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

Our Summer Picnic is right around the corner

Jonathan Greene

picnicMark your calendars! The 2016 Beer Barons Summer Picnic will be on Saturday September 10th at Picnic Area 3 on the Root River Parkway rain or shine. We kick off about noon with a food provided (burgers, brats, chicken breast, salads) along with all our drafts lines pouring homemade beers, meads and ciders. We encourage you to bring a dish to share, chairs, pop-up tents, towels, yard games or any other summer-outdoor-type-of-thing.

Bring your best beer, mead, or cider for a chance to win our ‘best beverage’ get your name etched on the Jerry Hetzel Memorial Mash Paddle. There is also a ‘food-made-with-beer’ competition for any edible you bring that includes beer/mead/cider as a recipe component. Both competitions are popular-vote style, voted on by our guests.

We will be holding out annual picnic raffle again this year. We have a lot of great things in the raffle, including a kettle from Spike Brewing, Spiegelau glasses, Thermapens, stainless steel growlers and more! Raffle tickets will be sold at the picnic: 30 for $20, 10 for $10, 3 for $5, and 1 for $2.

Each guest (over 21) will receive a 4 or 6 pack of beer as a door prize to take home with them.

We are starting at noon. If you bring a keg and/or a dish (and you should!) please affix your name to your vessel so we can make sure to send it home with you!

Please join us for a day of fun! As always guests under 18 are free, but must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or older. All guests must be accompanied by a Member.

Buy your tickets online now!

Drunk Driving Prevention from Home Schooling Adventures

Jonathan Greene

Recently we received a message form Home Schooling Adventures, an after-school program for youth based in upstate New York, about their project focused on drunk driving prevention. The leaders encouraged their students to think about how they could help promote responsible consumption not just in their region but beyond.

One of the students, Kevin, found an article from a Minneapolis law firm with some common sense practices for preventing drunk driving. He also looked for sites that would be a great conduit for sharing that information. Needless to say they found us, and we are happy to participate!

We want to thank Home Schooling Adventures for educating young folks about the dangers of drunk driving and how to avoid it. It’s a lesson that is important for people of all ages. A special shout out to Kevin for making this happen. Progress and education happen when people put thoughts and plans into action. Keep it up Kevin and class!

Here is Kevin’s link:

http://www.dwiminneapolislawyer.com/strategies-reduce-prevent-drunk-driving/

August 2016 – Black Husky Brewing

Jonathan Greene

black huskyPlease join us for an evening with Tim and Toni Eichinger of Black Husky Brewing. They are going to be talking about their recent move to Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood. With their new tap room and brewery they are able to increase production and bring more of their delicious beer to our fair city.

The meeting kicks off at 7:30pm at Clifford’s Supper Club on Wednesday, August 24th.

Don’t forget to contact Josh if you plan on bringing a keg to share on the Jockey Boxes this month. We look forward to seeing you there!

Meeting Media – Denny Conn Presentation

Jonathan Greene

If you weren’t able to make it to our July meeting, you missed an excellent presentation by Denny Conn. Thanks again to Denny for taking the time to come visit us, talk to us about recipe formulation and take our questions. Another big thanks to Baron Jonathan Ettlie with Craft Meister for bringing Denny out to Milwaukee.

Here are the media files from the meeting for your enjoyment and education. Cheers!

July 2016 – General Meeting: Denny Conn!

Jonathan Greene

denny_conn

We cordially invite you to join us for our July 27th meeting with visiting homebrew legend Denny Conn. Denny will be giving a lecture about recipe formulation, taking questions, and hanging out with us for the evening.

If you aren’t familiar with Denny, he has been a huge influence in the homebrewing community. He has several recipes in circulation as Northern Brewer kits, has written a few books, he  blogs and podcasts about his homebrewing experiments, and popularized the batch sparge technique.

Denny is in town promoting his new book, and will be spending the evening with us at Clifford’s Supper Club in Hales Corners at 7:30 pm. We are waiving the guest fee for members of other homebrew clubs, so the door price is just $10, which includes all the homebrew you’d care to enjoy! 

Come hang out with a homebrewing legend, and bring your best brews to share! If you’d like to put something on the jockey box, please email Josh before the meeting to reserve a tap line. If your keg is not a ball-lock, please bring the appropriate adapter. See you soon!

Image from homebrewcon.org

June 2016 – General Meeting: Almanac Beer Company

Jonathan Greene

Alamanac_logo_2On June 22nd, we are delighted to have Almanac Beer Company, out of Northern California, as our guests for the evening. Almanac is a highly acclaimed brewery best known for it’s farm-to-barrel blends with roots in both homebrewing and Wisconsin.

Founders Jesse Friedman and Damian Fagan began homebrewing while living in San Francisco. Using local farmer’s markets as a launching pads for recipe and blending ideas, they approached beer from a culinary angle. Eventually they decided to ramp things up and go pro.

Jesse grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and is excited to have Almanac entering the Wisconsin markets via a new deal with local distributor Breakthru.

Join us for a unique and exciting opportunity to hear from Almanac’s National Sales Manager, Chris Matthiessen, directly and to try some of their creative beers! Chris has been with Almanac from the beginning, and is ready to answer any questions regarding ABC.

If you would like to bring a keg of homebrew to share, please email Josh for scheduling. Please note: if you are bringing a non-ball-lock keg, let us know so we can accommodate your keg.

Another great World of Beer Fest

Jonathan Greene

wobWe had a great time hosting the 2016 World of Beer festival yesterday.  The early rain kept us cool as we poured a host of great beers for our guests at the Schwabenof.

A big thank you to the volunteers and vendors who make this event possible. As always, the beer selection was top-notch, and I was very impressed with all the creative, delicious and well-made homebrew that was served out on the patio.

We hope you had a great time with us, and we are already looking forward to 2017.

Check out some panaromas of the event: https://goo.gl/photos/W7CdhP2Yn21zYtPGA