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If you want it done right, you have to brew it yourself!
Strange Brew Review
The Newsletter of the Green Bay Rackers - - February 1999Minutes of February 5th
March Club Brew Dale Dean will be the brewmaster for the March brew. This will be a Canadian-style ale. The brew will start at 5:00 rather than 6:00 PM as it will be at least a partial mash brew.
April Meeting Tentative plans will be to hold the April meeting at the new Legend's out near the AMS building in Howard. Watch the website, and Mike will send out meeting cards a week before the meeting as a reminder.
Brewing Contest May 15th is the date for the contest, again to be held at Titletown. Mike will need more stewards than last year to help, since we are splitting up the flights a bit more, and more BJCP judges are expected to be participating.
Program Todd Hanson was a guest of the club who talked about a new business that may be starting up that will be of interest to home brewers. He asked us to fill out a survey. The club was happy to participate.
"The Bitter Truth" Discussion was held regarding having a club experiment, re-creating the "pale experiment" once published in BT magazine. This experiment will involve club members all brewing the exact same beer with the same ingredients, water, and yeast. The goal will be to compare brewing technique alone in the outcome of the beer. Here is how it will work:
All members will purchase their ingredients at wholesale cost from Mike, who will order all of the materials we need for both the extract group and the all-grain group. Bert will whip up a huge slurry of yeast, which each member will take to pitch. Water will be purchased by the club in bottles so that too will be standardized (10 gallons per member). The grain will all be pre-crushed on a single mill to avoid differences in the grist. Each member would have to brew and pitch within a two-week time frame. Each brewer will bottle 12 bottles, the rest can be bottled or kegged as desired. These will all be bottle conditioned, again to standardize the results. Independent BJCP judges will be asked to to the flavor analysis. Mike will collect the results and write a paper suitable for publishing.
Look for a separate mailing on this as the details get put together. You will need to let Mike know if you are interested in participating.
Club Calendar
Club Brew
It seems that the yeast never took off and krausen was never achieved. John says that this is the third time he has had either a HUGE lag time or a ferment that never got started using this yeast. The yeast he was using was the Yeast Lab L32 Bavarian Lager. He says he intends never to use that yeast again, he is that disappointed in it.
If I may be editorial here, we all know of John's training and brewing expertise. If John can't get a batch going with that yeast, it's a sure bet that the yeast is a dog and should probably be left alone!
The alt that Matt Arnold brewed turned out to be a very nice, drinkable beer. Unfortunately, it did not conform to style, it turned out to be a very nice beer consistent with an American-style red ale. The body was too light, and the hop balance was off as compared to the Alt style. Still, it did turn out to be a nice, drinkable beer. (Webmaster's note: My problem with this beer is that my volume was 1/2 gallon more than I expected and I used a hop bag that killed my utilization. Thus, low body, low bitterness. Blech.) We still have yet to try the porter that Jeff Rogers & Bob Bultmann made at the January brew.
New Members
You all know Bob "Barley" Bultman, former brewer at Titletown. Bob's plans are uncertain at this time, but he plans to remain in the area and joined the club, though he wasn't able to make this meeting. Welcome aboard, guys!
Club Contest
Enclosed is a copy of the color categories. This will also be on the entry forms when they come out next month.
By the way, as a result of our being listed on the Zymurgy calendar, I have actually had a couple of people call and ask for entry forms!
Brewing Techniques Magazine
Beer Quote
--title of book by Erfurt in five volumes 1583
Ed: Sounds like that man was devoted to his craft!
Styles & Evaluation
The BJCP ExaminationThe BJCP has several levels of judges based upon their experience and their knowledge of brewing as demonstrated by the exam score they obtain on the BJCP written examination. The levels of judges are as follows:
APPRENTICE JUDGE - someone who has taken the BJCP exam, but failed to score above 60 percent. No experience points are required, but the judge must maintain an active status.
RECOGNIZED JUDGE - minimum score of 60 percent on the exam. No experience points are necessary to attain this level.
CERTIFIED JUDGE - minimum score of 70 percent on the exam and at least five experience points, 2.5 of which must be judging points.
NATIONAL JUDGE - minimum score of 80 percent on the exam and at least 20 experience points, 10 of which must be judging points.
MASTER JUDGE - minimum score of 90 percent on the exam and at least 40 experience points, 20 of which must be judging points.
GRAND MASTER JUDGE - FIRST DEGREE - minimum score of 90 percent on the exam and at least 100 experience points, 50 of which must be judging points. A service requirement for the BJCP, to be determined by the Board on an individual basis, must also be fulfilled. Additional degrees can be earned in 100 experience point increments with additional service requirements.
Judges gain points by participating in judging contests as active judges. Judges can re-take the exam to try for a higher score after further study and preparation.
Problem Solving
Okay, Mike ....
I'm gonna be the contrary one again with respect to the advice column. Although the addition of a few extra mineral salts to the water (one tablet per 20 gallons) may not appreciably affect the content of the water or its brewing characteristics, I still prefer to filter the water. (And, as you noted, some people have trouble with sulfites. Sure, they're used in wine, but people expect that and stay away from it if it's a problem. But you don't expect it in beer, and could be a nasty surprise for someone.)
Contrary to the "money tree" remark, charcoal filtration of your brewing water is not such an expensive proposition. Yes, a "whole house" system is likely to be cost-prohibitive, and even an undersink filter could be expensive (or involve plumbing alterations that may not sit well with a renter's landlord). There are less expensive ways to do it. I have a faucet-mounted filter unit that cost me less than $20 for the unit and the first filter cartridge. (I think it might have even been closer to $10 than to $20, but I don't recall). Replacement filters at your local Sprawl-Mart are $15 for a box of four--a year's supply according to the manufacturer recommendations (3 months or 200 gallons), YMMV. You can switch between filtered and unfiltered to avoid wasting the filter for water not used for brewing or drinking. (Being fairly certain that I don't filter 200 gallons in three months, I go four or five months between filter changes without noticing problems.)
Surely, you don't need a money tree to afford $10-$15/year in filter cartridges. This kind of unit is much more economical (and convenient) than the Brita
Charcoal filtration may mean more out of your pocket than a few Campden tablets, but it's still pretty inexpensive--a year's supply for about the cost of a couple pitchers of beer at your local brewpubs--and you can also use the water for non-beer drinking, juice dilution, cooking, et cetera.
Ed note: The article to which Bob offers this rebuttal was reprinted from the Internet and was not an original submission. Mike
Recipes & Techniques
Yule Fule--A Holiday AleThis was a beer brought in by Tom Parker that was brewed a year ago and is really a nice seasonal spiced ale!
Style: Herb/Spice Beer
Min OG - 1.030 + + Max OG- 1.110
Min IBU - 5 + + Max IBU- 70
Ingredients:
3.25 lbs of Pale malt extract
8.00 lbs of Amber Ale malt extract
1.00 lb of Light dry malt extract
Hops of choice, based on IBUs
0.50 oz. whole nutmeg (in the fermenter)
1.00 oz. Cinnamon stick (at end of the boil)
0.50 oz. dried spicy orange peel (last 15 min of boil)
16.00 oz. black molasses (60 min of boil)
14.00 oz. Demerara (at end of boil)
Yeast:
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale
I'm not sure where this recipe came from, my guess from the layout of the page Tom gave me is that it was in ProMash software. In any event, it made a really nice beer, though I thought just a shade too much cinnamon and not enough orange flavor for my particular taste. Still, a nice winter beer.