April 2018 Meeting

April 18, 2018

The SOB’s gathered at O’Marro’s Public House, home of HighHolder Brewing Company, home of the bar that was Irish before it was cool to be an Irish bar.

New Faces

No new members in tonight’s meeting.

Theme for the Night

As we have decided to do a world beer theme for each meeting, tonight’s subject is beers from England. More details on that later on in the minutes.

Treasurer’s Report

Kurt Weina , our prestigious Treasurer, reported that we have $2586.12 in the club coffers with the Casks & Caskets fund at $2520.55.   Kurt noted that if you haven’t received your membership card to see him.  Also note that dues are coming up in June, which is a paltry $20.  A terrific bargain for the sheer awesomeness of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers!

Member’s Beers

There were no members’ beers tonight.

Brewery News

Omega Brewing is now open on Main Street in Omro.  They sold completely out of beer on their grand opening!!

Jody Cleveland has accepted the position of head brewer at Bare Bones, and he noted that every brewery in Oshkosh now (except for 1) has an SOB for a head brewer!!!!!

Bus Tour

Due to the stupid weather, the Milwaukee brewery bus trip on April 14th was canceled.   We will figure out when to reschedule this, perhaps in the fall.  Besides, the Milwaukee Brewers will probably be in the World Series at that time so it should be awesome.

SOB Clothing

Scott has done some research on hats and shirts from Embroider Me in Appleton (this is who we used a few years back).  There was some pretty good interest so we will pursue further to see what can be arranged. As far as the hats went, the non-meshstyle was favored over the ‘trucker-style’ mesh hat.  As far as shirts went, both work-style and polo shirts had interest.  Stay tuned for further info on this.

Brewing Calendar

• Big Brew Day is May 5th at The Cellar

o Note:  The Cellar has moved onto Washburn street.

▪ The rear of the building has a lot of open space that will work for us.

▪ There will be water available for use.

o The SOB’s will put out press releases and put out posters to try to bring in more public

o Kurt has secured a food truck from the Mexican restaurant in Omro, so bring your taco-eating pants!

• Chilton Brew Fest on May 20th

• June 2nd will be the Beer Camp at Lake Arrowhead.

o The Campground has reached out to Mike and she is offering us more spaces for free as a club if we’d like.  Check in can start at 4pm on Friday and checkout by 3pm on Sunday.  She noted that we are free to brew there.  They also mentioned they will be doing a stein holding contest so start working out those forearms people!!!

• June 16th is the Wisconsin Beer Lover’s Festival and Richard Cardenas is organizing a bus.

• July is the homebrew competition.

• August will be the SOB picnic.

• September 8th will be the SOB Homebrew Showcase, to be held at The Cellar from ~ 9am-4pm

o We will plan on having homebrew demonstrations (~ 1 hour each) over the course of the morning and afternoon.  The public will be invited and there’s a better than normal chance that there will be homebrew.

o Looking for people to volunteer to be part of a planning committee so please contact Mike Engel as soon as possible.

o We also would like to turn this into another Big Brew Day for anyone who would like to brew beer instead of take part in the education portions.

• September 19th at a winery

o Because Vines and Rushes wanted to charge us $150 and then charge us at least that for food, we decided to pass on them.

o Instead we’ve been in contact with Rushford Meaderyand Winery and will look to be there instead.

• January 2019 will be the Christmas party, because that seemed to work well during this year.

English Beer Update

Mike Engel had volunteered to discuss the style this month.  The bloody English are known for their top fermented cask-style ales.  The beer is brewed and brought to the pub served via a beer engine.  The styles they have include stouts, porters, old, bitter, pale ales, and of course the IPA.  Not like what we have in the U.S. of course, because we beat the English in a bareknuckle fistfight a few years back, and out of principle we must outdo them in everything, cause….‘Merica.  Before hops, these chaps would use things like honey and mugwort.  Back in the day, the ladies brewed beers.  When the fellas took over sometime later they started brewing guilds, because they needed to form groupsin order to validate themselves.  There was a ton more info that Mike provided, but I figure that is why we have Wikipedia.  Thanks Mike!!!

• Moreland’s Old Speckled Hen

• Green King’s Wexford Green King

• Well’s & Young Sticky Toffee Pudding Ale

• Young’s Double Chocolate Stout

• Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout

 

Post Script

Jody and Michelle brought a coffee stout from Epic Brewing, and it was called SOB (for Son of a Baptist). Long live the S.O.B.’s!!!!!!!!!