Ted Geftos Jr., Ted Sr., plus Johanne Wilson and Gabrielle Palmer, prepare to tast a brew concocted by a member of the F.O.R.D. club.
September 1, 1997
U.S. Auto Scene
Joseph Cabadas
Staff Writer
Aroma, appearance, flavor, body and drinkability are some of the qualities Gabrielle Palmer of Livonia looks for when she is tasting beer.
Palmer and three others - Johanne Wilson, of Dearborn Heights, Ted Geftos Sr. and Ted Geftos Jr. - tasted several homebrewed beers at Chelsea's restaurant in Dearborn Heights, sitting in judgement on the beverage's quality to see if the batch was worthy enough to be "kegged" and saved for next year's Beer-B-Q.
Three of the foursome were members of F.O.R.D. (Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsmen) - Ted Sr. was just sitting in to help. The club was created back in 1993 by Rich Byrnes and Mike Preston, both Ford Motor Co. employees, as an informal group where home brewers could meet, trade ideas and taste each other's brews.
Starting out with less than 20 members, the club has grown to about 125 active brewwers who meet once per month - usually at Chelsea's. Although the name F.O.R.D. implies a strong tie to the automaker - and roughly 90 percent of the members are Ford employees - the club is open to everyone, Byrnes said.
Palmer, for instance, is an independent contractor working for Ford. She had been interested in brewing her own beer for a while before buying a kit. She saw an ad for the club on the automaker's bulletin board and decided to join.
"At my very first meeting here, around Christmas two years ago, they asked if anyone wanted to judge beers for a club contest," Palmer said. "I raised my hand and figured it would be pretty cool."
That led to a test from the American Homebrewers Association so she could become an official beer-taster. So far, she is loving every minute of it.
Wilson, the club's vice president who works at Ford's Schaefer Court Automotive Plastics facility in Dearborn, is in charge of making sure the club's competitions go on every month and that prizes are available.
Club Treasurer Sandy Bruce added that there are few women members at the moment (the ratio is about 10 males to one female), but many who joined when their husbands became members have started brewing even more beer than their spouses. Bruce helps her husband but said that she doesn't feel like "going alone" yet.
About half the club members cook beer on the kitchen stove using extracts, while others go further and break the grain down and produce "all-grain" beers, said club secretary and newsletter editor Chris P. Frey.
Frey, who works for Ford Credit, said 11 members own microbrewery equipment and the club owns a microbrewery that can produce a 15- to 20- gallon batch at a time. Often, especially during Octoberfest, the members will take their microbreweries to various stores to demonstrate how beer can be made from scratch.
Frey, who likes to go heavy on the hops in his beer, took fourth place in one of the Michigan State Fair beer-making competitions.
"When most people brew, they brew in five gallon batches, which makes about two cases of beer," Byrnes said. "It makes a great gift. People like a good home-brewed beer."
One of the club's top brewers is Tyler Barber, 34, of Dearborn Heights, with less than twoo years experience but seems to have a knack for making a fine brew.
He entered 11 beers in a contest at the 1996 State Fair and won five awards, including a first- and second-place finish. This year, he entered five beers at the State Fair and walked away with first place in the Belgium beer category and an honorable mention in the specialty beer category. Barber has also won prizes in other contests.
He became involved with the club and home brewing after seeing a demonstration at a store he frequents. Now he brews all kinds of beer, from those made with grain extracts all the way to all-grain brewing, which provides the brewer with better quality control. He has his own specially modified equipment set up for brewing - including a chest freezer converted to help make lagers and a refrigerator where he can culture his own yeast - and now "kegs" most of his beer, with four flavors on tap at a time.
"(F.O.R.D. is) the largest homebrew club in Michigan and well-represented in competitions," Frey said. "Nine different people placed in the Michigan State Fair competitions and we have people enter their brews on a national basis."
To join F.O.R.D., contact Frey by writing to 275 S. Ann Arbor St., Saline,
MI 48176 or by calling (313) 337-1642 or (313) 944-6618.