As our club members return from the National Homebrewers Conference, we are excited as ever about the hobby with some great memories to share. Before we get into that, I just want to remind everyone that this Tuesday we'll be crossing the border for our monthly meeting and helping our members-gone-pro, Erin and Dave Anderson, get ready to celebrate Buttzville Brewing Company's one year anniversary.
The National Homebrew Conference was in Pittsburgh this past Thursday through Saturday and the mix of educational sessions, beer tourism, and homebrew sharing lived up to expectations. Our club attended sessions on Hop aromatic compounds, yeast selection impact on Munich Helles, balancing fruit additions, using enzymes in brewing and many more interesting sessions. We toured local breweries including Southern Tier, Sly Fox, Cinderworks, Dancing Gnome, and even visited some great beer bars. A few members even snuck out of the conference to catch an exciting went-to-extra-innings Pirates victory over the Cubs!
Club Night is always a main highlight of any NHC, and Pintsburgh did not disappoint. Decked out with a Lehigh Valley sports theme, the beer quality always is our highlight, with 9 beers on tap for the three hour event. Bill and Ryne's potato pale ale certainly raised curiosity levels! Our "Mr. Puttle" putting challenge and sports party favors kept the crowd entertained, and Joe would even "hold their beer" so they could putt!
Next year, NHC will be held in San Diego, one of the great beer destination cities... start making your plans to attend!
I also have an update on our Ukrainian Golden Ale collaboration with Yergey's Brewing. As you may have seen on social media, we raised $3000 to help with needed supplies in Ukraine via the Global Empowerment Mission. Thank you to everyone who participated in making the beer or supported the effort with a purchase of a pint or T-Shirt!
Additionally, earlier in June, the club poured at the Covered Bridge Festival and we recruited six festival goers to judge 13 beers we were offering as part of our Homebrewer of the Year challenge. Props to the volunteers who eagerly went from beer to beer, scoring each beer to their liking on a scoring system of 1-10. Keep scrolling to see the results!
Also, in June, we completed the first pallet buy of the year and we're currently collecting interest for a "can buy" for those who prefer canning to bottling their homebrew.
Malt Madness is approaching soon and that will also be an opportunity to earn HBotY points and for our newly certified judges, an opportunity to earn some additional judging points.
Please sign up for the club barrel brew and Clam Jam. If there is any interest in serving at the Schuykill County Beer Festival on July 30th in downtown Pottsville, let me know and I'll see if I can get us a spot.
Brew on!
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!
UPCOMING CLUB EVENTS
Here are some upcoming events, we'll add more specifics as we work out the details for these events.
OUR BREWERS (are awesome!)
Congratulations to LVHb'ers Preston & Maggie Klingseis for a silver medal at NHC for their Biere de Garde on the Belgian Ales table of 100 entries! Nice work!
Also, Congratulations to LVHb'er Rob Meyers for winning the "People's Choice" at this weekend's Brewers in PA competition at Wallenpaupack Brewing. Check out Rob's lineup:
CLUB COMPETITIONS
Lehigh Valley Homebrewer of the Year
Check out the 2022 leaderboard here!
Congratulations to our first set of winners for 2022:
1. Harleigh Wilmott and Edward Ponikvar - NEIPA
2. Mel Homik - Cherry Chocolate Belgian Dark Strong
3. Bill Gade - Texas-style Dunkles bock
Upcoming Challenges:
July: Munich Helles & Belgian Blonde (Fruited versions allowed; will be judged in Malt Madness - Free entry for club members for one of these styles)
Malt Madness - "Go for Gold" - Style Guidelines
Clam Jam - "People's Choice" - Crowd votes
UPCOMING BJCP COMPETITIONS
Full list is available here.
Recommended Local Homebrew Competitions:
Competition | Date | Registrations Due |
Multiple Dates | 3/28/22 | |
7/23/2022 | 7/7/2022 | |
7/24/2022 | TBD | |
8/20/2022 | Soon! | |
8/28/2022 | TBD | |
10/1/2022 | 9/12/2022 | |
SCH ABC 15 | 11/12/2022 | 11/5/2022 |
12/03/2022 | 11/19/2022 |
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...
Looking for a gift idea? How about an AHA Membership for yourself or your brewing buddy? Use our link (click the image below) and the club gets credit for your membership!
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.