Recent Events
A huge thanks goes out to Tim Johnson and all of Badger Hill for hosting us earlier in July for our social event! It was fun checking out the latest creations on tap!
A huge thank you goes out to Jon Messier, Brian Priefer and everyone at Inbound for being such gracious hosts last Tuesday for our social event. Here’s a quick look back at the evening!
Thanks to everyone who showed up to Saturday’s Annual MHBA Homebrew Review. We had a great selection of homebrewed beverages to sample, a turkey, some great snacks and a fun behind-the-scenes tour!
This year’s home brew review was a fun filled event. There was an awesome selection of beer, mead and cider. Thanks to Dave Matson for shoving some science into the meeting with his triangle tasting experiment. Congratulations to Kevin Meintsma and Alan Grams for each winning $50 Northern Brewer gift cards for having the best beer and best mead/cider, respectively. Kevin’s wining entry was a stout with coffee, and Allan’s was an hibiscus mead.
Northern Brewer employee and past club President, Chris Smith took us on a behind the scenes tour of the warehouse as well. If you haven’t been before and have an opportunity in the future, I highly recommend it. No photos from the tour per Northern Brewer’s request. Sorry.
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If you weren’t there, you missed some amazing chili! This year we had some mighty tasty chili to choose from and some awesome homebrew to complement them.
Best Chili
2nd place : Paul & Vicki Illa with their White Steak Chili
1st place : Jeff Kalchik with his Smoked Brisket Texas Red
Chili Contest – Best Chili
Best Beverage
2nd place : Centennial IPA – Cory Monson
1st place : Surly Wort on Belgian yeast w/ Raspberry puree – Nick Tillemans
Chili Contest – Best Beverage
For those of you with good memories, you may recall a contest in early 2015 that was to provide the club with a new logo. The old logo has been wonderful, but the design is a bit busy for some applications, especially small ones, such as drinking glasses. During the contest window, the club received many great logo contest entries (thank you to those who entered!), and many of the entries would have worked well, but the board decided that none of the entries was just exactly right, and the logo re-design languished.
Fast-forward to January 2017. The club desperately needs a new logo so that members can order logo shirts to proudly wear to the national convention and to other events. Audrey and Dave Royer come to the rescue, spending many recent hours providing the board with countless revisions of logo ideas. As the crumpled papers filled the design-room floor, the logo got better and better, and what finally emerged was the new club logo, which we hope you will agree simplifies (yet holds true to the style of) the club’s original logo.
Congratulations to all those MHBA members who brought home medals from the recent Minnesota Mash-Out! Special accolades go to MHBA vice-president Matt Weide for winning Best of Show Mead, plus two other medals. Other members with award-winning beverages were Joel Ellingson, Al Boyce, Paul Dienhart, Dave Royer, Dave Matson (x2), Chris Smith (x4), Steve Piatz, Tim Cichon, and Sean Kampshoff (x3). Apologies to those member’s names we might have missed; it’s easier for us to spot your name on an awards list if you enter with the club name!
Check out the full list of winners on the Mashout website!
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Thanks to everyone who came out to the 2016 Holiday Party! We had a great collection of food, beverages, and friends to go around.
The award for Best Beverage went to Paul Dienhart for his Raspberry Mead.
The award for Best Food Dish went to Tim Burman for his Holiday Caramels.
A special thanks out to Michael Valentiner and his band, the Squirrels at the Bird Feeder who provided spectacular ambiance for the evening.
Thanks everyone for stopping by Barley John’s Brew Pub and joining us for Learn To Brew Day!
We had a fantastic group of experienced as well as new brewers join us. There was lots of brewing, sampling and sharing happening! 500 gallons of cider made its way to a ton of happy brewers. A big thanks goes out to Jason Dayton, Founder of Lionheart Cider who shared samples and gave a presentation on cider and their company!
A beautiful (if windy and waspy) Saturday afternoon allowed the club to congregate in the back parking area of Midwest Supplies on September 10th. The main point of the day was the club’s Iron Brewer Competition, which this year required the use of rye in the recipes. Congratulations to Kurt Smelser for taking home the judges’ trophy for the best rye beer–a roggenbier! Congratulations are also in order for Dave Matson, who took the people’s choice award for his rye IPA with honey. Thank you to Matt Weide for conceiving and executing this contest.
In what we hope will also become a traditional club contest, Jon Hunter won the award and prize for best beer made from this year’s AHA Big Brew recipes, with a delicious alt. Next May, brew one or both of the 2017 Big Brew recipes for a chance to win prizes and accolades. Many members went home with one-pound packages of Summit’s gifted Cascade hops.
We aren’t certain who enjoyed Pat and Hank McNeely’s mead demonstration and tasting more, the wasps or the humans, but all enjoyed it immensely! The duo brought myriad honeys, as well as mead made from each honey, and the samples included Tallow Tree, Brazilian Peppertree, Red Mangrove, Youpan Holly, Guajillo, Star Thistle, Tupelo, and Blackberry. There was even a peanut butter mead. It was a “sweet” thing that the McNeelys did, and the club offers them much appreciation.
(Left: Matt Weide presenting the Iron Brewer trophy to Kurt Smelser. Right: People’s Choice winner Dave Matson with Kurt Smelser.)
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Sunday, February 28 saw the annual election/business meeting for the club merge with the 13th annual chili cook-off. Bob Norman’s El Diablo chili won a $30 Penzey’s gift card in the Red Chili with Beans category, while the open category featured an old favorite as its winner, Gera Exire LaTour’s famous Chili Verde. Gera went home with a gift card, and took Chief Chili Pepper with her for the fifth time in the past eight cook-offs, as the Chili Verde was the overall chili champ. For those who don’t know, Chief Chili Pepper is the traveling trophy for the cook-off.
In other, non-food voting, Brett Glenna stepped aside from the president’s post, and we send a hearty “thank you” to Brett for his excellent years of service to the club. John Longballa, who had been vice-president, was elected president, a position he held back in 2005-2006. Matt Wiede, whose board member at-large term was expiring, was elected vice-president. Gera Exire LaTour, who gave a detailed account of the club’s finances, was re-elected treasurer, while Dave Royer, who detailed the current state of memberships, was re-elected secretary. Chris Smith was re-elected to his board member at-large position, and Dave Matson was elected to fill the post vacated by Matt Weide. Paul Illa’s and Dan Dugan’s board member at-large positions were not up for election.
The meeting was graced by the presence of Wayne and Noah Marklowitz from RF Doering Hop Farm. They provided a presentation on the state of their newer farm and hop processing business, and fielded many questions from members.
The next meeting is the annual Homebrew Fest, Saturday, April 2nd at Northern Brewer Warehouse.
