March Swap Meet – Updated

Baron Secretary

Dust off that unused brewing equipment (or ingredients) and turn it into cash – or trade it with a fellow brewer!

The General Meeting on March 22nd (at Clifford’s Supper Club) will feature a pre-meeting swap meet. Please bring any equipment you’d like to trade to the back of the hall between 6:00 and 6:15pm. The swap will run from 6:30 to 7:15. It will be an excellent opportunity to upgrade your brewery, or create some needed space.

Update

  • The swap is not limited to just equipment
    • Bring any hops or grain that you would like trade
  • Please bring cash if you plan to purchase instead of trade
  • Remember to come early; it’s the early bird that gets the worm

 

February 2017 – General Meeting: 3rd Sign & Octopi

Jonathan Greene

On February 22nd, we will welcome Sara Brauer, the Sales Manager of 3rd Sign Brewery and Octopi Brewing companies, and Sam Green the header brewer for 3rd Sign. Please join us at Clifford’s at 7:30pm for a fun-filled and educational evening as Sara and Sam introduce us to 3rd Sign and lend insight into the new contract-brewing outfit in Madison: Octopi Brewing.

Both 3rd Sign and Octopi are relatively new. Octopi was created as a one-stop contract brewing resource to help smaller breweries with everything from brewing, packaging and distribution. 3rd Sign is the in-house brand of the Octopi team.

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting. If you would like to bring a beer for the Jockey Box, please email the officers and let us know.

Lastly, if you would like to get some helpful feedback on any of your beers – without putting them on the Jockey Box – we will have a few of our club’s BJCP judges available to provide one-on-one feedback during social hour. Feel free to bring and bottle and find the judges!

Milwaukee Bus Trip: New Breweries

Jonathan Greene

Update:

Tickets are now sold out

In 2016, Milwaukee had an explosion of newly opened breweries and tap rooms. We plan to make a day out of visiting a few of them. Reserve your spot with us as we travel our fair city on Saturday, February 25th checking out many of the newly opened breweries. The reservation is for the bus transport only – a safe and fun way to travel between destinations. Participants will be paying for their own beer samples and food as we travel from place to place.

This trip is for club members, with each member allowed to bring guests. 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 leaving the the Loomis Rd. Park & Ride at 11:30am and heading for Black Husky. After that we hope to hit:

We will return to the Park & Ride by 6:00pm.

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

 

January 2017 – General Meeting: Gadget Night IV

Jonathan Greene

Happy New Year, Barons!

Spending the fourth Wednesday evening of 2017 watching our very own Dave Campbell present his latest do-it-yourself presentation is the best way you can ring in the new year. For the past 4 years, Dave has been inspiring us to make our own brew stands, temperature controllers, keg washers, flame shields, tap handles, and all other manner of gear for our brewhouses and taprooms.

Dave has a rich background in designing and fabricating all kinds of things. He is an Experimental Machinist Fabricator by trade and has a killer personal shop at his home, where much of our club’s DIY gear is prototyped. Dave also hosts small-group welding seminars for members, and a variety of club build days.

Come on by, and join us in learning just how far we can stretch our household budgets in the name of brewing.

The meeting will be held at Clifford’s on January 25th at 7:30pm. If you would like to bring a keg of homebrew for the Jockey Boxes, please contact [email protected] and let us know.

Lastly, please remember that we are starting the membership renewal process this month. Club memberships officially expire at the end of January, so your 2016 memberships are valid for this meeting. However, we will be asking members to renew for 2017, and this can cause some delays in check-in. Please consider renewing your membership online to save yourself some time!

See you soon!

 

 

2017 Board of Directors Elections

Jonathan Greene

Our elections will be held during our Holiday Party, on Wednesday December 21st. The meeting starts at 7:00pm. The elections will be held by secret ballot, with each member getting one vote for each position.

Here is the ballot:

  • President:
    • Jason Rohloff
  • Vice President:
    • Max Liptack
    • Joe Wichgers
  • Treasurer:
    • Mike Borchert
  • Secretary:
    • Steve Swanson
  • Sergeant At Arms
    • Mike Sande
  • Member At Large (2 positions)
    • Terry McDonald
    • Simon McConico

Each candidate will have a chance to introduce themselves before the election takes place.

A big thanks to the members stepping up to run for the 2017 Board! Best of luck to them all!

December 2016 – General Meeting: Holiday Party (3rd Wednesday)

Jonathan Greene

christmas-beer_req7hmThe Beer Barons of Milwaukee invite you to attend our upcoming member meeting, Wednesday, December 21st at our usual location, Cliffords Supper Club in Hales Corners. Mark your calendars and don’t forget it is a week early this month in observance of the Christmas holiday.

December is our annual Holiday party. Cliffords will be serving broasted chicken along with sides. Please remember to bring a cold dish or dessert to share. We’ll have some great beers on tap, and will be holding our annual holiday giveaway too. Buy some tickets for a chance to win a 10 Gallon Kettle from Spike Brewing, or a variety of other great prizes.

To accomodate food service, we are starting the meeting at 7pm. Food will be served buffet style, and we will be randomly sending tables to get their food.

The meeting fee is $10 for members and $15 for guests. Be sure to bring some tasting glasses and money for giveaway tickets!

If you’d like to bring a keg to the meeting to put on the Jockey Box, please email the board ([email protected]) in advance to let us know what you are bringing and we will give you $20 for your ingredients.

Happy Holidays!

Photo by: 

November 2016 – General Meeting: Belgian Night (3rd Wednesday)

Jonathan Greene

14039718059_6e8a1c9852_zAll members are cordially invited to our 2017 edition of Belgian Night. Join us at Clifford’s on Wednesday November 16th at 7:30 pm. Please note that due to Thanksgiving we are meeting on the 3rd Wednesday in November, and not the fourth.

We are going to keep a similar format to last year with some blind tastings and fun surprises. Stick around ’til the end of the presentation and you won’t be disappointed!

Also, Ben from Spike Brewing will be coming by to show off Spike’s newly redesigned conical fermentor. He’ll be looking for feedback, so feel free to let him know what you think of it!

 

Image: Danielle Griscti

October 2016 – General Meeting: FIELD TRIP to 3rd Space

Jonathan Greene

imgresMark your calendars for October 26th. The October meeting this year is a field trip event to 3rd Space Brewing! We haven’t had a field trip in a few years, and this is a great way to check out Kevin Wright’s new brewery in our fair city. Kevin will host us and tell us about his journey, his beers, and his plans for the future.

Kevin grew up in Thiensville, is a distinguished graduate from the UC Davis Master Brewer Program, and is the former brewer for California’s Hangar 24 Brewery. If you attended out Advanced Hombrewing Conference this year, you might remember his pre-conference kick-off talk.

Third Space is located at 1505 W St Paul Ave in  Milwaukee.

Here are some details about our evening:

  • Third Space will open it’s doors to the Barons only at 6PM. The brewery will be closed to the public.
  • The meeting will start at 7:30PM. We’ll do announcements as usual.
  • Each guest will get 3 drink tickets for Third Space tap beer. They’ll have at least 5 beers to choose from.
  • There is no kitchen at 3rd Space, but the Oscars On Roll food truck will be there if you’d like to order some food onsite. Please consider coming early if you are planning on ordering from the truck. The truck will stay onsite until 8pm or until business slows down for them.
  • You are welcome to bring food and snacks.
  • Please do not bring outside beer or homebrew. This is an event to drink Third Space beer and support the brewery.

We are looking forward to seeing you at Third Space on October 26th!

Don’t forget to register for Schnapp Hans

Jonathan Greene

SchnappHansCupThe deadline for our Schnapp Hans Cup is fast approaching. Be sure to register your beer and get them dropped off at Northern Brewer by 5pm on Saturday (9/24). We look forward to judging your brews and hope to be handing you a medal at the ceremony on October 8th.

If you are interested in being a judge or steward this year, you can sign up on the website for that as well.

Please visit http://schnapphanscup.com/ for more information and registration.

September 2016 – General Meeting: Brewing and Blending Sour Beer

Jonathan Greene

sour-beerWe cordially invite you to Clifford’s on Wednesday September 28th at 7:30pm for our monthly membership meeting. We are getting tart this month as we explore the process of brewing and blending sour beers.

Fellow Barons Mike Schwartz, Jayme Nawrocki, Simon McConnico, and Dan Schlosser will be talking about their extensive experience with designing, brewing and fermenting sour beers. They will also discuss how to blend the beer to come up with a finished product.

While both trendy and delicious, sour beers can seem overwhelming to many brewers, and we hope to dispel some of the mystique and get you comfortable making your own enjoyable sour creations.

If you’d like to bring a keg of homebrew to share on the jockey boxes, please email Josh. If you are bring a non-ball-lock keg, please let us know so we can try to accommodate you.

Image from learn.kegerator.com