February's Meeting

We will meet again at the Tenny Street Roadhouse (http://www.tennystreet.com/) on Tuesday February 22, 2005. We will meet in the back room.

Tenny Street Roadhouse is located at 22361 West Village Drive in Dearborn, Michigan. The building is a former post office, located one block south of Michigan Avenue and one block east of Military. Phone. It is about two blocks west of Baileys.

As it has been in the past, as owners begin to see our club members as friendly, courteous and paying customers, they will in turn be gladder to see us in the future and may be more receptive to stocking a few more "specialty" brews that we may request.

Competition Results

The results from January's mead competition are..

February's competition is Sour Ale, BJCP category 17.

Meeting Minutes

Sheila Rucinski

Discussions

• Welcome New Officers

  • President – Rich Sovoda

  • Vice President – Jim Rice

  • Secretary – Sheila Rucinski

  • Treasurer – Chris Frey

  • Librarian – Mike Arend

• New Venue

  • The meetings will be held the 4^th Tuesday of every month at Tenny Street Roadhouse in Dearborn, in the back room.

  • During the summer months may look at having the meetings at a member's home, Heritage Park in Taylor, or Levagood Park in Dearborn. These meetings will more than likely be more educational.

• How to get new faces to join the F.O.R.D. Homebrew club?

  • Homebrew demos at local Homebrew shops and have them advertise the F.O.R.D. Homebrew club.

  • Since this club is part of F.E.R.A. (Ford Employee Recreation Association), encourage Ford Employee’s to recruit new members.

• Club Events

  • Pub Crawl to Local Brew Pubs

  • Overnight Pub Crawl to West Side of Michigan (Kalamazoo)

  • Possible tour of a Brew Pub

  • Summer Picnic at Heritage Park in Taylor or Levagood Park in Dearborn

  • Christmas Party

  • Guest Speakers at monthly meetings

  • Publish brew days on the website – Contact Bob Barrett to add your event to the club calendar.

• Competition

  • New this year – 6 AHA Competitions (TBD) and 6 Open Competitions

    • The purpose of open competition is to encourage members to enter their homebrew and not to be forced to brew according to a particular style.

  • December Competition Results

    • Style – Holiday, Spiced, Irish Red

    • We only had 2 entries

      • 1^st Place – Mike Arend & Kathy Loftus – Pumpkin Ale

      • 2^nd Place – Steve Close – Spiced Ale

  • Brewer of the Year – Tyler Barber

  • January Competition Style – Mead and Cider

    • Judging will take place Friday, February 11 at Tyler Barber’s house. Pizza and refreshments will follow judging for those who wish to stay.

• Merchandise

  • Kurt Klimkiewicz spoke about different merchandise ideas. Pint glasses and t-shirts are possible choices.

    • Approximately $45.00 for a black and white logo per item

    • Minimum order of 144 mugs at $1.99 per mug

    • Minimum order of 36 t-shirts at $5.00 per shirt

    • Other merchandise can be ordered

• Closed meeting with a 50/50 drawing – winner received $30 and club earned $27

Next Meeting

• Tuesday, February 22 at Tenny Street Roadhouse in the back room

• Vote on merchandise order

• Competition – Sour Beers

DRB invites FORD to discussion on sugars

Chris Frey

Bob Z, long time member of the FORD club and President of the Down River Brewers Guild, kindly invited members of FORD to join in on a discussion of the chemistry and biology of brewing sugars and their impact on our brews.

Several members of the club were present, and the meeting structure, unbeknownst to us, included guests serving their beer first, one bottle at a time. The server (Doug Geiss and I) learned that we then discussed the "making" of our beer while some dozen and a half plus members "evaluated" our brew. Fortunately, the first one I opened was a Belgian Tripple with the Orval yeast - clearly a crowd pleaser and easy for me to discuss. Rounded that out with a Double IPA from the Big Brew recipe.

Then, once everyone settled in, Alex Kennedy, a noted bio-chemist, and fellow DBG member, discussed sugars in detail. Alex provided handouts and used the available white board to draw distinctions between the alpha and beta amylase. Some of you may remember that Alex spoke at the National AHA Convention here in Livonia some years ago.

Alex went on to discuss the various breakdowns of sugars developed in our wort at different time and temps, including a way to determine control of your unfermentables to a degree by getting more or less Maltose, a non-fermentable sugar that we seek in certain styles, such as milk stout, for sweetness and body.

Also, to achieve optimum extraction, or shortest saccharification times, maximize your alpha or beta Amylase activity, ph plays a big part. I think we all know this, but only a few of us pay enough attention to this important element. Fortunately for those of you on Detroit city water, it's composition in very good, near optimal for our standard ales and lagers.

Admittedly, some of what he discussed was over my head - I have always confessed to be a Marketing Major, not one strongly schooled in the sciences. But there were times during his discussion where I really understood where he was going and I ended the evening with a greater appreciation on how to achieve certain characteristics more carefully and scientifically (read - repeatable) in the future.

A tip 'o the hat to Bob Zukosky for the invite - rumor is he will put together a discussion on our friend the yeasts soon..,

FIELD TRIP TO BELLS BREWING COMPANY

Jim Rice

Over the last few years, many members have expressed interest in a club trip to Bells Brewing in Kalamazoo. I have researched this and found:

Amtrak runs a train from Dearborn to Kalamazoo. The train station is just 4 blocks from the Radisson hotel. The pub is only 3 blocks from the Radisson. There are a number of other Bars / Restaurants in the area.

I arbitrarily picked the date of Saturday, April 9 staying overnight and returning Sunday.

Train leaves Dearborn (station is behind the Centennial Library) at 12 noon Saturday and arrives in Kalamazoo at 3pm.

Train leaves Kalamazoo at 11:30am and arrives back in Dearborn 2pm.

The cost for 20 minimum is: Train $36 each; Hotel $110 double. The regular rate is $169 and the FORD Corporate rate is $119. I was able to negotiate the lower rate.

The date of April 9 was just for current pricing. All interested in going, please reply with dates you would prefer. The actual date will be determined by the most votes from the club. We will assume that anyone suggesting a date will attend.

The Radisson in the only hotel near the train station and the pub. They offer complementary shuttle service from the train station and it is easily within walking distance. 10 Minutes away: Fairfield Inn $64, Clarion $87, Best Western $90.

The Brewery is 14 miles from the Pub and is undergoing expansion and renovation. They are not currently offering brewery tours to the public.

I'll have pictures next month.

Next month's competition styles are Extract beers. These beers must contain 50% extract, if I recall correctly.

Beer Events, Meetings & Competitions