local beer
Big shout out to the one and only Doug Finke – brewer extraordinaire – for sealing the deal on our Lincoln Lagers Big Brew Challenge contest. He took on 13 other brewers’ creations – all of which were brewed using the Ploughshare Brewing Co. Farm Boy base wort – and his bad-to-the-bone Honey Braggot dominated the competition!
He has since brewed his scale-up batch of Braggot with Matt Stinchfield – and they report that, after adding 36 Lbs. of Hickman, NE honey – it clocks in at a whopping 11.5% ABV.
Look for Doug’s Braggot on tap at Ploughshare Brewing Co. during the Sower’s Cup weekend! Cheers!
February Club Meeting:
Thursday, February 5, 2014 – 6:30pm – 9:30pm
The Clubhouse – 5000 Tipperary Trail – Lincoln, NE
If you’re one of the first to arrive or last to leave, please lend a hand with putting away tables & chairs, and making sure that everything is left spotless after we use it!
This month’s activity: Brewers-In-Arms Beer Tasting
This month, we’ll be tasting the results from each team project! Remember that in November, we assigned teams based on five countries or regions to our panel of 20 intrepid brewers. These masters of malt then set out in teams of four to execute their mission: to brew the “perfect” indigenous Pale Ale – basically, following the 10A American Pale Ale style guideline, and using only (1) Base malt, (1) Crystal-type malt, (1) specialty malt of their choosing, plus hops and yeast, all of which are native to their assigned region.
Join us next month to hear more from Teams America, England/UK, France/Belgium, Germany, and Southern Hemisphere — we’ll learn what ingredients they chose, how they sourced them, and we’ll get to taste the final result from each team! Many of the teams are bringing more than one variation of their beer!
Whose beer will reign supreme? Your vote will decide!
But wait – There’s more!!! Continue reading
Annual Swap Meet & Learn To Homebrew Day All-Grain Demonstration:
That’s right – it’s time for our annual Equipment Swap Meet! Raid your brewing closet and pick out all that unused gear that you never brew with anymore. Bring it out to Zipline and turn it into CASH! Plus, you’ll feel great knowing that you’ve handed your gadgets and doodads down to another fellow homebrewer – instead of sending it to the landfill or letting it accumulate even more dust!
Join us on Saturday, November 1st from 11:00AM to 3:00PM for our annual Swap Meet.
We will also be celebrating the national AHA Learn To Homebrew Day outside in the Zipline parking lot with a live 10-Gallon, All-Grain brewing demonstration! Bring your friends, bring your family, heck – bring your pastor if he or she is into beer! Co-brewers Chris Evans, Bill Luhman, and Sam Bates will demonstrate all grain brewing procedures for you, while answering your questions about home-brewing equipment, processes, and techniques. The demo will run from 11AM – 2PM.
Zipline’s taproom will be open during our event, so please grab a glass or two of deliciously delightful Zipline beer, brewed by the 2014 Lincoln Chamber of Commerce “Celebrate Business” Small Business Of The Year! (P.S. Congratulations, dudes!)
But, you’ve gotta help us out – please keep your pints indoors or on the patio only!!
NO BEER allowed outside in the Parking Lot!
> Lots more Swap Meet / Learn To Brew Day information available by clicking here! <
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/713600132040855/
November Lincoln Lagers Club Meeting:
Ploughshare Brewing Co., 1630 P Street
Thursday, November 6th, 2014 – 6:30PM to 10:00PM
(Club Business at 7:30PM)
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/346531615515421/
October Lincoln Lagers Club Meeting:
Annual Lincoln Lagers’ Club Picnic & Mead Contest
Hosted by Tim & Theresa Thomssen
Saturday, October 18th, 2014
6PM until we can’t party anymore
All current Lincoln Lagers Members and their families/guests are invited. Kids are welcome (sigh, I guess…) – Please, no pets.
Dinner will be served! The club will provide BBQ Pulled Pork sandwiches (incl. buns and all the fixin’s) for everyone!
Bring your own side dish, appetizer, dessert, etc. to share!
Bring homebrew! We will have 5 open taps for you to pour beer from! (Just chilled with ice – the compressor died!) The taps are ball-lock, please bring the appropriate fittings if yours is a a pin lock or Sanke keg.
Return of the Annual Mead Contest! Bring (1) 12oz. or larger bottle of your mead to enter for the Lady Lagers to judge. Any style or variety of mead is accepted!
Return of the Bolzen Beer Band! Drink beer, stuff yourself with food, and enjoy the hip, happening sounds of Eclectic Party Punk Polka from our favorite party animals!
P.S.: Bring some cash with you!! As usual, we will be doing the “50/50” raffle drawing!! The winner gets half of the pot, paid out in cold, hard CA$H!!! – and the other half goes to the Band! Plus – who knows? – maybe we will give away some extra SWAG to additional raffle ticket holders!
Yes, There’s Football!! – The Nebraska Cornhuskers play the Northwestern Wildcats on 10/18 at 6:30pm (away game). We will have the football game showing on the big screen in Tim’s basement in case you bleed so much Big Red that you can’t pry yourself away to judge some mead or to dance the polka. GO BIG RED! (But go HOMEBREW, too!)
21st Annual Okto Beerfest:
Once again, the Lincoln Lagers will be at the 21st Annual NSSA Okto Beerfest on Thursday, October 9th at the Lancaster Event Center. Come attend the Beerfest and stop by to see us at our booth. Tickets are on sale now!! Click the image below to buy yours today!
Our selection of homebrewed beer on tap at the Lincoln Lagers Booth will include these beers and more!
- American Amber Ale
- Tangelo & Black Pepper Robust Porter
- Lilikoi Berliner Weisse
- Braggot
- French Pilsner
Oct./Nov. Club Newsletter:
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 are going to meet at Blue Blood Brewing Co. on Thursday, March 6th from 7pm-9pm.
The style of the month will be IPAs and we’re going to hear a Tech Talk on hopping your IPAs from our own resident “hopping-mad” scientist, Tim Thomssen.
If you have questions/comments, the forum thread is here, jump on in: http://www.lincolnlagers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1088
Lagers Night at the Stars Rink!
It’s back! That’s right, it’s the return of Lagers Night at the Stars game! Come join us on Saturday, March 22nd for a hockey game, good company, and cold beer! You can find the details and sign up sheet at: http://www.lincolnlagers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1081
November Meeting
Swap Meet & Learn To Homebrew Day
Saturday, November 9th, 10am-4pm
Zipline Brewing Co.
Please join us (while the Huskers play an away game at Michigan) on Nov. 9th for our next club meeting.
Zipline Brewing Co. will be hosting this year’s brewing demonstration and swap meet at their taproom in West Lincoln on S. Coddington and Magnum Cir.
Our all-grain brewing demonstration will be held outdoors (sorry, you’ve gotta leave your glass of beer inside!) during this event, and anyone of any skill level is invited to watch a brewday take place and ask any questions. Here is an approximate schedule:
10:00am – Setup demo
10:30am – Begin all-grain mash
11:30am – Collect & sparge beer wort
12:00pm – Boil begins
1:00pm – Finish boiling, collect wort
1:30pm – Brew day finished
Our 3rd annual equipment swap meet will be held on the same day between 10am-3pm.
Anyone and everyone are invited to shop at our swap meet and make purchases. Cash sales only.
Any current 2013 Lagers members are welcome to sell goods at the event. At the end when each person cashes out, the club will take a small cut of your total sales for the day.
Members, please check your beer gear boxes and closets for any old and unwanted equipment you’ve got that is gathering dust. Let’s put ’em into the hands of someone who wants it!
For questions or more info, check the forum thread, or drop us a note and we’ll get in touch.
Lagers to host new Beer Competition within High Plains competition circuit
September 2014 will mark the arrival of a new BJCP-sanctioned homebrewed beer competition, which will be an addition to the existing High Plains Brewer Of The Year and Club Of The Year competition circuits.
After a vigorous discussion (Apostrophes are SERIOUS BUSINESS, y’all) the Lincoln Lagers are excited to unveil the name of our new competition:
The Sower’s Cup, Sponsored by the Lincoln Lagers
Stay tuned as we iron out all of the details and rules…
December Meeting
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Lee’s Chicken
If you want to order dinner, feel free to come as early as 6:00pm, so that you can chow down before the meeting begins, which will be around 7:00pm.
We will have another Tech Topic this month: Kim Theesen will offer a demonstration on kegging.
We also plan to bring back the Tasting Challenge, where you blind-taste similarly-styled commercial beers and try to guess what beers they are (and also decide whether they’re any good!).
Our July Lincoln Lagers eNewsletter has been published and is available online – click here to read it!
We hope to see you at our club meeting on Thursday, July 11th, 7:00pm at Lazlo’s Haymarket location! We will meet in the Brewhouse, so please feel free to enter through the main Lazlo’s door and the hosts will point you in our direction.
Our August club meeting & Mead Making Day will be held on Saturday, August 3rd, at 5:00pm. Click here for the forum thread – it has the address & a link to a map.
Our September club meeting, Annual Club Picnic, and Lady Lagers’ Mead Contest, will be held on Saturday, September 7th.
Bigger than ever! Hosted by Blue Blood Brewing!
The annual Lincoln Lagers Big Brew Day is upon us! This year, we will brew on Saturday, May 4th – and we’re being hosted at the Blue Blood Brewing Co. brewhouse! Mash-in is at 9AM, we will have a pot-luck luncheon and there may be a local food truck present that day, and we will hold the May club meeting sometime later in the afternoon.
For the low-down on what’s going on, visit the Lincoln Lagers Big Brew information page. Final cost per 5 gallons of wort isn’t yet available, but as soon as we calculate it, we’ll post it on that page.
The Big Brew Wort is the basis for the 2013 Lincoln Lagers Challenge contest — meaning, if you want to enter a beer into the Challenge, you need to get wort from the Big Brew! There is no substitution! For more details on the Challenge, click through to the Big Brew info page.
2013 Dues-paid members, please sign up to reserve your wort on the forum at: http://www.lincolnlagers.
If you plan to bring a guest to the Big Brew, we ask that you give us a heads-up by posting on the Forum Thread or emailing Chris at lincoln.lagers.beer.club@gmail.com — We ask that all guests who are not current 2013 Lagers Members please register in advance. If you have not registered in advance and still want to observe the Big Brew, we would ask that you join us as a public guest during Blue Blood’s official tap room hours, but also please respect any rules or boundaries that BB puts into place in order to keep the tap room business and Lagers Brew Day separated.
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!
- 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
