John Longballa
Save the date!
- The 2017 Cider buy and Learn to Brew at Barley John’s will take place November 4th. Timing is not firm yet but traditionally has started around 10am.
- Our annual holiday potluck and homebrew extravaganza with live music will take place December 10th from noon to 4pm at the CSPS Hall in Saint Paul.
Bring the family (and the homebrew!) to St. Francis Bowling Center in Saint Paul on Sunday, March 26th, from 12:30-3:00. This family-friendly club event is free for all members in good standing; the only cost to you (besides possibly your pride) is $2/person for shoes. Children and homebrew are welcome! A lane or two will have bumper buddies (gutter guards) for anyone who needs them. There’s no need to be there right at 12:30; please bring some snacks, stop by when you’re able, roll a few balls, and quaff a few homebrews.
This is one of the last of the German-Catholic basement bowling alleys that were quite prevalent in the second half of the previous century. We have the entire place and all six lanes to ourselves during our rented time. There will be door prizes, and a prize for the best homebrew. The St. Francis Bowling Center is located in the St. Francis school building at 426 S. Osceola Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55102, just one block north of the intersection of Randolph and West 7th.
Find more information about the location on their website.
See you there!
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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!
Read MoreBarrel Project 2017!
Depending on interest and finding a home for the barrel, the club will be purchasing a Kentucky bourbon barrel to be filled by members in good standing. The barrel will be arriving in about a month, so you will need to make an imperial stout in the very near future. Up to fifteen club members may participate, and each will provide 3-5 gallons of beer. There is a $50 gift card available to the person who is willing to host the barrel. If your beer tastes the least bit infected or off at the barrel-filling party, then your beer will not go in the barrel. Participants agree to share at least a small portion of the final results at club events. Please contact me at jlongballa “at” netzero.net if interested. The barrel is coming soon, so don’t delay!
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.)
Read MoreBig Brew Day — Saturday, May 7th: 8AM – 5PM
Come out to North Loop BrewCo’s (the brewery formerly known as LUCID) Minnetonka facility on May 7th and bring your brewing gear! 6020 Culligan Way, Minnetonka, MN 55345
(From North Loop’s Facebook invitation) Each year we invite homebrewers from all over to take over our parking lot, use our hot water, and share a few brews with us. If you’d like to participate in the big brew, please email or direct facebook message us to be sure we get an appropriate head count. We will accommodate as many brewers as we can fit.
We’ll be here starting at 8AM. We provide hot and cold water to get you going. You provide equipment and ingredients.
Want to brew? — contact us on this Facebook event page (North Loop BrewCo).
(John Longballa here)–Please let North Loop know if you plan to attend. A food truck is in the works for the event. We will participate in the national toast at noon CST.
Also–as part of the Iron Brewer meeting in September, the club will be awarding prizes to the two best beers that adhere to the recipes suggested by the American Homebrewers Association for the 2016 Big Brew. The beers need not be made at the event, but will be judged according to the recipes.
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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.
On Monday, January 25th, twenty folks gathered in the basement of St. Francis Church School, a block north of Shamrock’s in Saint Paul. A joke was made that the high score for the evening had to be the next club president, and soon folks were intentionally rolling gutter balls! Current president Brett Glenna even managed a gutter ball on a lane with Bumper Buddies (Gutter Guards), as his ball rode over the inflatable gutter-filler all the way down the lane! The homebrew was flowing, and a relaxed atmosphere pervaded the event, given that we were the only people allowed on the lanes that evening.
