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September Lehigh Valley Homebrewers Newsletter


Greetings Brewers!


Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 29th at 7:30 PM via zoom. Please sign up for the meeting on the events page to receive an email with the link.


Bryan Hoke will be giving a brief presentation about monitoring fermentation with a refractometer. And this month's deep dive on styles will be 4B Festbier and 6A Märzen (Oktoberfest) beers. For our virtual tastings, we've selected two classic examples that should be readily available at local stores such as Tanczo's, Wegmans, Shangy's, etc. Those interested in participating should pick up a bottle of one or both of the following:



We'd also like to encourage everyone to check out the local festbier scene. Several of the breweries have theirs available or tapping soon! Here's a few to consider.

Yergfest (cans only)


Future Meeting Locations:

27th October @ TBD

24th November @ TBD (LVHB officer elections)


We're working on plans for an in-person, social meeting in order to socialize and share homebrew as we'd all like to be doing each month. Everyone's safety and comfort is our number one priority, so please bear with us as we work out the details.


Meetings are open to anyone (21 and older) who home brews (beer, wine, 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!

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS


Malt Madness XIV

This month, our club was able to continue the long, proud tradition of hosting our AHA/BJCP sanctioned homebrew competition, Malt Madness. Not only was our competition one of the first to be held with all of the challenges and restrictions imposed by the pandemic, it's likely the only homebrew competition to be completed at this time via in-person judging sessions. This is only possible because of the large number of BJCP judges and professional members that are part of our club.





We want to send out a big thank you, to all of the participants, judges, stewards and competition staff that made Malt Madness XIV a success. You can see our members who earned medals for their brews below.


A special thanks to our members who agreed to host judging sessions at their homes this year: John Litak, Joe Kalinosky and Scott Minnich. And a huge thank you to our sponsors for this year: Gallows Hill Spirits, Taylor House Brewing, Keystone Homebrew Supply and BrewHardware.


New Brewery looking for crowd funding

Pilger Ruh Brewing, a new local (Pottsville, PA) brewery in planning is looking for some help getting the final stages of their renovations done. You may have met these guys at the Fegley's Craft Beer Festival last year, and they have invited our club to participate in their local Schuylkill County Brew Fest (cancelled due to Covid-19). Check out what they have planned and some of the awards available for helping them hit their funding goal.


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!


We're not quite to the interest level for the next pallet buy - If you are interested, please complete the survey (not an committed order yet) on the members information page.


See all the benefits of membership as well as how to join here.

 

UPCOMING CLUB EVENTS


Bracket Judging - This Saturday, September 26th, 2PM, the club officers will host the Brewer's Bracket, Round of 8, judging at HiJinx Brewing during their Celticfest event. All members are invited to come out and support one of our local breweries and catch up with each other. Note: the only homebrew permitted will be the bracket entries.


Learn to Homebrew Day - Saturday, 07 November

In 1999, Learn To Homebrew Day was established by the American Homebrewers Association to promote the most rewarding, and delicious activity of all time — homebrewing. On the first Saturday in November, thousands of people celebrate Learn to Homebrew Day. Homebrewers worldwide brew beer and learn about the hobby of homebrewing.


We'll be getting together at the Becker's place in Northampton. This event will be outside, so please plan accordingly. The club will provide burgers, dogs, etc., and we'd also ask those in attendance to bring some food and brew to share. We'll have more info available next month.

 

OUR BREWERS (are awesome)


Congrats to all of our brewers on their award winning homebrew!


Malt Madness XIV


Table 1: Amber and Dark Lagers (7 entries)

1st Joseph Kalinosky Ctrl-Alt-Del Altbier


Table 2: Pale Lagers (14 entries)

1st Ryan Celia Kurva Czech Premium Pale Lager

2nd John Litak Plethora Of Pinatas International Pale Lager


Table 4: Mead (6 entries)

1st Bryan Hoke Plain Jane Mead Sweet Mead

2nd Bryan Hoke Annie Oaked Mead Experimental Mead


Table 5: Light Hybrids (9 entries)

2nd Bryan Hoke Saaz Who Cream Ale Cream Ale

3rd Scott Smith Gelbe Karte Kolsch

HM Scott Smith Disillusion Of Respect New Zealand Pilsner


Table 8: Spice and Wood Beers (9 entries)

2nd Scott Smith Divine Nonchalance Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer


Table 9: Trappist and Belgian (12 entries)

2nd Mel Homik My Qualifications Are Impressive Saison


Table 11: American Beer (12 entries)

1st Ryan Celia Top Down Blonde Ale

2nd Joseph Kalinosky Proceed With Caution American Amber Ale

3rd Charles Lysakowski Frightened Turtle American Pale Ale


Table 12: IPA (14 entries)

1st Joseph Kalinosky Faith Preserved Specialty IPA

3rd John Litak Cuious Chicken American IPA


Best of Show

3rd Ryan Celia Kurva Czech Premium Pale Lager

 

CLUB COMPETITIONS


Bracket Competition

Check out the latest on the bracket here. We should have the news on who advanced to the next round during Tuesday's meeting as well as the announcement of the style to be used for the Final Four!


Black is Beautiful

Please contact a club officer to receive your official labels! 25 labels will be provided free of charge for those participating in the contest. The donation page is now available as well.




Unfortunately, we're going to shelve the Iron Brewer and Clone Beer competitions for 2020. We hope we can put these together again in 2021.

 

UPCOMING BJCP COMPETITIONS

Full list is available here.


Hogtoberfest

Stoney Creek Homebrewers Amateur Brewing Competition (SCH ABC) 13

Motown Mash 2020

Monk Melee X

 

CLUB COMMUNICATION

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 available for sale. Please see a club officer for more information and to purchase. Styles and pricing are as follows:

T-shirts - blue only, Short sleeve L-XXL

$10


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