Monthly Meeting
Date: August 16th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Location: Old 121 Brewhouse
Address: 1057 S Wadsworth Blvd, Lakewood, CO 80226
August’s meeting will be a sensory evaluation of grains for brewing. The American Society of Brewing Chemists has a new method for doing sensory and flavor evaluation. The basic technique involves making a "hot tea" with finely crushed malt and then filtering it with filter paper (or a coffee filter) to extract a hot tea you can sample for flavor. We will be tasting a few different malt varieties that will hopefully help you in the future when building recipes.
SMaSH It Up Quarterly Challenge
For our September Quarterly Challenge, we are going to be focused around SMaSH beers. This means Single Malt and Single Hop. For all grain brewers select a single grain to use for the mash. For extract brewers select a single malt extract to use, don't mix dry/liquid extracts, no other grains for steeping or partial mashing. Then you just need to select a single hop to use for the entire brew. You can have multiple hop additions, it just has to be the same hop. Entry form and drop off details can be found here.
Quarterly Happy Hour
Date: August 27th
Time: 6 pm - 8 pm
Location: Banded Oak
Address: 470 Broadway, Denver, CO 80203
Mark your calendars for our next quarterly happy hour. We will be going to Banded Oak on Wednesday Aug 27th. Recently Banded Oak announced that they are closing its doors in September. The brewers at Banded Oak have been a huge help to the club over the years. Let’s show them some love, before they’re gone.
Old 121 Summer Cornhole League
There is a new season of cornhole starting at Old 121 August 12th. This is a non competitive league, just to have a good time. Details below, if you’re interested in joining our team email lakewoodfermentationclub@gmail.com and let us know.
When: Tuesdays Starting August 12th
Start Time: 6:30p (finishing around 8:30p)
All participants must be 21+
6-Week League + Tournament
League Dates: 8/12, 8/19, 8/26, 9/9, 9/16, 9/23
Weather Make-up Dates, if needed: 9/30
Tournament Date: Sunday, October 5th
4+ Games per Week
2-4+ Players per Team (only 2 per game)
Up Coming Competitions
Liquid Poetry Slam
Registration opens August 2nd, register here
Entries due August 30th
Rocky Mountain Homebrew Challenge
Registration opens August 1st, register here
Entries due September 17th
Education Corner
Random Tips
Replace plastic and make it routine. In particular any plastic that is used post fermentation. This includes plastic buckets and hoses. Plastic is known to scratch (often not viable to our eyes) and becomes harder to clean and sanitize, replacing it helps reduce areas that can cause infections.
To Save Money
Sign up for email/texts and newsletters with major retailers so that you’re notified of sales and specials.
Buy your cleaner and sanitizer in larger quantities. It’s so much cheaper.
Buy hops and grain in bulk where you can. For example, Tom’s will sell a bag of grain milled. You’ll need to store grain and hops correctly but the cost reduction is worth it.
Keep records. I’ve learned to create a word document with the details I want to track, so that I don’t forget to track an item. Before I did this, I was shocked at the things I forgot to write down or couldn’t remember (but thought I wouldn’t forget).
Star San (or sanitizer) made from distilled water will keep. A spray bottle is the perfect closed environment and so handy to have on hand.