Upcoming Events
January 4th — Gordon Biersch Pro-Am Entries Due
January 5th — Gordon Biersch Pro-Am Judging
January 19th — Annual LAGERS holiday party
January 21st — LAGERS Monthly Meeting
February 9th — Tailspin Ale Fest Tapping Party
February 16th — Tailspin Ale Fest
February 18th — LAGERS Monthly Meeting
Gordon Biersch Pro-Am Competition
It’s that time of year again! Our fifth annual Pro-Am competition hosted by Gordon Biersch. This year we are looking for your best IPAs. English, West coast, East coast, Brut, Belgian, you name it. Original gravity must be no higher than 1.080 and a maximum of 2 entries can be submitted per brewer. Entries are due tomorrow at Gordon Biersch Brewery. More details can be found on our website here.
Annual LAGERS Holiday Party
Our LAGERS Holiday Party is quickly coming up. It’s a family friendly event so bring your spouse, kids, a dish, and a keg of homebrew to share. We will be raffling off a brand new Spike 10 gallon kettle so bring some cash if you’d like to participate! We have the building the entire night so we can stay as late as we like. You don’t want to miss this one! More details can be found on our website here.
January Monthly Meeting
January 21st we will be hosted once more by the amazing team at Akasha. Bring beer to share and get ready to dive deep into the world of water chemistry. Due to popular request, we will be going over the ways you can improve upon one of the most vital ingredients in your brewery, your water. If you would like to apply the knowledge gained from this meeting and brew a split batch to experiment with the treatment of water, let us know and we will happily fund it for the next meeting. In addition to the meeting topic, Tisha from Tailspin will be there to sell discounted tickets to Tailspin Ale Festival. You won’t find a better place to buy tickets and you certainly don’t want to miss Louisville’s largest beer festival of the year!
LAGERS BJCP Tasting Exam Class
It’s here! If you have passed the BJCP online class and have been thinking about taking your certification to the next level, Chuck Harp will be hosting the LAGERS members for a comprehensive tasting exam class. He will cover the BJCP styles over the course of 12 classes between April 8th and the exam date on July 21st. This is a very rare and informative class that is open to anyone. The LAGERS are graciously funding part of the course for all LAGERS members. The class size is limited to 12 people so get your spot ASAP! More details can be found on our website here.
Yappy Hour Donation
Congratulations LAGERS. You have raised a total of $3900 for the Kentucky Humane Society through your beer sales. We had about 19 beers on tap and tons of volunteers. Thank you all for brewing and taking the time to serve patrons. Big thank you to Apocalypse for hosting this amazing event.
November Monthly Meeting Recap
This November we held a new topic: quarterly style guide and discussion. Greg spoke to us about the upcoming style “Brut IPA” and brought out some of his to share. LAGERS memebers were encouraged to brew for the December competition where the winner gets the chance to brew their recipe at Cumberland with our very own Justin Vasher.
Apocalypse Brew-In and Bulk Grain Buy
November 4th, we had our annual brew-in and bulk grain buy. LAGERS members picked up a total of 58 sacks of grain or 3,200 lbs! Thank you all for participating and if you haven’t, you’ll get another chance during our spring bulk buy later this year.
Tailspin Ale Winter Warmer Brew Off
It’s our 5th annual tailspin ale fest competition! There were a total of 9 entries from 9 different brewers. 1st place gets to brew their recipe at Apocalypse to serve at Tailspin Ale Fest. 1st, 2nd and 3rd places also get a VIP ticket and all other entrants get a general admission ticket. Thank you all for participating, the beers this year were fantastic. The competition was tough and it took the judges a long while to figure out the placements. The tapping party will be held Sat. Feb 9 from 3-5pm at Evergreen Liquors in Middletown. Please come out to support your fellow LAGERS, Apocalypse, and Tailspin. It means the world to us!
1st – Mando Barajas – Coconut Stout
2nd – Mark Robinson – Fireside Porter
3rd – Greg and Sarah – Blanc Out NEIPA
HM – Jeff Uligian – Foggy Nog Ale
December Monthly Meeting Recap
December was our annual white elephant gift exchange. We had several tables full of highly sought after gifts with exchanges happening left and right. In addition, we had our Cumberland Competition Judging done in the corner. There were 3 entries. Congratulations Brandon, we can’t wait to try your Brut IPA at Cumberland. Stay tuned for a tapping party!
1st – Brandon Schaefer
2nd – Evan Brill
3rd – Greg and Sarah
November Brewer Recipe Highlight
Thank you for doing your part by voting for your favorite beer and allowing us to share beer during our meetings. Congratulations to Jeff Uligian for winning the LAGERS November monthly competition with his Foggy Nog Ale. Well done Jeff! Foggy Nog was inspired by Jeff’s non-drinking wife when she discovered an Egg Nog Cream Ale at Intracoastal Brewing in Melbourne, FL and really enjoyed it. Foggy Nog is Jeff’s first attempt at replicating the beer based off the description online. It is a holidy spiced ale that has nutmeg and cloves with late additions of cinnamon, vanilla, bourbon and brandy. There is 1 lb of lactose in the recipe but he would likely kick that up to add some additional creaminess which also compliments the flaked oats in the grain bill.
A link to the full recipe can be found here.
December Brewer Recipe Highlight
Congratulations to Joseph Wilhelm on becoming a LAGERS member and also making his grandstand appearance by winning the December monthly competition with his Coconut Stout. His inspiration was loving coconut and rum. Gotta love a man that follows his passions. The recipe for his 8 gal batch can be found below:
3 lbs Crystal 40L
20 lbs 2-row
2 lbs Black Patent
2 lbs Flaked Oats
2 lbs Chocolate Wheat Malt
Mash at 156F for 60 min
90 min boil
1 oz Jarrylo at 60 min
1 oz Jarrylo at 30 min
Lalleman Nottingham yeast, 4 packets
Added 2 lbs unsweetened toasted coconut flakes (not toasted)
Cut barrel staves soaked in Trader Joe’s Rum for 2 weeks prior to aging in secondary
Let coconut and staves sit for 10 days in seconday
OG=1.075 | FG=1.020 | ABV=7.2%
