April 2018 – General Meeting: Raised Grain Brewing Company

This month we welcome Raised Grain to join the Barons. Raised Grain began when two full time doctors and avid homebrewers were discussing who made better beer, Belgium or Scotland. The beer they brewed as a compromise to their argument became their flagship brew and subsequently the 2016 GABF gold winner, Paradocs Red. Raised Grain recently expanded their production into a 20,000 Sq Ft space with a state of the art brewing system and canning line.  You can find them online at http://www.raisedgrainbrewing.com or you can visit their taproom at the address below.

2244 W. Bluemound Rd. Suite E. Waukesha, WI 53186

Click Here For Directions: (a little tough to find, but we promise it’s worth the effort)

Big Brew Day with Spike Brewing – May 5th, 2018

Our buddies at Spike Brewing have invited us to an Open House on AHA Big Brew Day (Sat. May 5th from 2-6PM) at their new production facility in Milwaukee (3866 N Fratney St, Milwaukee, WI 53212).

The plan is to

  • Brew a batch on their one-barrel pilot system (for those of us interested in brewing),
  • Check out their new facility
  • Share beers amongst club members and friends

Spike will provide food, homebrew, and prizes throughout the day. It also happens to be Derby Day, go they’ll have the race on their 70″ TV.

This event is open to our members, friends, and families – so bring your crew!  As with all Barons related events, everyone is responsible for their consumption and transportation to and from Spike.

We’re thinking of brewing a Saison (it’s seasonal and a quick ferment) and dividing up the batch to ferment with different yeast strains.  Spike will make several fermenters available for us so we can play around with fermentation temps/additions. In June, Spike Brewing will join us on the Homebrew Patio at our World of Beer Festival to serve the different homebrews to attendees.

Wanna join? Please fill out this form to let us know you are interested, and how many guests you are coming with. This helps us with planning food and prizes!


March 2018 – General Meeting: Enlightened Brewing Company

This month we welcome founder & co-owner, Tommy Vandervort and head brewer,  James Larson of Enlightened brewing company to join us for our general meeting.

Tommy worked many years in the service industry, during this time he fell in love with craft beer. It wasn’t until his parents gifted him a home brewing kit for Christmas, that he found his passion for brewing.

James earned his Master’s Degree in Brewing and Distilling from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland and spent an internship at Bells Brewing.

Enlightened first opened its doors in January 2013, brewing only a half barrel at a time in the Lincoln Warehouse. They have since moved to their larger space, and upgraded to a 3.5 BBL brew house in 2016.

This general meeting will be held at Cliffords Supper Club in Hales Corners, WI on Wednesday, March 28th. The meeting will start at 7:30pm, however you are welcome to stop in earlier and enjoy food that Cliffords has to offer. Please remember to bring your own tasting glass (or two).

February 2018 – General Meeting: The Explorium Brewpub

Photo Credit: https://onmilwaukee.com/dining/articles/first-look-explorium-brewpub.html

This month we welcome Mike Doble (founder) and Kyle Ciske (head brewer) of The Explorium Brewpub, they are the first and only brewery located in Greendale. Mike and Joan Doble founded The Explorium Brewpub in 2016.  Mike grew up traveling the world as a child of the military; Joan is a Wisconsin girl with strong roots in Milwaukee. They settled in Milwaukee in 2008, but a few years ago, they ventured to Florida to lend a hand in the family brewpub business. Armed with new-found knowledge and experience, Mike and Joan came back home to Wisconsin to develop a brewpub of their own bringing together the best of their experiences. 

This months meeting will take place at Cliffords Supper Club in Hales Corners. As usual the event will start at 7:30pm.

2018 Membership Renewals

Barons, thank you for your continued support of our club!

Annual membership dues are a critical source of funding that enable us to continue offering you fun and uniques beer-related programming and education. Membership renewals for 2018 are now available in our webshop. Renewing online helps expedite the process, so please consider renewing online. If you prefer, you are always welcome to renew in person at the next general meeting.

Not currently a member? No problem! You can become a member at anytime by paying the dues. We encourage you to take a look around this site to get a sense of what we are all about. We’ve been promoting the education and enjoyment of fermented beverages for nearly 30 years!

A reminder to current members, your 2017 memberships cover the January 2018 meeting. However, we encourage you to renew for 2018 now to help us get ahead on making new membership cards for the February 2018 meeting.

Thank you for your continued support. Prosit!

Madison Bus Trip: Brewery Hop – Feb 24, 2018

It’s time for another Barons Bus Trip! This time, we are heading to Madison to check out some of our favorite places to our west. Mark your calendars for Saturday, February 24th. The cost is $20 per person which covers transportation only – a safe and fun way to travel between destinations. We are renting a coach bus this year. Participants will be paying for their own beer samples and food as we travel from place to place.

This trip is open to members and non-members alike. We need to have 30 people signed up in order to make this trip feasible. If we do not get enough support, we will happily refund any reservations.

Here are some details:

We are leaving the The RedZone MKE at 9:30 am and then heading to the Goerkes Corners Park & Ride to pick up the rest of our guests. We will leave the park and ride by 9:50 am. We’ll hit Madison by 11:00am and the proposed itinerary will be:

We plan to spend between 60-90 minutes at each place. We will return to the Park & Ride by 9:00pm.

Here is map of the locations:


All participants need to have a safe driver to take them home after the event.


Reserve your tickets here!

January 2018 – General Meeting: Broken Bat Brewing Company

 

This month’s general meeting we welcome Tim Pauly of Broken Bat Brewing Company.  Broken Bat opened in April of 2017 in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward.

Broken Bat’s name comes from the notion that “In baseball, when a bat breaks, it’s something unexpected.  And that’s essentially what our beer is going to be like, what the brewery is going to be: something different, unexpected.”

As always, members are encouraged to bring their latest homebrew to share with the group. Please notify me directly if you plan to bring anything served on tap.

This general meeting will be held at Cliffords Supper Club in Hales Corners, WI on Wednesday, January 24th. The meeting will start at 7:30pm, however you are welcome to stop in earlier and enjoy food that Cliffords has to offer.

December 20th – Holiday Party!!!

The holiday party is finally here!  The meeting starts early this month, 7:00pm.  Guest are welcome tonight for the standard $15 fee.  Like always, we are meeting at Cliffords Supper Club in Hales Corners.  There is no formal programming or guests tonight but we do have elections for our Board so please make sure to get there to vote.

Cliffords will be providing broasted chicken and potatoes.  Please bring a dish to pass, as long as it doesn’t require a heat source.  Tonight is the night to eat, drink, and be merry alongside your fellow Barons.  We will have some excellent beers on tap tonight also.  Hope to see you all there.

October 2017 – General Meeting: Barrel Project w/Anti-Barrel Project

This month’s general meeting will be the culmination of the Barrel Project started this time last year. 6 teams brewed 6 different beers of their own recipe and chose a barrel of their choice to age the beer.

Please join us in the sampling of these beers as each of the teams discuss their recipe, their barrel selection, the barrel condition, and the process they took to make and age the beer.

In addition to the Barrel Project, we welcome the Anti-Barrel project. A group of Barons who sought after creating the same flavor profiles of barrel aging without a barrel. They will talk about the different alternatives available, their process and their result.

Last we will also be continuing our pre-meeting beer evaluation. Starting at 7pm, if you have a beer you want to get real-time feedback, bring in a bottle or two and have several BJCP judges provide constructive criticism to help make you a better brewer.

For those of you who are new, our general meeting will be held on October 25th, begins at 7:30pm and will be in its usual location at Cliffords Supper Club located at 10418 W Forest Home Ave, Hales Corners, WI 53130.

Photo Credit: Breakingbrews.com