Good evening LAGERS! Lots of great activities went on this past month– see below for details on upcoming events and recent happenings
Upcoming Events:
March 20– March Monthly Meeting– “Yeast Plating and Slants” Ever wanted to build up your own yeast library? Maintain your own cultures? Isolate your own wild Brett? Isolate a culture from a bottled beer? Justin Vasher is going to talk to us about plating yeast and isolating pure cultures.
April 17– April Monthly Meeting– “Growing Hops” Thought about growing your own hops? Hop farmer and LAGERS member Michael Vincent Taylor is going to talk to us about growing hops – from planting the rhizomes to harvesting the cones.
May 15– May Monthly Meeting– “Beekeeping Basics” Ever thought about keeping bees? Wanna use your own honey for making mead? Just curious how it is done? On behalf of the Kentuckiana Beekeepers Association, LAGERS own Lara Augustine will talk about all things beekeeping, and tell you how you can get started with your own hives. Mead makers won’t want to miss this one! See also: http://kyanabees.com/
We started the year with a great January meeting, and February was every bit as great. Nick Landers, Head Brewer at Gordon Biersch joined us to give an outstanding presentation on how pro brewers clean and sanitize their brewing equipment as well as their beer lines and tapping systems. Great information here and a lot of great questions and interest from club members. Thanks to Nick for giving us your time and thanks to all the LAGERS who came out to the meeting.
Another great February event was the Tailspin Ale Festival, which in spite of a little rain was a huge success and a great time for the LAGERS who attended. For the first time this year, the LAGERS club had a booth at the event and were given the privilege of pouring two fine beers– the Tailspin Ale “Total Eclipse” Mocha Stout by Mark Robinson brewed at Apocalypse Brew Works, as well as the KSF Gold Medal winning Helles Bock by Christopher Owen brewed at Gordon Biersch. To say the least we had no shortage of patrons lining up at the booth to sample these two excellent beers! LAGERS that volunteered to work the booth were Scott Mathis, Mike and Alissa Pemberton, and Jason Rosenberger.
While many LAGERS were enjoying themselves at Tailspin, the Cincinnati Malt Infusers were hosting their All American Homebrew Competition where LAGERS were well represented by our President Christopher Owen with 7 medals– 4 golds for his Rauchbier, Helles Export, Saison, and Specialty Smoked beer, 2 silvers for his Altbier and Belgian Blonde, and a bronze for his Munich Helles. The LAGERS brewing team of Craig Gardone, Mark Robinson, and Sean Spaulding also scored a gold medal with their Flanders Red Ale. Great job LAGERS!
And finally– I know this is technically the “February” newsletter, but I can’t sign off without talking about the fantastic Brew In Event we just wrapped up yesterday with the FOSSILS club at Akasha! What a fabulous event! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a full count of all the people who brewed beer at the event, or a count of the attendees… but the event was WELL attended. See the many great pics on the club’s Facebook page for evidence! Thanks to all of the LAGERS and FOSSILS who came out to enjoy a great Sunday morning and afternoon, and special thanks to Rick Stidham for hosting us. For those brewers who registered for the Akasha competition, remember that your entries (2 12 ounce or larger bottles) are due at the Akasha taproom by Thursday, April 13th.
Looking forward to seeing everyone at the March Meeting! Prost!
