Green Bay Rackers--June '99 Newsletter

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Strange Brew Review

The Newsletter of the Green Bay Rackers - - June 1999

Minutes of June 5th

A big thanks to Tim & Rich at Egan Brewing Company for a really wonderful time and great beer! The "after action" report on the contest was the main item of discussion. Significant discussion on whether or not we should BJCP sanction or AHA sanction was held. AHA has created a problem each of the past two years in terms of their untimely delivery of what we pay a sanction fee for. It was decided to have further discussion on this at the October club meeting when we will have even more members present to vote on the issue. We also discussed the site for next year's contest. There is a feeling that we should consider varying the site, now that we have three places in town all capable of hosting the site. This will also be discussed at the October meeting. People's Choice did not go very well. We need more bottles of beer if we are going to do this. Significant changes to how we do this award were discussed, including offering entrants the option of putting their entry into the P.C. by sending an additional bottle or two of beer. Mike will change the voting ballot for that portion of the contest and have a place for people to keep notes on their beer tastings.

The Category Awards was also discussed. Judges once again made comments about the difficulty in deciding awards based on our current three categories. Mike would like to offer 1st place ribbons in 7 categories next year (American Ales/Lagers, German Ales/Lagers, Belgian/French Ales, German Ambers & Darks, Brit & Scot Browns & Pales, Brit & Scot Darks & Strongs, and Wierd Beers.) We would then do certificates for the 2nd & 3rd places. The club also talked about having a Stein as the Best of Show Award. This could easily be done, and we could even consider having certificates then for honorable mentions. The judges all commented on the high quality of the beers entered in this year's contest.

We discussed the summer picnic. It will be held on August 7th from noon until 8:00 PM at McCauliffe Park on the east side of Green Bay. Maps will be mailed out with the meeting notice for that event and possible posted on the website. John Parsons made the arrangements, he was unable get Pamperin Park or the NEW Zoo. We'll have to make arrangements earlier for next year in order to get one of those places. Many members had expressed an interest in the NEW Zoo because there is a lot of family stuff to do there and they have a couple of nice shelters for picnics. The club will purchase the meat for the picnic, and all members attending should bring a dish to pass. Liquid refreshments will be strictly BYOB.

The next meeting will be the picnic, and then the next business meeting will be in October.

Club Brew

Despite an inability to get anyone to volunteer to be brewmaster for the May club brew, a spectacular compromise was reached!

Greg Nash's "legacy" to Egan's before his departure was a batch of raspberry mead, a total of 6 kegs of it remain in the cooler at Egan's. Rich was kind enough to tap it for us and it was just wonderful! Now, I'm not normally a mead drinker - but two pints of it made a believer out of me. Well-balanced, very flavorful, and high-test! (But I digress.)

In any event, the club members decided to purchase a keg and counterfilled bottles of it for club sale to its members. I wa unable to attend the event, so contact Bert if you are interested in purchasing some of the mead.

New Members

I am please to announce the addition of three new members to the club! Jeff Wright from Shawano, Troy Thuma from Green Bay, and Kurt Wallinger from Green Bay. Troy joined us for our meeting this month at Legend's and seemed to have a great time and fit right in (of course, if we accept me as a member, we'll take anyone!) This brings our current paid membership to 25 members! Kurt joined at our June meeting at Egan's. Welcome aboard fellow brewers!

Club Contest

Despite a head injury (Webmaster's note: All I can say is, "Ouch!"), and getting kicked out of the area early (again), things otherwise went well for the 5th annual Titletown Open. My thanks to Bob, Eric, Rich, Paris, & Fred for helping with the judging and to all of the club members who helped register and steward the contest.

See our Titletown Open Winners page for a complete list of winners.

Beer Quotes

"Mind your P's & Q's" was an admonition to bar maids, who kept tabs of bar bills in pieces of board marked with chalk marks - a hack under the 'P' for each pint, and under the 'Q' for each quart served a customer. The expression remains with us today, but has it roots in beer!

from A Beer Drinker's Companion, Ayers Rock Press

Styles & Evaluation

Tasting Session-Legend's Restaurant I took the opportunity of St. Patrick's Day to celebrate with my wife and try Legend's for the first time. We had a reasonable meal and it is a nice atmosphere, pretty much a sports bar kind of place.

I found the wait person woefully lacking in beer knowledge, did not have any conversant knowledge of what beers they had other than the names of them and had to go looking for one of their little blue cards with the descriptions of the beers on them.

I had a sampler of all four of their beers and then settled on one to have with my meal. I was disappointed to see that it was served in a highly frosted mug, I was drinking through an iceberg the entire session. At the club meeting, we were able to get unfrosted glasses, but had to ask for them specially. They did not have their Duckcreek Dunkel on tap, and therefore I did not evaluate that beer. (Webmaster's note: You didn't miss much.)

Founder's Wheat "An American filtered wheat beer served with a lemon or your favorite flavoring. (Blackberry, Swiss Chocolate, Cherry, Raspberry, or Mango)"
My notes: An unbalanced beer, too malty for the style. Consider elevating the hop level. No fruity esters detectable. Light bodies, color appropriate. Under-conditioned. Probably needs the flavoring added to it to make is a unique beer. Served with a lemon.

Acme Amber "A mildly hopped amber colored lager named after the ACME Packers."
My notes: A highly hopped beer, but still fairly well balanced. Medium bodied. Could have just a shade more conditioning. Best of the beers I had.

Longtail Light "An American style lager with a sweet flavor and a great aroma"
My notes: A crisp, well-balanced beer, light body & pale color. Significantly under-conditioned for the style. The hop nose is appropriate.

Czech Me Out Pils "A light lager with a hoppy aroma and a dry finish, as close to a true pilsner that you'll find"
My notes: Poorly balanced, lots of aromatic hops but not bittered enough. Possibly atypical hops used, Saaz did not seem to be the pre-dominant hop. Under-conditioned.

Over-all impressions: The beers are too much alike in looks and in overall taste, despite what should be significant differences one would expect from the ascribed styles. The club impressions from the meeting verified that impression. I know that there are limits with extract brewing, but I think some tweaking of the recipes and use of different yeast strains could make the beers much more style typical.

Problem Solving

I was recently approached about making up yeast starters. Most smack-paks still have a very low volume of yeast at pitching time and lag time still tends to be a problem. Here's how I do it. Caution: This takes a couple of days to get your yeast up to a pitchable volume, depending on how viable your yeast in the smack-pak is.

I have purchased several Pyrex Ehrlenmeyer flasks in both 500cc and 1000cc size. (Hobby stores, catalogs that supply such things are available.) (Webmaster's note: Our sponsor, Galaxy Science and Hobby in Appleton, carries Ehrlenmeyer flasks) I fitted them with one-hole rubber stoppers and cheap 3-bubble, one piece air locks. These are, of course, all properly sanitized with iodophor. I also have Ever-Clear that I use for sanitizing the smack-pak when I'm ready to transfer.

I start the smack-pak in the usual manner. When it has expanded to the appropriate size, I fill either two 500 cc or one 1000cc with pre-made malt started (see recipe in the following column. I sanitize the outside corner of the pack and a pair of scissors with the Ever Clear, cut off the corner of the pack, and pour the contents into the flasks (1/2 in each, if using two). I immediately fit the stoppers and air locks and use either ever clear or vodka to fill the air locks.

I usually have vigorous krausen within 48 hours and am ready to pitch. The hard part of this system is the timing. As a rule, I have found that the smack-packs usually take 48 hours, followed by another 48 hours in the flasks. So, I usually open the smack pak on Monday night, put it in the starter on Wednesday night, and then brew on Saturday. If there is a slight lag in the process, I can usually brew then on Sunday. If things go a bit faster, the yeast will usually tolerate an extra day in the pack without significant flocculation and autolysis.

You can vary the techniques and equipment to suit your system. Mike

Recipes and Techniques

Yeast Culture Recipe I have adapted Papazian's method as published in the New Complete Joy of Homebrewing for my brewing set-up.

First, I always make 5 gallons of starter at a time. I clean and sanitize with iodophor 1/2 liter Pschorr-brau Weiss bottles that I obtained from the Lorelei Inn in Green Bay (They almost always have cases of empties in the basement and are happy to give them away to homebrewers.) I then fill these with the hottest tap water I can to pre-heat the bottle.

While the bottles are pre-heating, I mix up in my brew kettle the following:
5 gallons of water
3 lbs of dry or canned malt extract
2 oz. of hop pellets
(I use a nylon hop bag to make hop removal easier)

I bring the mix to a boil for one half hour, remove the hop bag, and continue to boil for another 15 minutes. While the boil is going on, I am also sanitizing crown caps in iodophor.

During this next step, I wear a paper mask to avoid breathing into my sterile wort. Once the boil is finished, you can either dip out the wort with a sanitized, Pyrex measuring cup OR, if you have a valve on your brew kettle, fill your bottles from that. I empty the bottles one at a time and fill it with the hot wort. Always use an oven mitt on your hand. Cap immediately and label as sterile yeast starter.

I always pour off a little and taste it just before using it to make sure it is not spoiled. With as often as I brew, I usually only end up making a batch of starter once a year and have never had any spoil on me.