July 2020 Meeting

Society of Oshkosh Brewer’s July Meeting

Although a somewhat rainy day, the SOBs practiced safe social distancing in the

O’Marro’s banquet hall where plenty of room was left between tables as members judged entries in the annual SOB club only competition.

New Faces:

We welcomed one new member during our July meeting. Michael Gumtow heard about the SOBs during a visit to the Cellar and knew he had to see what the buzz was all about. He even took advantage of some club benefits by entering the club competition. Welcome, Michael.

Treasurer’s Report:

Dues will be collected during the August meeting at a discounted rate of $10. Please plan to renew your membership at that time.

Reminder’s:

August Meeting: The August meeting will once again be the club’s annual picnic. We

will take the time to breakaway from the normal business/education moments of the club to enjoy some much need camaraderie. We are meeting on August 19th at the Menominee Park pavilion near “little Oshkosh.” The club will be providing meat for the event and we are asking members to bring a dish to share. As always this is a family friendly event. Naturally, there will be beer (we are SOBs after all) and games to enjoy. See you all there.

Lake Arrowhead Beer Camp: The SOBs have been invited back the Lake Arrowhead Beer camp for the third year in a row. If you have never had the opportunity to attend, the campground provides the club three sites, where we partake in brewing, serving during the beer walk, and imbibing. If you are interested the event is held on the weekend of August 28th-30th.  There is still room left for those interested in camping.

SOB Mead/Wine/Cider Competition: Our second annual mead/wine/cider competition is coming up in September. Any mead/wine/cider you have brewed is eligible for entry. We are hosting the event at Rushford Meadery. Winning beers will be chosen by BJCP judges Shane and Laurel and a “Best in Show” beverage will be chosen by the club

membership.

SOB Bus Trip: We had to postpone our bus trip until October but have plans to come back strong with a trip to Green Bay breweries. The details are still in the works, expect more information on the upcoming bus trip soon.

Casks and Caskets:

Due to COVID restrictions we have elected to cancel Casks and Caskets this year. Our foremost concern is for the health and safety of our members and the community. We do not feel that we can offer a sufficient level of safety during such a large event. We will be developing plans to hold a scaled down version of the event for members. More information coming soon.

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  Annual Beer Competition:

  During the July meeting the club participated in the annual beer competition. This was an open style competition, meaning that a wide range of styles were submitted. Head brewers from the local breweries acted as the judges for the competition, choosing the most true to style beer from the 13 beers entered; thank you to Zach and Ian from Fifth Ward, Jody from Bare Bones, Andrew from Fox River, and Mike from High Holder. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies were awarded to the top three, most to style beers as chosen by the panel of judges. Additionally, the

  1st placebrewer will be memorialized on the traveling trophy and have their beer brewed at Fox River Brewing Company this fall. A “People’s Choice” beer was also selected from the entries by the membership during the July meeting. This brewer is awarded the “People’s Choice” medal. The results of the competition are as follows:

  1st: Dick Waltenberry – English Porter

  2nd: Kurt Weina – Vienna Lager

  3rd: Mike Engel – Experimental Beer (Imperial Porter with Vanilla and Bourbon)

  Peopls’s Choice: Kurt Weina – Vienna Lager

  Thank you to all brewer’s who participate in this year’s competition. Thank you to all members who assisted in selecting the “People’s Choice” beer. We were exceedingly surprised by the similar results of the membership and judges scoring this year. And again, thank you to the judges for taking the time to judges beers made by these SOBs!

May 20, 2020 virtual meeting

May Virtual Meeting Minutes:

12 SOBs loaded up the WebEx meeting for what we hope is our last online meeting. COVID has had a large effect on our plans for the year; many of our usual events have needed to be canceled or drastically changed to reflect safer social interactions. Our number one goal is the health and safety of our members, so we used this meeting to discuss event planning for the rest of the year.

June Meeting:

Like many events and gatherings, we have had to cancel our live meetings for the past three months. However, as businesses and organizations are finding better, more safer ways to operate in the midst of COVID we feel that we are going to have the chance for a live meeting in June.  The location is not yet confirmed but we should expect an outdoor venue with ample room to spread out. More details to come soon.

Big Brew Day:

Although we were unable to meet as a group in early May to participate in the official Big Brew Day the club would still like to hold a Big Brew Day style event. We believe that meeting outside will afford adequate possibility for social distancing. With added hand sanitizing stations, we fully believe this would be a great way for the SOBs to reunite and partake in our usual camaraderie. We have thought about holding the event in tandem with a wort share at Fifth Ward. More details to come soon.

Wort Share:

Our friends at Fifth Ward have offered the opportunity for the SOBs to join in a wort share sometime in June. The wort would be post-boiled Octoberfest style. Members would be able to take some of the wort home and ferment however they desire with whatever additions the desire to achieve a final beer. More details to come soon.

SOB Picnic:

Every August the SOBs meet for a picnic to celebrate our friendship. We should expect nothing different this year. The date (third week in August) will remain the same, but the details might look a little different. More details to come soon.

Casks and Caskets:

Unfortunately, with many local businesses, including our sponsors, feeling the effects of reduced business over the last three months we do not feel at this time that we will be able to plan a full-blown Casks and Caskets. We rely heavily on funds from our sponsors to host the event and we do not feel at this time it would be appropriate to ask for such an investment. We would still like to hold a C&C type event, but on a smaller scale and limited to SOB members and their family.  More details to come soon.

Bus Trip:

Assuming conditions continue to improve the SOBs would like to take a trip to Green Bay in October. We would visit some great breweries and share some great laughs. More details to

come soon

February 2020 Meeting

February Meeting Minutes:

Our first official meeting of 2020 was held on February 19^th, at O’Marro’s Pub. We had several great beers from 3 Sheeps brewery, many home brewed beers, and discussions about the happenings in the brewing community.

Fond du Lac Brewfest:

A group of fine SOB’s took a trip to Fond du Lac in early February to represent the club at the Fond du Lac brew fest. From all reports the event was excessively fun with a huge variety of craft and home brewed beers. There were many positive comments on the quality of the beers from delivered by the club. One observation made during the event was a slight drop in attendance. A drop in attendance is a problem that has plagued our own home brew fest; this seems to be a trend for many brewing events.

Membership Feedback:

We invited all members present at the meeting to participate in an open forum to discuss what events, topics, or changes should be implemented to club activities. Some of the ideas we heard are listed below:

·       Grain and malt discussion with a representative from Briess

·       Hop discussion with the folks from Hidden Valley Hop Farm

·       Yeast adventure with an expert from Omega

·       Wort share with a local brewery

Tentative Calendar:

The board has put together a tentative calendar for the upcoming year. Included in the plan are trips to local breweries, a beer competition, a mead/wine/cider competition, as well as our usual picnic and Christmas parties. Coming up next month is a trip to McFleshman’s Brewery in Appleton to soak in the British style pub complete with beer engines and stained-glass windows.

Date	Topic	Location
February 19th	3 Sheep’s	O’Marro’s
March 18th	McFleshman’s	McFleshman’s
April 15th	Omega Yeast	O’Marro’s
May 20th	Pure Class	Pure Class
June 17th	Emprize	Emprize
July 15th	Beer Competition	O’Marro’s
August 19th	Picnic	Menominee Park
September 16th	Wine Competition	Rushford Meadery
October 21st	–	O’Marro’s
November 18th	Stone Arch	Stone Arch
December 16th	–	O’Marro’s
January 16th	Christmas Party	Fifth Ward

 

Upcoming Club Events:

Big brew day is coming up in 2 short months on May 2^nd and will be held at the Cellar. Our friends at Emprize Brew Mill have offered to cater the event to make the day more fun and provide sustenance to our day of beer. Coming up will also be a club beer competition in July and a mead/wine/cider competition in September. Casks and Caskets is going to once again be the biggest event of the Fall, so start planning what great beers you want to serve at the event.

Updates in the World of Beer:

Beer events in the Fox Valley are constantly coming and going, so this meeting we took some time to highlight the events that are coming up soon:

·       Reports are in that brewers have been at Omega Brewing Experience in Omro. Hopefully this means that more beer will once again be flowing in the Fox Valley.

·       Oshkosh Craft beer week will kick off on March 7^th with the Winter Beer Fest at Barebones. Many events are scheduled for the week of March 7^th to the 14^th that can be found on Oshkosh Craft Beer Week Facebook page.

·       Stout Fest 2020 delivered by McFleshman’s Brewing is being held on March 27^th.

Member Beers:

This month members delivered many great homebrewer beers. Rob brought a raspberry stout with a distinct fruit flavor. This was his second attempt at the beer, but he felt something was missing. A few members thought the beer could use a slight bit more body to round out the beer flavors. Ty offered a coffee amber ale that was steeped with approximately 16 tablespoons of McCafe coffee. The coffee covered up some undesirable flavors that Ty noticed in the original beer. Jeff had a chai stout that utilized his own recipe of chai spices to create a full bodied, full flavor beer.

Speaking of members beers, Jeff had his Czech Pilsner brewed at Lion’s Tail in Neenah. The beer was released on February 21^st and was a huge hit. Additionally, Justin has been helping at Emprize Brew Mill and will have his first beer, a red IPA, go on tap starting on March 1^st. Congratulations to these two brewers for getting involved in the commercial brewing world!

3 Sheep’s Brewery:

Our brewery of the month comes from Sheboygan in the form of 3 Sheep’s Brewing (a play on three sheets to the wind.) The brewery stands in an old soda distribution building with two buildings and a magnificent taproom. What started as a two-man operation has expanded to 17 full time employees that pumps out one fantastic beer after another. The first beer we sampled was Cashmere Hammer, which is a nitro beer served in a bottle. The nitro is achieved by purging the bottle with nitrogen and adding liquid nitrogen prior to filling the bottle. Waterslides IPA is a one of 3 Sheep’s flagship beers that helped put the brewery on the map. Next, Veneration is a barrel aged Belgian Quad. One opportunity that 3 Sheep’s fans take advantage is the Barrel Society Membership that allows members access to exclusive barrel aged beers. For example, the Cuvee beer we sampled was a mixture of barrel aged beers from throughout the year. However, it was only a second tier beer compared to the exclusive Cuvee reserved for barrel society members.