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.

 

June 2018 SOB Meeting

June 20, 2018
The SOB’s gathered at Appleton Beer Factory, where no Virginia, this factory has no Oompa Loompas – but some really great beer!
Please note, that due to the acoustics and background noise in the restaurant, I did not even attempt to take notes as it was too difficult to hear everything. Instead, this month’s notes will be based off the agenda we went through.

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

Treasurer’s Report
Kurt Weina, our prestigious Treasurer, reported that we have money. That’s all I got ‘cause I couldn’t hear how much we actually have. Somewhere between $1 and $1,000,000 I would guess.

Appleton Beer Factor Tour
Ben Fogel, co-owner of ABF was kind enough to not only allow us to have our meeting at the brewpub, but also provided the SOB’s with an overview of their brewing system. I was not able to catch all the details, but I do know that Ben, along with his pipefitter and co-owner father Jeff Fogel, did most of the work setting up the brewery themselves. One of the unique aspects of this brewery, besides the fact that it is entirely visible from the dining room floor, is that it is a mostly gravity fed system (something usually only done with homebrew systems). Thanks again Ben!

Lake Arrowhead Camping Brew Day Recap
Jeff Eaton provided the club with a recap of the homebrewing day and demos out at Lake Arrowhead Campground. I couldn’t hear too much of what he said, but I do know that those who attended had a great time based on the Face Book pictures that were posted from that weekend.

Milwaukee Bus Tour Update
The bus tour for Milwaukee breweries is still being worked out, no new details to share.

Brewing Calendar
July is the homebrew competition.
This year we will have the monthly meeting and competition at the Cellar once again. Just remember, the Cellar has moved to 465 N Washburn St. in Oshkosh!
Zach and Ian from Fifth Ward will be judging and also will brew the winning beer at some point down the road! Along with Zach and Ian, we have Kevin from Fox River, Jody from Bare Bones and Andy Piontek from Stone Arch as judges.

August will be the SOB picnic.
Still looking for someone to volunteer to prepare the meats like we have had last year.
Signups are online so keep watching for the SOB email blasts for a link.

September 8th will be the SOB Homebrew Showcase, to be held at The Cellar from ~ 9am-4pm
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.
Looking for people to volunteer to be part of a planning committee so please contact Mike Engel as soon as possible.
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.

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

German Beer Update
Brent Martins did a fantastic job procuring, researching, and pouring a delightful selection of German beers. Among the beers we learned about and sampled from:
Schlenkerla Rauchbier
Weihenstephaner Pilsner
Reissdorf Kolsch
Ayinger Hefeweizen
Aventinus Weiss

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!!!!!!!!!