Competitions/Judging
Last night’s NHC Awards Ceremony held in San Diego brought some great news for our club!
Brian Hoesing took 3rd place in Cat. 13 Stouts with his Russian Imperial Stout.
Tim Thomssen won the gold medal in Cat. 20 Fruit Beers and also took 2nd place in Cat. 24 Traditional Mead.
Congratulations, brewers! Job well done!
#1 – You must enter through your homebrew club – Each club will, in turn, judge their members’ entries entries and pick the TWO best beers to represent their club in the Shootout. ( 5 Styles x 2 entries each ) + 2 BDB entries = only 12 Beers can advance per club!
#2 – Contact your individual homebrew club to find out when their Club Judging Round is being held.
(Are you a Lincoln Lagers Member? If so – we’re still lining up a date, but your Club Round Entry Form is located here: http://goo.gl/forms/OXYa2lW44f )
#3 – If you advance to the finals, we need you to bring us TWO (2) 12oz bottles or the equivalent. Yes, a caged or corked bottle is okay, yes 22oz’s and Magnums are okay, etc. However it should definitely be free of any identifiying markings – and if it has any, please do the best you can to hide or minimize them. (Be a real pal, and rubber-band a BJCP Entry Form onto your bottles, would ya?)
#4 – The entry fee is $5 each. Usually your homebrew club will pay this fee for you. Yes, this fee also applies to Best Damn Beer/BDB entries.
#5 – Registration is open right NOW! Once your club has held your judging round, please have a club representative visit this link ( http://goo.gl/forms/mxa5op3RhM ) and fill out the form – including ALL of the beers your club is entering. (Exception: Bring your BDB entries with you on the day of the competition! We’ll check those in on the morning of the event.)
#6 – We need Judges & Stewards! If you are free on Saturday, April 25th and want to help, please sign up at this link: ( http://goo.gl/forms/Nv9BW7UIHE )
#7 – The event is being held at Zipline Brewing Co., 2100 Magnum Cir., on Saturday April 25th. Best Damn Beer entries will be accepted from 9AM- 10AM. Table & chair set-up will start around 9AM. Judges & Stewards, please arrive BY 9:45AM for instructions. Judging starts at 10:00AM.
#8 – When you’re done judging, please stick around! We will have a social hour from “When You’re Done” (or, about 11:30AM) until 1PM out front in the Taproom. Zipline will have bartenders on the clock early for us, and they will be slinging pints of delicious brave brew for you to quaff. We have arranged for a food truck for lunch service! Our friends from Heoya will be there to serve lunch at around 12pm. (At 1:00PM, Zipline officially opens for business, and the 2015 Shootout is, more or less, over – but ya don’t have to leave.)
#9 – Awards Ceremony – Results will be announced as soon as we are done tabulating data – this should happen sometime between about 12:30 – 1:15pm or so… Please hang around to hear who won, pick up your scoresheets and prizes, and so forth!
and finally…
#10 – Everyone is welcome at the Shootout! Even if you will not be judging or stewarding beer, please come by to support your club and your fellow homebrewers and cheer each other on! Non-volunteer guests are welcome starting at “around” 11:30-12:00 — in other words, about the same time that we’re all done filling out score sheets and begin ordering our lunch.
Questions? Comments? A great place to start is our Facebook Event Page for the Shootout, located at https://www.facebook.com/NEshootout .
The results are in – Tim Thomssen has succeeded in his quest to net back-to-back High Plains Brewer Of The Year awards, bringing home the bacon in both 2013 and 2014! Congratulations, dude, on a job REALLY well done!
Thanks to Tim’s efforts and also thanks to a few other Lincoln Lagers members who diligently shipped entries across the Midwest to competitions throughout 2014, the Lincoln Lagers Homebrew Club are the proud recipients of the 2014 High Plains Club Of The Year award, as well!!
For full standings, visit the official High Plains Brewer site at:
http://www.kcbiermeisters.org/competitions/high-plains-award.html
The Lagers hope to repeat this feat in 2015, but it’s going to take the efforts of each and every one of you brewers to pull this off!! — Please follow us on our new Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/lincolnlagers where we’ll be posting alerts throughout the year, keeping you up to date on all the High Plains and MWHBOTY competitions that will help us bring home the gold all over again! (For those of you already joined on our Facebook Group: We’re not going anywhere! Daily chit chat, etc. can still go on the Group — we will be using the Page as more of a streamlined news feed for competitions, contests, current events and anything else hop-pening around town.)
Thanks to Zipline Brewing for agreeing to host our June club meeting! This month’s Technical Talk will be Yeast by Aaron Carnes – and we will kick it off at about 7:15pm. Then, we’ll shoot to talk about the remainder of the Club Business around 7:30pm.
Date: TUESDAY, June 3rd, 2014
Time: 7:00-9:00pm
Place: Zipline Brewing Co., 2100 Magnum Cir.
We hope you’ll join us on Tuesday!
Kolsch conquers competition!
Doug F. and Lagers win 2014 Shootout
Shootout judges and stewards gathered on a bright sunny May morning in a common quest: to judge 51 beer entries for this year’s Nebraska Shootout homebrew contest. By 2:00pm, the score sheets were tallied and we had answers. With a single point lead, the Lincoln Lagers Homebrew Club once again rallied to win the Shootout Trophy, on the back of Doug Finke’s superb Kolsch.
Doug’s beer won the Light Hybrids category as well as Best Of Show. Tom Malowski’s Porter came in second for BOS, with the Railroaders in third and fourth with Matt Misfeldt’s Maibock and Wayne Faris’ Rye Saison.
Wayne also won the Best Damn Beer contest with his English Barleywine – the same beer that also wowed judges in Kansas City at the NHC First Round. In the individual categories, Brian Hoesing took second in Porters and third in Bocks; and Sam Bates took third in Belgian and French Ales.
The May 2014 edition of the Lincoln Lagers eNewsletter just went out — did you get a copy?
If not, be sure to subscribe to our mailing list so that you get future updates. To do that, visit http://www.lincolnlagers.com/about/subscribe-to-email-list/.
You can read this month’s eNewsletter by clicking on the large image on the right side of this post.
Now that’s over with, so let’s dive in to our latest announcements:
May Meeting / Big Brew Day
Most of you already know about this – but if you don’t, be sure to join us on Saturday May 10 for the annual Big Brew! Even if you don’t have free time to brew, we’d love you to stop by for an hour or two – chat with brewers, taste a beer or two, and say hi. Having company keeps our day more interesting!
Our club meeting will take place sometime during the afternoon of the Big Brew – there will not be a style of the month or tech topic since we’ll all be busy brewing beer.
We’re going to set up a side table for 2013 Lincoln Lagers Challenge Beers – if you recall, these are the beers we brewed a year ago at Blue Blood Brewing Co to celebrate 2013 Big Brew Day.
Anyone who still has their Big Brew beer from last year, please bring a bottle or two for a very informal tasting & judging. The Best Damn Beer will get bragging rights. And if you’re real nice, Chris will let you lick his mash paddle clean. ;-)
And – don’t forget – we have 5 shares of Big Brew Wort still left to claim! We’re starting out with delicious Best Malz Pilsner base malt, ripe for you to impart your brewing creativity upon.
Nebraska Shoot-Out Club Judging Round – Drop-Off Information
If you have beers that you hope to enter in the Nebraska Shoot-Out, please give them to us as soon as possible! We will perform the club judging round on this coming Friday, May 2nd, at 7:00pm.
All entries need to arrive at Tim Thomssen’s house by 6:00pm on Friday at the absolute latest — ideally, we’d like you to submit your bottles prior to then, so that they can chill and settle before judging takes place.
The best way to turn in your beers is to talk to Tim T. & arrange a time to drop them off at his place. If you don’t have his phone number or email, you can also contact him via Facebook message – which, in turn, you can locate on Lincoln Lagers’ Facebook discussion about the drop-offs. He is loaning us his cooler space, and has plenty of room to store your entry.
2014 Calendar Update
Here is a quick run-down of what the 2014 calendar looks like right now:
May 10th – Big Brew / Meeting – Doug’s House
May 17th – Nebraska Shoot-Out – Farnam House Brewing Co., Omaha
June ?? – Club Meeting – meeting venue TBA
June 12-14 – National Homebrewers Conference, Grand Rapids, MI
July 10 – Club Meeting – Empyrean Ales / Lazlo’s Haymarket
July 19 – Blues & Brews At The Zoo – come drink our beer!
August ?? – Club Meeting – meeting venue TBA
August 23 – Great Nebraska Beer Fest – NBC – Papillion
Sept. 6 – TENTATIVE DATE – Lincoln Lagers Club Picnic / Meeting
Sept. 13 – 1st Annual The Sower’s Cup Competition – Lincoln
Oct. 2-4 – Great American Beer Festival – Denver, CO
Oct. ?? – Club Meeting and Annual Swap Meet – meeting venue TBD
Oct. 9 – 21st Annual NSSA Okto-Beerfest – Lancaster Event Ctr.
Nov. 6 – Club Meeting – meeting venue TBA
Dec. ?? – Club Meeting and The Clone Challenge Beer Judging
Keep watching the Lincoln Lagers web page (and Mailing List!!) for more information as each of these events draws nearer.
We hope all of our club members & their family and friends will join us on Saturday, September 7, 2013 for the annual Lincoln Lagers Club Picnic. It will be hosted again at Tim T.’s house, and we will rev things up right at 5:00pm. If you are not sure where Tim’s place is at, check the Forum Thread for his address & a map link.
Yes, it’s true, the Huskers are playing vs. Southern Miss at 5:00pm. Luckily, the game will be on the big screen TV in the basement in case you identify as a Die Hard Husker Fan and don’t want to miss the action.
The picnic will be Pot-Luck, bring out your best dishes! Apps, salads, bread, cheese, sides, soups, desserts, whatever you want to bring!
As in past years, the club will buy a bunch of meat, which Tim will smoke and serve up for the main course – If you are bringing a food item that needs to be smoked, like small appetizers, etc., be sure to shoot Tim a message to coordinate when the smoker racks will be free and what time you need to be there with your food.
The picnic also marks the return of the annual Lincoln Lagers Mead Contest. Please bring at least (3) 12oz. bottles of your mead if you want to enter it!
We need all the Lady Lagers that we can get, to participate in the judging! Even if you don’t “know what makes a good mead”, this is simply a Best Tasting Mead contest. So please, jump in there and try it out, even if you’re a neophyte to the world of fermented honey.
Last, but I assure you, CERTAINLY not least — please welcome back with a hearty cheer – The Bolzen Beer Band!! Come get stuffed with great food, even better beer and mead, and have a stomping good time dancing polka!
The Homebrewers’ Night At The Ballpark has been moved to a new date. We apologize for the last minute change on this event. Here is the new information:
Come watch the Gary South Shore Railcats vs. the Lincoln Saltdogs.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013 – 7:05 PM
Open to all interested parties – You do not have to be a Lincoln Lagers member to join us! – Family & friends are welcome.
Sign up for tickets on the Forum at: http://www.lincolnlagers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=964
July Club Meeting
We will meet at Lazlo’s in the Haymarket on Thursday, July 11th at 7:00PM.
If you are not a club member and would like to join us for our meeting, we would love to have you, but ask that you let us know you will be coming so that we have your name on our guest list. More details on the forum.
Sign Up For Beer Events Now!
Here’s your chance to donate and pour your homebrew at a Lincoln Lagers club booth this summer! As of writing this post, we have 4 spots left at our booth at Brews & Blues At The Zoo, on Saturday, July 13th, which is a benefit event to support the Lincoln Children’s Zoo. We also have 3 spots left at our booth at Great Nebraska Beer Fest in Papillion, NE on Saturday, August 24th, hosted by Nebraska Brewing Company.
Donating your 5-gallon batch of beer gets you free admission to the event! Don’t miss out, sign up now on the Lincoln Lagers Forum thread!! (Click the name of the event above to reach the corresponding thread.)
For both events, we need to know before July 1st that you will be joining us, and what kind of beer you are bringing (so that we can make it on to the printed programs this year!!).
Buffalo County Fair Needs Judges!
The 2013 Buffalo County Fair Beer/Mead/Wine AHA/BJCP Sanctioned Competition is right around the corner. The judging will be held at 10:00am, Saturday, July 13 at Cunningham’s Journal-15 W 23rd Street, Kearney, NE. Judges and stewards are needed!
Sign up to judge or steward at: http://www.kearneyareabrewers.com/?page_id=47
Sign up to carpool with other Lagers at: http://www.lincolnlagers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=978
We will be heading back to Blue Blood Brewing next month for our club meeting, on Thursday March 7th. We’ll get to find out how Paul Breitkreutz‘s challenge-winning India Brown Ale came out after we brewed a full scale batch. Plus, we’ve heard that the BB brewers have a special announcement for us… Intriguing… Guess you’ll have to come to the meeting to find out what’s going on!
Read more on our Forum thread: http://www.lincolnlagers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=906
Last chance for bus tickets!
We have about 12 tickets left – Claim your spot now before they’re all gone! Here’s the Bus Trip Page with all of the relevant information – email us at lincoln.lagers.beer.club@gmail.com if you’re interested, and if you want to handle things digitally, we’ll tell you how you can pay us using PayPal.
Beer Quest Results & KC Bier Meisters Results
A huge congratulations is in order for all the Lagers who did an amazing job at Beer Quest last weekend! Jason Davis‘ beer earned Best of Show in the initial BJCP judging round. At Beer Quest, Co-brewers Bill Luhman and Aaron Carnes won the public vote (This makes Aaron’s 5th Beer Quest win!!), with Brian Hoesing not far behind, finishing in 2nd place. Thanks to all of our members who represented the Lincoln Lagers quite well!!
In Kansas City, Tim Thomssen earned two First Place finishes (4B Munich Dunkel and 21A Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer ) and also nabbed three Third Place spots (19C American Barleywine, 24B Semi-Sweet Mead, & 30A XXX American Awesome) in the KC Bier Meisters 2013 competition – Way to go, Tim!
Please join us Thursday, December 6th at 7:00pm for our December Club Meeting. We will be visiting the brand-new Zipline Brewing Co., where our host, Zipline head brewer and Lagers member Marcus Powers, will offer us a tour of their facility. Plus, we get to try some of Zipline’s beer!
Click here for the Lagers’ Forum Thread, including address & directions: http://www.lincolnlagers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=698
Agenda items for December include…
– Tour of the Zipline brew house
– 2013 Lagers Bus Trip announcement & ticket sales
– Last Call for Volunteers to donate beer & pour at Winterfest Ales & Auction, sign up by 12/25! Contact Chris E. for more info.
– Registration opens in late Dec. for the Upper Mississippi Mash-Out Homebrew Comp.
– The next AHA Club Only Comp. for Jan./Feb. 2013 is the theme “Un-Session Beers” – beers over 1.040. List of acceptable styles on the Lagers’ Forum.
– KC Biermeisters 30th Annual Comp. is coming soon, held on Feb. 15 & 16, 2013.
Huge Congratulations to Lagers member & Beer Quest Winner Tim Thomssen!
Tim has been a very busy braumeister this year: First, he brewed all of those single-hop IPAs for the Hop Tasting early on in 2012, and then cranked out batches of Cheech & Chong Pale Ale like it was going out of style. He also hosted numerous Lagers’ events at his house, and spent his time crafting the super-swanky Lagers Beer Tap Tower that has already seen a lot of action this year… The list goes on, and on!
But somehow, Superman Tim still managed to find enough time to brew a wicked “Smashed Out Of Your Gourd Pumpkin Ale” which cleaned up the competition at Lazlo’s Beer Quest on Sunday, November 11, 2013. Job well done, Tim, and thanks for representing the Lagers at the event! You rock!
That’s right, it’s time for the much-awaited, eagerly-anticipated Annual Lincoln Lagers Picnic! Featuring our annual Pull Out Your Best Bottles Of Mead contest, judged by our own Lady Lagers.
We’ll have smoked ribs & other such foods for this year’s Pot-Luck Dinner – if you are bringing a side, etc. that also needs to go onto the smoker, please show up a bit early to allow it enough time to smoke. Feel free to bring non-smoked sides or apps as well, and Tim says he will have a few open taps ready, in case you want to bring a keg of your beer! (Or hey, a keg of anyone‘s beer!)
This year’s picnic will be Saturday, September 8th at 6:00 PM.
(For those Husker Football fans out there, this is the evening of our Away Game against the UCLA Brew-ins at 6:30pm Central time zone. The game will be playing on a TV somewhere at our picnic, don’t worry!)
This year we will also have the Bolzen Beer Band joining us! COOL, MAN!
Watch the Forum Thread for details, here is the link: http://www.lincolnlagers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=666 – the Address will be posted there, with a Google Maps link.
Please RSVP by posting on the Forum Thread, so that we have a good idea of our head count for buying meat, etc.!!! Yeah, I know, I know, we practically never ask for RSVPs, but we want to make sure everyone gets well-fed! So – What are you waiting for?! See you at the Picnic!!!
- American Homebrewers Association
- Benson Homebrew Club – Benson (Omaha), NE
- Brauer Unterstützungs Verein – Omaha, NE
- Kansas City Biermeisters
- L.A.G.E.R.S. – Louisville, KY
- Local 402 Brewers Union – Omaha, NE
- OmaHops Brewing Club – Omaha NE
- Railroaders Brew Club – Omaha, NE
- South Omaha Brewers – Omaha, NE
- Benson Brewery – Omaha, NE
- Farnam House Brewing Co. – Omaha, NE
- Gottberg Brewery & Pub – Columbus, NE
- Infusion Brewing Co. – Omaha, NE
- Jaipur Brewing Company – Omaha, NE
- Lucky Bucket Brewing – Omaha, NE
- Nebraska Brewing Company – Omaha, NE
- Schilling Bridge Brewery & Winery – Pawnee City, NE
- Scratchtown Brewing – Ord, NE
- Thunderhead Brewing – Kearney, NE
- Upstream Brewing Co. – Omaha, NE