Greetings Brewers! We have a lot to cover this month and because we need action from all of you for some items, I want to start with them...
Sign-up for Clam Jam is due Sept 3rd. Please RSVP if you would like to serve your beer at this event.
Last Call for the Pallet Buy. Please get your order in by Sept 3rd!
Sign-up for Lehigh Valley Brewer's Guild Beerfest is due Sept 24th. Please RSVP.
Join the AHA and link your account to Lehigh Valley Homebrewers by Sept 1st. (This gives us a discount on our insurance fee)
Now that those important items are out of the way, on with the newsletter!
I'd like to offer a huge thanks to everyone who helped with Malt Madness XV! Special thanks goes out to everyone who volunteered including our all our stewards, judges, and the competition committee. It's a lot of work to run a competition of this size! I'd especially like to recognize the efforts of Mel Homik, Joe Kalinosky, Kevin Gain, Melissa Titus, and Keith Erikson. Without the efforts of these individuals we would not have been able to pull this off. I'd also like to thank all our sponsors including Keystone Homebrew supply, Hop and Grain, Weyerbacher Brewing, and our host venue, Dewey Fire Co. See below for more information regarding Malt Madness, including results.
Please check out the "Our Brewers" section below for some recent news about our club members.
We're wrapping up our BJCP training course and the tasting exam is scheduled for Aug 28th - Good Luck to everyone taking the test!
Our August meeting will be at Buttzville Brewing, a new brewery opened by club members Dave and Erin Anderson. Please plan on making the short drive into NJ and help celebrate their successful transition to pro-brewers!
Finally, a reminder that we still have 3 brewing competitions left for the Lehigh Valley HBoTY competition. While there is starting to be some separation at the top of the leaderboard, it's not over yet. Plus, the officers are working on a prize tiering strategy so ensure you've accumulated as many points as possible by the end of the competition!
See you at the end of the month!
John Litak
LVHB Club President
Future Meetings:
Meetings are open to anyone (21 and older) who home brews (beer, wine, cider, mead) or is interested in learning about home brewing. Our club has over 30 certified judges and several members who have "gone pro" by opening their own brewery, meadery, or distillery! - So bring your latest craft creation and get some constructive feedback and/or accolades!
Meeting Minutes from Last Month
July Meeting - Tuesday, 279 July 2021
In July, Lehigh Valley Homebrewers met at Lost Tavern Brewing and was attended by 26 brewers.
Agenda included:
Club Business and Announcements
Event Planning
Sharing of Homebrew
Malt Madness
Full results are available on the competition website, but here are the highlights and a summery of our club members' performances!
Competition Date: 8/14/2021
Total Entries: 237
Number of Participants: 72
Number of Judging Tables: 20
Number of Judges: 42
Number of Stewards: 6
Of 60 medals, 15 were awarded to Lehigh Valley Homebrewers! Congratulations to the following LVHb'ers:
Ryan Celia (15 HBoTY pts)
Beer Name Style Table Award
Little Buddy American Light Lager 01: Light Lager 2nd
Broaken Down Wood-Aged Beer 11: Wood-aged and Smoked Beer HM
Dan Feltimo (20 HBoTY pts)
Beer Name Style Table Award
Fools Gold English Golden Ale 05: Ales of the British Isles 1st
Chris Ferrante (15 HBoTY pts)
Beer Name Style Table Award
Rip Van Winkle American IPA 09: India Pale Ale (IPA) 2nd
Fortune Favors Double IPA 18: Strong Ale 3rd
the Brave
Bill Gade (10 HBoTY pts)
Beer Name Style Table Award
Sweet Home Int. Amber Lager 04: Hybrid Beers 3rd
Pennsylvania
Bryan Hoke (20 HBoTY pts)
Beer Name Style Table Award
What the Helles Munich Helles 01: Light Lager 1st
That?
Wein Lager Vienna Lager 03: Amber and Dark Lager 3rd
Joe Kalinosky (20 HBoTY pts)
Beer Name Style Table Award
Guten Morgen Spice, Herb, Veg Beer 19: Spice, Herb, Vegetable Beer 1st
John Litak (15 HBoTY pts)
Beer Name Style Table Award
Incidents and American Wheat Beer 10: Wheat Beer 2nd
Accidents
Cycloptic Colleague American Lager 01: Light Lager 3rd
Cleaning Out The New England IPA 08: New England IPA (NEIPA) 3rd
Hop Freezer
Dan Miller (10 HBoTY pts)
Beer Name Style Table Award
30's Strong Bitter 05: Ales of the British Isles 3rd
Edward Ponikvar with Harleigh Willmott (15 HBoTY pts)
Beer Name Style Table Award
Aa Old Ale 18: Strong Ale 2nd
Scott Smith (10 HBoTY pts)
Beer Name Style Table Award
Peezy American Porter 07: Porter and Stout 3rd
Congratulations to all medal winners!
UPCOMING CLUB EVENTS
Here are some upcoming events, we'll add more specifics as we work out the details for these events.
Malt Pallet Buy - As soon as we fill the Pallet (40 sacks)
Clam Jam September 19th
LVBG Beerfest October 2nd
Oktoberfest Inter-Club Challenge (Deferred until 2022)
Learn to Homebrew Day - November 2021
LVHB & Weyerbacher Homebrew Competition - November 2021
Holiday Party and HBoTY Award Ceremony - December 2021
OUR BREWERS (are awesome)
In addition to our competition wins at Malt Madness, we had some brewers place in the NJ State Fair Homebrewing competition, including overall best of show! Congratulations to Ryan Celia for crafting the best beer in the competition!
Best of Show:
Ryan Celia Iowa 1C: Cream Ale 1st Place
Table 1: Light Lagers (11 entries)
Ryan Celia Little Buddy 1A: American Light Lager 3rd Place
Table 2: Light Hybrids (6 entries)
Ryan Celia Iowa 1C: Cream Ale 1st Place
Table 19: Specialty Beers (4 entries)
Preston Klingseis Sarah Hughes' Dark Ruby Mild Clone 34A: Clone Beer 1st Place
w/ Maggie Klingseis
Homebrewers gone Pro! Please stop by 5 Maidens Cidery to congratulate Lehigh Valley Homebrewers Andrew and Brian on the recent opening of their urban cidery in South Behtlehem!
Lehigh Valley Homebrewer Mark Fedorov has shared his candidacy for Lehigh County Commissioner. Please support Mark in his candidacy if you'd like to see a fellow homebrewer in local government!
Join us at the next meeting to hear about the successes and contributions of our brewers to the homebrew and professional brewing community.
CLUB COMPETITIONS
Lehigh Valley Homebrewer of the Year
The fifth flight in the competition will have its entries due at the September Club Meeting. Judging will be done later in the week, please make sure your entry is packaged appropriately! Please RSVP to get your entry number.
Check out the details here. Start planning your next entry!
UPCOMING BJCP COMPETITIONS
Full list is available here.
Clam Jam Seafood Festival
Registration due 9/03/21 if registering via the club website.
Free!
Note: this is a public pour event in downtown Easton. If there is enough interest we'll bring out the club jockey box (7 taps).
Registration due 09/11/2021
$8 per entry
Downingtown Library Beer Festival - From email received by the club:
D-Town Brew-Down, benefit for the Downingtown Library on October 30th. This is a self pour competition (each brewer pours for the public), 4 brews allowed per entrant,4 gallon minimum per brew. 1st place $400, 2nd $200, 3rd $75 and the peoples choice winners' recipe gets brewed by Locust Lane Brewery in Malvern, a 475 gallon batch. If any of your members are interested please email me at karamat.hess@gmail.com.
Note: If there are several LVHB members planning on attending, we can arrange for the club jockey box to be there.
Stoney Creek
Registration due 10/30/2021
Registration Fee: $8
Motown MASH
Registration due 11/05/2021
Website N/A (yet)
OTHER CLUB INFO
The details for most of our happenings (news, events, etc.) will either be included in the monthly newsletter or will be found on the LVHB Website Club Info page. More random thoughts, photos, and links will be shared via the club Facebook page. Find photos of our brewing activities on Instagram! @lehighvalleyhomebrewers
LVHB T-Shirts
LVHB t-shirts are being redesigned for 2021.
Member Benefits
Keystone Homebrew Supply offers 10% off online and in-store purchases for LVHB members as well as a points based loyalty reward program. They offer weekly local delivery on Saturday at Bonn Place in Bethlehem (just place your order by Thursday). Keystone offers full sacks of grain as well as a large selection of brewing and wine making equipment. Also, for most local competitions they provide a drop off point so you don't have to mail in your entries! https://www.keystonehomebrew.com/ Hop and Grain offers members 20% off purchases on their online store, free shipping and flexible local pick-up options. You'll find them very accommodating, even if you require a special order. https://hopandgrain.us/
There's no excuse not to brew because you can't get ingredients or equipment! Thank you to the local shops that support our club!
See all the benefits of membership as well as how to join here.