Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer! We really lucked out with the cooler temperatures and the rescheduled date of our Summer Picnic. Thanks again to Rick Doerr and Ron Sleppy for helping to book this year’s venue Central Ohio Anglers and Hunters Club. The day started off with a handful of members taking advantage of the shooting ranges in the morning. Thanks to everyone who helped set up jockey boxes and food, brought beer to share, and for being an all-around great group to hang out with on such a beautiful day.
Iron Kettle
This year’s Iron Kettle secret ingredient was Taco Seasoning! While 10 brewers brewed on-site back in June, only 7 beers were entered into the competition. I think that shows how problematic it was to use this ingredient. Good job to everyone who entered – judges Jeremy Eberle, Jim Sudduth and Bill Koeppen had a hard time deciding on the winners, but here’s where they landed:
- 1st Place – Nik Volkert with “Another Terrible Beer” – an Imperial Cream Ale
- 2nd Place – Ben Myers with “Whit? Whatcha Taco Bout?” – a Witbier
- 3rd Place – Mitch McGreal with “Smokey Taco” – a Smoked Mexican Lager
For those of you who still have taco beers and you’re torn between dumping them and trying to drink them, the addition of fresh lime juice helps make taco beer more palatable – thanks for the idea, Mitch!
Brewer of the Year
And now…he didn’t even need to enter his Iron Kettle beer…we all saw it coming, but it’s still really BIG NEWS:
The 2025 Don Croucher Brewer of the Year is none other than our Secretary, Bill Koeppen! Thanks Bill, for always showing up, and for brewing some pretty amazing beers! Your victory is well-deserved!
We will award the Don Croucher cup at our September meeting, scheduled at Hoster on Monday, September 15th. And maybe we’ll have a surprise too! To see where everyone else ranked, here’s a final look at the 2025 Leaderboard.
There’s Always Next Year
For those of you who are feeling competitive, the competition clock resets to 0 in September. Check out the Brewer of the Year Tracking page to see all the ways you can earn points toward the 2026 Don Croucher Brewer of the Year award. Hint: enter one or more beers for judging every opportunity you get! Our September Club Competition theme is Fall Beers.
You should also consider entering Beer for Boobs, scheduled for 10/25/25 at Thunderwing Brewing. While it appears that entries are closed, we reserved spots for our members. If you still want to enter, you’ll need to make a manual payment to SODZ.Treasurer on PayPal for the entry fees, then send a message to Scott Elliott through the BFB website. And as always, we can use more judges and stewards for Beer for Boobs.
Get busy brewing!