Announcements

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

• 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

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

MHBA Honor Roll 

Iron Brewer

• 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.

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.

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:

1. Pick a beer, mead, or cider you’ve made and of which you have at least four bottles
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. The club secretary will create mixed packs
5. Pick up four different bottles at the cider buy
6. 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!

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:

1. Pick a beer, mead, or cider you’ve made and of which you have at least four bottles
2. Fill out this form with the details of your beverage. Decide if you want the recipient to judge it or not.
3. 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.
4. The club secretary will create mixed packs
5. Pick up four different bottles at the cider buy
6. 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!