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Strange Brew Review
The Newsletter of the Green Bay Rackers - - May 1998
Minutes of the April 4th Business Meeting
After I took some heat for showing up late (I was in Madison for a medical conference) the remaining club members reluctantly voted to reopen the business meeting, despite the fact that any business being undertaken was subject to question due to the altered levels of consciousness.
Competition Discussion about the contest. Members volunteered for steward and registration (see the article later in this newsletter). We also discussed advertising and press releases.
Membership Cards Mike showed off the new club stationary and Bert showed off the club business cards for the officers. All are very nice! CLub voted to have actual membership cards made up by Bert, this way Life Tools will have a way to verify club members. Mike will talk to Homebrew Market in Appleton about the possibility of a similar arrangement.
Officer Dues Club voted that all officers except the webpage manager should pay dues. It was offered that the Contest Chairman should also be exempt, but Mike felt that he should pay dues. The contest benefits him with judging points from the BJCP. Motion carried.
Raffle Club voted to try a raffle of a homebrewing kit if one can be obtained from Life Tools as a donation. Mike will get us a raffle license number to use and will get tickets.
Reduced Dues Package Motion to offer a reduced membership rate for the remainder of the year at $10.00 to any new, non-former members. Possibility of having $20 for the remainder of this year and all of next was also discussed but was not well received. Notion to do the $10 remainder of the year deal passed.
Open Meeting Club voted to advertise an open meeting for the October meeting and start the dues collection for 1999 at that time.
Club Calendar
See the schedule page for more information.
Club Brewing Session May 9th
The next club brewing session is scheduled to take place at the LifeTools Outdoor Festival on May 9th. It has not yet been announced what the beer will be, but the club has recommended something simple, since this will be a demonstration beer. We want people to see how easy it is to get into homebrewing.
We tried the first club beer, a doppelbock, at this past business meeting. Here are my judging notes on it
Appearance: Nice color, fair head with low retention, good carbonation;
Aroma: no off aromas noted, hop aroma low to absent--appropriate for the style, nice malty nose;
Flavor: a bit thin in body, no off flavors noted, a bit unbalanced, too much bittering hops for the style, a bit harsh in the malt presentation, likely due to insufficient lagering, drinkable.
Pub and Suds Review: J.T. Whitney's, Madison
I was in Madison in mid-Marhc to take my medical board recertification exam. Needless to say, the night before was nerve-racking and I was in need of relief. My friends with whom I was staying asked where I'd like to go for dinner and thus suggested we try a place I had yet to crawl into, J.T. Whitney's.
We ordered dinner, the Friday fish special (after all, it was Lent) which was nicely deep-fried cod. Not exceptional, but a good value and decent meal. (I'll tell you about dessert later.)
While waiting to be seated, the host and I traded insults and tried to one-up each other on beer. He had the gonads to recommend I try the Rauch, after I told him I was going to have a pale ale as my main beverage that evening. Now, I'll tell you right away that I avoid judging the Rauch beers in contests if at all possible. I believe smoke should be for cigars and to preserve meats. But, never one to let a mere mortal pub host get the better of me, I tried a sampler of the Rauch.
Holy pipeweed, Batman! Let me tell you about the new love in my life! Made of obviously gently-smoked malts (of course I forgot to get the ingredients list), this moderately bodied, nicely balanced beer will really make you sit up and take notice. It is nearly impossible to find commercial Rauchbiers available in the Green Bay area so I know many of you may not have had a chance to try one. The gang at J.T.'s really did their homework on this beer.
Since I find that a good hoppy beer makes me relax (and I needed it before the exam), I had their Pale Ale as my session beer for the evening. Unfortunately, it was too long a session and one's taste buds after a sampler of Rauch are less than satisfactory. But I can tell you that I found it to be nicely hopped in both nose and palate., in fact the one thing I might fault it for is that it was almost a but too hopped--just a shade out of balance with the malt. Had traditional English hops been used rather than American (I thought it was primarily Cascade that I could detect, with maybe some Chinook), then it would have been identical to an IPA. As it was, for an American-style pale ale, I felt it was just a shade over-hopped.
For dessert, how to 'Smores strike you? Yes, they put a little pot of fire on the table with wooden skewers and all the fixin's. Very classy--we had a lot of people stop by our booth and admire it!
Make J.T. Whitney's a must-do on your next trip to Madison!
Doppelbocks--First Club Brew
Doppelbocks (double bocks) are strong bock beers. These were traditionally brewed by the monks as "liquid bread" to be consumed during the Lenten season when fasting from solid food required an additional caloric source. By convention, commercially sold doppels are all named with names ending in "ator" in honor of Paulaner's Salvator ("Savior"), the most popularly known. Others include Fortunator (sold as Celebrator in the US) brewed by Ayinger, Animator (Hacker-Pschorr), Maximator (Augustiner), Optimator (Spaten), and Triumpanator (Loewenbrau).
Brewing These beers should have an OG of 1.064 (16 Plato) as an absolute minimum--most start at about 1.072 (18 Plato)--which gives a final alcohol content of 5.4% by weight or 6.8% by volume. Bitterness should be 17-27 IBUs and a color of 12-30 SRM.
These beers should be mashed at high temperature in order to get a lot of malty fullness on the palate--remember since this is a higher alcohol beer, you need more real extract in the brew to counteract the diluting effects of the alcohol. Malts used should, of course, start with a good pale malt, but you should include specialty malts such as Munich, Vienna, and some toasted malt. Chocolate malt comes in handy, or perhaps a little black patent for color and flavor.
Hops tend to be a bit tricky here. A higher hopping rate is necessary to get proper IBUs. This is because heavier beers and stronger beers need more hops just to balance the flavor and since specialty malts increase pH (and therefore decrease hop utilization), you need to adjust your hops accordingly. Traditional German hops such as Hallertau are the mainstay of this style.
This beer should be lagered in the traditional manner and is typically aged for months rather than weeks.
Evaluating Doppels should have an amber to opaque color with SRM as noted previously. It should be crystal clear. The nose should be predominately malty, with no noticable hop aroma. There should be a definate alcohol nose to this beer! The flavor should be fully malty, balanced by the hops but with no lingering hop flavor. One should feel fully satisfied with this rich beer. Some doppels are served as dessert beers!
Help Still Needed for the Contest!
Mike has indicated that a little more help could be used for the contest, especially with the registration process. We could also use help with people bringing and serving homebrews to the public who comes to see the contest. The following people have volunteered to help:
Stewards: Matt Arnold--Pale class, Bert Zelten--Amber class, John Blohm--Dark class
Registration: Jeff Rogers, Mark Zelten (?)
I could still use one or two registration persons and will also need help with clean-up.
Registrars should be at Titletown at 9:30 AM to set up. Stewards need to be there at 11:30 for instructions. If you can help, call Mike at (920) 388-2728.