Well, there will undoubtedly be RRBC members attending the festival, but we will not be representing by pouring our beers there this year.  Due to the increase in the number of commercial breweries being squeezed into the same space, the festival will be far too tight for us to represent in the manner we like to.  Rather than draw straws and see which of us can go, we decided to skip it this year.  The festival is moving to a larger venue next year so we'll return in full force then.

Over the past week, RRBC members have been involved in three competitions.  Congrats to the following for placing in those competitions!!  And congrats to the club for taking 2nd place overall at the Nebraska Shootout.  Lincoln Lagers beat us by one point.  We'll be sure to beat them next year!

Nebraska Brewing Company's Wort Tranformation Challenge  --  May 15th

• Eric Barron - 2nd place (Fruit & Spice)
• Vinie Jones - 3rd place (Fruit & Spice)

Nebraska Shootout  --  May 17th

• Phil Purnell & Tom Malowski - 2nd place (Belgian)
• Jeff Schauss - 2nd place (Light hybrid)
• Tom Malowski - 1st place (Porter)

Empyrean's Beer Quest  -- May 18th

• Luke Stevenson - 3rd place

Congratulations to Tom for winning with his Imperial IPA on Sunday, February 16th.  Congrats to the following RRBC members that made the finals as well:

• David Vandermuelen - Siddhartha of Suburbia Saison
• Jeremy Evans - Smoked Porter
• Luke Stevenson - American Brown
• Dusty Koppit - American Wheat
• Nolan Gaskill - Smoked Porter
• Jeff Conrad - Cream Ale

A few of us remembered and took the time to enter the Nebraska State Fair homebrew contest.  Yeah... I forgot!  Anyway...  Jeff Conrad and Tom Malowski both managed to take home a Best of Show award.  Others in the club that placed are Bill Harvat, David Vandermeulen, Pat Greer, and Kyle Anderson.  Congrats guys!!!  See the full results here.

Congrats to Dusty for his third place finish with his Elderflower Saison!  It is quite tasty!  Also, congrats to Lee for being the very first female to make it into the Beer Quest finals!  She and her co-brewer Terry finished 5th with their Elderflower Ale.

This past Friday, RRBC member Jeff Conrad won himself a $50 bar tab in Lucky Bucket's tasting room as well as a 50 pound bag of 2-Row with his his strawberry vanilla wheat beer.  Congrats Jeff!!

Unfortunately; I wasn't able to make the November competition.  Hence the late post!  I hear I missed out on a ton of fun as The Omaha Tap House was 100% packed with people drinking RRBC homebrew goodness!  The Union Pacific Ties Social Club brought a ton of people, RRBC and friends brought a ton of beer, and an awesome time was had by all! 

John came prepared and showed everyone how it's done by taking first and second in the Imperials style competition while Dustin came out on top of a couple of Terry's fantastic beers. 
.  For winning first place; John took home $45 in gift certificates from Cornhusker Beverage, $25 of which was donated by them.  Thanks again to The Omaha Tap House, the Union Pacific Ties Social Club, and Cornhusker Beverage for a extremely successful event!

Style Competition

  1.  Imperial Stout-- John Rollag
  2.  Imperial IPA -- John Rollag
  2.  Imperial Squash Porter -- Tom Malowski

Best Damn Beer Competition

  1.  IPA -- Dustin Koppit
  2.  The Kriek -- Terry Duke
  3.  Olde Luddite -- Terry Duke

The finals were held at Lazlo's in Lincoln on Sunday.  Congrats to Phil Purnell for placing 2nd with his Belgian Holiday Spice Ale and to Jeff Conrad for tying for 3rd with his Pumpkin Spice Ale!!  Four other RRBC beers were in the finals as well so an honorable mention to Chris Samson, David Vandermeulen, Chad Waters, Kyle Anderson, and Vinie Jones.

We had a small turnout at Lucky Bucket, but that wasn't really a bad thing.  With only five beers to judge; we were all able to fully enjoy and provide ample feedback on each.  Lucky Bucket also shared a few of their remaining bottles of their single batch black IPA which was absolutely delicious!  They definitely need to make that again!

Phil took first place for the style competition and received $45 in gift certificates from Cornhusker Beverage, $25 of which was donated by them.  Don took second place and received a six pack donated by Lucky Bucket as well as a pound of Vanguard hops donated by Phil.  Joel took third and received a tumbler glass from Lucky Bucket.  Thanks again to Lucky Bucket and Cornhusker Beverage for the small but fun and successful event!

Style Competition

  1.  Dolemonte Pale Ale  -- Phil Purnell
            -- BPA w/pineapple
  2.  Devil's Ryed -- Don Bartunek
            -- Red rye IPA
  3.  The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown Ale  -- Joel Rastede
            -- Brown ale w/pumpkin & spices

The full results have been posted to the event page.