January 2017 – General Meeting: Gadget Night IV

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!

 

 

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

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)

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

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!

September 2016 – General Meeting: Brewing and Blending Sour Beer

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

August 2016 – Black Husky Brewing

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!

July 2016 – General Meeting: Denny Conn!

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

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

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

 

May 2016 – General Meeting: Like Minds Brewing

like_mindsJoin us on May 25th for our first commercial night of the year! We are proud to have John Lavelle, head brewer and co-owner of Like Minds Brewing Company, as our guest for the evening. John will talk about his unique collaboration with Justin Aprahamian (the James Beard award-winning chef, of Sanford‘s here in Milwaukee) and the formation of Like Minds.

As you may know, the duo originally tried to open their brewery here in Wisconsin, but were forced to open out of state. That decision was recently reversed, and they will be opening a restaurant and brewery in Milwaukee’s lower east side. Come out to learn more about John and Like Minds, and to celebrate their move back into Milwaukee!

Per usual, if you’d like to bring some home brew to share on the Jockey Boxes this month, be sure so send an email to Josh and let him know.