Greetings Brewers! I hope everyone is staying warm and is safely dealing with the winter weather.. I'm positive your homebrew tasted extra delicious after spending a few hours removing snow from your driveways and sidewalks! To start, I'd like to thank our guests that joined us at our January meeting. Sam Masotto of Bonn Place joined in to give the pro-brewer's insight to one of our selected English Dark Milds, Nemo. Thanks Sam! Next, a special thanks to Megan Wabst of the American Homebrewers Association for updating us on the state of homebrewing and the activities of the AHA. I'd encourage all members to take advantage of the benefits of AHA membership (Discount Code: Club5Off) and remember to update your profiles to indicate your affiliation with our club! You can find a link to the presentations, including Sam's Nemo recipe below...
Speaking of memberships, it's time to renew our own with the club. Membership fees help pay the club's insurance premium as well as fund other club activities. Along with membership renewal, we're asking members to fill out a short survey so we can continue drive meeting agendas so they're relevant. We're also looking for some volunteers to help organize various club activities. Renewing Members click here (send us a note if you have issues accessing the page). New Members click here.
Also, I'd like to thank those that pointed out the Poured in PA documentary about the history and state of craft beer in Pennsylvania. After watching, you might just want to open your own brewery!
So, on to the rest of the newsletter and I hope to see you at the February Zoom Meeting!
John Litak
LVHB Club President
Future Meetings:
February 23rd - Zoom - RSVP Here Beer Homework:
Cream Ale: Bru Daddy's Oh, Jenny Jenny and/or Genesee Cream Ale
American Light Lager: McCall Collective Lyte Done Ryte and Yuengling Flight (or Miller Lite)
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
January Meeting - Tuesday, 26 January
For our first meeting of 2021, we continued with our zoom virtual meetings. We had 26 Zoom participants. Our Agenda included:
Announcements and updates on club activities and competitions.
Style Deep Dives: English Dark Mild and English Brown Ales
Special Guest Presenter: Megan Wabst from AHA
Special Guest: Sam Masatto of Bonn Place Brewing
Here are the presentations from the meeting:
Style Deep Dive: English Dark Mild & English Brown Ale (includes Nemo recipe)
AHA Presentation
UPCOMING CLUB EVENTS
Here are some upcoming events, we'll add more specifics as we work out the details for these events.
Big Brew - May 2021
BJCP Classes - July/August 2021 - Sign-ups now available! (limited spots available! Note, if you plan on taking the test, you'll need to RSVP to both events)
Members Picnic - Summer 2021
Malt Madness - August 21st 2021
Learn to Homebrew Day - November 2021
Holiday Party - December 2021
OUR BREWERS (are awesome)
Join us at the next meeting to hear about the successes and contributions of our brewers to the homebrew and professional brewing community.
Brian and Andrew have announced their new mug club memberships for their upcoming urban cidery, Five Maidens Cider Company! T-Shirts and other swag are also available. Please show your support for another set of our club members on their journey of evolving their hobby into a profession!
CLUB COMPETITIONS
Lehigh Valley Homebrewer of the Year
The first flight of our brand new competition is coming up next month! There is still plenty of time to brew for it! Check out the details here.
Bracket Competition
Check out the latest on the bracket here. Congratulations to our winners! The winning brewer(s) will get to collaborate with Dave Barber of Taylor House Brewing to make a commercial version of their winning entry to be served in the Taylor House Tap Room!
If you haven't seen this... check out this amazing beer artwork from Taylor House!
Black is Beautiful
At the January meeting, we will wrap up this competition and share what we've collected for charity. If you've been waiting on donating, please submit your donations by Friday January 15th. The donation page will stop accepting donations at that time.
UPCOMING BJCP COMPETITIONS
Full list is available here.
National Homebrew Competition
Registration: Feb 17th - March 3rd (Payments due; don't wait until end in case it fills up)
Shipping Window (all entries must be shipped): March 29th - April 9th
Judging: April 26th - May 2nd
$29/entry
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/national-homebrew-competition/
War of the Worts
02/27/2021 (Montgomeryville, PA)
Entry Deadline: Competition has reached it's entry limit of 300 entries.
$8/entry
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.