move over to the courtyard at Benjamin's, and it should still be warm out.

Thanks to all of the club members who volunteered for this years Oktoberfest!  With your help, we raised over $14,000 for Downtown Indiana.  All of the brewers seemed to have a great time and told me they'd love to be invited back next year. A big part of that success was due to our volunteers!

The beers this year were very good, and despite a few snafus (like the weather and the post-party food situation), everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.  Our five, 5-Star brewery winners were (in alphabetical order):

1. Draai Laag - their Geestlijke was put on tap at Taze
2. East End Brewing - their Bigger Hop IPA was put on tap at Twisted Jimmys
3. Marzoni's - their Stumblin' Chef Tripel was put on tap at Whitey's Peetza
4. Riepstine's Pub - their Alpha Deuce IPA will be put on tap soon at The Coventry Inn
5. Yards - their Cape of Good Hope was put on tap at the Ironwood

Finally, last month's meeting at Twisted Jimmys marked the club's 7th Anniversary!  Thanks to all of our members, past and present, who've helped to keep this club active, interesting, and enjoyable!

September Meeting & Downtown Indiana Oktoberfest

Our September club meeting was held at 8pm at The Coney on Tue Sep 9.  We had 17 members in attendance, sharing 8 great beers and good conversation.

Don't forget: The 3rd Annual Downtown Indiana Oktoberfest (https://twitter.com/DIOktoberfest) is coming up on Sat. Oct. 4.   Big thanks to the club members who volunteered to help at the festival. 

We have 14 brewers represented - so should be at least 40+ beers to sample!  The VIP tickets are selling out rapidly - only about 30 or so remaining - for $60.  That gets you an extra hour of admission (from 2-3pm), a commemorative t-shirt, and attendance at the post-festival appreciation dinner with volunteers and brewers at the Coventry Inn.

General admission tickets are $35 for the 3-6pm session.

Lined up this year are:

1. East End Brewing (Pittsburgh)
2. Draai Laag Brewing Co. (Millvale)
3. North Country Brewing Co. (Slippery Rock)
4. Riepstine's Pub (Williamsport)
5. Marzoni's Brick Oven & Brewery (Duncansville)
6. Church Brew Works (Pittsburgh)
7. Rivertowne Brewing (Export)
8. Rock Bottom (Pittsburgh)
9. Yard's Brewing (Philadelphia)
10. Penn Brewing (Pittsburgh)
11. Yuengling (Pottsville)
12. Shipyard Brewing (Portland, ME)
13. Paulaner (Munich, Germany)
14. Samuel Adams (Boston, MA)

 

August Club Meeting

Our August club meeting will be held Tue Aug 12 at 8pm at Brunzies, corner of 5th and Philly St.  This month is our SMaSH competition (Single Malt and Single Hop), and we'll be talking about the Downtown Indiana Oktoberfest (Facebook, Twitter) opportunities for volunteering on Sat Oct 4.

Notes from the Field - 36th Annual AHA Nat'l Homebrewers Conference

The following report was submitted by club member Mark Zellman. Thanks!

 

Report from the 36^th Annual American Homebrewers Association National Homebrewers Conference June 12-14, 2014 Grand Rapids Michigan

Fellow Home Brewers,

            I had the opportunity to drive out to Grand Rapids on Thursday June 12^th to attend this conference and was amazed by the AHA and their organization of this event! There over 3,100 in attendance and the entire conference ran very smoothly.

            I arrived at the Devos Center on the Grand River around 4:30 Thursday to register for the conference and was greeted by AHA staff who answered my questions, being a first time attendee, and explained to me the important contents of the ‘swag bag’ given to me and to review the contents to be eligible for prizes from various vendors. Two most important items were large bottles of commemorative beers brewed for the conference by local Founders Brewing Company (Oak Aged Rye IPA) and Bell’s Brewery (“Beer Michigan” which is a Barleywine style) which I have in my fridge and will bring to the next club meeting for all of us to try a small sample. The there was the ‘group toast’ to kick off the conference. I also had a chance to catch the “Brew in a Bag” seminar then went into the exhibit hall to check out the dozens of vendors and sample some brew in the “Beer City Social Club”.

            Friday I arrived at Devos Center and reviewed the list of seminars for the day. Starting at 9am and going through 2pm there are 5, one hour seminars going on simultaneously, so you pick one that interests you and go to that room. These are all available on the AHA web site for members to watch as the AHA videotaped each seminar. Then, it was back the exhibit hall to scout out the vendor booths and do yet more sampling! I also met, Nancy Johnson, event coordinator for the AHA. I told her what a well organized event she had planned and what a nice city Grand Rapids is! During our 10-15 minute conversation I asked her how they choose their locations, next year being in San Diego California, and she said it was based on who can handle the size of the crowd, hotels etc. I told her that Pittsburgh would be a great city to book and she said that was on her list because they have the convention center and surrounding amenities for a conference this size. We had charter buses running from the hotels every 20 minutes and my hotel was about a 5 minute ride to the hall. Within walking distance of Devos Center were Grand Rapids Brewing, Hop Cat, and Founders, of which I had time to visit GRB and Hop Cat which were so packed you could hardly get in the door!

            Friday night I was told would be a most fun event, Club Night. brew clubs from all over the country had one of the exhibit halls for this event. there were almost 90 clubs that set up their ‘bar’ in this hall and it was truly amazing! With names like the “KGB” (Kuhnhenn Guild of Brewers)…the “MOB” (Muskegon Ottowa Brewers)…”The Big Lebrewski’s”… “Worts of Wisdom”…and “Urban Knaves of Grain” who not only set up VERY elaborate bars and themes, there were groups dressed as Monks with Nuns, Smurfs, Super Hero’s, Mobsters, and crew from NYC that had a construction site set up and did a chalk outline of a woman lying on the floor for their booth experience. Then there was the hundreds of their home brews with every conceivable style and variation you could imagine! Most clubs offered between 8-14 different beers, so you really had to pace yourself! What a (late) night!

            Saturday morning I was back at the event for more seminars, interaction with the vendors and event attendee’s, and the More Beer booth opened a keg of Pliny the Elder which I stood in line for about 15 minutes to get a sample of…worth the wait! Saturday evening was the Grand Dinner and awards ceremony sponsored by Sam Adams. They paired each course with a Sam Adams beer, two of them were their small batch, cask aged series, and the dinner was fantastic!  

            In conclusion, I had a terrific time, met fellow brewers from all over the US and Canada, had massive samples of some incredible and unusual beers, and would go back to Grand Rapids for a week just to travel around to their craft breweries, which probably number between 30-40 within an hour drive. Not sure I will make San Diego next year but will certainly put that into the planner!  If you have never attended this event, you will enjoy it!

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Zellman

              

July Club Meeting

July's club meeting will be held at 8pm on Tue Jul 8 at Twisted Jimmy's.

August Club Competiton - SMaSH!

We decided at the June club meeting that for August's meeting, interested brewers could participate in a SMaSH experiment (Single Malt and Single Hop).  Joe Newhouse is organizing this, so here's what he has to say below:
---------------

SMASH beer info. we are shooting for a OG close to 1.050.

hop variety to use:
Luke McKelvy - Super Styrian

Bill Dietrich - Pacific Jade

Craig Pluchinsky - Millenium

Tom Montgomery - Galaxy

Peter Broad - Magnum

Joe Newhouse - Summit

 All grain recipe.

10 lbs 2 row pale malt

1 oz hops (60 min. boil)

.5 oz hops ( 30 min. boil)

.25 ox hops (15 min. boil)

.25 oz hops (2 min. boiil)

use safale 05 dry yeast.

You may mash at any temps you want. I personally mash @ 152 F.

Extract.

While Muntons extra light and light DME are true 2 row , Briess uses 2 row and Carapils in both LME and DME. You may use any of the extra light, light golden light etc. that you see fit. It will still give the results we are looking for.

Extract Recipe

6 lbs DME or 2 of the 3.3 lb cans of LME

1 oz hops (60 min. boil)

.5 oz hops ( 30 min. boil)

.25 ox hops (15 min. boil)

.25 oz hops (2 min. boiil)

use safale 05 dry yeast.

good luck,

 Joe

June Club Meeting

Our June club meeting will be held at The Coney (Tue Jun 10) at 8pm.  Our future club meeting rotation will be:   Coney (Jun), Twisted Jimmy's (Jul), Brunzies (Aug), then repeat unless otherwise noted.

May Club Meeting

Our May club meeting will be held at 8pm on Tue. May 13 at Brunzies, corner of 5th and Philadelphia Sts.

April Meeting & Pints for Pets Brewfest

Our April meeting will be held at Twisted Jimmy's (8pm) on Tuesday April 8.

The Pints for Pets (http://pintsforpets.com) brewfest will be held during two sessions (1-4pm, 6-9pm) on Sat. May 10.  See their website for details.

February Club Meeting

On next meeting will be held on Tuesday, Feb 11 at 8pm at Twisted Jimmy's.  This month's "competition" is for milds or bitters (sessions, really). 

January Club Meeting

Happy New Year!

Our January club meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 14 at 8pm at Brunzies (corner of 5th and Philly Streets).