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

Happy New Year's Eve, folks! Please, please, please do your old friend Matt a favor. If you drink tonight don't drive home. Get a designated driver. Get a cab. Just don't become a statistic or make someone else a statistic!

Guess what, kids? We've got a Y2K bug! The program that sets cookies for the Racker411 message board had all the cookies expire on December 30, 1999. Pretty stupid. Fortunately there is an easy work-around. Until I fix it, you won't be able to save your settings or find out what messages are new or not. Other than that, it will work fine. Just when I think that I've thought of everything . . .

Update! I gave the message board script a quick hack and now the cookies are working again. They will stop working on December 31, 2020, at midnight GMT. By that time, I'm sure we'll be using something else :)

There's an even newer edition of the Egan Brewing News online! If any other local breweries/brewpubs are interested in having a newsletter on this site, email me!

Jay Brown has graciously volunteered to be the brewmaster for our club brew next Tuesday. Thanks Jay! Make plans to be there so we can get 2000 started with all the style and grace that we are renown for :)

I filled up my 20# propane tank tonight in case the urge to brew comes up. Fortunately it seems that no one is freaking out up here about Y2K. I'm sure some lunatic will do something stupid Friday night. True story: A guy in Michigan was stockpiling propane in his basement (to the tune of TEN 200 pound tanks) in fear of Y2K. Well, one of the valves leaked and as soon as the propane got to a pilot light--BOOM! It knocked the house of its foundation. Almost had another Darwin Awards winner there . . .

Did anyone besides me get any beer-related Christmas presents? My inlaws got me some sweet pint (Imperial: 20 oz) glasses from one of my favorite places on the planet: Sherlock's Home in Minnetonka, MN.

I know, bad webmaster, no biscuit. I hope that everyone got all the brewing-related goodies that you wanted for Christmas.

I have actually done some work on the site, believe it or not. I updated the Egan's News page, as well as adding John Parson's Brown Ale recipe to our club brew recipes page.

Speaking of which we need a brewer for our January club brew! If you are interested, please email me as soon as possible. Thank you. Let's ring in the year 2000 in style (beer style, that is).

And speaking of beer styles (call me Mr. Segue) my wife and I went to Egan's recently to try some of their new millennium beers (a year early). Dan Rogers' Belgian Strong and Steve Olson's Imperial Stout are to die for. Wonderful, flavorful beers. Bring along a designated driver though--they both pack a wallop.

It was on this date in 1933 that, in a rare moment of legislative lucidity, the 21st amendment officially became law, bringing nearly 15 years of Prohibition to an end. Did you know that the 21st amendment is the only amendment to the U.S. Constitution to be approved by state ratifying conventions rather than the state legislatures? It's true! Proponents of this amendment feared that "dry" rural legislators would derail or delay its approval, so they were circumvented altogether!

Sorry about the lack of updates--I haven't even gotten around to bottling my experiment brew yet! I've got a bunch of stuff to post, hopefully I can get some done tonight. I won't be able to be at the Christmas meeting, so somebody please drink for me (as long as you have a designated driver).

Note to anyone who wants me to post their contest information: I am very happy to alert the Rackers about various homebrew contests, especially the Wisconsin ones. But please do not send me the forms as an email attachment! If you do, I will laugh diabolically and delete the message unread. Just give me a link to the forms (you do have a website, right?) or an address for more information. EZ-Net's mail server and I thank you.

Richard "gak" Stueven forwarded this graphic, announcing a brewers' shindig at the palatial Bultman estate in Green Bay. The festivities are scheduled for November 19 from 5:00 P.M. until ???

My beer is fermenting nicely now. I guess I broke the cardinal rule of brewers: Relax, don't worry, etc.

I brewed my brewing experiment beer yesterday. Unfortunately the yeast hasn't taken off yet! I'm giving it a couple more hours, then I'll pitch a couple packets of dry yeast to save the batch. This would mean that my beer couldn't be part of the experiment, but I would at least still have the beer, instead of five gallons of bacteria treat. I've got some more stuff to post, hopefully I'll get that done later today. Stay tuned!

I added yet another cool feature to this here website (pause for wild, sustained applause). If you look on the left under "About Us" you'll see a new entry called "Local Beer News." Here I will post any information any of the local breweries or brewpubs want posted regarding their beer line-up, upcoming events, etc. Currently only Richard "gak" Stueven from Egan's has given me any information. Look for more coming soon!

After about 18 hours lag time. My yeast finally took off from the brewing experiment beer. The "airlock burps" smell normal, so I have reason to be hopeful.

I just updated the brewing experiment recipe page. The hop additions are now correct (we upped the bittering hops to 1.5 oz) and the yeast is now the correct strain (Whitbread). I also removed the superfluous 80L Crystal addition in the extract recipe (not sure how I got that in twice . . .)

Don't forget to pick up your supplies for the club brewing experiment at Egan's tonight! Don't forget your Egan's pint glass either--it's pint night ya know!

I finally got our September newsletter, including my fabulous :) article on Altbier. Make sure to check it out! Along those same lines, Sticke Altbier did not make it as an official BJCP category in the new style guidelines, but the description (including the possibility of moderate hop aroma) allows it to fit into the standard Düsseldorfer Altbier category.

My brother-in-law will be going to Europe for his honeymoon. He and his wife will be passing through the area of Düsseldorf so he may be able to bring some Zum Uerige back for me! Rapture!

In the "It's the End of the World as We Know It" Department, I got this blurb from HappyHours.com:

New York, NY - CNBC is reporting this morning that Miller Brewing Company, has made a US$14-per-share offer for the Boston Beer Company.

When asked for comment two days ago about the rumoured offer, a Philip Morris spokesperson reminded me politely that the huge international corporation "never comments" on reports of this kind.

Independently, HappyHours.com has been told that the offer of US$14 a share for Boston Beer seemed to be "on target," and that the Boston Beer Company had, "promised Miller they would study the offer carefully."

Now, some of BBC's policies (and beer "styles") have been questionable, I would hate to see the one decent nationally-distributed microbrew end up destroyed by the corporate monolith that is Miller.

In a somewhat related story, Labatt has purchased the rights to brew Löwenbräu in North America. They have promised to go back and use the original German recipe and ingredients. That would be great news if it is true. You'll have to pardon me, though, if I doubt a North American macrobrewer's capability to brew a true pilsner. Although, if given a choice, I will always choose a Labatt Blue over a BudMilloors any old day.

Sorry it's been so long since my last update! Things have really been insane in my life recently, so I beg your forgiveness.

As you may have noticed on the navigation bar on the left, I've added the recipe for the brewing experiment. It's a pretty basic (but hopefully tasty!) English Pale Ale. Remember to pick up your supplies on Tuesday! According to Mike, there are 21 people signed up, 11 all-grain and 10 extract. This is going to be cool . . .

Props go out to the good folks at Briess malting in Chilton for donating the grain for this experiment.

Well, kids, Briess malting was kind enough to donate the grain (pre-ground) for our club brewing experiment! That will cut down on the cost of participating significantly. I have started a brewing experiment page (also on the nav bar on your left) which will be updated whenever necessary. If you are interested in participating, you can download the brewing experiment agreement form (MS Word format), sign it, and mail it to Mike Conard by October 15.

Oh frabjous day! I received the Homebrew Digest in my email box this morning! The sites hosted on the HBD server, including The Brewery should be back online momentarily.

Mike "Ask Me No Directions, And I'll Tell You No Lies" Conard sent email around saying that the meeting-reminder card sent to all club members has an incorrect date on it. The meeting is on October 2, not October 4 as the card says.