Upcoming Events
April 24th — Bulk Grain Buy Orders Due
April 28th — Bulk Grain Buy Payment Due
May 5th — Bulk Grain Pick-Up
May 20th — Monthly Meeting
Cumberland/LAGERS Collaboration
Cumberland recently released their latest beer “So Funkdafied”, an Orval inspired Belgian ale brewed by your very own Justin Vasher and Brandon Schaefer. If you came out to show your support, we thank you very much. If not, there’s still time to grab a pint or three. This beer was brewed with a special Belgian Saison yeast from Brasserie de Blaugies as well as two different brett strains. The first from the dregs of a bottle of Orval, and the second from a 28+ year old bottle of Berliner Weisse from defunct brewery Willner Brasserie Berlin. This is a very unique beer that you don’t want to miss. As a wise man named Trevor once said, “Get you some!”
LAGERS Turn 30!
We made it to the big 3-0! This club was founded in 1989 and it remains one of the oldest running homebrew clubs in the country. That’s something to be proud of and certainly something to celebrate. We’re working on doing something special this year for the summer party so stay tuned for upcoming details.
Bulk Grain Buy
The first bulk grain buy of the year is here. You have until tomorrow, April 24th, to order your grains. You can follow the link at the top of this page to access the order information and catalog. Remember, one grain buy alone provides enough savings to pay for your annual membership. You won’t find better prices anywhere. This year we’re having club members pay for the grain prior to placing the order. This is to avoid situations where the LAGERS or Apocalypse are stuck being accountable for paying for your grain if you choose not to pick it up.
Hammerdown BrewCup and National Homebrew Competition
Congratulations LAGERS! You’ve proven once again that you know beer. LAGERS members have swept the competition at regional NHC competitions and the Hammerdown BrewCup with more medals than we can count. If you came out to judge for any of these, we thank you. These competitions can’t happen without your continued support.
Spring Membership Drive
It’s that time of year to renew your memberships. If you’ve done so already, we thank you dearly. If not, what are you waiting for? Check out all the amazing perks we have to offer. You can pay online on the website or via credit card, cash or check, at any of the club events. Contact our Treasurer, Sarah Popko, for more details.
May Monthly Meeting and Officer Elections
May 20th 7pm at Akasha Brewing, we will be hosted once more for our monthly meeting. We promise this will be the last time you have to hear about sugar but we figured it would be fun to have a meeting more on the lighter side of information. How well do you know your basic sugars? Where do they come from? How are they made? Put your palate to the test. Can you identify all the different types? Do you know the best use for each? Join us as we discover the different types of sugar available to us for brewing and maybe you’ll find one you’d like to use sometime. We’ll also be conducting our annual election for officer positions. If you wish to run for any of the 4 available positions, shoot us an email and we’ll get you on the list of nominees. Currently all positions are uncontested.
April Monthly Meeting Recap
This April we got to experience the difference between beer brewed with a late sugar addition in fermentation vs a beer brewed with early sugar addition. We also got to learn all about what the timing of additions does to the profile of the beer and why it happens. Thank you Craig for brewing that delicious Belgian table beer and educating us on the topic. The presentation is available online here.
Security Breach
Sunday April 21st, the LAGERS secondary email and PayPal account was breached. Although there was no reported account activity on the Gmail account and no damage done on the PayPal account, we still find it in your best interest to let you know that the person(s) responsible may have had access to our master members file where we keep track of your names, emails, and dues information. The breach has since been contained but there was enough time for this sensitive information to be stolen. If you received any requests for money from the LAGERS on either Sunday or Monday, please delete the request immediately and report it to PayPal. We have also taken several extra security steps to ensure your information is safe and to prevent any possible breaches in the future.
April 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 Brandon Schaefer for winning the monthly competition with his German Schwarzbier. Not only did it win the monthly competition but it also placed first in the regional National Homebrew Competition as well as the Hammerdown BrewCup. Arnold Schwarzenlager has a lightly roasty and lightly chocolatey nose. The beer pours a dark brown with a nice tan head. Bready malt flavor and a subtle roastiness linger on the tongue – the fermentation profile is clean. The beer drinks smooth and finishes dry – making it an easy drinking session lager.
Brandon was inspired to try brewing a German Schwarzbier after listening to a podcast featuring Jennifer Talley on session beers. He soon ordered and read her new book ‘Session Beers: Brewing for Flavor and Balance’. He says, “If you study the BJCP guidelines for Schwarzbier, you might question the addition of Special B in the grain bill. The beer I shared during last month’s meeting was actually my second version of the recipe, with the most significant change being a sharp reduction in the percentage of Special B. My Belgian beer obsession clearly spilled over into this recipe, but my aim was to now add just a hint of a raisin-y note to the roasty malt profile.”
Recipe: Arnold Schwarzenlager (German Schwarzbier – BJCP 8B)
OG: 1.046, FG: 1.012 ABV: 4.5% IBU: 24.9 SRM: 22.4
Water: 50% distilled, 1tsp CaCl, 1 campden tablet
Grains:
Pilsen, 72%
Munich, 18.4%
Special B, 4%
Carafa III, 3.3%
Chocolate (350L), 2.3%
Hops:
Tettnang, 1.0oz 60min (14.2 IBU)
Tettnang, 0.5oz 30min (5.5 IBU)
Whirlpool (15min): Hallertau, 1.75oz 15min (5.2 IBU)
Yeast:
WLP833 – German Bock Lager
WLP830 – German Lager
Built up into a 1750mL starter
Mash:
HERMS single infusion 152F
Narzis Fermentation:
2 days, 46-50F
8 days, 50F
2 days, 60F diacetyl rest
4 weeks, 34F lagering
