Nicholas Aschbrenner
The Cider Buy
The Minnesota Home Brewers Association is hosting our annual cider buy at Barley John’s Brewpub on November 7 from 10 am to 4 pm. The cider is from Pine Tree Apple Orchard and is being sold to club members for $25/5 gallons. The deadline is November 3, so don’t delay! Order your cider here!
If you’re new to making cider or want to up your cider game, check out:
- A Brewing TV episode featuring former MHBA club president Chris Smith
- The MHBA Cider Guide
Please remember that we will NOT fill glass containers for safety.
Don’t forget to enjoy Barley John’s famous egg bake and support them for hosting this annual event!
But wait … there’s more!
Due to covid, we are doing a virtual bottle share in lieu of our traditional in-person share. To join the fun:
- Pick a beer, mead, or cider you’ve made and of which you have at least four bottles
- Fill out this form with the details of your beverage. Decide if you want the recipient to judge it or not. This MUST be done prior to drop off.
- Drop off the four bottles at the club secretary’s garage (887 Nebraska Ave W, Saint Paul, MN) on Saturday, October 31 from noon to 3 pm. Can’t make that drop-off window? Contact the club secretary at [email protected]to drop it off before October 31. Please drop off your bottles in a four or six-pack holder. There will be a stack of post-it notes with a unique number on each one. Write your name legibly on the top-most post-it and stick it to the barrel of one of your bottles, and put that bottle inside the holder you brought. Using the permanent marker provided, please write the number from the post-it on each bottle cap.
- The club secretary will create mixed packs
- Pick up four different bottles at the cider buy
- If you decided to have your entries judged, you will get score sheets via email from the club secretary
Could the day get any sweeter?
Gardner Bees produces local, high-quality honey that has been used to make award-winning mead. Members who order honey from them will be able to pick it up from Josh Mahoney at the cider buy. This is a great opportunity to make cysers!
Speaking of cysers…
Club board member and one of the top home mead makers Adam Bystrom was invited on Got Mead Live last week to talk about cysers. You can listen to their conversation here.
Pucker up
Our friends at the Nordeast Brewers Alliance are hosting the Sour Times Homebrew Competition. Entries open November 1, and are limited to 50 entries. Get your sour and funky beers ready to compete!
Open mic
Do you want to organize an event of interest to the MHBA? Let us help publicize it! Contact the club secretary to get the ball rolling!
Read More
Before we recap the busy September we had in the MHBA, we are pleased to announce preliminary details of the (drumroll, please) … club cider buy!
Club Cider Buy
Join the Minnesota Home Brewers Association for our annual cider distribution and homebrew demonstrations at Barley John’s Brewpub on November 7 from 10 am to 4 pm. This year, due to Covid-19 we will be scaling down the event bit and still working through some of the details on how to have a very safe event and have fun. This is a FREE event, open to anyone who is interested.
Of course, a big part of your yearly event is the purchase and distribution of fresh pressed cider from Pine Tree Orchard that you can use for your hard ciders, cysers, and fruit beers. All MHBA members in good standing are able to purchase cider today. The price will be the same as in past years ($25/five gallons), and you will be responsible for bringing a plastic container (we will NOT fill glass due to safety).
Barley John’s will be making their annual “Cider-Buy Eggbake”. It’s so delicious, do yourself a favor and buy yourself a couple of pieces and wash it down with a pint of Barley John’s beer and support our wonderful hosts!
Purchase your cider now! Need help with your recipe or process? Go check out the MHBA cider guide!
Bottle Share at the Cider Buy
Because this is 2020, we are doing things a little different this year. In lieu of the normal bottle share, we are doing a bottle swap. How, you say? It’s easy:
- Pick a beer, mead, or cider you’ve made and of which you have at least four bottles
- Fill out this form with the details of your beverage. Decide if you want the recipient to judge it or not.
- Drop off the four bottles at the club secretary’s garage (887 Nebraska Ave W, Saint Paul, MN) on Saturday, October 30 from noon to 3 pm. Can’t make that drop-off window? Contact the club secretary at [email protected] to drop it off before October 30. Please drop off your bottles in a four or six-pack holder. There will be a stack of post-it notes with a unique number on each one. Write your name legibly on the top-most post-it and stick it to the barrel of one of your bottles, and put that bottle inside the holder you brought. Using the permanent marker provided, please write the number from the post-it on each bottle cap.
- The club secretary will create mixed packs
- Pick up four different bottles at the cider buy
- If you decided to have your entries judged, you will get score sheets via email from the club secretary
Honey Pick Up at the Cider Buy
Gardner Bees produces local, high-quality honey that has been used to make award-winning mead. Members who order honey from them will be able to pick it up from Josh Mahoney at the cider buy. This is a great opportunity to make cysers!
MHBA Members Win Big at Valkyrie’s Horn
The Valkyrie’s Horn Mead Competition had its second year and led the way in synchronous remote judging. The following club members medaled:
- Al Boyce – 1st place, 39A/M2C Berry Awards Group 1
- Adam Bystrom – 2nd and 3rd place, 36A/M3A/M3B SHV Group 1
- Paul Dienhart – 2nd place, Pyment
- Christy Helps – 3rd place, Braggot
- Pat and Hank McNeely – 3rd place, M1B Semi-Sweet Traditional Group 2
- Brandon Pflipsen – 1st place, Dry Traditional; 1st place, 41A/M3A/M3B SHV Group 2
- Nathan Steigman – 3rd place, Specialty
- Matthew Weide – 1st and 2nd place, Sweet Traditional
Commercial Calibration: Style 2 C – International Dark Lager (BlackStack Spare Parts)
BJCP Grand Master VIII judge Al Boyce blindly evaluated BlackStack’s Spare Parts as an international dark lager (style 2C). You can watch his commercial calibration video here.
Hop Harvest Day with South Fork Hops
Club members were invited to pick centennial, CTZ, and Yakima Gold at South Fork Hops, a small scale commercial hop farm near River Falls, Wisconsin. The Yakima Gold impressed with its green tea aromas.
Grape Pomace Pickup with Mousse Sparkling Wine Company
The club learned this summer that a prominent commercial meadery adds grape pomace to some of their meads to enhance mid-palate mouthfeel. In response, club members were invited to pick up freshly-pressed Frontenac blanc and Marquette grape pomace from a vineyard owned by the newly-opened Mousse Sparkling Wine Company in Jordan, Minnesota. Mousse also arranged to give club members a tour of their production area and provided a tasting of their wines. Club members have a whopping seven batches of mead using this pomace.
Open Mic
Do you want to organize an event of interest to the MHBA? Let us help publicize it! Contact the club secretary to get the ball rolling!
Read More
WHO’S COMING???!
Saturday, August 1st (tomorrow) is MEAD DAY 2020! This year club members are invited to a virtual tour and mead tasting with one of 2019’s most awarded meaderies – LOST CAUSE MEADERY out of San Diego, CA!
We’ll be tasting:
- DEVILRY: Raspberry mead with meadowfoam honey.
- GSB: Grenache, syrah and blackberry mead with buckwheat honey aged on oak.
- DEAR MONTANA: Traditional mead made with Montana sweet clover blossom aged on oak.
After the private tour we will have a Q&A session with owners Suzanna and Billy Beltz!
Join Zoom Meeting:
Meeting ID: 848 6256 5176
Passcode: 294130
Dial In: +1 646 876 9923

Join us even if you didn’t get in on the mead buy to socialize with your friends in the MHBA!
Cheers!
Still thirsty?
For our July installment of the MHBA Commercial Calibration video series, Nick A provided a blind evaluation of a BJCP style 1B beer. You can taste along here.
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Don’t miss out! This is a reminder that the MHBA virtual bottle swap starts tomorrow. It’s a great way to get feedback on your beer, cider, and mead and have fun! Don’t know how? It’s easy!
Step 1: Make a back alley deal
When: THIS Thursday (June 4) from 5 – 7 pm
Where: The alley behind Al’s house (3208 Edgewood Ave S, Saint Louis Park, MN 55426)
What: Drop off 6-12 labeled bottles of a single variety of your own beer, cider, or mead in six pack holders. Each bottle MUST have a label attached with a rubber band. Please have this done before arriving.
Step 2: Get hooch
When: THIS Friday (June 5) from 5- 7 pm
Where: The alley behind Al’s house (3208 Edgewood Ave S, Saint Louis Park, MN 55426)
What: Come back to Al’s house on Friday, June 5, between 5 and 7 pm and Al will hand you your new beers through your car window or to your opened trunk, and you can drive home to sort through your spoils! DON’T DRINK THEM YET! The FUN part is yet to come! Chill your stash overnight!
Step 3: Share the spoils together
When: THIS Saturday (June 6) from 7- 9 pm
Where: Club Zoom link
What: Log into Zoom to drink and discuss the beers together
Directions to Al’s house:
3208 Edgewood Ave S., St. Louis Park, MN 55426
763-412-6836
(drive NORTH in alley between Edgewood & Dakota)
From Highway 100 –
• Exit on Minnetonka Boulevard and go west for about 0.5 miles
• Turn south (left) at the light on Dakota Ave S. for about 0.4 miles
• Turn west (right) 33rd St west
• Pass Edgewood Ave south, and turn right into the alley between Edgewood and Dakota
• Stop at Al’s white garage, 3 garages south of 32nd Ave S, white picket fence
Al will be sitting in his driveway with your hooch!
Note: do NOT take the Wooddale exit off of Hwy 7! There is Light Rail construction going on, and the intersection is shut down.
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