May's Meeting

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday May 24 at the Tenny Street Roadhouse . 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.

Competition Results

THE RESULTS OF THE APRIL COMPETITION, "OPEN - ALL CATEGORIES":
FIRST PLACE - TYLER BARBER - GERMAN WHEAT
SECOND PLACE - KURT KLUMKIEWICZ [Is this spelling correct - Editor] & SCOTT SMITH - RYE PORTER
THIRD PLACE - JOHN & SHEILA RUCINSKI - CREAM ALE
HONORABLE MENTION - ANTHONY TANTILLO - BARLEYWINE

THIS MONTHS COMPETITION IS "ANY STYLE".  AVOID ENTERING THE SAME BEERS AS LAST MONTH.  PLEASE BRING YOUR ENTRY'S TO THE MEETING TUESDAY, MAY 24 OR E-MAIL ME AT pegasus@provide.net.

Three F.O.R.D. brewers have beers advancing to the 2nd round of the AHA National Homebrew Competition.

Three F.O.R.D. brewers have beers advancing to the 2nd round of the AHA National Homebrew Competition.

1. David Cords - 1st place with his weizenbock
2. Tyler Barber - 2nd place with his Strong Scotch Ale
3. Bob and Kim Barrett - 2nd place with their ESB

2nd round judging will be at the NHC in Baltimore June 16-19, 2005 with awards presented at the Grand Banquet and Awards Ceremony on Saturday night. Good luck to all our club brewers!!!!

You can see all the results for the Great Lakes Region by clicking on the following link: http://www.beertown.org/events/nhc/1st_round.html#great

Another successful National Homebrew Day celebration.

Well, what can I say, 6 out of the last 7 years we have been blessed with amazing weather to celebrate and brew. For my final hosting of this event, everything was simply perfect.

Special thanks to Mike O'Brien, who tirelessly supports the homebrew hobby in so many ways, but especially for what he has done for this event. Mike goes above and beyond where most people go, supplying the time, effort and logistics to make this day so much better for so many of us. Mike was a sight for sore eyes when I woke up Saturday morning at 6:30 and there he was in the driveway with the coals burning and maneuvering porky into the cooker. All day long he supplied guests with peeks, explained the hobby and the event to passersby's and had the most engaging smile and patience for someone who worked so hard. From deep in my heart, thank you my friend!

And to all who have participated over the years, bringing out your systems, homebrew, side dishes and growing families, it has been a pleasure having you share our home and this fair hobby.

Once again Gary Glass of the AHA has posted our annual "toast" photo on their website - http://www.beertown.org/events/bigbrew/index.html , as I have said many times before - if you weren't in the picture, you missed a good time!

See you all at this month's FORD and AABG meetings! And since I drained my Nearly Nirvana Pale Ale, Belgian Tripple, American Ale and my Peach Mead, I will be, to paraphrase Capital One's saying, "looking to see what's in YOUR bottle". Cheers!

Next month's competition styles are BJCP category 16, Belgian and French Ale.

Here is what Big Brew 2000 was like five years ago at the Barr House brewery. I don't remember who wrote the article.

Big Brew 2000

Site 52, The Barr House Brewery

For the last three years the first Saturday of May has been designated National Homebrew Day (NHD) by the American Homebrewers Association. Homebrewers from around the U.S. and other countries brew in hundreds of locations and many chose to brew a highlighted recipe. This year s featured recipe, an American Pale Ale style, was a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone recipe, known as Nearly Nirvana Pale Ale . It was developed by local homebrewer, Chris P. Frey (Crispy) of Saline, Mi., after 18 attempts at first replicating and them modifying his favorite fermentable.

Each year Crispy has held a homebrew demonstration/picnic/get-together at his home. Crispy began brewing when he moved to Michigan five years ago and has been passionate about the hobby ever since. Soon after he joined the F.O.R.D. homebrew club in 1995, he learned that his great-grandfather and great grand-uncle had moved from the Black Forest area in Germany to Grand Rapids, Mi., where they opened up C. Frey & Brothers Brewery in 1863. They survived the onslaught of modern distribution master Anhuser-Busch, only to succumb to prohibition. Today, Crispy is the treasurer of the F.O.R.D. club and the equipment manager for the AABG. For more information on homebrewing clubs and activities in SE Michigan, you can e-mail him at crispy275@aol.com.

This year twenty-seven members of the Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsmen (F.O.R.D.) and the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild (AABG) showed up at his home this past May 6th to celebrate NHD andto brew some serious beers. As an added incentive, the National American Homebrewers Conference is to be held this upcoming June 22nd-24th at the Holiday Inn. This gave many celebrants the opportunityto brew up a batch for the conference.

By 9:00 am the air was filled with malty aromas as everyone began doughing in their grains into their specific systems mash tun (a container where brewers combine water heated to specific temperatures with a variety of crushed grains to convert the starches present into sugars). extract kettles (utilizing pre-converted concentrated barley extract), to more technical Gott coolers, to miniature 15-gallon microbreweries, or Pico® Systems that allow homebrewers the same controls and variables as the big boys.

By noon the temperature had climbed to an uncharacteristic early May 90^o and brewers began adding their hops for bitterness, flavor and aroma. Later in the afternoon, after most brewers had cleaned up, more of Crispy s friends from his motorcycle club, work, neighbors and family descended upon his humble abode with side dishes and appetizers to feast on the 225 lb. pig that Mike O Brien had cooked all day. After dinner and dessert some 100 people enjoyed the live tunes of the Electric Sunhouse Band. Ten kegs of homebrew, along with one commercial keg of Greektown Lager (gratefully supplied by local distributor Jim Racine) were enjoyed as well.

Ingredients for the Big Brew were donated or discounted by local merchants. John at Motor City Brewing Company donated the yeast and Scott Day, proprietor of a local homebrew shop; Brew & Grow in Livonia donated the hops. Scott also sold the grains at cost when a last minute sponsor was unable to fulfill their commitment.

This year, over 1600 participants brewed 3700 gallons of homebrew across the country at nearly 300 sites. Over 2,500 gallons of Nearly Nirvana Pale Ale were brewed along with over 1,000 gallons of other styles of homebrew. Over 300 gallons were brewed right here in Michigan, with 165 gallons brewed at Big Brew Site 52, The Barr House Brewery, second only to the 176 gallons brewed by the Anchorage Brewery site in Alaska. Nice lagering seasons dudes!

Beer Events, Meetings & Competitions

Fermental Funny