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Strange Brew Review

The Newsletter of the Green Bay Rackers - - July 1998

Club Business Meeting

First, lets extend a warm Rackers welcome to Frank Matzke and Jay Brown of Green Bay and Dean Bialozynski of Pulaski who have recently joined the club. Be sure to introduce yourself at at the next club brew or meeting if you have not already done so!

At the last meeting, I did not get there until late in the afternoon, so I am depending on Bert's notes for the information. The first item of business was the contest results. A copy of the final tally and placings was available for review. Score sheets were handed back to members who entered beers. Mike is suggesting a change in how we do the contest next year. These changes will involve specific beer styles being already computer entered into the appropriate category (pale, amber, or dark) based upon their AHA or BJCP color guideline. This way, the entrant does not have to make up his or her own mind as to where the entry fits in color. Mike is going to ask if the computer program can be modified to accomodate a different printer. The club members would like to add a fourth award called the People's Choice - in which ballots would be made available to the public and the beers rated. Mike thought this could be done easily.

Club Picnic was scheduled for the August meeting, but the members present decided against doing a club picnic in lieu of a major event in October tied to the scheduled opening of the new Green Bay Brewing Company brewery. GBBC is scheduled to open its new plant in October. The club decided to have a major membership drive with a booth and homebrew available at that event, if this can be coordinated with Bill Tressler. A Rauchbier was proposed and could possibly be the club brew at the July brewing session.

July Club Brew will be held on July 7th. One of the new members has volunteered to serve as brewmaster. Watch the webpage for more info.

Website News our website had its 1000th hit this month. We continue to get great reviews and feedback on the site. Keep up the great work, Matt!

Briess Malting Tour which had been planned for October will be scheduled later on due to the plans to have the membership drive at the GBBC opening in October.

Membership cards effective with the 1999 membership year, all paid members will receive laminated membership cards from the secretary. Mike will talk with Homebrew Market and LifeTools to negotiate possibility of member discounts in their stores. The membership card will be added incentive since they can then have proof of actual membership. Next business meeting will be held on August 1st. Newsletter article deadline will be June 15th.

Club Calendar

See the schedule page for more information.

Rackers Brew at Life Tools Street Fair

By Dan Rogers
Green Bay - Great weather, great bluegrass music and great beer were the order of the day for the Life Tools Street Fair, the first in their new location on Waube Lane. Members of the Rackers were on hand to put on a brewing demonstration as a part of the celebration. An extract pale ale was the brew of the day, concocted by Dan Rogers and ably assisted by Bert Zelten and family as well as Rackers member Jeff Rogers.

A brewing demonstration is a new concept for the street fair. We had a lot of fun talking to fellow homebrewers and curious onlookers. It was made even more enjoyable because Bert brought along the last kegged remains of our last club brewed dopple bock plus a keg of his award winning weiss bier. To combat the hot sun and dry winds Jeff provided a growler of Titletown's new Hopping Turtle ale. (Titletown's Brewer Bob Bultman, creator of the highly hopped nectar was on hand too.) We also sampled some of Dan's Titletown contest entry - yes, there will be some left to enter in the contest.

The brewing process began with grinding the crystal malt in a Corona mill clamped to a picnic table. A brew kettle and propane Cajun Cooker were used to do the boil. Lacking a water supply to power a chiller, we decided to use ice to chill the hot wort down to pitching temperature. A couple bags of ice in a plastic wash tub worked just fine. When the kettle was barely warm to the touch the wort was siphoned into a pre-sanitized carboy and the activated yeast was pitched.

The show-and-tell part of the street fair was by far the most valuable part. Homebrewing is such an enjoyable hobby everyone we talked to seemed so genuinely interested. I think with a little advance work, next year's street fair could provide more good information for local home brewers and added business for Life Tools, too.

The 5 gallon batch of pale ale is fermenting happily in my 64 F. basement at this writing. It may be ready for our next meeting.

Styles & Evaluation

The most frequently asked question I get is, "Why should I bother to become a beer judge?" That always struck me as funny, nobody asks, "How do I get to be a beer judge?", they want to know why one should even choose to pursue such a title! Let me give you some reasons why I think being a judge is a terrific goal.

  • Judging makes you a better brewer. Since the process of becoming a judge involves some reading and education, you really become an expert in the techniques and intricasies of brewing. You have to know the process intimately to be able to give other homebrewers feedback on how they can improve their beer.

  • Training to be a judge gives you an exposure to better beer and more beer! Since becoming a BJCP judge requires that you have well developed palate with an extensive knowledge of commercial examples of all of the styles of beer, you will have to try out lots of commercial examples - since these are the basis upon which you will judge a homebrewer's efforts.

  • Judging gives you an appreciation for your own homebrew! When you judge, you get some great ideas for your own beers, but you also gain an appreciation for how good your own beer is. I find out each time I judge that I'm not doing such a bad job after all when I taste some of the beers that other brewers have entered.

    Next issue, I am going to talk about the components of the BJCP exam.

    Beer Quotes

    "Mind your P's and Q's" was an admonition to bar maids when tabs were kept on wooden boards. The waitress would make a mark under the P when she served a pint and under a Q when she served a quart.

    The expression is still with us today.

    (Taken from A Beer Drinker's Companion, Ayers Rock Press, 1986)

    Problem Solving

    Dear Doc:
    I recently entered a contest with what I thought was a pretty good beer. The judges gave at a score of 23 and all of them commented on it being oxidized. One of them mentioned avoiding hot side aeration. Being a novice brewer (this was only my 4th batch of beer), I'm not familiar with what they were telling me. What is hot side aeration and how do I avoid it?
    Baffled in Beloit

    Dear Baffled:
    How well I know this story. It is common with novice brewers. It happened to me in the first competition I ever entered. Pissed me off so much that I became a judge myself so I could get back at somebody! (Just kidding!)

    Hot side aeration occurs when hot wort is exposed to oxygen. Oxidation is the chemical degradation of a substance when exposed to oxygen in the presence of heat. For example, wood will burn to ash in the presence of oxygen as long as there is a souce of heat. Think of your wort as firewood. Take if off of the boil and you have the heat. Add oxygen (aeration) and voila' - you have oxidation. This results in a pronounced off-flavor, often described as a wet cardboard, sherry-like, or winey flavor. (There are other descriptive factors for it as well.)

    Most brewers have this problem because they do not chill their wort or chill it improperly. A wort chiller used either in-line immediately as the wort comes out of the brew kettle, or immersed in the wort prior to transfer from the brew kettle is the single best way to do this. If a wort chiller is out of reach for you right now, let me suggest a tub with ice that you put your brew pot into directly from the stove. (Some enterprising brewers will use snow in the winter to save $$ - just be sure not to use yellow snow!) This is a slower method of doing it and you might be tempted to stir the wort to speed up the process - but this will only serve to add air to the still hot wort. Doing it in this manner does increase your risk of contamination by wild yeast or bacteria - but if you are pitching a good active slurry and if you cover it with a clean dish towel while it is cooling, you can minimize the risk.

    I know homebrewers can be a frugal lot, but this is one area where I really advocate spending some cash. A wort chiller is worth its a hundred times its weight in malt in the brewing process. It helps you avoid hot side aeration AND it speeds up you brewing since you can pitch sooner. Aerate your wort AFTER you have cooled it and NEVER pour hot wort directly into your fermenter.

    Hoppily yours,
    Doc
    Webmaster's note: for excellent instructions on how to build your very own immersion chiller, click here.

    Recipes & Techniques

    All-Grain Rauchbier
    Ingredients for 5 gallons:
    2-1/2 lbs lager malt (smoked)
    5-1/2 lbs lager malt
    1-1/2 lbs Munich malt (smoked)
    1/2 lb chocolate malt
    1/2 lb Crystal malt (smoked)
    1/2 lb Cara-Pils malt
    2-1/2 oz. Hallertau hops
    Wyeast #2206 Bavarian Lager - 1 quart of slurry

    Brewing Specifics:
    Wet malts down and smoke over gas grill with maple chips added for 20 minutes, keeping the temp below 200 degrees Farenheit. Combine smoked malts with other malts and crush. Mash in at 150-152 deg. F, for about an hour. Sparge & bring to boil. Add 1-1/2 oz. of hops. At 45 minutes into the boil, add 1/2 oz of hops and at 58 minutes add the last 1/2 oz. of hops. Chill, transfer, and pitch.

    Boiling Time: 60 minutes

    Opening Gravity: 1.050
    Final Gravity: 1.014

    Fermentation:
    Primary: 68 deg. F until full krausen, then reduce temp 5 degrees per day to 46 deg. F. Hold & continue ferment at 46 degrees for 15 days.
    Secondary: 43 days at 40 deg. F

    Comments:
    Force carbonate or bottle condition with 3/4 cup pale malt extract or corn sugar. Age 3 weeks at room temperature in dark room.