Author: OVHA

Fellow Homebrewers,

Earlier this month about a dozen OVHA members came together at Tin Man Brewing Company for the annual AHA Big Brew.  Including the 10 gallons each of this year’s AHA-sanctioned recipes, around 70 gallons, or about two barrels, of beer was produced that day.  My hat is off to all of you who braved the early sprinkles.  Tin Man was a terrific host providing all the essentials – electric, water (including pre-heated brewing liquor), and curb-side wait service!  Thanks Nick, Sarah, and the TM gang!  Let’s hope we get invited back.  If you weren’t able to join your OVHA brethren, no problem.  Your next opportunity will be November 1, 2014.  Our friends at Liquor Locker will again play host.  So, please mark your calendar!

The May 28 OVHA meeting is just around the corner.  The highlight of the meeting will be this year’s second calibration tasting as Kenny Purcell’s American Wheat will square off against Carson Brewery’s Eville Wheat.  Your homework assignment is to study up on the BJCP style guidelines for category 6D.  The guidelines are available online and free apps are available for all of the common mobile devices.

A couple members have asked when the club’s bourbon barrel-aged beer will be ready for kegging.  In the next few days we will be preparing kegs for Zoo Brew and the National Homebrewers Conference.  After Zoo Brew we should have a solid consensus on whether it’s ready.  I’ll keep you posted.

Speaking of Zoo Brew, June 7th is fast approaching.  As usual, our call for volunteers was well-heeded and the Orange Army will be in full force.  I thank you for your help making this one of the premier beer festivals in southwest Indiana.  I’d like to give a special shout out to those who have donated beer for the event.  I recognize that this is really a contribution of your personal time and expense.  At last tally members had committed over 20 beverages for the event, so the taps should be flowing.  Just an FYI, as I write this, both general admission and VIP tickets are still available online at www.meskerparkzoo.com.

Yet again kudos go out to John Mills and Jason Carson.  Carson’s Pagan Pale was covered in the current issue of Draft Magazine and received a “Very Good” rating of 86 out of 100.  The evaluator’s comments were very favorable.

Finally, I’d like to wish good luck to Chris Norrick and Amelia and Cesar Gonzalez at next month’s final round of the National Homebrew Competition taking place during the National Homebrewers Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  How awesome would it be to see one of our own walking across the stage and picking up some hardware?  Regardless how they fair in the finals, I hope their good showing to date will inspire more of our members to participate in next year’s competition.

Just Brew It!

Jeff

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”  ― Ayn Rand

Fellow Homebrewers,

With March Madness behind us and Major League Baseball in full-swing, it’s time to get outside and become one with nature.   And what could be more natural than brewing beer while enjoying the company of other brewers.  We will be doing just that at Tin Man Brewing Company on Saturday, May 3, 2014, for the annual AHA Big Brew.   To date, about a dozen members have signed up to brew.  The event will be held in the paved parking lot on the east side of the building.  Water and electric will be available.  Also, you’ll be greeted with coffee and donuts.  The club will provide ingredients for two five gallon batches of each of this year’s AHA-sanctioned recipes to brewers who agree to donate half the beer for club events.  The two pale ale’s have been spoken for, but one or two of the others, an imperial stout and a schwarzbier, may still be available.  Check the OVHA forum to be sure.  Otherwise, bring your own ingredients or at least stop by and hang out.  Be sure to bring your current OVHA membership card and take advantage of Tin Man’s OVHA discount.  It promises to be a great day!

A couple weeks ago, John Mills, Michael Julian, Dutch and I met at Carson’s Brewery to rack 50 gallons of the 2014 OVHA Barrel Brew to its new home, a Four Roses barrel donated by Liquor Locker.  You may recall that last month 13 brewers divided 105 gallons of Foreign Extra Stout between two fermenters.  On barreling day we put approximately 25 gallons from each fermenter into the barrel.  The remainder was recently kegged.  We will have both versions on tap at Zoo Brew on June 7, 2014, although the barrel-aged may still be a bit young (although Dwayne thinks it’s perfect now.)  We will be putting out a call for volunteers to keg the barrel contents, so stay tuned.

Just a quick recap from last month’s OVHA meeting: 

• Sky donated 71 pounds of canned goods and $25 in cash to the Evansville Food Bank.  Thanks, Sky, for coordinating this worthwhile endeavor!  Just a reminder, we will be doing this again in June and each quarter, thereafter. 

• After last month’s Upland sour presentation and tasting, the club has 18 bottles remaining.  Our cost for each 750ml bottle was $25.  These will be made available to the membership either through outright sales or via raffle.  Either way, it will be an opportunity to get your hands on a unique product. 

Congratulations to John Mills and Jason Carson for taking home a silver medal in the 2014 World Beer Cup, a competition that takes place every other year.  Folks, this is a huge deal!  It’s always great to see one of our own succeed on a grand stage.

Congratulations also go out to Chris Norrick, the OVHA’s estimable secretary, and Amelia and Cesar Gonzalez. Both Chris and the Gonzalez’ advanced there entries to the final round of the National Homebrew Competition to be judged in Grand Rapids, Michigan, during the National Homebrewers Conference in June.  Alas, yours truly come away empty handed in the regional round, but I couldn’t be happier for the Chris, Amelia, and Cesar!

Finally, Zoo Brew is just six weeks away and, so far, we only have about a dozen beers committed.  This event is one of Evansville’s premier beer tasting festivals and it offers the greatest visibility to our club.  So, please consider donating a beer, either kegged or in bottles, to show support for the Zoo and the OVHA!  Thanks.

Just Brew It!

Jeff

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”  ― Ayn Rand

Fellow Homebrewers,

As I write this entry, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has commenced.  Well, in my opinion March Madness actually kicked off the preceding Saturday with the 2014 OVHA Barrel Brew Day.  In all, 13 of your fellow brewers gathered to produce 105 gallons of sweet wort.  After fermenting, about half will go into a Four Roses barrel graciously donated by Liquor Locker.   This version of foreign extra stout, a take on Glen Wrinkles Big Turkey winner, will make its debut at the Zoo Brew on June 7, 2014.  It will also be served up at this year’s National Homebrewers Conference the following week and at all our charitable events later in the year.  Thanks goes out to Jason Carson for hosting the event and to John Mills for all his assistance (John also whipped up a pretty tasty corned beef and cabbage.)  Being indoors with a ready supply of hot liquor water makes this an ideal venue for a club brew.  Oh yeah, they’ve got great beer on tap should you get parched from your labors!  Let’s hope this event becomes an annual tradition.  Thanks to all those who dunked your Twinkie!

Based on the feedback I’ve received, last month’s calibration tasting went quite well.  Thanks to Michael Julian for putting his brewing skills out there for all the club to judge.  I think the consensus was that his Vienna lager was a fine representation of the style and was just a damn fine beer.  If you’re interested in brewing a Vienna lager, you might find the following link helpful.

http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/2964-vienna-lager-tips-from-the-pros

Also, if you have any suggestions to improve the experience, please don’t hesitate to let me know.  The next calibration tasting will be in May when we put Professor Purcell’s American wheat under the microscope.

At post time, we will be less than a week away from what promises to be one of OVHA’s most memorable meetings ever.  On Wednesday, March 26, 2014, we will welcome Upland Brewing Company’s head brewer, Caleb Staton.  Caleb will discuss the brewery’s sour beer program and lead us through tastings of three of this year’s production.  Upland is recognized nationally and internationally for these sour ales, traditional Belgian beer style known as Lambics.  In fact, Upland’s sours are so sought-after they are sold by lottery.  This is such a unique opportunity that even if you’re “not into sours” you do not want to miss it.  So just pucker up!

Seems like you can’t throw a mash paddle without hitting an author among our OVHA brethren.  Dutch DeHaan has written an article for Farm Collector Magazine about the history of cider press manufacturing in the mid- to late-1800’s.  In the article Dutch also comments on the resurgence of the cider industry in the U.S. and quotes a couple of major news articles regarding the boom of cider production by Angry Orchard among others. Dutch also gives the OVHA an honorable mention.  Let’s hope that part doesn’t end up in the editor’s circular file!

Not to be outdone, HomeBrewTalk.com is publishing Michael Julian’s article entitled “Sour Mashing My Berliner Weisse”.  How sweet, or sour, is that!  It’s a very well-written article and has prompted several positive comments.  See for yourself!  http://www.homebrewtalk.com/Sour-Mashin … eisse.html

I’d also like to recognize Dutch and Maryann for their contribution of four books on homebrewing to the public library.  You represent the homebrewing community well!

Finally, I want to remind everyone about the quarterly canned food drive at this month’s meeting.  Bring a canned good to receive a door prize ticket.  Sky will deliver the donations to the local food bank.  Thanks in advance for your generosity!

Just Brew It!

Jeff

What a group!!

A long way from this meeting pic back in 2006!

Fellow Homebrewers,

As I’m writing this the temperature is 60 degrees! Hopefully the brutally cold days are behind us. So, forget the excuses and get brewing!  To kick off the spring brewing season we are having our third bourbon barrel club brew day.  We will be meeting at Carson’s Brewery on March 15 at around 8:00 am.  Don’t sweat it if you can’t make it until later in the day, but you may miss the ceremonial Twinkie dunk.  Since Carson’s is providing preheated mash water, your brew day should be relatively short.  Carson’s is graciously making two fermenters available, so we hope to fill them both up and have barrel-aged and regular versions.  Shout outs to Liquor Locker for providing the Four Roses barrel and to Carson’s for hosting and making their equipment available!

I don’t know about you, but I thought last month’s chocolate and beer pairing was fantastic. It was great to see such a large crowd with so many significant others in attendance. Thanks to Carrie Crowe for making this a truly special event!  Thanks also to Carson’s, Tin Man, and Turoni’s for providing the beer.

The countdown is on for the first calibration tasting of the year.  This quarter’s taste-off is between Michael Julian’s Vienna Lager and, I believe, Negra Modelo.  Really, it’s not an attempt to clone a particular beer, but rather to judge (that’s where you come in) whether Michael’s Vienna Lager meets the style guidelines and, of course, is tasty.  Michael will be wearing his big boy pants, so don’t pull any punches!

I hope everyone has been making regular visits to the OVHA web site. Michael Julian has been busy keeping it updated with all the latest announcements, news, pictures, etc.  Did you see the special event added to the March 26 meeting?  No spoiler alert here, go check it out yourself!  Also, if you’re interested in contributing content, please let Michael know.

Also, the 2013 SMaSH beer challenge was a rousing success.  Any interest in a 2014 challenge?  Let me or the other board members know.

Of course I can’t let an opportunity go by without mentioning the 2014 National Homebrewers Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan beginning June 12, 2014.  Registration for the ticket lottery is currently open and runs through February 26.  With nearly 4,000 seats available, your odds of getting a ticket are excellent.  So, don’t miss out!

Finally, this month is club picture month, so reschedule that honeymoon in Hawaii or whatever scheduling conflict you might have and I’ll see you on February 26 with your orange shirt on.

Just brew it!

Jeff

This just in… OVHA tasting glasses have been delivered and they look GREAT!! Thanks to Chris N. for all your work one the design and making this happen.

Starting at the February meeting each me member in good standing will be getting a glass. Additional glasses will be available for $3.00 each.