Lifetime Members

About Scott:
Scott started home brewing in the late 80s. In the middle 90s a good friend of his became the head brewer at Lakefront Brewing in Milwaukee. Yes, Scott was a Milwaukee brewer! After some brewing with him at the brewery, then Pilot batches at his house for Wisconsin Brewing Co Scott relocated to Arizona in 1995 with hopes of starting a brewery of his own, BarZona Brewing Co. Joined ASH in the infancy of its creation, and was delegated to be Treasurer back when the Hot Break was still being mailed, he claims he can still taste the stamps. Scott also became a BJCP judge. Jerry Gant invited Scott to come help him with his first 3 batches at Copper Canyon brewing and later became the Brew-master at the Arizona Roadhouse and Brewery in 1997. Balancing his work at Intel and professional brewing proved to be to much. Scott hung up his brewers boots and continued his carreer with Intel. Since then Scott has focused his efforts on home brewing and judging.

About Zach:
Zach started in the fermentation sciences back in 1978 after President Carter allowed home wine and beer making. Starting with wine, Zach and his father made many batches, including some batches of sparkling white and red wine. They did this for a couple of years, and then stopped when he moved away from home.
Flash forward to Christmas 1994, Zach received a beer making kit. His dental office was also right across Baseline in Tempe where the original Brewers' Connection was located. So, after a couple of so-so extract batches, he paid the BC a visit, and from there was hooked.
Zach started doing all-grain on a system made with kegs and fired by Cajun Cookers outside, and joined Brewmeisters Anonymous in North Phoenix. He started making beer for contests and also took over the club's newsletter editor job. In 1994, he was approached by the then-owner of Brewers' Connection, Jeff Adams, to know if there would be interest in starting a new club for the Southeast Valley with him and another gentleman named Mike Rose, an expat from England.
The three met, and it was decided to form ASH: Jeff would sponsor the club, Mike Rose would be 1st President, and Zach would do the newsletter. We had a "general interest" meeting at the BC to see how many people might be interested in joining a club. We had a pretty big turnout, made many plans and appointed others to help out, and eventually started meeting at the Sports Bar at the Hilton Pointe at South Mountain. That went on until the club outgrew the location and the contact that Mike Rose had with the Hilton left his job, and we had to meet elsewhere. However, we held our first Oktoberfest at the Pointe in a huge tent they let us use that fall with great success.
Zach later served as vice president one year after that first year as “fermeditor”, took the BJCP exam and got certified. Zach takes pride in being one of the three founding fathers of the club. From the beginning, his primary interest was in making mead, since it is a lot like wine making. Barry Tingleff and I made many batches. Jeff Adams eventually sold the BC to Jeffrey Haines, its current owner after I convinced Haines that it would be a good move for him, and Mike Rose?.....well, that's another story for another time and after a few meads! Wassail!

About Ron:
I got into fermentation at an early age and started winemaking in the 6th grade with a kit I received at Christmas from Sears. In college in the early 80's at the University of Colorado I was introduced to homebrewing. Boulder was pretty much the epicenter of where homebrewing took off thanks to Charlie Papazian. In the early 90's I moved to Phoenix and became one of the founding members of the Arizona Society of Homebrewers. In the beginning years I served on the board as a Member at Large. In 2001 I became President of Papago Brewing Company in Scottsdale which was co-founded by another ASH member Bruce McConnell and homebrew shop owner Paul Gunn. I am a Certified Cicerone and BJCP Judge and have taught a number of BJCP classes to ASH members. Primarily I make mead at home now however experimental batches of beer get made occasionally when I am thinking of a new recipe for Papago. Brewing has been a part of my life for longer than many of the current ASH members have been around...god that makes me feel old.

About Lisa:
It's all Dale's fault that I have been a member and/or supporter of ASH since the beginning of the club. I tagged along with Dale to one of the first ASH meetings, because he was interested in brewing. They were tasting fruit beers and pale ales that night, on the patio of The Pointe at South Mountain, and it was so much fun! Now, our vacation and social time usually includes finding what new craft beers and homebrew we can try, or favorites that we can find again. Dale served as an officer in the club for many years as Editor, Treasurer (I don't know who voted for that) and President, and he has made some crazy beers. So, even though I don't brew myself, I always enjoy the tasting and cheers my appreciation to anyone that makes beer! We've served beer at festivals, taken the BJCP classes (which I would highly recommend to all members to learn how the different styles of beer are supposed to taste), judged beers, designed and printed shirts and awards for the club, gone on several bus trips, beer camps, and participated in many brew outs, beer dinners, happy hours, Christmas parties, Oktoberfests & Springfests. We always have a great time hanging out with ASH!

""...beer seems like an even better idea after you've had some beer." - Steven Hall

About Dale:
It was the craziest shopping list I had ever seen. What's this carapi...Carapils? Irish moss? Seaweed, really? I move to Arizona and my brother-in-law leaves me with advise and this list. Good advise of course. Take this list to a local homebrew shop. Hey look at that, there's one right here in Tempe! $ 181.63 later, I'm brewing? Well this can't be right. Come to find out, I should be brewing 20+ gallons at a time. Mission accomplished!

About Barry:
Barry got into homebrewing by way of a newspaper article in the AZ Republic in November 1994. It sounded like something he could do so he went to the yellow pages, remember them? Looked up brewing and discovered Brewers Connection was less than a mile from his home, fate? Barry went the following weekend and has been hooked ever since. Jeff Adams, the original owner, said he and Zach Hilgers were going to put a homebrew club together soon, and gave him a flyer. We met at the Eagles Nest in the sports bar at the Point South Mtn., now AZ Grand Hotel.
The Club started with 12-15 rookies for the first few years, but as the Craft beer world in AZ started to spread with Bandersnach, then Coyote Springs, Prescott, Beaver Street & Oak Creek up north we started getting some momentum. We poured at the Great AZ Beer Fest, until Liquor Control showed up one year and threatened to jail us because we didn't have a liquor license. The strange thing was they let us stay at the fest and could drink our own beer but couldn't sample anyone else. That seemed weird, but it gave us some credit with the Craft brewers as a real brewing organization.
In 1998 a group of 4-6 diehards studied for the BJCP exam together for months and then drove to Las Vegas to take the 3 hour test, just 10 essay questions and judge 4 beers. Sounded simple, but it was the hardest test Barry had ever taken. His hand started to cramp after question 4, handwriting looked like a 3rd grader by question 6. Give an all grain recipe for a Bohemian Pilsner, grain bill, hop schedule, IBU's, Abv, mash schedule, yikes! We finished in time but we needed a cold one to get get rid of the hand cramps, we hit Big Dog Brewing in Vegas. Barry passed barely, but got the opportunity to judge homebrew at least once or twice a year for the next 16 years and he has become a better brewer and meadmaker.
By the early 2000's, we had grown to maybe 100 members and would balloon up to 300 about a week before Oktoberfest and kept having problems finding a location to hold the big event. One year we held it at McFarlan's Brewing and we had a record crowd, the place was packed. Now as a member of the Oktoberfest/Springfest Committee we regularly see 300-400 at our Fests. We have come so far from the early days, Clubhouse, 501c3, 500+ membership, barrel program starting, Club insurance, BJCP classes, tests, ASHional Guard. We never could have dreamed what was to come in 20 years. Keep up the good work, who knows what we will be in 20 more.

About Rob:
Rob started homebrewing in 1998 with a kit that his wife bought him from Brewer's Connection. He spent a great deal of time learning about brewing on the internet with forum sites like HomebrewTalk and the AHA listserv. Both were great sources of knowledge, but something was missing. It wasn't until Rob started attending ASH meetings that he really became a brewer interested in changing the beer culture in Arizona. The personal connections and feelings of a call to service and community building had their roots in becoming more and more involved with ASH. In 2008, Rob represented ASH and Papago Brewing at the Great American Beer Festval ProAM competition. He has contributed pieces to several publications and founded BeerPHXation.com. Rob served as the Newsletter Editor, Communications Director and President from 2011-2013. He is now the Executive Director of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild.

About Russ:

About Jeremy:
Jeremy Voeltz first started homebrewing with a friend in late 2007. After having some good success with the basics (kits, partial boils, extract with specialty grains, etc.) he fell in love with the process: recipe development, chemistry, biology, and math that is all associated with homebrewing. Of course making beer wasn’t enough and Jeremy started tinkering with homebrewed ciders and meads, and eventually wine. After moving on to all-grain and winning several awards in state and local competitions, but just missing out on medaling at the National Homebrewers Competition, he started tinkering with the finer points of the process - specifically water manipulation and yeast management. This led to some first round awards, and culminated in 2014 with winning the Ninkasi award at the NHC for a gold medal Habanero IPA and bronze medal oaked cherry melomel.Even though he lives outside of the Phoenix-metro area, Jeremy joined ASH in 2010 because he was looking for a brewing club to learn additional things and to take part in local Arizona events that support the homebrewing and the craft beer community in Arizona. He had met some ASH members through some other venues, and it seemed like a good club to be a part of – a large, diverse club founded on the enjoyment of everything related to brewing and craft beer. Of course, the ASH Oktoberfest is justification alone to join the club, but he’s also met a bunch of great brewers along the way whom I’ve learned a lot from.

About Scott:
Scott began homebrewing in 1999. Soon after that he joined ASH. When Scott first joined the club it was very small. They used to meet at a pizza restaurant called T.G. Luigis, where they used a side room for their meetings. Though the club was small, the members were enthusiastic and helpful to the new members. One of the guest speakers at that time was Dr. Chris White of White Labs. Scott served as a board member for two years during this time. One of his best memories was traveling to Germany and the Czech Republic with 5 other ASH members. They were Ron Kloth, Barry Tingleff, Jeffrey Haines, Matt Martin & Ken Saxe. A highlight was touring the Weyermann Malting Company and seeing the malting process in person. Scott is amazed how big the club has become but it is really not much different since the spreading of homebrewing knowledge is still the base of the club. His attending of the NHC in San Diego with all the ASH members was a recent highlight and he looks forward to ASH's bright future.

About John:
John first started brewing in 1985 when he was invited to brew with a friend who got a homebrewing kit as a birthday present. He moved to Phoenix in 1995 and joined ASH in 1996 at the recommendation of neighbor Russ Seideman. ASH inspired and enabled John go from all-extract to all-grain, from 5 gallon batches to 10 gallon batches, and from bottling to kegging. When John isn’t brewing beer he works as an engineer at a local aerospace company building satellites.

About Ken: