The Mockingbird
"all the brews that fit..."
Small Ensembles Concert Page
The Premier Pub-lication of the Ohio Meadville District's (Unitarian Universalist) Summer Institute, The Mockingbird reserves the right to report make fun of everything at SI that needs it, and then some. Proudly helping SI campers blow beverages through their noses since 2005! All resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental -- honest, it's the beer talking.
Send those submissions to EDITOR [at] SIMOCKINGBIRD [dot] COM
Mockingbird Issues
Less Humorous Documents That Appeared At Summer Institute Upon a Time
2015, Who Knows What?
Look for us on Facebook, The SI Mockingbird, or follow us on Twitter @SI_Mockingbird
2015 Whisk(e)y Sippin' and Swillin' Workshop
Check the signup sheet (see the facebook page for WI for link) for details; participants commit to bringing a bottle to share and being prepared to tell us about their selection, it's history, style, etc. We'll make arrangements once SI begins!
2014 Edition, Volume 10
And...that was it. Too hot, too busy, we posted things on Facebook and Twitter and never got to putting it in print. More of the same, likely, in 2015
Here's a Mockingbird Guide to Oberlin
2014 Beer Tasting Workshop 6.0
Yes! Two years in a row, for once! Finally the folk orchestra gets to participate...
I'm thinking of trying to ship in beers not distributed in our region, if I can afford it, to enliven the procedings a bit over the usual. There are a couple of well-known West Coast beers that have never been seen in my local store. We also held "Christmas in July," with several out-of-area winter warmers. A bonus half-session, if you can call it that, was sampling gluten-free beers, about five available. Glutenberg was the first beer I poured down the drain in a long time! Omission was a reasonable attempt, but a bit light-bodied. Since then, I've settled on two I'd recommend: Stone's "Delicious IPA," and Estrella Damm's Daura lager. Not a coincidence, each of these three is a barley-based beer which then has had a substantial (no one claims every molecule) amount of the gluten removed after brewing.
2013 Edition, Volume 9
- Issue 0, Sunday - unavailable at this time
- Issue 1, Monday
- Issue 2, Tuesday
- No Wednesday issue, in solidarity with Kenyon Print Shop who refused to print the Kaleidoscope.
- Issue 3, Thursday
- Issue 5, Friday
No, the numbers are not right, but that's how we published 'em. I blame the heat. Wednesday was so hot, the electronics refused to cooperate and the paper was not to be...
2013 Beer Tasting Workshop 5.0
This year we tasted several commercial ciders on Friday, as well as other odd things.
I don't have an updated copy of the beer style sheet, but we did observe a couple items of note. American brewers are still building them "stronger, better" by which we mean more alcolol and much more hops. We tasted several "hop bombs" and Imperial or Double versions of otherwise recognized styles. Many of these are nice, but you don't want more than a whole bottle, if that.
I discussed beer tasting dinners as a service auction item fundraiser for your church. Several folks experessed interest in my menu and recipes for one I described. Here is a PDF of the menu and handout I gave. It's a booklet, so the pages are out of order until you print it out and fold in the middle to make an 8.5 x 5.5 handout.
2012 Edition, Volume 8
2012 Morning Workshop: "Fracking: Purpose, Products, and Politics"
Frankly, it sounds ghastly. Go find some more pleasant way of spending your morning!
Slides: Presentation view (one slide per page) - Handout view (5 per page)
2011 Edition, Volume 7
- Issue 1, Saturday - The 'Bird is Back!
2011 Beer Tasting Workshop 4.0, including the day of homebrew!
BrUUers - please plan to bring samples of your homebrew to share and comment on for the final day of this workshop! I've got some feedback from the Ohio State Fair on my Summer Solstice Ale, and plan for imrovements for next year. What will you bring?
2010 Edition, Volume 6
Giving it Up?
Sad to say, the Mockingbird is now under new managment. That's all right, the Kollide-o-Scope can use some lightening up...
Besides, the only afternoon workshop I've attended in the last five years has been my own ;-)
2009 Edition, Volume 5
Beer Tasting Workshop 3.0 (1.0 was 2005, 2.0 in '07, '06 was sort of a 1.5; we're going at it again)
Well, I asked homebrewers to bring samples, but this request didn't make it in the brochure, just on this page. Even so, one intrepid homebrewer brought a six to share, and just by accident it was a clone of Columbus Pale Ale, which I had purchased for the workshop that day! The general opinion was the homebrew was better than the commercial model, too ;-)
I also brought some of my latest Mild Brown Ale, but there wasn't anything special there.
Next year we're working on a morning workshop on biological/outdoor themes, so I won't be doing the beer workshop. We may be able to hold a one-day homebrew "competition" of sorts, which wouldn't require as much preparation work. There was also a fair amount of interest in a single-malt Scotch tasting workshop. This could work, if every interested participant brought a bottle to share, and did some research on the history and/or background on the distillery.
See the Beer Styles Handout from 2007, below
2008 Edition, Volume 4
Hey, Hummingbird, nice try; see you again next year?
No Beer Tasting Workshop this year, sorry. It's starting to look like an "odd-numbered year" kind of thing.
2007 Edition, Volume 3
Beer Tasting Workshop
2006 Edition, Volume 2
Evolution and Intelligent Design Workshop
Handouts, References, and Presentations
2005 Edition, Volume 1
Materials on this page are presented in Adobe Acrobat format, requiring the reader if you don't have it installed already:
Ohio Meadville District Summer Institute Official Site (if you prefer)