December 2013 Meeting Notes

The homebrew club met on the second Monday of the month as is now our custom. We discussed meeting at other breweries in the future and it was the general consensus that we will roughly meet two months in a row at Crabtree then at another brewery the third month. I am putting down a suggested schedule here and we can decide on it at the January 13th meeting to be at Crabtree.

Treehouse Winter Warmer Beer Competition

Thanks to Shawn and Ken for doing a great job of coordinating the competition! There were 17 great entries as I counted and we enjoyed every one of them! oh, and the
winner and current holder of the Traveling Trophy is Neil Fisher with his PEACH SOUR winter warmer! Congrats to Neil for a great sour.
2nd place went to Dennis/Mike with their Vanilla Coffee Stout.
3rd place went to Piper with her CARBOMB. Congrats to home brewer Piper for placing 3rd in I believe her first competition. Look out guys she is coming! I know she has a special Berlinner coming.

We hope everyone had as good a time with this competition, sampling and beer discussions. We are planning our next competition and your turn to take home the very prestigious trophy in June. More to come on that.

Treehouse-Hunters Moon Meadery Collaboration!

Jan 13th is our first of two consecutive meetings where we will be sampling the meades made by club members and Hunters Moon. This is by no means a competition but a sharing and demonstration of what can be done with mead. All of our members produced a different meade and now we will all share and discuss the attributes of the meade we produced. Everyone is encouraged to come and participate. Since there are about 18 participants we are splitting the sampling up into two months, January 13 and February 10th. Thanks in advance to Shawn and Ken will help out as usual with the tastings. At our last meeting here are the folks who volunteered to share at the January 13th meeting.

Jan 13th - 1. Dennis Swingler 2. Michael Hinton 3. Mike Lurbe 4. Brian Schmalhorst 5. Ken Kramer 6. Greg Bowdish.

That leaves about 12 members the best I can recall so check to see if you are listed correctly for Feb 10th and let me know if you want to participate in January instead or stay in February.

Feb 10th 1.Steve Skinner 2.Jeremy Fusco 3. Bob Biffle 4.Kurt Dallow 5.John Coan 6.Eric Briscoe 7.Michael Moser 8.Jeff Graber 9.Curtis Covelli 10.Alex Drayer 11.Dave McGinley 12.Brent Leffler.

For those folks interesting in entering their mead in the Mazer Cup (an international meade competition in Boulder in April) you need to enter a minimum of two (2) 12oz bottles is required and 3 bottles is better should you make it two the final judging table. The cost is minimal for homebrewers and Greg will have more info on that as the information gets released by the Mazer Cup. If I have left anything out please bring it up!

Treehouse Ale Yeast Experiment - Finished product to be shared at our March 9th meeting.

Eric Rhinesvold is organizing an amazing experiment similar to the one we did last year where everyone brewed the same ale with a different hop. This year all of the brewers will brew the same ale each using a different yeast! Eric has the recipe ready and will be sending it out soon. When the beer is finished we will share it at the March meeting and experience all of the different attributes that yeast can make! Very exciting I think. Everyone is encouraged to participate! So far brewers showing interest are Michael Hinton, Shawn Crawford, Brian Schmalhorst, Dave McGinley, Ken Kramer, Jessica Johnson, Bill Gehrman and Greg Bowdish. I love to see our new brewers stepping up and participating!! This experiment will gain you the knowledge about all of these yeasts in one month that otherwise would have taken you years brewing by yourself. This is a big advantage of being in the club and again I encourage as many of us as possible to participate.

Brews Cruise - There has been interest is doing a Brews Cruise in February. Possible Saturdays are Feb 8th, 15th or 22nd. The proposed area will be a secret! So please contact me if you are interested. It has cost about $20 in the past and if have 16-22 brewers I expect that will be the same. On a brews Cruise we will go to four different breweries and usually get a tour of the brewery and then do some sampling of their fare. Breweries typically give homebrew clubs special attention and discounts on beer and stuff. They are always a great time if you ask anyone who has gone before. In the past we have gone to Ft Collins, Loveland and Boulder. And now if your still reading this we are planning to Cruise to Denver on the Northern Colorado Party Bus. We can discuss what breweries we want to go to with those interested in going. So let me know ASAP on which Sat in Feb will work for you. Once we have a list of those wanting to go and a date we can reserve the Party Bus!

Patricks Craft Beer Club

Monday, Dec 16th at 7PM Neil Fisher hosts the Craft Beer Club get together. Meet at Patricks Irish Pub for very interesting discussions and education about craft beer and do some sampling. This 'meeting' is open to anyone and Kyle owner and brewer from Wiley Roots Brewery will be there to discuss Strong Ales. This is also very affordable a s a sampler will be available for $3.

Proposed Treehouse meeting schedule for the first 6 months of 2014: we would like to finalize this schedule at our January meeting.

- Jan 13th - Crabtree-(Meade sharing) (presentation?)
- Feb 10th - Broken Plow Brewery-(Meade sharing) (presentation?)
- March 10th - Hunters Moon Meadery-(Yeast Experiment sharing) (presentation?)
- April 14th - Crabtree (presentation?)
- May 12th - Crabtree (presentation?)
- June 9th - Wiley Roots Brewery (Session Beer Competition) (presentation?)

The club wants to have an educational element at every meeting. Presenting has been a great way for me to gain knowledge by doing the research to give a short presentation. You certainly do not have to be an expert on the topic. I think more importantly it should be a topic you want to learn more about! The club can support you with getting what you need to prepare for a short presentation and all of our brewers are always glad to here new information and discuss it!

It has been suggested that we have a presentation on hydrometers, refractometers and maybe alcholmeters. Anyone interested on doing this or joining with me on it please help me! If you would like to give a short presentation on any brewing or any Craft Beer topic please get with me.

In conclusions officer elections are coming up in Jan or Feb as well as annual dues of $20 is collected at the same time. So bring your cash!

Hope to see you at Patricks otherwise Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.

September 2013 meeting notes

The homebrew club met on September 9th, 2013 at Crabtree Brewing Company.

Greeley’s Oktoberfest will take place September 27-28 at Lincoln Park in Downtown Greeley and will feature food, music, and fun times! Oktobrewfest is an annual fundraiser for the DDA and helps provide for the revitalization of Greeley’s downtown district. For sponsorship opportunities or more information please contact the Downtown Development Authority at 970-356-6775 or email alison@greeleydowntown.com

Some of the club members were talking about a place in Ft. Collins called Scrumpy's and said they make good hard cider. It was recommended by all who had been there. Their address is 215 N. College Ave. Phone is (970) 682-1944 and their hours are Mon. 9am - 11pm Tue 11am - 11pm Wed-Sat 11am - 12am and Sun 11am - 9pm.

New Meeting Location for October!
We will be meeting at Wiley Roots Brewing Company - 625 3rd Street Unit D (Crabtree's old location) on Monday, October 14th. We are looking at splitting the mead tasting in to two sessions because we could have up to 18 different meads to try. We are still looking at January, although no specific dates have been set as yet.

Keep in mind our Holiday Beer Competition is coming up December 8th, 2013.

Beers Tasted:

Dennis Swingler - Cocoanut Stout
Eric Kent - Chocolate Maple Porter
Ken Kramer - Oktoberfest Lager

August 2013 meeting notes

The Treehouse Brewing Club met at Crabtree Brewing Company on Monday, August 5th, 2013.

A decision was made to move the date for our regular meetings to the second Monday of the month. September's meeting will be on September 9th. Subsequent meetings will also be held on the 2nd Monday from now on.

Today we held our Summer Club Competition. Here are the results:

1st place - Erik Briscoe
2nd place - Shawn Crawford
3rd place - Mike Lurbe

Congrats to our members for their winning entries.

There will be a Brewery Cruise set to visit the Boulder area on Saturday, August 24th. Dennis is working on the breweries we will be visiting and will be posting information via club mail when it is available.

The bus will leave at 10am and head to: Bootstrap Brewing (Niwot) at 11am, then arrive at Twisted Pine at 12:30pm, then Avery Brewing at 2pm, Upslope Brewing at 3:30pm, and Asher Brewing at 5pm. They will depart back to Greeley at 6pm and arrive around 6:30pm.

July 2013 meeting notes

The Treehouse Brewing Club met on Monday, July 1st, 2013 at Crabtree Brewing Company.

The club would like to welcome two new members - Daryl Howell and Piper Meade.

A big thanks to Dennis Swingler for giving the club a presentation on hops.

We have a brew cruise scheduled for Saturday August 24th. If you are interested contact Dennis Swingler at d.swingler@comcast.net The club will pay for $100 of the bus rental and the rest will be split up between the members that sign up, so the more people that go the less it will be per person.

The 3rd annual Orpheus Cup is coming up Saturday, September 28th. For more information visit http://www.orpheuspcc.org/orpheus-cup-mead-fest.html

Beers Tasted:

Bob Biffle - Blonde Ale
Brian Schmalhorst - Belgian Blonde
Dennis Swingler - Belgian Blonde
John Coan - Belgian Brown
John Coan - IPA
Piper Meade - Porter
Piper Meade - Stout
Mike Lurbe - Sour Wild Cherry Wee Heavy
Brent Leffler - Cider
Brent Leffler - Cider

The next meeting will be held on Monday, August 5th at 7pm at Crabtree Brewing Company.

June 2013 Meeting Notes

The June 2013 club meeting was held on June 3, 2013 at Crabtree Brewing Company. The meeting held a tasting and evaluation session. Seven members brought in beers for tasting:

Eric R. - Sour Wee Heavy

Alex D. - Kolsch

Ken K. - Amber

Brent L. - Cider

Shawn C. - English Old Ale

Mike M. - Robust Porter

Erik B. - Swamp Water

The next meeting will be held on Monday, July 1st at Crabtree Brewing Co. Dennis Swingler is scheduled to give a presentation on hops.

A note about within-club competitions

A reminder to all of you brewers -

The Treehouse brew club within-club competitions will occur at the club meetings in April, August, and December.

That means that if you think you'll want to enter a beer in the August competition you should be looking at your brewing calendar to make sure your beer is carbonated, appropriately aged, and fully prepared to be ready for tasting/judging by your fellow attendees on August 5th, which will be our regular first-Monday-of-the-month meeting time.

The style parameters for that competition are that we be tasting summertime appropriate beers - - brews that are refreshing and enjoyable in summer weather, so keep that in mind when thinking about your potential submissions. That leaves things a bit open-ended and suggests that it could be inclusive of BJCP styles 1, 2, 3A, 6, 7B, 8, 10A, 14, 15, 16, and 17A, which are light lagers, pilsners, Vienna-style lager, light hybrids (cream ale, Kolsch), California common ale, English pale ales, American pale ale, IPA, German wheat & rye, lighter and/or less alcoholic Belgian & French ales, and Berliner weisse.

As the time approaches for the competition I will be asking people to notify me if they are planning to enter a brew just so I can have a feel for number of entries and the breadth of styles that will be represented.

The December competition will be for holiday ales, spiced ales, winter warmers and such, which are season appropriate at that time of year. The style theme for next April's competition is yet to be determined.

- best regards,
Shawn Crawford, club competition coordinator

May 2013 meeting minutes

May has started off in a big way. Not only did Greeley get 8" of snow dumped on us on May 1st, but that very weekend saw 11 club members brew on Big Brew Day on May 4th out front in the Crabtree Brewing parking lot. Things got started early due to the Crabtree's holding their 7th Anniversary party for the brewery later that afternoon.  More pictures of Big Brew Day can be found on the club's Facebook page.

The following members participated during Big Brew: Bob Biffle, Erik Briscoe, Curt Covelli, Paul Dolan, Alex Drayer, Jeff Graber, Jeremy Fusco, Michael Hinton, Mike Lurbe, Steve Skinner, & Dennis Swingler.

Then on Monday, May 6th, the club held their regular monthly meeting at Crabtree Brewing in Greeley.

The members in attendance voted for club competitions will be held in the months of April, August and December. We voted to give Jeremy (of Juice of the Barley) free membership in exchange for 3 presentations throughout the year. Jeremy also offered to give an additional discount to club officials. This was also voted in and will start next year after our election vote in January.

Greg suggested that club officials should get free membership and this was also voted in. The club members present also voted for limiting the number of beers to be tasted during a meeting. If you want to share a beer at an upcoming meeting you need to let one of the officers know.

We decided to put a limit on 7 beers, but if you want to bring a beer to share after the meeting that will be fine. For those sharing during a meeting please bring your recipe and notes, if any, to share with club members. If all 7 slots have not been filled during the meeting the number of available slots will be posted for those who were unable to attend.

As of now we have 5 members that would like to bring something in next month so we still have room for 2 more. Let Steve Skinner know if you have something you want to bring in.

Beers tasted during the meeting:

John Coan - Ginger Citrus Saison
Dave McGinley - Apple Crabapple Cider
Ken Kramer - E. S. B.
Jeff Graber - American Brown Ale
Ken Kramer - Breakfast Stout

Please welcome Sean Denning as our newest member. He has not started brewing yet but
is interested in getting started soon.

The next meeting will be held on June 3rd at 7pm at Crabtree Brewing Company.

April 2013 Meeting Notes

The club met at Kyle Carbaugh's home, the owner of Wiley Brewing Company,opening at Crabtree's old location sometime this summer. We sampled a few beers and discussed ways to make the club more enjoyable and less intimidating to new brewers. This is your club. Any thoughts or ideas are welcome. If you are interested in Mead making you won't want to miss our next meeting. Greg Bowdish is offering a great deal to club members, first come first serve. If you want to find out what's going on be at our May 6th meeting.

Beers sampled:

Brian Schmalhorst - German Pearl SMASH
Greg Bowdish - Earl Grey Mead
Erik Briscoe - Newport SMASH
Eric Reinsvold - Cherry Cranberry Ale
Steve Skinner - Blackberry Raspberry Wine Cooler

Kyle Carbaugh also let us sample two of his recipes that will eventually be available at Wiley Brewing Company when they open sometime around early June.

Our next gathering will be Big Brew on Saturday, May 4th in the Crabtree Brewing front parking lot at 8am. The next club meeting will be on Monday, May 6th at 7:00pm at Crabtree Brewing in Greeley.