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.

March 2013 meeting notes

The March meeting was taken up sampling several of the S.M.A.S.H. beers. These beers used the same Pale Ale base recipe, but used a unique single hop in each beer. The idea was to see how different hops change the same base beer recipe.

Here is a list of the SMASH beers sampled:

Bob Biffle - Spalt
John Coan - U.K. Target
Shawn Crawford - German Tetnanger
Paul Dolan - Glacier
Jeff Graber - Strissel Spalt
Michael Hinton - German Opal
Ken Kramer - Amarillo
Mike Mosher - U.S. Galena
Mike Ruah - U.K. Bramling Cross
Eric Reinsvold - U.K. Progress
Steve Skinner - German Saphir
Dennis Swingler - German Smaragd

More S.M.A.S.H. beers to come next month.

Other beers tasted:
Neil Fisher - American Milk
Alex Drayer - IPA
Ken Kramer - Wee Heavy
Bryan ?? - Honey Bee Ale

February 2013 meeting minutes

Elections were held during the February meeting on February 4th at Crabtree Brewing. Our new President is Brian Schmalhorst. Our new Vice President is Erik Briscoe. Steve Skinner is still Secretary. Bill Gehrman is still Treasurer. Dave Butler is still our Media Specialist. Two new positions were added. Dennis Swingler is our new Event Coordinator and Shawn Crawford is our new Competition Coordinator. Ken Kramer will help Shawn as needed. (Ken, see what happens when you miss a meeting?)

The interview that was conducted at the old Crabtree Brewery for the Colorado Brews TV show will air on Saturday April 6th at 9:30 pm on Rocky Mountain PBS, and yes, during the end of the Final 4 semi-final game.

Beers Tasted:

Club Wee Heavy
Greg Bowdish - Gruit
Greg Bowdish - Blended beer from Montana Brewing Co.
Adam Wills - Mint Chocolate Chip Milk Stout
Steve Skinner - Cranberry Ale
Alan Hermance - Belgian Dark Ale
Alan Hermance - Blackberry Mead
Dennis Swingler - Vanilla Coffee Stout
Mike Ruah - Stout
Mike Lurbe/Swingler - 2nd Run Wee Heavy
Bob Biffle - Double Black IPA
Mike Mosher - American Red
Dennis Swingler - Vienna Lager
Mike Mosher - Pepper IPA
Brian Schmalhorst - Hard Apple Cider
Club Imperial Stout, 4 samples pulled from the 4 conditioning kegs
Dennis Swingler - Brown Ale

January 2013 meeting notes

The club met on Monday, January 7th at Crabtree Brewing Company in Greeley.  We will be brewing a S.M.A.S.H. beer (same recipe but different hops) asap and sharing the results at our March meeting. The following is a list of hops that was chosen by different members. If I didn't get your hops recorded please let me know. Eric will be posting the recipe soon so we can start brewing.  Also, at the February meeting we will be holding club elections.

Greg Bowdish - UK Palisade
John Coan - UK Target
Shawn Crawford - German Tettnanger
Paul Dolan - Antanum
Bill Gehrman - US Chinook
Michael Hinton - German Opal
Ken Kramer - Amarillo
Dave McGinley - US Perle
Mike Mosher - US Galena
Michael Rauh - UK Bramling Cross
Eric Reinsvold - UK Progress
Brian Schmalhorst - German Perle
Del Scholfield - Kent Goldings
Dennis Swingler - German Smaragd
Steve Skinner - German Saphir

Beers Tasted:

Greg Bowdish - Coffee Mead
Dennis Swingler - Brown
Eric Reinsvold - Cherry Cranberry Blonde, Gluten free
Erik Briscoe - Cherry Wit
Michael Hinton - Esoteric Heather
John Coan - Tart Cherry Cider
Steve Skinner - Pumpkin Spice Ale
Michael Ruah - Wheat IPA
Ken Kramer - Rye IPA
Bob Biffel - Stout
Jeremy Fusco - Bacon Bourbon Stout
Michael Hinton - Wee Heavy - club beer