BABBLE HOME BREWERS OF LAKE COUNTY

Spring is here sort of, and Summer is coming. Beer fests almost every weekend. Big Brew. Sensory classes (you know that smells wrong. Find out WHY). Great Taste Of The Midwest. The BABBLE Group Grain buy to dramatically reduce your cost to brew (Only for paid club members). GABF! Its a summer of beer if there ever was one. Stop by the BABBLE booth at almost any beer fest in Northeast Illinois and see what we’re babbling about. Our next meeting on April 26th will also be the Duffin Station Malt challenge (get details HERE) so expect a crowd and a selection of home and professionally brewed beer using locally sourced malt grown in Illinois.

Meeting Date: MARCH 22, 2018 Location: Perfect Brewing Supply, Libertyville

Among the home brews shared this meeting: An IPA with Vic Secret & Denali hops, Spiced Wheat (Juniper, coriander, tangerine peel, bitter & sweet orange peel), Pico Pale Ale (Cascade late additions), Belgian Dark Strong ( a complex grain bill, 2 hour boil, Candi Syrup and Enigma hops), Wheat-Wine, Doppelbock, IPA (Zombie Dust clone), a Guinness Stout clone. Blackberry Melomel, a mead, plus some nice commercial beers.

Attendance (14): Dan Berger, Chris Burns, Ken Christ, Jay Friese, Mike Hathaway, Terry Barber, Mike Honegger, Adam Ronchetti, Dan Sikorski, Chris Small, Sean Smith, Roger Tucker, Bill Westfall, Dan Zogran.

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119 entries, 30 judges and a fine Saturday afternoon. Thanks to Buffalo Creek Brewing, participants from Urban Knaves Of Grain, NUBBS, Beer Barons of Milwaukee, Club Wort , CHAOS , Brewers of South Suburbia and more including all the individual judges that came out and took beer for the team. Winners are posted at the BREWOFF event site. If you sent in entires, your score sheets and medals will be mailed to you this coming week. Award winning photographer (and Babble Member) John Williams documented the event in shade and hue HERE.

Dues will be due by March – Same as last year – $36 per Member, $24 per additional household member, and $12 refunded for contributions to club activities, comps, etc (TBD by Club Pres). We accept PayPal through the website. Fifteen members currently paid.

FEB – OFFICER NOMINATIONS – Time of the year to step up and volunteer for an Officer’s position (Pres, VP, Secretary, Treasurer, and Technical).

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Come see BABBLE (and a few other brewers) at the Lake County Beer Fest today at 5pm. On tap at the BABBLE beach hut is BABBLEWINE the club brewed barleywine aged in a Rum barrel (10%avb), Ministry Of Peace peppercorn porter (8.5%abv), Goats Go To Hell doppelbock (7.5%abv) and Mai Tai Roe Ae, a strong belgian golden with fruit and spiced to emulate the original Trader Vics Mai Tai (13%abv). Details can be found here.

Among the home brews shared this meeting: An English Brown Ale with flaked rye and oats and cascade hops, and a a more traditional(?) English Brown Ale (EKG hops). A Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, a couple NE style-ish APAs, a Summer Blond, an Irish Red, a Foreign Extra Stout and Apricot Saison, and a Black Pepper Ale. And the beers were rounded out with a mead, a Zinfandel and a Cabernet. Plus a few interesting commercial beers. Continue reading “BABBLE HOME BREWERS OF LAKE COUNTY” »

BABBLE – December 2017 Public Meeting Notes

Our Dec 14th, 2017 meeting was held at Perfect Brewing Supply, Libertyville (perfectbrewsupply.com). Thanks to Andy & Ryan for their continued support. With the Winter & Holiday season, the homebrews and commercial beers that were shared ran to the heavy and flavored/spice variety, some very special beers. And a variety of edibles as well. Among the homebrews:

An Oktoberfest, a Doppelbock, a Dark Brown Ale smoked over Oak & Maple leaves with marshmallow (of course!), Session Rye, Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout, English Nut Brown, a Belgian Pale, a Chocolate Rye Stout w/Black Pepper (I think that was in the Choc Rye, might have been a separate beer, my notes are fuzzy there), Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, a Gruit and a Raisin Mead. And a Summer Blonde snuck in there as well. OK, adding “and a Partridge in a Pear Tree” is too obvious, but I’m doing it anyway!

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BABBLE – November 2017 Public Meeting Notes

Our Nov 09, 2017 meeting was held at Perfect Brewing Supply, Libertyville (perfectbrewsupply.com). Thanks to Andy & Ryan for their continued support. Always a great variety of interesting homebrews shared, among them: A Belgian Wit (with toasted Coriander), a Coconut/Coffee/Blonde Ale, an English Strong, a mead in three variations: the original, with raspberries added, and with raisins added; and a tangerine Rye. Plus an assortment of commercial craft brews.

Next Formal Meeting – DEC 14, 2017 (Nov/Dec meetings are the second Thursday of the month, rather than 4th Thursday of the month, to avoid conflicts with the holidays) – Plan on Perfect Brewing Supply, but watch the site if we decide to mix things up from time to time.

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BABBLE October 2017 Meeting Notes for website

Our Oct 26, 2017 meeting was held at Perfect Brewing Supply, Libertyville (perfectbrewsupply.com). Thanks to Andy & Ryan for their continued support. Lots of interesting homebrews were shared, among them: A Cardamom/Nutmeg/Cinnamon/Black-Pepper Ale, Black Rye-PA, a Rye w/Tangerine, Berliner Weisse, a “Broken-Fest”, IPA, IPA w/’secret hops(?). And also a few interesting commercial beers.

Remember – our Nov and Dec meeting are the second Thursday of the month to avoid conflicts with the holidays:

Next Formal Meeting – NOV 9, 2017 – Plan on Perfect Brew Supply, but watch the site if we decide to mix things up from time to time.

Bulk Honey Buy – We have ~ 53 # of Orange Blossom Honey, that we decided to make open to outside sales. The remaining (X pounds?) of raspberry honey will be retained by the club.

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