Nicholas Aschbrenner
Maybe it’s just me, but amid the cold this morning I could almost hear bleets of March leaving like a lamb. Pretty soon we will be standing in mud pruning back our plants to help them grow. It’s a good reminder that rejuvenation is the natural order of spring. With that in mind, it’s time to plant the club leaders who will help the club grow and flourish through the next season.
Brewing is more fun together. I learn so much and get properly inspired whenever we get together. This is your club and elections are your chance to steer it in azimuths you want.
Club elections will be a little different this year and will be asynchronous to allow everyone to have their say. As a first step, we need nominations for each position. Here are descriptions of what each role entails:
Please click on this form and submit nominations for Club President, Club Vice President, Club Treasurer, Club Secretary, and two At-Large Board Members. All are welcome. Here’s a description of the roles we need filled:
- Club President: Responsible for the overall direction and activities of the club
- Club Vice President: Also responsible for the overall direction and activities of the club
- Club Treasurer: Responsible for keeping track of club finances, sending out membership cards, and getting members reimbursed for club expenses they incur
- Club Secretary: Responsible for club communications via the website, email, and social media.
- At-Large Board Members (two): Responsible for programming managing an aspect of the club and Being in the Room Where It Happens. This position has a two year term.
Nominations will close at 5 pm on Monday, March 20.
Read MoreDetails for the 2022 MHBA Cider Buy
Where: Minneapolis Cider Company
When: Saturday, November 5, 2022 starting at 10 am
What: Purchase cider for $25/five gallons and stick around for a fun bottle share!
You must bring your own plastic containers. For your safety and ours, we will not fill glass carboys/jugs under any circumstances. We hope to have the cider pickup portion of the event complete by noon. And don’t forget to support our wonderful new hosts for this event by buying their cider and merch!
Link to purchase for MHBA members
Link to purchase for NBA members (password available from NBA leadership)
Details for the Inaugural Full Core Press Cider Competition
The MHBA is proud to announce the first Full Core Press Cider Competition. Getting expert and neutral feedback on your ciders and cysers is key to improving as a cider/mead maker. Here are key details:
- 100% of the cider you use MUST come from an MHBA club cider buy regardless of year or what club you belong to.
- Full Core Press encourages entries in three categories: Standard Ciders (C1), Cysers (M2A), and Specialty Ciders (C2, including grafs)/Fruit and Spice Mead (M3A)/Experimental Mead (M4C)
- Awards will be in-person at the 2022 MHBA club cider buy
- All entrants will receive two completed BJCP cider or mead scoresheets via email providing an evaluation of the aroma, appearance, flavor, and mouthfeel of your entries.
- Bring your ciders and cysers to the 2022 club cider buy for a fun bottle share!
- Two 12 oz (or larger) bottles will be required for judging.
- There will be two bottle drop-off locations: one in Saint Paul and one in Saint Louis Park. The addresses of the drop off locations will be provided upon registering. Entries are due October 22.
- There is no cost for this competition!
If you think you may be able to help judge, please register as a judge here! All judges will receive BJCP judging credit. The time/location of judging will be announced soon.
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In With the New: Club Elections x BlackStack
When: Friday, April 1 (not a joke) at 8:30 pm
Zoom information: meeting ID 882 5897 2798, password 488450
The MHBA is holding club elections Friday April 1 before our (Almost) Final Friday Social with the ur-murk merchants BlackStack. We will be voting on the following positions:
- president (currently Nick Aschbrenner)
- Vice-President (currently Josh Mahoney)
- Treasurer (currently Jon Hunter)
- Secretary (currently Matt Johnson)
- Member At-Large (currently Adam Bystrom)
- Member At-Large (currently Nathan Steigman)
Please help row our little Viking ship. The Minnesota Home Brewers Association needs you to help propel homebrewing in Minnesota into the future. Your voice matters.
What do these positions do? Well, the effort is directed along several focus areas:
- Social (led by Matt Johnson): responsible for planning monthly FFS, the holiday party, and other social activities like brewery tours
- Beer and brewing: responsible for Big Brew Day, Spring Homebrew Review, and Beer Dabbler Homebrew Contests
- Education (led by Nick): responsible for BJCP prep class
- Not Beer: responsible for the Club Cider Buy
Thank you to everyone who served on the Board! If you’re not in the room where it happens, here is a very brief highlight reel:
- Josh kept the club running and moving forward when I had to be out of the state for two months last year
- Jon not only stays on top of club finances, but he has nothing but good ideas. For example, we brought back the Beer Dabbler Homebrew Contests as a way to reach craft beer fans who want to take their hobby to the next level by making craft beer at home
- Matt, as the social organizer, is the reason why fun stuff has happened last year, from arranging the holiday party to getting some awesome social events lined up!
- Adam did a great job running our Spring Homebrew Review last year
- Nathan Steigman raises the profile of the MHBA with his competition dominance, is full of wisdom, and has made me a better person. And he made an awesome video for the club
- Dave Matson organized the cider buy last year and it was the best one yet
- Dave Royer is the technical wizard behind the MHBA that keeps up connected
After we get our leadership team voted in, we will be having an exciting Final Friday Social with BlackStack! If you’re able, pick up some of your favorite BlackStack beer to enjoy on the Zoom.
Big Brew Day and Wort Share with The Lab
When: Saturday, May 7 from 9 am to 9 pm
Where: The Lab (767 N Eustis St Suite 115, St Paul, MN 55114)
The Minnesota Home Brewers Association is celebrating Big Brew Day on May 7 at The Lab in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
If you are an MHBA dues-paying member, you can buy five or 10 gallons of wort here. (Not a member yet, sign up now!) The wort type will be announced soon. Non-glass containers must be dropped off between 1 and 3 pm, and must be picked up between 4 and 5 pm. Glass containers will absolutely NOT be filled for your safety and ours. No exceptions.
If you want to brew with us:
- Please sign up here so we know how many to expect
- Bring your brewing system and make beer with us (LOTS of room!)
- Doesn’t matter if you’re all grain or extract – ALL are welcome!
- Beer may be purchased from The Lab
- Food truck will be onsite, or bring your own food
- Plenty of shelter is available in case of inclement weather for brewers and attendees
- RO water and Saint Paul water is provided
- Electricity is available (no 220)
- Grain disposal is available
- Homebrew sharing is permissible
Brave Noise Collaboration
The MHBA signed onto the Brave Noise Collaboration. What this means is we have a code of conduct and pledge to treat other people with respect.
It also means we get to brew beer and make a difference!
- Brew the all-grain or extract recipe (en español)
- The MHBA will donate a Tubman ($20) for every dues-paying member who brews Brave Noise in 2022 to the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild Diversity in Brewing Scholarship to attend the Dakota County Technical College Brewing and Beer Steward certificate program
- You can make your own donations to their scholarship fund here
- Pledge to treat everyone with respect and let us know you brewed it here
Test Anxiety
Al Boyce is hosting a BJCP mead tasting exam on September 8 just prior to Valyrie’s Horn Mead Competition. It costs $40 if you’re new to the BJCP and $25 if you’ve already taken a BJCP tasting exam. You also have to get a passing score on the BJCP mead entrance exam. Only 12 seats are available so sign up ASAP!
Nick is hosting a BJCP written exam on October 15. To take it, you must have a BJCP beer tasting exam score at or above 80 and at least 10 judging points.
Let us know if you’re interested in taking either exam!
MHBA Flight Log
- Al Boyce was recently promoted to Grand Master IX judge by the BJCP (third highest-ranked BJCP judge in the world after Gordon Strong and Steve Piatz)
Hearing Voices
The following is a curated list of what we’re reading, listening to, and thinking about in the world of beer, mead, and cider this week:
- Alessandra Agrestini talks Italian Grape Ale
- False Bottomed Girls make us smart about beer color
- More craft brewers are eschewing extrema in favor of low-alcohol beers
It’s the first day of spring as I write this and a perfect day for brewing. Only the kids haven’t adjusted to our collective spring forward yet, and to be honest neither have I. There’s comfort in keeping things as they are, but we always keep moving forward into uncertainty. Instead of brewing the brown ale I wanted, I bench trialed some ideas for a mead I have in repose. Things didn’t work like I imagined, so I’ll keep thinking and working at it until I get it right. I went all-in and made five gallons because I trusted my process and technique, even if I still don’t know how it’s going to turn out in the end. And so it it is in early spring, not yet verdant.
March Final Friday
Join the Minnesota Home Brewers Association on Zoom this Friday, March 26 at 8:30 pm to have an Utepils Springbok (Helles Bock aka Maibock) tasting with Brewmaster Eric Harper!
Before the meeting, buy your Springbok in cans at fine liquor stores near you.
Zoom meeting id: 921 1846 2685
Passcode: 918183
2021 Iron Brewer Recap
Congratulations to Soren Jensen, Dave Matson, and Jon Hunter for brewing the best saisons at the 2021 Iron Brewer. Forgotten Star Brewing Company will brew Soren’s recipe, which I for one would love to have. And thank you to Forgotten Star for hosting this event in their YOOOGE (and dare I say beautiful) taproom and judging our club’s saisons!
Club Elections Night with Arbeiter Brewing Recap
Thank you to Aaron Herman from Arbeiter Brewing Company for joining us and providing us a guided tasting of their Haha Pils, Citiva Sucker Punch, and Vanilla Mocha Stout. Club members were super impressed with their beer, especially for being the new kids on the block.
Annual MHBA elections were held, and the leadership team of YOUR club for the following year is:
- President: Nick Aschbrenner
- Vice President: Josh Mahoney
- Treasurer: Jon Hunter
- Secretary: Matt Johnson
- Member At-Large: Al Boyce
- Member At-Large: Adam Bystrom
- Member At-Large: Kurt Lawton
- Member At-Large: Nathan Steigman
- President Emeritus: Dave Matson
You can get to know your MHBA board here (PDF).
Hearing Voices
The following is a curated list of what we’re reading, listening to, and thinking about in the world of beer, mead, and cider this week:
- Chop and Brew talks with Aaron Herman (Arbeiter Brewing Company) and Nick Walby (Fair State Brewing Cooperative) about dip hopping
- Good Beer Hunting Sightlines discusses how Untappd has turned everyone into a beer judge
- Got Mead? Live interviews Clint Walker (Walker Honey Farm) and Chase Cohagan (Dancing Bee Winery)
- Martyn Cornell lets us know that English porter definitely isn’t Dutch contrary to what you may have read on the internets
As we left the house this morning, my son turned to me and asked if it was spring. With an amiable clemency in the air, it really did feel like dripping icicles and winter’s gloom were relenting to a new season even if just for a day. As I lifted the little ones into their car seats, my mind went forward and backward. Nothing can be definitively acquired; everything must be done all over again every day. Spring coming means that I need to put away the last efforts of 2020 and bottle those ciders and cysers that I’ve been putting off. Spring means doing everything all over again, but hopefully better. Last week I brewed up a Golden Promise SMASH with hops from the South Fork Hop Harvest event last year and the green tea aroma of the hops sent me back to last summer when my daughter and I spent an afternoon picking hops right off the bine. I could almost feel the lupulin perfuming my fingers again. Soon enough.
MHBA Final Friday is this week!
February 26 at 8:30 pm
All welcome
Members in good standing as of noon on February 26 who attend will be eligible to win one of two $50 gift cards to Eastlake Craft Brewery. Not a member? Sign up today!
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 970 2757 1797
MHBA Honor Roll
Congratulations Josh Mahoney, Kevin Meintsma, and Matthew Weide for their third place medals at Midwinter Homebrew Competition!
Hearing Voices
- Minneapolis’ Paige Latham Didora wrote a fascinating article for Good Beer Hunting entitled “What’s Fair in Beer and Litigation?“
- John Holl and Vinnie Cilurzo discuss the ultimate beer whale Pliny the Younger as an experience in the latest Beer Edge podcast
- Stan Hieronymus pontificates about the post-craft beer era in Appellation Beer
- Brad Smith and Mathias Siebler remind us that hops, even in a hop powerhouse like Germany, are fundamentally an agricultural product in the Beersmith podcast
Final Friday – February
On Friday, February 26th, Ryan Pitman Head brewer/Owner of Eastlake Craft Brewery will be joining MHBA members for our Final Friday Social, complete with beer tasting, virtual brewery tour and fun! The featured beer that was just released and will be a direct brewery purchase option for members in advance of this event is “Beneath The Wolf Moon” – IPA – Imperial / Double New England ABV: 6.8% – Juicy IPA featuring a flavorful trifecta of hops. Pacific Jade for peachy citrus and black pepper notes, Amarillo with more of a zesty citrus, and the tropical Azacca Hops.
Advance Ordering with a Special Price for MHBA: Ordering of “Beneath The Wolf Moon” can be made online for direct pickup and also delivery is available for free within areas listed on their ordering site: Use Promo Code YEASTCAKE – this will work on both store for delivery and also for pickup orders.
Iron Brewer
This year’s Iron Brewer challenge is saison!
Compete with other MHBA members to have your beer professionally brewed and served at the Forgotten Star Brewing taproom.
To keep our activities as healthy as possible, there will NOT be a homebrew share and voting this year. Fortunately, to keep with tradition of a yearly throw-down, Forgotten Star Brewery’s owner and head brewer Matt Asay has agreed to choose the club’s best saison.
Forgotten Star Brewery has a massive taproom section with plenty of space for a safe, socially-distant get-together as Matt, announces his favorite saison. There is also an outdoor tent and skating rink in case President Dave Matson wants to lace up and work on his axel jumps.
Entries can be dropped off at the brewery any time during normal business hours between now and February 25th.
Limit three unique entries per entrant. One bottle per entry. Attach your name and saison strength and color per BJCP guidelines. Including the beer recipe would be helpful but not required.
Entry deadline February 25th.
Winner revealed 6:00 P.M. March 2nd at Forgotten Star Brewing Company.
Also, if you’d like to bring bottles to swap with other members, feel free. Just don’t bring them into the brewery.
Good luck!
Final Friday – January recap
On January 29, 13 club members got together online and had a lively discussion. As promised we held a raffle and club members in good standing Matt Johnson and Josh Mahoney each won a $50 gift card to Fair State Brewing Cooperative just for being there.
MHBA Honor Roll
This club is unbelievably impressive. The MHBA website has a brand new In the Media page with links to books, articles, podcast appearances, and blogs by members of the club. Are we missing stuff? Let us know and we’ll add it!
The MHBA won the best homebrew club at Domras Cup! Congratulations to the following club members who came away with swag:
- Adam Bystrom. 9th place Heavy Medal, 3rd place Melomel, 3rd place Braggot.
- Josh Mahoney. 7th place Heavy Medal, 1st place Sweet Mead, Honorable Mention Cysers and Pyments.
- Nathan Steigman. 6th place Heavy Medal, 1st place Braggot, 3rd place Experimental Mead.
- Matthew Weide. 1st place Cysers and Pyments.
Welcome to 2021. Like most of you, I’m reminded this time of year is nonpareil for quiet reflection. The sun, low in the sky, casts long shadows and lets you recount how far we’ve come and where we want to be going. Last night, after some exercise, I found a bottle of IPA from the club bottle share last November that was positively sublime. Joy can come in unexpected places, even a forgotten bottle. With fresh snow by our feet, I hope you’re having fun imagining the delicious beverages that will grace your carboys this year. Joy is also not an accident.
With that in mind, the MHBA board met on January 12 and planned the core club events for this year:
- March 2, 2021. Iron Brewer (see more below)
- March 16, 2021. Club Elections and a guest from Arbeiter Brewing Company. Are you interested in being on the club board? We’ll be electing club president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, and member-at-large. This is your club, and your chance to steer the ship!
- April 17, 2021. Spring Forward Homebrew Review.
- May 1, 2021. Big Brew Day.
- September 19, 2021. Autumn Homebrew Review.
- November 6, 2021. Learn to Brew Day and Club Cider Buy.
Final Friday Club Socials
Miss your MHBA friends? Joined the Facebook group and want to check out our club? Let’s try something new and have a regular social event. No agenda, just fun.
Name: MHBA Final Friday Social
Time: Fri, Jan 29, 8:30 – 10:30 PM
Join the meeting: https://meet.google.com/pwq-opzb-sun
In the spirit of supporting local breweries affected by the pandemic, let’s all try to get Life Ain’t Fair by Fair State. You can order online and have contactless pick up from locations all over the cities. If enough of us get the same beer, it would be fun to taste it together.
Direct link to order: https://shop.fairstate.coop/product/life-aint-fair/
Can’t get it? No problem. Open something from a brewery you want to see in 2022 or some of your homebrew.
See you all at Final Friday!
Iron Brewer
This year’s Iron Brewer challenge is saison!
Compete with other MHBA members to have your beer professionally brewed and served at the Forgotten Star Brewing taproom.
To keep our activities as healthy as possible, there will NOT be a homebrew share and voting this year. Fortunately, to keep with tradition of a yearly throw-down, Forgotten Star Brewery’s owner and head brewer Matt Asay has agreed to choose the club’s best saison.
Forgotten Star Brewery has a massive taproom section with plenty of space for a safe, socially-distant get-together as Matt, announces his favorite saison. There is also an outdoor tent and skating rink in case President Dave Matson wants to lace up and work on his axel jumps.
Entries can be dropped off at the brewery any time during normal business hours between now and February 25th.
Limit three unique entries per entrant. One bottle per entry. Attach your name and saison strength and color per BJCP guidelines. Including the beer recipe would be helpful but not required.
Entry deadline February 25th.
Winner revealed 6:00 P.M. March 2nd at Forgotten Star Brewing Company.
Also, if you’d like to bring bottles to swap with other members, feel free. Just don’t bring them into the brewery.
Good luck!
MHBA Honor Roll
Iron Brewer
This year’s Iron Brewer challenge is saison!
Compete with other MHBA members to have your beer professionally brewed and served at the Forgotten Star Brewing taproom.
To keep our activities as healthy as possible, there will NOT be a homebrew share and voting this year. Fortunately, to keep with tradition of a yearly throw-down, Forgotten Star Brewery’s owner and head brewer Matt Asay has agreed to choose the club’s best saison.
Forgotten Star Brewery has a massive taproom section with plenty of space for a safe, socially-distant get-together as Matt, announces his favorite saison. There is also an outdoor tent and skating rink in case President Dave Matson wants to lace up and work on his axel jumps.
Entries can be dropped off at the brewery any time during normal business hours between now and February 25th.
Limit three unique entries per entrant. One bottle per entry. Attach your name and saison strength and color per BJCP guidelines. Including the beer recipe would be helpful but not required.
Entry deadline February 25th.
Winner revealed 6:00 P.M. March 2nd at Forgotten Star Brewing Company.
Also, if you’d like to bring bottles to swap with other members, feel free. Just don’t bring them into the brewery.
Good luck!
- BJCP style guidelines for saison
- Craft Beer and Brewing article about brewing saison
- BeerSmith podcast on brewing saison
- Basic Brewing Radio podcast on a saison yeast experiment
- Milk the Funk Wiki article on saison (hopefully website will be available again soon!)
Holiday Zoom
There were still ugly sweaters, holiday lights, and the shroud of holiday mystery. But club members celebrated a bit differently this year with a holiday party over Zoom. We were joined by the Head Brewer at Back Channel Brewing, Marc Makarem, who gave an inspiring story of his journey from back-porch home brewer to where he is now. A fierce round of trivia was played, and club members Al Boyce, Adam Bystrom, and Dave Royer (as a gift from Marc) each won a $50 gift card to a taproom of their choice to support local breweries.
Everyone who attended the Holiday Zoom is on Santa’s nice list and can buy a bottle of Back Channel Soviet Slayer for a $5 discount, which were specially set aside by Marc for our club. After the guided tasting he provided, this is sure to be a hit! Get a stemless chalice while you’re there, too! (I can vouch that it’s surprisingly awesome.)
Flex
Since Apple is getting into the lucrative fitness market, the MHBA had no choice but to follow suit. There are two new ways to have fun and get swoll as a club (and are free!):
- Peloton: Add the #MNHomeBrewers tag on Peloton
- Strava: Join Minnesota Home Brewers Association on Strava
MHBA Honor Roll
Congratulations to Anthony Davis for winning Best of Show at the Sour Times Competition for his brett beer! He also picked up a silver medal for his Berliner weisse.
Also, shout-out to Colby Reineke for winning silver in American wild specialty (which I actually judged, it was a heck-of-a-beer!), bronze in continental sours, and Honorable Mention in historical/brett beers.
You can see the full results here.
Open Mic
Club Holiday Party this Friday from 7 – 10 pm
Rolling with the punches! Since we can’t be together to celebrate at our annual party, we are planning a virtual party!
Join us for a virtual MHBA Holiday Party!!! It’s your chance to hear from old friends, meet new members and let everyone know what you’ve been brewing during these crazy times.
Working on a few things like a local brewery beer tasting, ugly beer label contest, and more.
A link to the meeting will be added in the near future.
MHBA Honor Roll
Nathan Steigman won four medals at Orpheus for his outstanding meads. You can see the full results here.
Cider Shenanigans
October can get pretty spooky, so to avoid the very real and totally not made up terror of missing out the Minnesota Home Brewers Association wants to let you know that three windows of opportunity are quickly closing.
- All orders for cider need to be placed before Monday, November 2. You don’t want to miss out on Pine Tree Apple Orchard’s delicious cider or Barley John’s famous egg bake. Place your order here.
- Due to covid, we will not be doing our customary bottle share at the cider buy. Instead, we are doing a bottle swap where you can drop off four bottles at the club secretary’s garage and you will get four different bottles at the cider buy to enjoy off-premise. You can even elect to get written feedback. To participate, enter the details of your brew here as soon as possible. The drop off is noon to 3 PM on Saturday, October 31 at the garage at 887 Nebraska Avenue W, Saint Paul, MN. More details are on the club website here. To recap: don’t bring beers to share to the cider buy, instead plan ahead and get bottles to enjoy later!
- You can order amazing Minnesota honey from Gardner Bees and pick it up from Josh Mahoney at the cider buy, but only until Monday, November 2. I’m getting a pail of their new goldenrod honey and can’t wait to try it in a cyser!
You don’t want to miss this. All those bottles and kegs you have could be full of crisp, fruit-forward, austere, and refreshing hard cider in a month or two.
Don’t forget your mask, practice physical distancing, wash your filthy paws, and please don’t come if you’re having symptoms. If you ordered and think you might be coming down with something, please reach out to a club officer and we will make alternate arrangements.
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