December 2018 meeting

Baby it was cold outside, so the SOB’s hunkered down at O’Marro’s Public House, where everyone wants to stay inside and have a drink.

New Faces

Blake Schlepy from New London – was a member of the SOB’s about 20 years ago.  Has an all-grain system he brews on and is currently in the process of a doppelbock that will be aged in a whisky barrel.  Darren Riechenberger – from Oshkosh, brewing about 15-20 years.  Note:  he was the one that came up with the recipe for the asparagus stout that was served at C&C.

Treasurer’s Report

Kurt Weina, our highly esteemed Treasurer, gave our financial report.  For those who have paid your dues, membership cards were available.  For those that haven’t…..our club Goon will see you shortly…..

Signups

In addition to the regular meeting signup, there was a signup sheet for the FDL Brewfest which is happening in February.  The SOB’s have been part of this since the inception (~ 6 years) and don’t see any reason why we should stop.

Casks & Caskets Donation Summary

Mike provided a summary of the 7 food pantries that benefited from the $6,200 that the SOB’s donated to them due to the monies raised from Casks and Caskets.

1stand 2ndBeers Sampled

Blake Schlepy – brought two beers. The first one was made with a Bohemian lager yeast, and the second was made from the second runnings and used a Belgian yeast.  The Doppelbock went over very well – very clean and malty.  On the second one, Shane Coombs offered some insight that it seemed to have higher tannins from the lauter process resulting in a higher pH (great feedback was provided, and I wasn’t able to capture the whole thing – thanks for the feedback!).  Nice work Blake!

Mike asked the group if they would like to have a pH topic at a future meeting and there were about 8-9 people who asked if we could do that.

3rdBeer Sampled

Kurt Weina – Spiced Brown Ale made with a plethora of spices and herbs.  Came in at a hefty 8.4% and was absolutely delightful. Kurt noted that all the spices, except for the clove, was ground by himself and added all in the boil.

Board Members

There are 3 positions for voting at the January meeting: President, Secretary, and Membership Coordinator.  Mike ran through a list of all the duties that these positions take care of. Nominations were solicited.  Scott nominated Logan for club secretary and he accepted.  No other nominations were suggested at the meeting. Mike noted that nominations could be done via email as well.

Christmas Party Info

Will be on January 20that Fifth Ward Brewery.  The club will provide the meat and buns, and the members are asked to bring a dish to pass.  For those wanting to do a gift exchange, you can bring one (~ $15). Both gag and serious gifts are on the table (but let’s be honest, everyone loves the serious gifts).

SOB Schwag

Mike noted that we have a metric crap-ton of Casks & Caskets schwag for sale at the meeting. Empty your wallets people!!!!! This stuff ain’t going to move itself!!  All the money raised from this will go into the Casks & Caskets fund.

Mulled Wine

Jeff and Becky brought a mulled wine which was just what the German doctor ordered!!

Holiday Beers

Kurt Weina gave the spiel for the holiday brews and during the spiel, noted that Oshberg has a great history of holiday beers during its storied brewing past.  That being said, we sampled a number of different brews.

•Paulaner – Salvator Dopplebock (amazeballs)

•Shiner – Holiday Cheer (peach-y)

•Great Lakes Brewing – Christmas Ale (Christmas band-aid)

• Harpoon – Winter Warmer

•Rushford Meadery and Winery – Cider Rush Spiced Semi-Sweet Hard Cider

 

This was my last meeting as club Secretary part-deux.  It has been a pleasure.  I hoped you have enjoyed these notes over the past two years.  My heart and soul have been poured into this. Or not, it’s hard to say really.  Sometimes if I sampled too much, I wrote about robots.  And then sometimes I didn’t.  You tell me.  What?  Go home notes, you’re drunk.  Go SOB’s!!!!

October 2018 Meeting

October 17, 2018

The SOB’s once again returned to the hallowed halls of of O’Marro’s Public House in what was to become a most enchanting evening of fermented delight.  

New Faces

Logan brought in a whole crap-ton of German exchange students who where here for two weeks to study abroad.  As it turns out, what they really wanted to study was beer.  And the good news is that we had lots of it.  Zach, was also here checking things out tonight with Zach Frasier. 

Treasurer’s Report

If you haven’t paid your dues, please see Kurt right away.  Note:  Kurt has our membership cards and just needs to have them printed so stay tuned. 

Signups for Beer Tours

This weekend’s Milwaukee area brewer tour is on like Donkey Kong.

1st Beer Brewed

Steve Wissink – Bass Ale Clone kit recipe ‘borrowed’ from a popular brewing magazine.  Comments generally included that it was smooth and clean with a good finish.  

Homebrew Contest from July – Presentation of Medals

Spencer won second and third place, so the club presented him with medals along with gift certificates from The Cellar for his winnings.  

2nd Beer Brewed

Mike Engel – a lager brewed off of his new Pico C brew. The Pico system makes about 3.5L and is connected to the interwebs and uses an App, which is where this world is going. But to be fair, I’m pretty sure that King Gambrinus himself would have used such a contraption back in the day if he had the option.    

Casks & Caskets

Mike went over the fact sheet, which included the following:  

This year we will provide one souvenir glass for a $35 donation and two glasses for a $50 donation.

The band this year is the 432’s.  They do a little bit of everything, except for mumble rap.  They won’t be doing mumble rap.  If anyone asks them to do mumble rap, there is likely to be some throat punching.

Also this year, we will not have pictures for each beer (although everyone is welcome to make their own). Jeff has a template if anyone is interested they can contact him.

Food will be in the ballroom this year.

There will be a discount on the hotel at the Hilton Garden Inn ($89/night). Tell ‘em you’re a real SOB.

We should utilize Snaptweets, Instabooks, FaceSpace, and LinkedBook during the event to have people take pictures and post them to these various social media platforms.  The suggestion was made to come up with a hashtag and make sure that is put on the promotional material so that people know to take pictures with that hashtag. This will help promote the event real-time. #notjustformillenials

Will have the 3-tab wristbands for the voting.  

Lee will put out a blog tomorrow on Oshkoshbeerblog, and it will go to the Oshkosh Independent magazine.  Right now we’re at about 170ish people.  

Oktoberfest Beers

Revolution Brewing Company

Spaten

Bull Falls

3rd Beer Sampled

Logan – Strawberry Rhubarb Berliner Weiss. This one was amaze-balls!!!

4th Beer Sampled

Cranberry orange caramel vanilla crème ale with 40,000x as much lactose as allowed by law.  

5th Beer Sampled

Logan’s – Brown Ale

6th Beer Sampled

Chuck’s – Kentucky Brown Ale

7th Beer Sampled

Logan – Vanilla Stout

Brewing Calendar

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

Megan added much content to the meeting as we discussed literature, horses, and the pros and cons of intrinsic semiconductors.  And not necessarily in that order. Also, Megan got one of the German guys to strip down, which was a little weird.   Also, Mike lost control of the meeting at about 7:30.  

September 2018 Meeting

September 19, 2018
The SOB’s gathered at Rushford Meadery and Winery in Omro, a converted elementary school now making some of the area’s finest meads and wines.
New Faces
PJ Wagner who heard about the SOB’s from the Central Wisconsin Brewers and Vintners.
Treasurer’s Report
Kurt Weina, our esteemed Treasurer, reported our finances.
Signups for Beer Tours
Per Travis Sullivan, the Explorium Brewery isn’t open until 3, so we have 3 places set up as cash-in-hand (i.e. you’ll pay for whatever amount you want to drink or eat). The 4th place would be a tour at Milwaukee Brewery Company, where the tour (plus a beer or two included) is about $10 max. The more people who sign up, the cheaper the bus. But until we finalize numbers, we can’t provide a specific number on the total cost. Travis noted that 1840 Brewery and Eagle Park Brewery are the for-sures, and Broken Bat, MKE, and Explorium are the maybes. Everything will be on the East side of Milwaukee so there won’t be a lot of travel/navigating needing to be done.
Brewing Talk
On 10/15 or 10/16, Caestecker Public Library in Green Lake is hosting a brewing information week and has reached out to Mike to see if there is interest in someone from the club speaking. If anyone is interested in speaking at this, Mike will send the info to them.
Casks & Caskets
Last year, we did a friends & family signup for about a week. We’ll do the same thing this year to allow friends of family of SOB members to get first shot at the C&C tickets. After that, we’ll send the link to people who have attended in the past. If we still don’t get enough people, then we’ll open it up via our FB page, and Lee will to a blog post from the Oshkoshbeer Blog.
Mike noted that we are still in need of a band. Michelle suggested that we pursue an acoustic band this time, because it can be very difficult to hear things if you’re pouring where the band is.
Rushford Meadery and Winery Tour
Shane Combs, co-proprietor of the fine establishment, provided the assembled thirsty mass a tour of the facility and a viewing of a grape pressing. Part of the overall cool-factor-awesomeness of the tour is realizing that this meadery/winery is housed in a former school house. The production floor is the old auditorium and the tasting and overflow rooms are in former classrooms. As I listened to Shane speak about the process, I couldn’t help but imagine all the kids who had sat in that auditorium in the past, not knowing that down the road, where they once learned and played, would one day make all the booze their tired teachers were wishing they had.
Member’s Beers
Chuck Tomsovich – Groin Slap Pale Ale. Now, I’m not exactly sure how Chuck came up with the name of this one, and I didn’t ask. The beer was good though, so I asked for another Groin Slap.

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