The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 28th at our usual club hangout, Chelsea's. For those of you who are new to the club, Chelseas is located on Van Born between Telegraph and Southfield (midway, on the North side). Their address is 22120 Van Born and their phone number is 313-278-0888.

As the new editor of the newsletter, I've taken the liberty of making a few changes. The biggest change, at least to those of you who get the newsletter electronicly, is the format. I changed it from a Word document to an HTML web page. I'm hoping this change will decrease the amount of time necessary to download the newsletter and print it out. Most of the other changes are quite small. I've added a short index at the beginning of the newsletter. I also added a new article that I hope will become a regular feature... "The Brew Review". In this column, I will pick a beer to review each month. I'm going to try to keep the beer to the same style as that month's competition. I'll include tasting notes, a little history about the style and/or brewery, and a few other odds and ends. Please let me know what you think of these changes and additions. Remember, this is your newsletter. If there are any additional changes that you'd like to see, just tell me... I'm open to suggestions.

In addition, I would like to take this opportunity to try to encourage you to write an article for the newsletter. If you visit a new brewpub or brewery, or if you try a new beer, put a few sentences together about it and send it to me. It doesn't have to be long. Or maybe you're a gadget geek and you've found something that you think is great... write a small article about it and share the information with your fellow brewers. If you have a favorite food recipe that includes beer, send it to me. If you take pictures that are in any way beer-related, I can scan them and include them in the newsletter. Now that Sue Merritt has graduated from Beer Mooch to Club Photographer, we'll probably have more pictures in the newsletter from all of our club events.

Okay, enough of that. If you do decide to write an article for the newsletter, here is the schedule:

Wow, we have come a long way, baby! This delightful little tomb is available at the Dearborn Public Library.

Palmer's Pub Review Fire Academy Brewery & Grill Gabrielle Palmer

The Fire Academy Brewery & Grill is located on the west side of Wayne Road between Warren and Ford Road. It is decorated in a "fire department" motif, complete with a real fire engine outfitted with tables so you can enjoy your meal while sitting in a fire truck! There is also a great mural on the back wall depicting fire fighters in action. You can see 5 stainless steel serving tanks in the front windows.

The menu consists of the typical brewpub fare, including burgers, sandwiches, pasta, steak and seafood. There is also a kid's menu. Prices range from $7-15 for an adult's meal. I had the fish and chips along with a bowl of their special Cheddar Ale soup. Excellent food.

They had 6 beers on tap:

Axe Ale (score: 2.5/5) - a very light-bodied beer; smooth, creamy; fruity esters evident; very low carbonation. Probably their mainstream beer.

Smoke-Eater Wheat (score: 4/5) - typical wheat haze; clove and banana flavors evident, but mostly clove; slight citrusy taste; nice light-bodied weizen-style wheat beer; light carbonation. Most flavorful of their beers.

Chief's Amber Ale (score: 2/5) - dry, roasted flavor... not what I was expecting from an amber ale; low carbonation; absolutely no hop flavor.

Hook & Ladder Scotch Ale (score: 2.5/5) - sweet, smokey (almost maple?) aroma; slightly smokey flavor; light body; low carbonation.

Pike Pole Porter (score: 2/5) - again, low carbonation; sweet with only a hint of roastiness; kind of bland, especially for a porter.

Sargeant Stout (score: 2.5/5) - slightly sweet; light body... not "stout" enough to be a stout; low carbonation; bland.

Overall, I probably wouldn't go back for their beer if they were a more established brewpub. But since they've only been open for a few months, I'll probably return again at least once or twice in the next year to see if their beers have improved. They are obviously still working some kinks out, like their carbonation problem.

The day started off with me twisting off the adjustment screw on my Malt Mill. I had been turning it one way for so long I just assumed that it was a cam. Well, I ground five or six pounds at the setting that it got stuck on and the results were some awfully fine flour. I awaited the arrival of the other brewers and decided that I would follow whatever the collective determined was the right path.

By nine o'clock the majority of brewers had assembled in the kitchen and we enjoyed a hearty eggs/bacon/ toast/juice and coffee start to the day. The second crisis of the day: two separate recipes for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone, one with a calculated IBU in excess of 100. Since this recipe came from a respected homebrew supplier who loves SNPA more than any other beer, I was in a quandary. A call to the shopkeeper in question determined that he was out of the shop for the day.

Gary Shewchuk grabbed some brewing books and worked out where the IBU's should be and we went with his recommendation. Turns out that the recipe in question was assuming a 2-gallon extract boil and then adding that to 3 gallons of water. The high gravity of the 2 gallon extract boil creates the need for more IBU's since they are not getting utilized efficiently.

The crowd, fully satiated, moved to the garage to begin the brewing process. We jammed open the grain mill as much as we dared and ground the grains for the brews. Al Czajkowski and Gary Shewchuck worked together brewing a partial mash version of Tim's Paranoid Porter and a monstrous Pale Ale, Mike Arend brewed a MF Brown Ale (what's the MF stand for, Mike?), Tony Treusch and his son Chris brewed with me to create the SNPA clone and Gabrielle Palmer and Steve Kelly worked on an all-grain Robust Porter. Karl Ziemba and his son Daniel also stayed the morning to watch the events unfold, as did Joe Tomassi.

I unfortunately used the 5-6 lbs. of powdered grain and paid dearly for this miserable move. Within an hour we had an absolutely stuck mash. No amount of blowing back into the kettle could dislodge the gunk that the fine crush created and the temperature continued to drop. Without the ability to recirculate the mash we were stumped. A quick check of the inventory revealed we had enough grains to start again, so 27 pounds of grain were flung into my backyard and another 27 reground. From there forward, everything worked well and Second Chance Pale Ale was created.

Meanwhile, Gabi's Porter was experiencing similar problems. Rather than following my lead, Steve and Gabi bucketed the mash into another kettle with a false bottom. This worked as well and Pain in the Ass Porter was created. Meanwhile, Al and Steve chortled as their 20 gallons of partial-mash continued without incident.

Overall, it was a successful day of brewing and we were all weary and cold by the time we could all pitch our yeast. I left the clean-up for another day and wearily retired to the tub for a long, hot soak. I will probably hold another brew-off/picnic/taste testing this spring, but not before I fix my maltmill.

Greetings Beerlings! This may be a very familiar phrase to many of you who are regulars of the HBD (Homebrewers Digest), one of many resources on the Internet available to homebrewers worldwide. I won't pretend to be a web expert, nor do I play one on TV, but I know enough to be helpful and that's where this article is going. I could spend pages and pages on the web and homebrewing but I'll break it up into smaller articles instead. This first article will avoid actual websites and focus on newsgroups and maillists.

The first resource is called the HBD and it is a maillist bulletin board. The digest has undergone 4 "owners" since it started a few years ago, including the AHA (where it almost died an unnatural death) and currently Karl Lutzen (Cat's Meow, Homebrew Favorites, Brew Wares) and our own Pat Babcock. Pat and Karl prefer to be called janitors, rather than owners or managers of the digest for the simple reason that the digest runs itself. Pat and Karl maintain the mailing list that distributes the digest each day, and the hardware that controls the digest. Pat and Karl are much more than janitors, they are very active in the daily operation of the HBD to ensure a seamless program. People write in questions which get stored throughout the day and when the file hits a certain size, the digest gets mailed out to a list of about 3,500 direct subscribers. The digest is a combination of new questions, and answers to previous questions from people who have (or like to think they have) the answers. Topics may include very simple questions from brand new brewers (called newbies), to recipe requests, to detailed technical questions about HSA (Hot Side Aeration) or Alpha Amylase Enzymes or welding stainless steel or building a fridge controller. Regular "celebrities" on the digest include George Fix (author: Principles of Brewing Science), Jack Schmidling (inventer of the malt mill) , Dan Listerman (inventor of the Phil Mill, Phil Chiller, and various other products), Graham Wheeler (English Author), Kinney Boughman (Inventer of Bruheat), and Jim Parker and Brian Rezac of the AHA are regulars as well. Many technical experts in the field of metallurgy, chemistry, microbiology, electronics and a host of others are frequent contributors as well. Many homebrew shop owners and brewers are also on hand to help answer questions. This may sound intimidating, but it is as simple as asking your question as an e-mail and having several thousand people read it. Now the majority of subscribers are known as lurkers, people who read the digest daily, but will never in their life ask a question or post (submit) an answer, this is perfectly ok, these people scan the digest for articles that interest them and learn from others. Sound intriguing? You bet it is.

Now for those of you at Ford who are interested in this, send a profs note to Rich Hampo (rhampo) and he will add you to the distribution list and send you a digest every morning. Rich subscribes directly to the digest, and then in turn forwards it to anyone in the F.O.R.D. club who is interested, this cuts down on Internet traffic in and out of Ford. The articles are listed in order received, and compiled into a single piece of e-mail (or Profs note). I suggest subscribing and reading the digest for a week, and then if you wish, posting (submitting) a question, recipe requests, or an answer to someone else's question.

Now, several rules of "netiquette" must be followed. First off, if you are asking a question, be concise and clear. No one needs to know the history of your brewing background if you are asking for a Guinness clone (but they do need to know if you are an extract or an all-grainer). Be polite. Remember, you are asking for help. Watch your spelling and grammar. This may seem obvious, but lots of people will answer your post just for the sake of pointing out errors without actually offering any help. These people are jerks and unfortunately can be found everywhere. Now, if you are answering a question, the most important rule is to quote the key question being asked, (i.e. Rich Byrnes in HBD 2620 on 1-15-98 asked about using a Nitrogen and CO2 system for dispensing stouts). You may simply cut and paste but if you leave out the question, any attempt at an answer will be confusing. Now, when you answer a question, it helps to qualify your authority to answer. This is as simple as saying "I am a bio-chemical engineer by trade", or "I've brewed 13 Bass Ale clones and this is the one closest to the original", or honestly that you just know the answer because you're smart. People like to know where their answers are coming from. And don't try to pretend to be an expert if you're not. You will get flamed. Flamed you ask? That sounds brutal. Well, it can be. The word flame is synonymous with insulted, and people can get nasty when they're behind a keyboard instead of in front of your face. Flame wars can be entertaining to watch with tempers flaring on all sides, but usually fizzle out pretty quick. Try to avoid them.

1st Place: Tyler Barber Style: Barley Wine Score: 49/50	An exceptional barley wine with the correct balance of malt sweetness, hops and alcohol. The aroma alone was enough to make me fall in love with it. The only fault we could find was a slight haze, even at room temperature.
2nd Place: Gabrielle Palmer Style: Raspberry Nutmeg Belgian Score: 41/50	A very good beer. It started with pleasant raspberry aroma, a nice color and a good head. The flavor was tangy with a tasty balance of fruit, malt and hops.
3rd Place: Chris Frey Style: Barley Wine Score: 40/50	A heady aroma, good malt/hop balance and an absence of off flavors. However, it was a bit too sweet. Perhaps not attenuated enough?

Hail to the Ales (AHA Competition):
The Hail to the Ale entries (AHA style categories #5a & b, #6a, b & c) will be judged on Tuesday, January 20th, after the deadline for this newsletter.

This month's competition is Stout (AHA style categories #11 a, b, c, d & e). Please bring your stout entries to this month's meeting. We'd like to make a good showing! If you have an entry, but can't make the meeting, call me at (313)699-5436 and we can make other arrangements.

February's Competition - Brown Ales:
Just a heads up - Start brewing now to make February's contest.

Michigan Homebrewers Toast New Law

Boulder, Colo., Dec. 17, 1997 - December 2, 1997 was a day of celebration for Michigan homebrewers, even though most of them didn't realize it.

On December 2, Governor John Engler signed House Bill 4850. This new law permits homebrewing and allows homebrewers to give away up to 20 gallons of their brew.

Most Michigan homebrewers had no idea that homebrewing wasn't statutorily recognized. A few years ago, the American Homebrewers Association® discovered that homebrewing wasn't recognized by some state governments and could be considered illegal. Since then, the AHA has worked with homebrewers in Michigan and other states to legalize the hobby.

The AHA supported Michigan State Representative David Anthony, who sponsored HB 4850. Rex Halfpenny, publisher and editor of the Michigan Beer Guide, worked with the AHA and helped the effort move forward. The AHA is a division of the Association of Brewers that provides information to its members and the general public on the art and science of homebrewing.

In 1978, 45 years after prohibition ended, the federal government statutorily recognized homebrewing. Most states then wrote statutes into their own laws recognizing homebrewing. A few states, including Michigan, did not.

There was never a law in Michigan specifically stating that people couldn't homebrew, but the old statute did specifically state that people could make wine and cider at home. "It kind of left homebrewers out in the cold," Halfpenny said.

Michigan State Senator Christopher Dingell, a lawyer and homebrewer, saw a different problem. Under Michigan law, giving away homebrew was illegal; it was considered selling it. This meant that giving homebrew to a friend or entering it in a competition without holding a license and paying taxes on the beer was illegal. Dingell wrote Senate Bill 505, which made it legal for homebrewers to give away some of their beer. SB 505 was later attached to the newly adopted HB 4850.

Although the new provision doesn't state that homebrewers can now enter their beers in competitions, Halfpenny feels it is implied. "I would infer that this opens the door for taking homebrew and giving it to your friends and entering competitions," he said. "Both of those things are actually giving it away."

The AHA helped Halfpenny in his effort to legalize homebrewing by rallying the people in Michigan, sending mass e-mails and faxes to homebrewers and sending information packets to Michigan legislators. The AHA urged homebrewers to get their local officials involved.

"The American Homebrewers Association placed phone calls to bill sponsors, but it was mainly up to the citizens of the state because it's their voices that really counted," said Mark Snyder of the Association of Brewers.

AHA administrator, Brian Rezac, traveled to Michigan and spoke at the Michigan Homebrewers Rally to draw attention to the campaign. "Michigan is a perfect example of what we need to do to legalize homebrewing in every state," Rezac said. "We need someone to spearhead it, support from legislators and a well-executed grassroots effort. This story could be used as a How to Legalize Homebrewing in Your State primer."