Ye Olde Brew News -January 2002

The next meeting will be held back at the Lil' Dublin Sports Pub (formerly Sisko's) in Taylor on Wednesday, January 23. Lil' Dublin is located on Monroe (between Telegraph and Southfield), just south of Vanborn. Their address is 5855 Monroe and their phone number is 313-278-5340. The competition for this January is Scottish Ale. As usual, the thirsty hard-core who want dinner will start arriving around 5PM, people will drift in for an hour or so, and we will start our meeting around 6PM.

Competition Results

The winners of the Homebrewer of the Year award are Kim and Bob Barrett with 40 points. Rich Hampo was second with 34.

This month's competition will be Scottish Ale , BJCP category 5 . Although this is an AHA club only competition, due to time constraints the winner will not be able to send the entry to the AHA.

Aroma: Malt is evident; some examples have a low level of hop aroma. Fruitiness low to none. A very faint smoky and/or toasty/roasty characteristic sometimes present. May have some diacetyl.

Appearance: Amber to dark brown. Draught examples often have a creamy, long-lasting head.

Flavor: Malt-dominated flavor, with subdued esters and just enough hop bitterness to prevent the beer from being cloyingly sweet. A very slight toasty, roasty and/or chocolate-like character is sometimes present. Caramel flavor from crystal malt medium to none. May have some diacetyl.

Mouthfeel: Creamy, with low carbonation. Body is medium-light, but full for the gravity.

Overall Impression: Cleanly malty, with perhaps a faint touch of smoke and few esters.

History: More recent commercial interpretations from Scotland have begun to drift towards English bitter in terms of bitterness, balance, attenuation, esters and dry-hopping. These guidelines don't account for these recent commercial examples which would more accurately be described as bitters. Traditionally, these beers were dispensed via pumps, which forced air into the headspace of the cask, thus forcing the beer out. These air-powered systems are referred to as "tall fonts." The "light" name associated with this style refers to the gravity rather than the color.

Comments: Though similar in gravity to ordinary bitter, the malt-hop balance is decidedly to the malt side. Long, cool fermentation leads to clean malt character (which may include some faint peat or smoke character). Note that the smoky character can be due to the yeast as often as to smoked or peat-kilned malt. Strongly smoky beers should be entered in the Smoked Beer category rather than here.

Ingredients: Scottish or English pale malt with small proportions of roasted barley, crystal or chocolate malt. English hops. Clean, relatively un-attenuative ale yeast.

Commercial Examples: Belhaven 60/-, Caledonian 60/-, Maclay 60/- Light, Highland Dark Light (HDL).

Aroma: Malt is evident; some examples have a low level of hop aroma. Fruitiness is low to none with a mild smoky character and/or toasty/roasty aroma, which is sometimes present. May have some diacetyl.

Appearance: Amber to dark brown; draught examples often have a creamy, long-lasting head.

Flavor: Malt-dominated flavor, with subdued esters and just enough hop bitterness to prevent the beer from being cloyingly sweet. A very slight toasty/roasty or chocolate-like character is sometimes present. Caramel flavor from crystal malt medium to none. May have some diacetyl.

Overall Impression: Cleanly malty, with perhaps a faint touch of smoke and few esters.

Comments: Though similar in gravity to special bitter, the malt-hop balance is decidedly to the malt side. Long, cool fermentation leads to clean malt character (which may include some faint peat or smoke character). Note that the smoky character can be due to the yeast as often as to smoked or peat-kilned malt. Strongly smoky beers should be entered in the Smoked Beer category instead.

Ingredients: Scottish or English pale malt with small proportions of roasted barley, crystal or chocolate malt. English hops. Clean, relatively un-attenuative ale yeast.

Commercial Examples: Orkney Raven Ale, Greenmantle Ale, Borve Heavy Ale, Waverly Ale 70/-, Highland Heavy, Belhaven 70/-, Caledonian 70/-,Maclay 70/-, McEwans 70/- (also sold as Younger's Scotch Ale and Tartan Special).

Aroma: Malt is evident; some examples have a low level of hop aroma. Fruitiness is low to none. A mild smoky and/or toasty/roasty character is sometimes present. May have some diacetyl.

Appearance: Amber to dark brown. Draught examples often have a creamy, long-lasting head.

Flavor: Malt-dominated flavor, with subdued esters and just enough hop bitterness to prevent the beer from being cloyingly sweet. A very slight toasty/roasty and/or chocolate-like character is sometimes present. Caramel flavor from crystal malt medium to none. May have some diacetyl.

Overall Impression: Cleanly malty, with perhaps a faint touch of smoke and few esters.

Comments: Though similar in gravity to strong bitter, the malt-hop balance is decidedly to the malt side. Long, cool fermentation leads to clean malt character (which may include some faint peat or smoke character). Note that the smoky character can be due to the yeast as often as to smoked or peat-kilned malt. Strongly smoky beers should be entered in the Smoked Beer category instead. It is important to note that while the IBUs on some of these beers can be rather high, the low attenuation and solid maltiness results in a balance that is still even at best and more than likely towards malt.

Ingredients: Scottish or English pale malt with small proportions of roasted barley, crystal or chocolate malt. English hops. Clean, relatively un-attenuative ale yeast.

Commercial Examples: Orkney Dark Island, Harviestown 80/-, Sherlock's Home Piper's Pride, Greenmantle 80/- Export, Arrol's 80/-, Highland Severe, Younger's No. 3, McEwan's 80/- (despite the "India Pale Ale" on the label), Arrol's 80/-, Belhaven 80/- (Belhaven Scottish Ale in the US), Caledonian 80/- Export Ale (Caledonian Amber Ale in the US), Maclay Scotch Ale, Maclay 80/- Export (Maclay 80 Shilling Export Ale in the US).

Gnarly Wine

On December 29th, David Cords, Steve Close, Chris Frey and Scott Day dragged their pico systems out on a cold , blustery day to test the limits of the Platinum White Labs High Gravity special yeast. Advertised to handle SG's as high as 1.200, we decide that we would fill all four of our mash tuns with the maximum amount of grains (just over 40 pounds each) and take just the first three gallons of runnings each and combine them into one boil kettle.

All of our first runnings were about 1.100 (not hateful for an all-grain), but that clearly wasn't pumped up enough. We eschewed the thought of utilizing extracts, so we took the more labor intense route of then boiling this wort for 3 hours to get it down to about 8 gallons and 1.150 SG. During the last hour Scott added 38 (!) ounces of 13%AA Nugget hops pellets (no, that is not a mis-print) to ensure a little off-setting hoppiness.

Well, while that was all boiling down our intrepid brewers were all rinsing an additional 10 gallons each through their individual grain bills and brewing Old Ales, Scottish Ales and whatnot. By the time the Gnarly Wine had boiled down to size we realized we had a ton of break and hop materials. The good news is that the yeast chewed and chewed, and remained quite active for a long period of time. It can be viewed at Brew & Grow and we anticipate the first tastings around this time next year.

Dues Reminder

Dues are still $15 (cheap!) for single renewALES, $20 for family, $25 for first time members. Checks should be mailed to me:
Chris Frey
275 South Ann Arbor St.
Saline, Mi. 48176

More News

Rich Byrnes relayed this article about Dutch Brewer Freddy Heineken

Dutch beer magnate Freddy Heineken died peacefully January 3rd at his residence in Noordwijk, Netherlands. He was 78 years old.

Born on November 4, 1923 in Amsterdam, Freddy Heineken succeeded in transforming the family firm founded by his grandfather in 1864 into one of the world-brewing giants.

After joining the brewery in 1942, Freddy Heineken worked in the publicity department before becoming president from 1971 to 1989. It was he who chose the color green and the logo for Heineken. The company has grown to become the world's second biggest brewer by beer volumes, with more than 110 breweries in over 50 countries and export activities across the globe.

In November 1983 he was kidnapped. He was freed three weeks later on payment of an approximate $14 million ransom. After this he cut down drastically on his public appearances and only rarely gave interviews.

Freddy Heineken kept tight control over the family firm throughout his life, buying a majority of shares in 1954. After retiring as president of the group he remained president of Heineken Holding, which retained 50.005 per cent of Heineken.

He held 50.005 percent of the holding company, thus keeping control of the brewery.

Blast from the Past .... Five Years Ago in "Ye Olde Brew News"

For those of you that know me this column will come as no surprise, for those of you new to the club you will quickly learn. Almost as strong as my love of brewing is my love of tinkering. I like several other members of the club have built my own Pico^® style system, and have made several modifications (improvements?) to the original design. I will not use this space to talk about recipes, beer, hops, etc, I will instead use this space to talk about equipment. I hope to put out a column each month talking about different equipment: draught systems, kegging systems, filtration, all grain equipment etc. Much of this info may not be truly original, some of it comes from different publications, some from other homebrewers, and some right off the net. I will always try to credit the source of my column wherever possible. For those of you who are tinkerers (OK, gadget freaks) there is a new book on the market by Karl Lutzen called Brew Ware(s?) a book of home-spun tools, gadgets and innovations.

My column this month will feature the stainless steel tire valve Carbonator style cap I presented last month. There was an article in a previous issue of brewing techniques that explained this nifty cap, and both Bob Zukosky and Doug Lacureaux in our club have made these caps so I'm not exactly treading on new ground, but there is a difference. Both the article and Bob & Doug's (G'day eh!) caps used the standard rubber tire stem. Whilst perusing the aisles at my local Pep Boy car care centers I noticed a package of shiny stainless steel tire stems right next to the rubber ones. The difference in design is that the rubber ones are merely pulled through a hole and they are supposed to seat themselves, the stainless ones actually have a nut that tightens down to firmly and securely lock and seal this whole piece. So of course I bought the more expensive shiny ones (for those of you that know me this comes as no surprise either) To start, the tire stems are marked "for .453 holes" This translated to a 29/64 drill bit. I merely grabbed an empty 2l bottle with the cap still attached and drilled a hole in the middle of the cap. I used a center punch to mark a small indentation so the drill bit wouldn't chatter, but I didn't mark the precise center, I just eyeballed it. I felt the hole was a tad too small so I moved up to a 31/64 and that worked better. It's possible a 1/2 would work just fine but I haven't tried it yet.

Anyways, after drilling the hole (making sure the rubber liner is intact) I used an exact-o knife to deburr and clean up the hole. I used a dab of keg-lube (a food grade silicone lubricant) around the edge of the rubber flange and pulled it through the hole, and then tightened the lock nut on top of that. The article in Brewing Techniques recommends backing out the valve on the inside with a valve removal tool and giving that a dab of keg lube too and reseating that, this will be the weak link if any. At that point you are done! To build the filling hose You need the following, a short section of ¼" gas hose, a ¼hose-barb to male ¼ flare adapter (available at homebrew supply shops that carry a lot of kegging equipment), a ¼:" hosebarb to male ¼" pipe adapter, and an air-chuck with a female ¼" opening on the back side.

Connect the airchuck to the female adapter, then slide that in the hose and clamp to secure. Slide the other hose barb adapter in the other side and secure with a clamp. Viola! You are done.

This system assumes you use removable cornelius fittings for your kegs, if you use fittings that are barbed and permanently secured to your hose you will have to install a splitter. Anyways, to use merely fill a one or two liter bottle with fresh beer right from your keg, squeeze as much air out as possible and then screw the cap on, hook up your air chuck hose to your CO2 tank and proceed to inflate the bottle with CO2, I generally use about 12-14 Lbs of pressure. This system allows you to bottle fresh beer for portability with as little bother as possible.

To buy a commercially made Carbonator brand cap costs between $12 and $14. I purchased a pack of 4 S.S. Tirestems for less than $5 from Pep Boys (I haven't seen these stems at any other store) and the components to make the hose cost less than $5 as well. Enjoy this cap and if you have any innovations you would like to share please contact me and I will feature it in an article!

Next Month's Competition

Next month's competition is porter, BJCP category 15. This is an AHA club competition.

Aroma: Roast malt or grain aroma, often coffee-like or chocolate-like, should be evident. Hop aroma moderate to low. Fruity esters, and diacetyl, are moderate to none.

Appearance: Dark brown to black color, may be garnet-like. Clarity may be difficult to discern in such a dark beer. Head retention should be moderate to good.

Flavor: Malt flavor usually features coffee-like or chocolate-like roasty dryness. Overall flavor may finish from medium sweet to dry, depending on grist composition, hop bittering level, and attenuation. May have a sharp character from dark roasted grains. Hop flavor varies widely. Diacetyl moderate to none.

Overall Impression: A substantial dark ale with complex roasty malt, hop and fermentation characteristics.

History: Originating in England, Porter developed as a blend of beers or gyles known as "Entire." A precursor to stout. Said to have been favored by porters and other physical laborers.

Comments: Although a rather variable style, it may be distinguished from closely-related Stout as lacking the Stout's roasted barley character.

Ingredients: May contain several malts, prominently dark roasted malts and grains, which often include black malt. Hops are used for bittering, flavor and/or aroma. Water must have significant carbonate hardness. Ale yeast is most common.

Commercial Examples: Sierra Nevada Porter, Anchor Porter, Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.

Aroma: Malt aroma with mild roastiness should be evident. Hop aroma may be moderate to low. Esters and diacetyl may be moderate to none.

Appearance: Medium brown to dark brown in color. Clarity and head retention should be fair to good.

Flavor: Malt flavor will include mild to moderate roastiness. Hop flavor low to none. Hop bittering will vary the balance from slightly malty to slightly bitter. Diacetyl, and sourness or sharpness from dark grains, should be low to none.

Overall Impression: A fairly substantial dark ale with some roasty characteristics.

History: Originating in England, porter evolved from a blend of beers or gyles known as "Entire." A precursor to stout. Said to have been favored by porters and other physical laborers.

Comments: Softer flavors, lower gravities, and usually less alcohol than robust porter. More substance and roast than brown ale. Some versions are fermented with lager yeast. Balance tends toward malt more than hops.

Ingredients: May contain several malts, including dark roasted malts and grains. Hops are used chiefly for bitterness. Water should have significant carbonate hardness. Ale yeast, or occasionally lager yeast, is used.

Commercial Examples: Samuel Smith Taddy Porter, Bateman Salem Porter, Shepherd Neame Original Porter, Yuengling Porter, Fuller's London Porter.

All I have so far is the AHA club only competition schedule. I moved up the competition dates so that the F.O.R.D. winner has the opportunity to enter the AHA competition with the one exception being this month's Scottish Ale competition (entries are due January 25, 2002)

The barman gives him an odd look since the bloke's all by himself, but he serves up the five pints and lines them up on the bar.

The bloke downs them....One, Two, Three, Four, Five. He finishes the last one and calls to the barman, "Four pints, please, mate!"

The bloke downs them....One, Two, Three, Four. Then he belches loudly, sways slightly on the stool, and orders three more pints. And one after the other, he knocks them back....One, Two, Three.

The bloke sits there, staring at it for for a moment, trying to focus. Then he looks at the barman and says, "Y'know, it'sh a funny t'ing, but the less I drink, the drunker I get..."

The Washington Post's Style invitational asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are some winners:

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

Bozone: (n.) The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

Cashtration: (n.) The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is, like, sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a totally serious bummer.

Decaflon: (n.) The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Arachnoleptic fit: (n.) The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

Beelzebug: (n.) Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at 3 in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Caterpallor: (n.) The colour you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

Holiday Ale Competition

Place	Name	Style	Points

1	Jim Racine	Russian Imperial Stout	48/50
2	Bob and Kim Barrett	Spiced ale	42.25/50
3	Bob and Kim Barrett	American Style Barley Wine	41.75/50
HM	Bob and Kim Barrett	Spiced Ale	39.5/50

January's Meeting

Competition Results

Gnarly Wine

Dues Reminder

More News

Blast from the Past .... Five Years Ago in "Ye Olde Brew News"

Next Month's Competition