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!

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.

May Club Meeting

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

Our 6th Anniversary, November Club Meeting

In all the excitement with getting ready for Oktoberfest last month, we forgot to mention that October was the club's 6th Annivesary!  Yea for us!

November's club meeting will be held at Brunzies Bar, on the corner of 5th and Philadelphia Streets, at 8pm tonight.

We've also added a club Twitter feed (twitter.com/IndiPaAlesmiths).  Search @IndiPaAlesmiths

IUP Student-Produced Video from DI Oktoberfest; A Few Local Taps of Note

The 2nd Annual Downtown Indiana Oktoberfest went very well.  All tickets sold out, the weather cooperated, and all of the beer showed up!  We did, in fact, run out early of some beer, and all of it was gone by the end.  The crowd didn't seem to mind, however, and we got good feedback.  Many thanks to the IPA members who volunteered for the event or bought tickets - you helped make this event a success.  Bigger and better next year!

The following is a short video produced by some IUP students during the event - lots of familiar faces in the background.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqdy8OqmOT4

The three winning beers from those who voted (81 votes) were: Church Brew Works Oktoberfest, Marzoni's Pumpkin Ale, and Penn Chocolate Meltdown Stout (which also just won a Bronze medal at the Great American Beer Festival). 

In other news, Brunzies has opened up on the corner of 5th and Philly.  Nice tap selection, including East End Hop Harvest (fresh hopped beer), Anderson Valley Heelch O'Hops, Ayinger Brau Weisse, and Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale.  Twisted Jimmy's just tapped Heavy Seas Mutiny Fleet The Greater Pumpkin (barrel-aged pumpkin beer).