Jack Of All Brews Octoberfest Wrap-Up

Hey folks,  here's a quick recap on the Jack Of All Brews homebrew club October meeting!  See every once in a while I use this blog for official club business!

As always we started the meeting with the club responsibility statement to make sure members drink responsibly.

Dave and Sarah have been finishing their basement and discovered untold piles of brewerania treasures hidden in those unplumbed depths.  They brought some of these riches to the meeting for us to look at and buy.  I got outbid on the massive solid glass Hamm's glass...Several of these items are still for sale on the JAB facebook group so send Dave a message if you are interested.  I thought the old posters, steins and wooden cases made great set dressing for our Octoberfest celebrations!

JAB Brewcred for the past month:  Byggvir's Big Beer Cup (Renfest!!) medals included 4 first place and one third for your's truly.  Josh Welch took a medal for his famous (he won a mash paddle with that one) brown ale as well!

Upcoming events:

1) Hoppy Halloween in Fargo.  Sj, myself, Tyrone, and Annette are going up for the festivities this year.  Anyone else going to Fargo??  Entry is still open and if you get them into Midwest or Northern Brewer by the 16th they'll pick it up and drive it up for you!

2) Primary Fermenters/JAB bulk cider buy at MN Harvest Orchard in Jordan October 25. Here is the link to the facebook event.  Sign up and pay on the google doc linked on that.   Festivities at Tim Roets' almost open brewery after the cider...  https://www.facebook.com/events/533757170116064/

3) Next JAB meeting is at my place again on my birthday November 13th!  Mash paddle style is wood aged beer, so dust off those old bottles and bring them in for us to try!  I know I've got a couple!

4) December meeting plans:  Anyone else want to host this one?  December is no mash paddle, just a big pot luck with homebrews.  We always do a secret beer gift exchange as well.

Mash Paddle:  This month's mash paddle was for Octoberfest beers.  Bryan Budahn was an overachiever and did an extract and all-grain version!  Overall we liked the extract version the most (strange right?) and Bryan took home the coveted Golden Mash Paddle for the month.

The happy victor!  

Because we had an extra prize we also had a secondary contest between the other homebrews of the night.  The winner was Joe Lushine for his brown ale!

Then we had bratwurst feast, and a ton of commercial Octoberfest beers.  Octoberfeast!!!  We sampled German as well as American versions galore.  My personal least favorite was the watery skunk anal gland leakage that was Hofbrau.  Second on that list was the musty basement rotten cork tasting Sprecher Octoberfest.  My top three in order were Ayinger, Waconia Brewing, Town Hall.  I had a great night and hope everyone else did too!  What were your favorites or least favorites from the incredible line-up of beers??