The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 22 at the Fort Street Brewery. 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 Brewery is located at 1660 Fort St. Lincoln Park, MI 48146 SW Corner of Fort St. & Warwick - 2 blocks N of Southfield Rd. Meeting in the dining area (5:30 pm - 7:00 pm) Homebrews in the brewery area only!!!!!!!! Phone 313-389-9620 http://www.fortstreetbrewery.com/index.html

We are judging the Stouts in September, location yet to be determined. We did submit Gabi's winning entry for the mead competition, so we will get to see how our club fares from the start of 2006-2007. This month's competition is an open competition. Only beers not entered in prior OPEN competitions will qualify for awards and points.

Beer News

Message from the President

Mike Krawczak

In our July meeting we will discuss details of our club Beer BQ that is scheduled for September 17.

Unfortunately there is still no word on when the club shirts will be available; hopefully we will have more information by the meeting Tuesday.

Congratulations to all club members that may have placed in the Michigan State Fair, the awards ceremony and Best of Show judging will be at the fair grounds on August 26 at 4:00 PM.

Our next brew competition is BJCP category 13 Stout (see the competition category for the stout judging; bring samples for the open competition - Editor). Entries must be available for judging by the September meeting.

In our effort to give back to the community, please bring one item from the list below for the Penrickton Center for Blind Children:

• Grocery Store Certificates for fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy products. (Meijer, Farmer Jack, etc)
• Canned Fruit - packed in own juice; pears, peaches, fruit cocktail, pineapple, etc.
• Carnation Instant Breakfast (chocolate and vanilla)
• Hot Cereal (Maypo, Cream of Wheat; not instant)
• Garbage Bags - 55 & 39 Gallon (heavy duty)
• Dish soap
• Pledge
• Kleenex
• Gift certificates from Chuck E Cheese, Big Boy, McDonalds, Burger King or Taco Bell
• Gift certificates form theaters MJR or Star

Thank You

Mike

More on Club Only Competitions

thanks to Chris Frey for fowarding this message !!

In case you missed this posting yesterday on techTalk - info on Club Only competitions: Note - CRAFT is judging the BJCP category 6!

Now it's time to focus on the 2006-2007 year competitions. As you know, the first Club-Only Competition (COC) is the mead competition taking place this weekend in Reno, NV. The other 5 COCs for this competition year are:

Stout - BJCP category 13; entries due 10/13/06; hosted by the St. Paul Homebrewers Club of St. Paul, MN.

Light Hybrid Beer - BJCP category 6; entries due 11/8/06; hosted by the Clinton River Association of Fermenting Trendsetters (CRAFT) club of Macomb Township, MI

Low Gravity/Session Beers (OG <= 1.045); in February 2007; hosted by the Maltose Falcons of Woodland Hills, CA

Scottish Ale - BJCP category 9 A, B, C; in March/April 2007; hosted by the New York City Homebrewers Guild of New York, NY

Extract Beers - BJCP categories 1 - 23 (where > 50% of the fermentables are from malt extract); in May 2007; hosted by the Homebrewers of Peoria (HOPs) of Peoria, IL

Check beertown for these Club-Only Competition details:

http://www.beertown.org/homebrewing/schedule.html

Good luck in the new brewing and beer competition year!

Cheers,

Janis

New Equipment Purchase

David T. Peters

It is getting to be that time of year when our Fermental brethren are preparing their equipment for the making of wine. The club has expanded its equipment portfolio by adding a Grape Crusher. The crusher is equipped with a large hand crank wheel as well as a motor and gear system for automating the output.

The grape crusher is utilized in the first step of the wine making process after the gathering of grapes. Typically the gathering of grapes occurs in early fall. The grapes are then placed in a crusher. The crusher is responsible for opening up the fruit and separating the fruit from the stems. By opening up the fruit, the sugars are made available for fermentation and the skins and seeds are made available to add tannins and other flavor components to the wine.

White wines skip the crush and go directly to the press to extract most of the juice from the grapes. Red and Rose wines would utilize a crusher. When making a Rose, the crushed grapes would be allowed to rest, extracting color and flavor compounds and then would be crushed prior to fermentation. Red wines on the other hand are crushed and ferment the juice and the grape solids together. This allows the red color and other flavors to develop increasing the complexity of the wine. Fermentation will progress to the desired level and then the grapes would be pressed to gather the fermented wine/juice and allowed to complete fermentation.

So if you had been thinking of fermenting an alternative beverage, this could be your opportunity to try out the clubs latest addition to the equipment library.

Next month the competition style is Club Competition Style Light Hybrid Beer Category #6.

Beer Events, Meetings & Competitions Bob Barrett