Category: Meeting Notes

Fellow Homebrewers and Beer Lovers:

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful Fall weather as much as I am. To me, there is maybe nothing better than brewing a batch outside, surrounded by the changing leaves, and the cool dry air this time of year!

It’s been a busy month for our club since the last meeting! We participated in both SWIRCA Brewfest and Wandering Owl since then, and although I wasn’t able to attend either, I understand they were both a success with the exception of some minor equipment malfunction. Thanks to all who contributed to these events to make them a success.

In other news, it was recently announced that Evansville Brewhouse (Haynies Corner) has/is undergoing some needed changes. In case you didn’t see it on the forum, Jeff Smith is getting back involved to some extent (at least for now), and has recently invited us to place orders for their upcoming grain order. So if you need anything, you will want to post it on the thread ASAP. Rumor has it that one of our (other) former presidents is getting his hands dirty at the Brewhouse as well. I will let him share that news when the time is right.

We received news yesterday that the chef who we had scheduled to offer food pairings at tomorrows meeting is not well, so he will not be able to provide this for us. However, it is my understanding that John Mills (Maidens) will still be sampling out beers for us!

We are now 1 month away from the Big Turkey entry deadline! This years categories/styles are as follows:

• 16: Dark British Beer
• 16A: Sweet Stout
• 16B: Oatmeal Stout
• 16C: Tropical Stout
• 16D: Foreign Extra Stout
• 27: Historical Beers
• 27A: Gose
• 27B: Kentucky Commom
• 27C: Lichtenhainer
• 27D: London Brown Ale
• 27E: Piwo Grodziskie
• 27F: Pre-Prohibition Lager
• 27G: Pre-Prohibition Porter
• 27H: Roggenbier

Remember, these entries are due at the November meeting! We only require 2 bottles per entry, with NO fees. What do you have to lose?? Nothing. What do you have to gain? Feedback on your recipes/brewing, and a chance to be the 2019 Big Turkey Winner!

I won’t be able to make the meeting tomorrow night, so VP Jordan Fehr will be covering for me. I look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Cheers!

John

Brewers,

An important reminder that I left out of the September Presidents Message: Wandering Owl! Located in beautiful Wesselman Woods, Saturday Oct. 19th from 4-8 pm.

” Spend a beautiful fall evening at Wesselman Woods tasting beer, wine and food from area breweries, wineries, distributors’ and restaurants. Live entertainment throughout the event. Guests must be 21 and present ID at the gate. This year the event will be inside the Nature Playscape, on Saturday, October 19th, from 4 – 8 pm. Who doesn’t like drinking in the woods?

Only OVHA members who donate beer AND either setup/tear down OR serve a 1 hour shift will get in for free. As this event is quite small, our booth is limited to 10 total people, so sign up today! Load up will be at 2:00 pm at Turonis on Main St. for Jockey Boxes and other equipment.”

Volunteer Here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ … p=drivesdk

Or please reply on the Wandering Owl Topic in the OVHA forum with what beer you can donate (specify keg/bottle), and which shift you want to serve, and if you can setup and/or tear down.

You will be free to wander for the remaining hours of the event. Cheers!

Please contact Josh Wuertz with any questions.

Cheers!

Fellow Homebrewers and Beer Lovers:

Fall is finally here (for now), and with the cooler weather comes the thirst for more full/malty beers that fit the season. Brown and Amber ales start sounding really good to me around this time of year. And let’s not forget the German classic, Oktoberfest!

I would like to offer a belated congratulations to Kenny Lucas, who took home a 1st place, a 2nd place, and 2nd place OVERALL at Strassenfest!! I was not aware before last months meeting, so if you see him please join me in congratulating him in his awesome accomplishment!

Thanks to Cesar & Amelia Gonzalez, and Ben Ford for representing our club at Bonifest once again this year! From the pictures I saw, it looked like a great time.

For those who look forward to the public events, it has been a long summer without much action, but the time is finally here for our biggest event of the year, SWIRCA Brewfest!! It is this Saturday, and we are lower than average on volunteers and beer donations, so if you are able to support the club with either it would be greatly appreciated! There is a sign-up sheet posted on the forum. With that being said, we have been instructed to send a copy of everyone’s ATC serving permit in advance to SWIRCA in order for each person to be admitted. If you haven’t done so yet, please try and bring a copy to the meeting this Wednesday. If this is not provided, there’s no guarantee that you will be admitted without a ticket. Please contact Jeremy Dunn or Jordan Fehr with any questions.

At the August meeting, I announced the tentative October event, One Wort Many Beers, to be graciously hosted by Maidens. For proper planning purposes, we have decided to postpone this event until springtime next year. More details to come later.

The Big Turkey entry deadline is only 2 months away now! So if you plan to enter, crunch time for brewing is upon us. This years categories/styles are as follows:

• 16: Dark British Beer
• 16A: Sweet Stout
• 16B: Oatmeal Stout
• 16C: Tropical Stout
• 16D: Foreign Extra Stout
• 27: Historical Beers
• 27A: Gose
• 27B: Kentucky Commom
• 27C: Lichtenhainer
• 27D: London Brown Ale
• 27E: Piwo Grodziskie
• 27F: Pre-Prohibition Lager
• 27G: Pre-Prohibition Porter
• 27H: Roggenbier

Remember, these entries are due at the November meeting! We only require 2 bottles per entry, with NO fees. What do you have to lose?? Nothing. What do you have to gain? Feedback on your recipes/brewing, and a chance to be the 2019 Big Turkey Winner!

I hope to see you all at Germania (tomorrow/today)!

Cheers!

John

Fellow Homebrewers and Beer Lovers:

Thanks to all who made it to Maiden’s for the July meeting. We had a great turnout (for a remote meeting), and I thought it was very enjoyable. And a big THANK YOU to Maiden’s for hosting us!

This has been the least eventful summer for our club since I have been around.. Due to Swirca Fest being moved way out, we have a gap from Zoo Brew (early June) until Swirca in late September- With the exception of Bonifest, which is quite a small event that only requires a few club volunteers. With that being said, this is your “wake-up call” to get those Swirca beers in the fermenter ASAP! We are just 4 weeks away now! If you haven’t signed up yet, Jeremy Dunn has the sign up link posted on the OVHA forum, so be sure to get your name on there. If you sign(ed) up to serve, make sure you have a valid servers license at the time of the event. I believe Jeremy has posted that link on the same posting as the sign ups. This is our biggest event of the year (and also my personal favorite), so we can use all the beer donations and volunteers we can get!

The Big Turkey entry deadline is only 3 months away now, so if you plan to enter we are approaching crunch time for brewing some of the styles eligible for this year’s competition. This years categories/styles are as follows:

• 16: Dark British Beer
• 16A: Sweet Stout
• 16B: Oatmeal Stout
• 16C: Tropical Stout
• 16D: Foreign Extra Stout
• 27: Historical Beers
• 27A: Gose
• 27B: Kentucky Commom
• 27C: Lichtenhainer
• 27D: London Brown Ale
• 27E: Piwo Grodziskie
• 27F: Pre-Prohibition Lager
• 27G: Pre-Prohibition Porter
• 27H: Roggenbier

Remember, these entries are due at the November meeting! We only require 2 bottles per entry, with NO fees. What do you have to lose?? Nothing. What do you have to gain? Feedback on your recipes/brewing, and a chance to be the 2019 Big Turkey Winner!

We are back at our Germania tomorrow. I hope to see you all there!

Cheers!

John

Fellow Homebrewers and Beer Lovers:

I would like to start right off with a reminder: July’s meeting will be held at MAIDENS!

I hope everyone is having a great summer, and staying hydrated! Remember, if your drinking out in the heat be sure to squeeze a glass of water in here and there 🙂

Since our last meeting, we had several members attend the Indiana Brewer’s Cup: and witness the bittersweet, and admittedly surprising reception of the Bill Friday Award!! This is awarded to the club with the highest average score per entry. To be eligible, the club must have at least 15 beers entered by no less than 5 brewers… Needless to say, I am SO proud of this accomplishment! Congrats to each of you who entered one or more beers to make this possible!! On the same token, we had 5 total ribbons awarded to OVHA members!
Jordan Fehr- 1st place- (American IPA’s) Brut IPA,
Jeremy Dunn- 1st place – (Belgian Ales) Witbier
Jeremy Dunn- 3rd place- (Belgian Ales) Saison
Jeremy Dunn- 2nd place- (Bel. Strong Ales) Bel. Dark Strong
John Mullins- 3rd place- (Pale Lagers) Munich Helles

Our next club event will be SWIRCA Brewfest, on 9/28. So if you would like to donate a keg or 3 you still have plenty of time to brew for it.

As a continual reminder, the 2019 Big Turkey categories are:

Cat. 16 Dark British Beer

Cat. 27 Historical Beer

Remember, these entries are due at the November meeting! We only require 2 bottles per entry, with NO fees. What do you have to lose?? Nothing. What do you have to gain? Feedback on your recipes/brewing, and a chance to be the 2019 Big Turkey Winner!

I look forward to seeing everyone at Maidens tomorrow night!

Cheers,
John

Fellow Homebrewers and Beer Lovers:

Summer is in full swing, and with warm weather comes a thirst for more sessionable beers. There are lots of great lighter styles that allow a quick turnaround time, such as cream ales, German and American Wheat ales, Pale Ales, etc. But, if your all stocked up but want to brew something to enjoy during fall or winter, now is a great time to brew those malty German lagers, Barleywines, or a big Imperial Stout to let it age for several months. Perhaps a strong Christmas beer that you can share with your friends and family during the holidays.

Since our last meeting, the club participated in Zoo Brew once again. It was a great success once again (for the OVHA anyway..). I believe we had 27 beers on tap, and 3 NA beverages!! Thanks to everyone who contributed to this success.

Our next event will be the Indiana Brewer’s Cup at the State Fairgrounds in Indy. If you haven’t signed up to steward yet and are interested, I know they are still looking for more (see link on forum). This is a great opportunity to learn about judging beer, and gain an understanding of beer competition. They also feed you well while you’re there, and it’s quite literally beer heaven! The OVHA will once again participate in the banquet on Saturday evening, and we will be serving our hand crafted beers to everyone in attendance, just like we do at the local events. If you have a keg you would like to donate, there is a thread on the forum for that.

At this month’s meeting, Sky Buttrum is going to give you the opportunity to judge some beers! One of the big perks to becoming a beer judge, is how much it enhances your own brewing knowledge and skills. Being able to detect issues with beer, and in many cases knowing what the likely cause was, is invaluable to a brewer.

Unfortunately, I am unable to attend this month’s meeting, however you will be in great hands with the VP Jordan Fehr running the meeting.

As a continual reminder, the 2019 Big Turkey categories are:

Cat. 16 Dark British Beer

Cat. 27 Historical Beer

Remember, these entries are due at the November meeting! We only require 2 bottles per entry, with NO fees. What do you have to lose?? Nothing. What do you have to gain? Feedback on your recipes/brewing, and a chance to be the 2019 Big Turkey Winner!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe meeting! I will plan to see you all at MAIDENS for the July meeting!

Cheers,

John

Fellow Homebrewers and Beer Lovers:

I hope everyone had a great and safe Memorial Day weekend, and was able to share some of your finest work with friends and family!

Since our last meeting, we hosted the annual Big Brew Day on May 4th! I forgot to take a brew count, but I would estimate we had around 10 batches brewed that day (despite the ruthless pouring rain we battled). Thanks to all of you that came out, especially to those who braved the cold rain.

Following Big Brew Day was Maifest on May 11th. Unfortunately due to the weather, and to my understanding numerous other big ticket events, this was very low attended. Thanks to Dan Mills and Jordan Fehr for representing the club, regardless!

Due to several factors, we are running about 2 months behind the original meeting topic schedule for the year. Without further ado, it is time to cover the 1st out of 2 Big Turkey style profile sessions. For the sake of aging time, I will first cover the styles in which require the most time to mature. I don’t intend to go into great depth on each style, but merely provide a high level view of what each style is made up of, in hopes to inspire a larger entry pool. At this month’s meeting, I will cover the following Big Turkey Styles:

Tropical Stout, Foreign Extra Stout, Pre-Prohibition Lager, and Sahti.

As a continual reminder, the 2019 Big Turkey categories are:

Cat. 16 Dark British Beer

Cat. 27 Historical Beer

If you don’t have the BJCP app, I urge you download it. For you old fashioned folks that don’t have a smart phone, you can google BJCP guidelines and find the style descriptions.

Last but certainly not least, THIS WEEKEND IS ZOO BREW!! If you are able to donate beer, help set up, tear down or serve, be sure to sign up on the forum! Contact Jordan Fehr with any questions.

As always, I look forward to seeing you at Wednesday’s meeting!

Cheers!

John

Fellow Homebrewers and Beer Lovers,

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday, and enjoyed that gorgeous weather as much as I did!

Due to lack of attendance at the March meeting, we decided to hold off on the club picture. With that being said, we will try again at tomorrow’s meeting. So please plan to wear an OVHA shirt!

Since the last meeting, we brewed up the annual club barrel beer at Evansville Brewhouse, and all went well! We brewed up the famous Don Heisler Old Ale recipe, and it will go into a Maker’s Mark Cask Strength Barrel for approximately one year.

Our next club event will be Big Brew Day, hosted by Superior Ag Co-op on Saturday, May 4th starting at 8 am. This day is also known as the celebration of National Homebrew Day!

“In 1988, May 7 was announced before Congress as National Homebrew Day. The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) created Big Brew as an annual event to celebrate National Homebrew Day around the world. Big Brew is held each year on the first Saturday in May.

Anyone can host a Big Brew event, so invite your friends and family, gather around the brew kettle and join in the global celebration of the greatest hobby there is—homebrewing!

Don’t miss the simultaneous toast at 1:00 p.m. ET, 12:00 p.m. CT on May 4, 2019!”

The following Saturday (May 11th), the Germanian Mannechor is hosting the first annual Maifest. Dan Mills is heading this up, and is looking for several volunteers, as well as some beer donations. Please check the message board for signups.

As a continual reminder, the 2019 Big Turkey categories are:

Cat. 16 Dark British Beer

Cat. 27 Historical Beer

If you don’t have the BJCP app. I urge you download it. For you old fashioned folks that don’t have a smart phone, you can google BJCP guidelines and find the style descriptions.

I was able to work with Maiden’s to nail down a date for the release of the Big Turkey German Exportbier I got to help them brew. If you are able to make it out, we will be having the release party on Monday, April 29th.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting tomorrow! Wear that club shirt, and don’t forget a canned good for an extra door prize!

Cheers!

John

Fellow Homebrewers and Beer Lovers,

March is just a few days away, and that once highly predictable season they call Spring is nipping at our heels! If your brewing patterns follow the seasons, now is the time to start brewing those Spring Saisons, Fresh IPA’s, Kölsch’s , and German Pilsners. Or if your a festive brewer (like I try to be), you may still have time to squeeze in an Irish brew for St. Patti’s Day! One that you still have plenty of time for, and one of my personal favorites, Märzens (March Bier)! Traditionally brewed in March and lagered until ready to be served at Oktoberfest. So if you watched October pass by wishing you had brewed one, here is your courtesy reminder. Your welcome.

For those of you who made it to the January meeting (at Maidens) thank you! As if the cold wasn’t enough of a deterrent, Germania decided it was just too cold for them to open for us. If you were one of those who weathered the cold, I am offering everyone free beer at tomorrow night’s meeting! A big thanks to John Mills and Maidens for hosting us on such short notice. We will be back at Germania for the February meeting on Wednesday.

For those who may have not heard or saw, we elected our Big Turkey styles at the January meeting, despite our relatively low sample size. To my surprise, Cat. 27 Historical Beers was a landslide, followed by Cat. 16 Dark British Beers. In the coming months, we will be covering these styles in place of a tech topic, to help familiarize everyone with them. If you don’t currently have the BJCP app downloaded, I urge you to take a minute and download it. It is a wealth of information, yet very easy to use. I can’t imagine designing recipes without it.

Our first club event will be the club barrel project, still slated for April. We don’t have a date finalized, as we have a few final details to iron out. However, we do have a nice barrel secured. Josh Wuertz was able to score a Makers Mark barrel for us! More on that later.

This month’s meeting on Wednesday will be light on agenda, as my presence was uncertain due to my recent ear surgery. However, with the low attendance in January, we have some catching up to do at the sampling table! I will briefly recap the agenda from the January meeting, and go thru the traditional motions- then we can head to the table.

Don’t forget your can good for an extra door prize ticket! I hope to see you all on Wednesday!

Cheers!

John

 

 

Fellow Homebrewers and Beer Lovers,

2019 has arrived, and things are looking great for the OVHA! I would like to thank Josh Wuertz, our 2018 president, for leading us through an exciting year of homebrewing! 

I couldn’t be more excited to step into the role of president, during such a diverse era in beer and brewing. I began homebrewing in 2012, immediately after attending Chris Norrick’s inaugural homebrewing class at USI. Thanks to my brother for encouraging me to join him for it! Homebrewing sparked a fire inside of me that I had never known before. As I know many others have as well, I found myself daydreaming about my next recipe idea. Everywhere I went, I would see an item and think “how could I use that in homebrewing?” It is the greatest hobby in the world, because you brew to drink beer- and you drink beer to brew more!

In addition to my passion for brewing, I cannot put into words how dear this club and all of it’s members are to me. I have made many of great friends over the years, and how could a brewer not?? We all love the same thing! With that being said, I would like to extend the same generosity that has been offered to me so many times by past presidents, and familiar members alike: If you find yourself in a pinch needing an ounce of hops on a Sunday, or a few pounds of grain, etc.- please feel free to call me! It would be an honor to pay it forward. 

Ok, enough of the sappy stuff.. Our 2019 board is truly an All-Star lineup, including FOUR past presidents! Yet another reason I’m ecstatic for the year ahead. We met right away in the new year to map out a great year for our club. Our initial meeting was very productive, and led to a few exciting announcements for the club. 

#1: The total amount of half-pot money at each meeting will be split, and half of that will be awarded to the winner of the drawing (as usual). Any excess after paying our rent with the other half will be used to purchase new door prizes! (Remainder was previously put back into the club account.)

#2: Any OVHA entry in the 2019 Brewer’s Cup that places (1st-3rd), the club will reimburse that brewer for the entry fee. 

#2 is an effort to support my vision for 2019: ENTER  HOMEBREW COMPETIONS!! Let’s make a run for Club of the Year at Brewer’s Cup! Equally important, and even easier: ENTER Big Turkey!! It’s free, and it only requires 2 bottles of your homebrew. I will speak more on this topic at the January meeting. The board nominated 6 BJCP categories for Big Turkey, which the club as a whole will vote on 2 for the final selections. Those 6 are:

#6   Amber Malty European Lager

#10 German Wheat Beer

#16 Dark British Beer

#21 IPA

#24 Belgian Ale

#27 Historical Beer

Our first event of 2019 will be the annual club Barrel Brew. This is slated for sometime in April, and Aaron Royer and I will be heading this up, and Josh Wuertz will be acquiring a used barrel for us.  Style/Barrel TBA announced soon. 

In place of the usual Tech Topic for January, I will vocalize the vision for the club in 2019, in addition to voting on the Big Turkey Categories. I look forward to seeing you all there!

Cheers!

John