Tag Archives: beer

Brewing a Locally Sourced Beer

Monday Morning

There were 15 members and two guests. Our guests were Richard Pettit and Bryce Retzer. Harry did the grace. Charlene and Richard Pettit were our greeters. Pete and Gary Ring installed Rachel Hays as our newest member. Don’t forget that Pete and Gary Miller will be staring in the South Shore Coracle on December 1st.  Popcorn has been delivered. Special thanks to Harry for all his work and all who purchased the popcorn. Remember if you need more Faris Popcorn, they have a store on Scott St. Bell ringing signup for December 3rd is started; see Mark for the sign up. Remember you can ring more than once during the month of December. Harry was winner and winner again. He drew the Queen of Hearts. He donated the pot to the Christmas pot for holiday food. There are 52 cards left with a pot of $00.00. Remember that we have a Kiwanis web page and Facebook. If you are on Facebook, you can like our page.

Ledgerrock Distillery, Bryce Retzer

Ledgerock is owned by Jay and Heidi Retzer. Their oldest son, Bryce is the manager. The distillery is part of their 500 acre farm. Because it is illegal to make whiskey in their basement, Jay decided to start his own distillery. Their first corn mash was done on Good Friday. They have vodka, gin and moonshine. They were all made from their own corn. As soon as their label is approved, they will open a barrel of baby bourbon made from their own wheat. There will be around 300 bottles and they are taking reservations right now for Christmas. Badger Liquor is handling distribution of their product in the Fond du Lac area. Other activities at the distillery are painting, kettle bells, wooden wonders and yoga. They are open Wednesday to Saturday from 11 – 5. And on Sunday, they are open 12 – 4.

Gary Ott Brews up Interest in Home Brewing

HomeBrewPoster

Monday Morning

There were 12 hearty members at Monday’s meeting along with our guest speaker, Gary Ott, who was helping our primary speaker, Steve Millin. Gary Miller organized an InterClub to Tuesday’s Noon Club. “Happy Bucks” were offered up by Vickie Goldapske for Jack’s 8th birthday; Jan Krug for Del’s getting out of the hospital and settling in at St. Francis Home for a week or two of rehab and Glen Treml for being back from his surgery. Marlin Towne was the 50/50 Raffle winner and he drew the Eight of Hearts, a non-winner. Next week’s drawing will have 35 cards with seven pay cards and a pot of at least $223.

Steve Millin/Gary Ott, Home Brewing

Steve Millin brought along his fellow home brewer, Gary Ott, to tell us about home brewing of beer. Not only did he bring Gary but he also brought along all of his equipment and some of his product for sampling. Steve and Gary started their home brewing hobby in competition to Steve’s two sons challenging them to see if they could do it. They started in 2008 and currently make about six batches of beer a year. Each batch yields about two cases plus a bottle or two extra.

Steve told us there are basically two types of beer, ale and lager. There are also always four ingredients in beer; water, malt, hoops and yeast. Surprisingly the kind of water that’s used can affect the outcome of a batch beer. Also, yeast is the most important ingredient in a batch of beer. Gary and Steve described the process that they follow and how the various equipment is used. Steve brought along some samples from a couple of his batches for tasting.