If you want it done right, you have to brew it yourself!

The Green Bay Rackers hope everyone enjoys the New Year's Eve festivities. But if you drink, get a designated driver or call a cab. If you see someone about to drive drunk, do him a favor. Hide his keys and call a cab for him. The life you save may be your own or the life of a loved one. Let's be careful out there . . .

The Green Bay Rackers are now an official partner with Brewing Techniques magazine. We are listed on their site here. Rackers members get a 22% discount ($26 instead of the usual $33) on subscriptions to Brewing Techniques. Check out our "Join Us" page to find out the other benefits of being a Racker!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours from Rackers.Org!

Scott Abene of the BrewRats online homebrew club has posted specs on just about every yeast strain known to man. Check it out!

Hey mead-makers! The 1999 7th Annual Mazer Cup Mead Competition is coming up in February! For more information, see the Mazer Cup Website. If anyone is interested in entering, contact me so we can ship our entries together.

I recently went to Legends Brewpub in Howard. For a full review, check out my post on Racker411 entitled "Legends Review".

I added pictures from our December meeting. You can view them here. Thanks go out to the Rackers' official photographer, Chuck Goluecke, for taking and scanning the pictures!

The Green Bay News-Chronicle gave me permission to reprint their "Rave" article on the Rackers here on our website. You can read it here. Special thanks to John Parsons for scanning it in for me to I didn't have to retype the whole thing.

If you are attending our meeting on Saturday, please do not bring homebrew to the meeting. Green Bay Brewing would prefer that we wouldn't so their system won't get infected with foreign yeasts. I trust Bill will take care of us in that respect :)

I added links to Titletown Brewing and Fox River Brewing's websites, as well as ones for White Labs yeast and Homebrew Market in Appleton. See our Links section for more details.

PLEASE NOTE! The November newsletter incorrectly lists the Musician's Union Hall as the meeting-place for our December meeting. We will be meeting at Green Bay Brewing in Denmark on December 5 as stated above. I have changed the online version of our November newsletter to reflect this. Bad secretary! No biscuit! (Actually, Mike's been doing a superb job so I'll cut him some slack this time . . .)

The November 1998 edition of our newsletter, the Strange Brew Review, is now online. Included is news on some great new discounts available to Rackers members. Check them out in the newsletter or on our Join Us page.

Greetings to all you triskaidekaphobes out there! I went to Egan's for supper this evening (Thursday) and tried their Alt. Judging by the descriptions I've read of the style, Egan's offering the closest yet to a real Düsseldorf-style Altbier I've found domestically. Don't take my word for it, check it out yourself!

According to the November 12 HappyHours.com BrewsGram, Miller Brewing is dumping the "Dick" Miller Lite ads on the grounds that they were "ineffective" (Lite sales were down 2.7% in the third quarter). I suppose it's easier to blame "Dick" than to say that Lite tastes like beer with a little extra human processing, if you get my drift . . .

I rearranged the email directory a bit. Let me know what you think. I also added personal web page addresses to the directory. If you want yours listed, email me.

I just talked to John at LifeTools. Apparently they are organizing a tour of Briess Malting on Saturday, January 30. There is a limit of 24 people, so sign up at LifeTools as soon as possible! If you haven't done so already, check out their newly rearranged homebrewing section. It's very nicely set up, they're carrying more things (including cornie kegs), and they've got a PhilMill set up to grind your grain with. Quite nice.

I also got email from a gentleman in DePere who is looking to sell his brewing equipment (moved into a condo). For more information, email me, your faithful webmaster.

Well, I racked my club-brew to the secondary yesterday. I was underwhelmed. Not enough body and WAY too little bitterness. I'll let it age in my back room for a while, but I'm pessimistic. But, it's still early . . .

Rackers.Org just got its 2,000th hit! It took us nine months to get our first 1,000, but only five months to get the next. Thanks to all our loyal visitors who made this milestone possible!

A reporter from the Green Bay News-Chronicle is going to be writing an article for their "Rave" section on homebrewing, featuring the Green Bay Rackers! John Blohm, our treasurer, has been gracious enough to brew up a batch on Monday, November 2, at 11:00 AM, at his house so the reporter can take pictures. Any Rackers who might be able to be there should contact Mike Conard as soon as possible.

According to the October 29 HappyHours.com BrewsGram, Pabst is going to buy Stroh, close the remaining five Stroh breweries, and sell some of the Stroh brands to Miller. We can only hope that the remaining purveyors of Industrial Light Lager will destroy each other in such a sporting fashion.