February Meeting

The next meeting will be held back at Bailey's Pub 'N Grille in Dearborn on Tuesday, February 24. Bailey's is located on the southeast corner of Michigan and Mason. Their address is 22091 Michigan Avenue and their phone number is 313-277-3212. As usual, the thirsty hardcore 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.

The club meetings will still be held at Bailey's in Dearborn, but we will be meeting in the lounge in the basement.  Management at Bailey's has asked us to try to use the door closer to Michigan Ave on Mason. This door is right by the stairs to the downstairs lounge.

Competition Results

January's All Grain Beer competition results are tabulated below.

This month's competition is Mead and Cider BJCP Category 25 & 26 . The Mead competition is another AHA competition The details for the club only competition can be found on the appropriate AHA web page. Bottle and entry forms (useful for non-AHA competitions) can be found there too.

Competition Scoring

1. Each beer must be labeled in some way with the brewers names and the beer style category name. If possible, use the F.O.R.D. Bottle ID tag and attach it to the bottle with a rubber band.

2. Points:

• 5 points for each 1st place beer
• 4 points for each 2nd place beer
• 3 points for each 3rd place beer
• 2 points for each Honorable Mention (your beer needs to score a minimum of 30/50 to get an Honorable Mention)
• 1 point if you entered a beer, but didn't place

3. If you have multiple entries in a competition, you will only be awarded points for your highest scoring beer.

4. The club will pay the entry fee for each of the 1st place winners in our competitions to enter their winning beer into the Michigan State Fair competition.  So be sure to save 3 bottles of your winning beer.

5. Results of local and national homebrew competitions will be considered only as tie-breakers for the F.O.R.D. "Homebrewer of the Year" award.

News Items

Next Month's Competition

Next month's competition has the broad competition category, Extracts.    The beers that are entered in this competition can be from any BJCP categories,  but must be at least 50% extract.  It is an AHA competition

Five Years Ago in Ye Olde Brew News.

Five years ago  Chris and Gabi reported on  a F.O.R.D. pub crawl  (Sue  Merritt  took pictures which aren't captured here.  How many of these pubs are still in business ?

We met at the Ford World Headquarters in the parking lot on a sunny yet crisp afternoon. Marvin, our driver from Royal tours was waiting with our bus and Tyler had loaded up the pony keg filled with Bell's Amber Ale. The 29 of us were all on the bus by 4:00 sharp and we left at 4:01, as advertised!

Bo's Bistro & Brewery, 51 N. Saginaw, Pontiac, 248-338-6200

Our first destination was Bo's. Tyler Barber, our intrepid organizer told us that the proprietors came from a family with 3 generations of good beer drinkers! We got there by 5:00 and lined up for the group shot in front of the bus (thank you Sue!) and then went upstairs. We were greeted by pool tables and darts (real steel-tipped ones, not those plastic tip jobs).

Most of us split out time there between darts, pool, appetizers and the beer sampler. The first brew we tried was their Blonde, a clean, light, refreshing brew, low in hop character, and what one would expect from this style of beer. In fact, all of their brews were clean and defect free. Next up was their wheat, which had a tad bit more hop bitterness (cascades?) than one might expect from this style, but we dubbed it an American wheat and enjoyed it. Their Pale was the only real disappointment at Bo's. Tyler had warned us that as of a week prior, they had only 3 beers available, but that they would have five by the time of arrival. We figured this one was one of the later 2, as the hops were mild (cascade again) and overall the ale tasted more commercial and less stylistically pleasurable (read: it was hurried a bit).

Their Red had a nice caramel taste to it that blended nicely with the other malty flavors - definitely balanced more toward the malt than the hops, but very good! The Pumpkin Stout was my personal favorite, Fall flavored (as in nutmeg, cinnamon and other pumpkin pie spices).Lovely light roast flavor, medium body - an Irish dry stout with the great pumpkin stuffed in! Appetizers were OK, maybe we should have ordered something other than the blooming onion and the wings.

Rochester Mills Beer Company, 310 Water Street, Rochester, 248-650-5080

Our next stop was Rochester Mills, a roomy, well-lit and modern brew pub. High tech, wide aisles, nice atmosphere. You are able to carry on a conversation here without having to get loud. Fully stocked bar, tons o' taps, TV's strategically placed, music subtly in the background... overall nice impressions! These people like beer! Pilsner Urquell, Sierra Nevada Celebration, Motor City, Atwater, Bell's, Guinness, Lindeman's Framboise, Spatan Optimator and others were on tap.

North Channel Brewing Company, 30400 23 Mile Road, Chesterfield Township, 810-948-2739

Onward, we head to North Channel. The moment we walk into the pub, the head brewer (Doug Beedy) shepherds us right into the brewery for the tour and sticks 29 Anchor Bay Pale Ales into our hands. Hey, bribery will get you everywhere! This was the best, baddest, greatest...OK, it was just one beer. But it was an awesome American Pale Ale, full bodied and nicely hopped. You could almost chew the hops! Their St. Clair light was properly named, clean, crisp, low in both hops and malt, very smooth. Their Wheat had a nice malt and honey background. Their Valentines special, Sweetheart Stout (chocolate & cherry flavored), was very good, medium bodied with a nice roast flavor note to it with a definite sweet chocolate taste and a slightly sour cherry flavor in the background. Their porter had a very light roast flavor, nice bitterness, with a light hop flavor. These people brew good beer, make good food and we all enjoyed our time there. But then it was time to move on to...

Atwater Block Brewery, 237 Joseph Campau, Detroit, 313-393-2443

Beer Events, Meetings & Competitions

Bob Barrett

Ye Olde Brew News published by the F.O.R.D. Homebrew Club

Editor: Tony Tantillo Contributors: Kathy Loftus Chris Frey Bob Barrett Gabi Palmer Club Officers: Chris Frey,President Kathy Loftus, Vice President Howard Klix Jr., Secretary Doug Geiss, Treasurer Tony Tantillo, Newsletter Editor Mark Stavenga , Webmaster Sue Merritt, Photographer/Historian/Beer Mooch Kathy Loftus, Photographer Mike Arend, Librarian Jim Rice & Tyler Barber, Special Events Coordinators Tyler Barber, Equipment Manager Rich Byrnes, Business Manager

F.O.R.D. is a private, non-profit organization of homebrewers. The main goal of this club is to promote awareness and appreciation of the quality and variety of beer; to share information regarding technique, equipment and skill required to brew quality homemade beer; and to encourage responsible use of beer as an alcohol-containing beverage. Howard Klix Jr. 24737 Cushing Ave Eastpointe, MI 48021 Phone: (586) 779-1445 Email: raistlin@wideopenwest.com Visit our website at: http://www.be.ford.com/brewers/ or external to Ford at: http://hbd.org/ford/ current circulation... 125