WINONA LAKE – Over 50 beers will be available for tasting June 27 when the Kosciusko Kettleheads host the fifth annual Homebrew Tasting At Cerulean Garden in Winona Lake. All net proceeds benefit Combined Community Services. “People buy a ticket, which is essentially a donation, and they get a tasting glass and they can taste all the beers that we bring, which will be around 50 this year probably. They’ll get to taste, and a chance to talk to homebrewers,” explained Kettleheads President Jason Rich. “All made by brewers that live in your neighborhood.” “No commercial beers. This is all home brewed,” said Kettleheads co-founder Daren Deffenbaugh. Rich said there also will be some ciders. The tasting event is 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets can be purchased for $25 online at http://gardenwinona.com/events A limited number of VIP tickets were available for $45, which included admission an hour earlier at 5 p.m. and VIP-only appetizers and beers. “Every year we have a silent auction for a ‘Brew with a Kettlehead’ session. Whoever wins gets to brew a batch with a Kettlehead and take home the results,” Rich said. Kettleheads member Aaron Winey said there will be buffet-style food for an additional price. The Garden also will be open during the event. Attendees get to keep their tasting glasses, which have the name of the event on them. Kosciusko Kettleheads was formed in 2010. Their meetings are open to the public, and there are no membership dues. “I knew that there were a lot of homebrewers in the area and thought it would be fantastic to organize everyone. At a typical meeting, we’ll see anywhere from 15 to 30 people,” Rich said. “We bring what we have made, and we share, and offer critique, how we can make beers better, why a certain beer is so great, constructive criticism.” “What we like, what we don’t like,” Daren Deffenbaugh said. “Sometimes we don’t have learning opportunities, and sometimes we do. Learning opportunities are the ones where we all get a chance to try something that is just a little off, and talk about what sort of technical errors were made.” The club meets at 3 p.m. on the second Sunday of every month at Mad Anthony’s Lake City Taphouse, Warsaw. “We’re very grateful to Mad Anthony’s for supporting us and giving us the opportunity to meet,” Daren said. Member Lorraine Deffenbaugh brews small batches of 1 to 2 gallons at a time. Typically, most of the homebrewers do 5 gallons with some doing 7 to 10 gallons, but she said she can’t lift the equipment on her own. “The size of the kettle I use can brew on the stove, and it’s all grain,” she said. Sometimes she just brews beers she enjoys, but she and Daren also will experiment with smaller batches to see if they like a beer before spending money on the grain and hops to make a larger batch. For the June 27 event, Lorraine said she brewed a small batch of India Pale Ale on Pi Day – 3.14.15 – and the yeast was pitched at 9:26 p.m. so it’s called A Pi Day IPA. Pi is a mathematical constant – the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter – and is approximated at 3.1415926. She also will provide a smoked porter, and “probably something else.” “The other thing that I do with our beers is, a portion of it I take to Sacs & Co. and I’m making beer soap with them. That will be available for sale with proceeds being a donation to CCS at the event,” she said. Sacs is in the Village at Winona. Lorraine and Daren also make jellies from the beer, and dog biscuits from the grain. Daren will be taking five beers to the tasting event. “I’m bringing a Belgium, probably a Belgium Pale Ale, and the other is an American strong ale. It’s modeled after a commercial beer by Stone. And I’m bringing two IPAs and one of them is called Skidmark, it’s a black IPA. I consider that my signature beer, I’ve served it at every one of these,” Daren said. A black IPA is black because he uses some black malt that gives it color and a little bit of flavor, he explained. He also might bring a couple of bottles of chocolate stout. Rich said he will be providing mainly stouts and Belgium-style beers. He made a stout with coffee from Light Rail Coffeehouse. Winey said he will bring beers that “are a little bit different.” One is a sour beer, which is brewed with a little bit of bacteria as well as the yeast to give it a sour character, he said. A couple other beers were brewed with a wild yeast so they will have different character than regular beers, he said. All the beers Winey will provide are Belgium influenced, he said. Rich said there will be a “monstrous” variety of beers at the event. “Some people will bring lagers, which are brewed a little differently than ales. They’re actually fermented differently,” Daren said. “But I would say the majority of these will be ales because they’re technically easier to brew.” “Basically, we’ll bring what we enjoy drinking,” said Rich. “If people will donate money to charity to help us drink it, that’s great.” The motto of the Kosciusko Kettleheads is “Brew Good, Do Good.” Besides the tasting event to benefit CCS, Lorraine said they also do other charitable events. They have raised over $14,000 for charity in the past five years. The June 27 event is sponsored by area companies to benefit CCS, Winey said. “I started brewing specifically because of this event four years ago,” Winey said. “I went, talked to Daren, talked to a couple of other brewers and decided to start brewing. It’s just an opportunity for people interested in beer to come taste it and talk to the brewers, but it’s also an opportunity for people who are interested in learning about brewing beer, maybe who want to brew beer themselves, to come and get more of an education rather than just reading a book or researching it online.” The Kosciusko Kettleheads website is at www.kettleheads.org
