February 1998 Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsmen Vol. 6 - No. 2

In this issue:
Important note: Mary McCurry from Chelsea's has spoken with Jim Bazzy and they've come up with a new feature that they hope the club will enjoy. Chelsae's will now try to feature 1 or 2 different brands of beer that are of the same style that we will be judging that month. For example, this month's style is mild and brown ales, so Mary will try to get some Motor City Brown Ale and Bell's Best Brown Ale in time for the meeting. Coincidentally, those two beers are also featured in this month's Brew Review column. Please support this new feature at Chelsea's by purchasing a bottle or two of this month's selection.


January's Meeting
Chris Frey

Our last meeting was held on Wednesday, January 28th at our favorite meeting spot, Chelsea's. Rich Byrnes, our venerable president, started the meeting with "Hooray for Colorado, shame on Clinton!". From there, the meeting sunk quickly.

The Ann Arbor Brewers Guild (AABG) has invited both the Pontiac Brew Tribe and the F.O.R.D. club to assist them with organizing and judging the Michigan State Fair this year. The fair is somewhere near the end of August. The AABG has been doing this for many moons now and they could use some assistance.

Both Doug Geiss and myself have volunteered to assist with the fund raising and prize gathering for the State Fair winners. If anyone has some contacts with brew pubs or distributors, let Doug or I know. We would be appreciative. Sponsors will fund a category or style.

Two of our faithful suppliers have apparently gone out of business. Both St. Clair Brewing Co., and Homebrew Supply have gone to that great krausen in the sky and are no longer with us. As the meeting got later, my notes got worse. Something about Atwater having some sort of discount program for us, but I will have to revisit thatfor the next newsletter.

The club is discussing the purchase of a NO2 Stout regulator and tap system to become part of the club's tapsystem. Don't neglect taking advantage of utilizing the club's bar for your own party. Or fire up the club's PICO. I brew fairly consistently and would be glad to help someone through their first PICO brew session.

I brought a selection of barleywines for club members to enjoy. Mark George over at Wine Barrel Plus gave the club several older barleywines to try. Two were brewed by John Haberman. The first, a '93, had a cork in the bottle as well as a cap on the top. This undoubtedly helped reduce the potential for oxidation, but everyone was turned off by the intense cork flavor it imparted. John's '94 however, was a sweet, syrupy BW that elicited a much more favorable response.

A Belgian BW was accused of being, well, too Belgian. The spicy flavors overcame the normally aggressive barley and hop profile. However, people warmed up to the Rogue BW and everybody loved the '95 Bigfoot Barleywine. Thank you, Mark!

I also unloaded some excess hops and tubing and Mike from Merchant's Dearborn also had hops available, although his were free! Good job tightening up the Merchants store, Mike!

Executive Meeting

The collective, elected board of the F.O.R.D. club met in early February to discuss the current state of the club and to review where we hoped to go in 1998. The general consensus was that we wanted to remain involved in the activities of yore (picnic, Stroh's festival, public demonstrations, competitions, education, monthly meetings,etc.), and we hoped to get the F.O.R.D. club involved in more. More competitions outside the club, meeting with more clubs, learning and teaching more about brewing, and purchasing more items for the club members to enjoy!

We discussed purchasing a jockey box. What is a jockey box, you might ask? It is a Coleman-type cooler with fifty feet of stainless steel tubing that winds around inside the cooler, attached to a tap (or two or three). One can fill it with ice and water and serve cold beer even on the hottest days from your Corny kegs.

The date for the club's picnic (Beer-B-Q) has been determined; August 1st. This will put a week between the Stroh's Rivertown Beer Festival and the picnic. Last year it got a bit too close for many member's schedules.

Mark your calendar for Saturday, May 2nd, is National Homebrew Day. Mike at Merchants has already indicated that they would like to participate in a homebrew demonstration. If you want to be part of this event, let me know and I will help organize everyone. And for our retailers, if you want a homebrew demonstration this year from some of our club members, let me know. My phone number at work is 313-337-1642 and at home is 734-944-6618.



Chris Frey

The next meeting will be held at Chelsea's on Tuesday, February 24th. For those of you who are new to the club, Chelsea's 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. The competition is Mild and Brown Ales. As usual, the thirsty hard-core who want dinner will start arriving around five, people will drift in for an hour or so, and by 6:00ish, we will start our meeting.


Zoe Eileen Geftos

Parents: Ted & Michelle
Date of birth: December 29, 1997
Weight: 7 lbs. 2 oz.

Ted says, "We are so proud, and we took her to her first brewpub lastweek... Arbor Brewing. She just soaked up the ambiance while dad soaked up a cask-conditioned porter!"

Congratulations to Ted and Michelle (and Zoe too) from The Fermentals!!!



Johanne Wilson

Winter is a perfect time for brewing, reading, and reading about brewing. As most of you know, our club has a really good library full of recipe books, brewing books as well as general books on brewing. We added some books last year, and I am planning on getting some more. We also get Brewing Techniques and Zymurgy magazines that can be checked out, and we have older issues of several other magazines.

Find me at the beginning of meetings to check out materials, I normally won't start bugging you to return them for at least a month. (Those of you who do have books out and are finished with them, please return them). Also, if there is a book you think should be added to the library, let me know. This is YOUR library! Here is the current list:

Title Author
Beer Smith, Greg
Belgian Ale- Classic Beer style Series Rajotte, Pierre
Brew Wares Lutzen, Stevens
Bock- Classic Beer style Series Richman, Darryl
Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy Line, Dave
Brewing Lager Beer Noonan, Gregory
Brewing the World's Great Beers Miller, Dave
Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide copy 1 Miller, Dave
Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide copy 2 Miller, Dave
Designing Great Beers Daniels, Ray
Dictionary of Beer and Brewing Forget, Carl
German Wheat Beers- Classic Beer style Series Warner, Eric
Great Beer From Kits Fisher, Joe & Dennis
Great Cooking with Beer Erickson, Jack
Home Brewer's Companion Papazian, Charlie
Home Brewer's Recipe Guide Higgins, Kilgore, Hertlen
Home Wine Making & Brewing Turner
Lambic- Classic Beer style Series Guinard, Jean-Xavier
Marzen/Oktoberfest/Vienna -Classic Beer style Series Fix, George & Laurie
Micheal Jackson's Beer Companion Jackson, Michael
Microbrews Zimmerman
New World Guide to Beer Jackson, Micheal
Pale Ale- Classic Beer style Series Foster, Terry
Porter- Classic Beer style Series Foster, Terry
Scotch- Ale Classic Beer style Series Noonan, Greg
Stout- Classic Beer style Series Lewis, Michael
Sweet & Hard Cider Nichols and Proulx
The Beer Hunter CD ROM Jackson, Michael
Victory Beer Recipes AHA
Cat's Meow Recipes various

Membership Dues for 1998
David Peters

It is that time of year. We are in the midst of the annual dues collection. To date only about one third of our club has paid their 1998 dues. This in part is due that people have been unable to attend the meetings. Therefore, I am suggesting an alternative way to pay your dues. Please send your dues to my home address as follows:

David Peters
39777 London Court
Northville, MI 48167

Make check payable to David Peters (check only please, no cash). Upon receipt of your check, I will mail your new club discount card. The old cards expired at the end of January.

Please let me know if you do not intend to re-join. At the end of March we will be taking members off the mailing and distribution lists who have not paid their dues.



Sue Merritt

The proud inventors, Tyler Barber and Rich Byrnes, stand next to their creation (the club bar) at the 1997 Beer-B-Q.
What a cool club to have it's own photographer!

I have been a member of the club since January, 1995. I joined with the guy I was hanging out with at the timewho was the brewer, I was the drinker. It was a nice arrangement. He moved on to another job (probably other women, too) and I stayed behind, continuing to drink. I tried to resign my membership at the Christmas party that year, but was allowed to stay. Since then my role has been defined and redefined. I started as the Mascot and then moved to Official Beer Mooch. Now, thanks to my handsome 1997 Beer-B-Q photo gallery, I have been promoted to Club Photographer! A title I will proudly claim, camera in one hand and beer mug in the other.



Gary Shewchuck

Have you ever sat around waiting for your wort to reach the right temperature? You need something that will measure the temperature of the wort/beer while it's in the carboy. I'm sure you've tried the stick on liquid crystal type thermometers from the local pet store. The problem is that they have a very limited range and cost at least $3 each.

Well, today's your lucky day! The temperature strips that I have found come in 3 temperature ranges with 2 degree increments (26-56F, 58-88F and 90-120F) and cost $1.35 each. I use all three on my fermenters. That way I can tell when to pitch the yeast and what the temperature is doing while fermenting or lagering. There's also one that goes from 100-220F in 10 degree increments and costs $1.50 each. That one might come in handy on your boiling kettle. The size of each strip is ½" X 5". If you would like to order any of these temperature strips, please contact me at GSHEWCHU inside Ford, gshewchu@ford.com for outside e-mail, or talk to me at the next meeting.



Beers on the Net (Part 2): Newsgroups
Rich Byrnes

Well, as promised, here's part two in a continuing series of articles about internet resources for homebrewers. Last month highlighted the Homebrewers Digest, a mail list. This months feature is Rec.Crafts.Brewing (RCB), a newsgroup. Whereas the HBD is a daily mailing that is fed to you, RCB is a dynamic, live forum that is constantly changing. The following instructions are for Netscape users. I don't know how newsgroups are accessed with Internet Explorer. On Compuserve I remember using usenet as a keyword, not sure about AOL. After you follow the directions below to set up the newsgroups, I will detail what they are and how to view and use them.

Also, here's an URL for help on newsgroups:
http://hub.ford.com/coe/browsers/navigator/handbook/docs/mnb.htm#C0

Setting up the default news server:

  1. Open Netscape
  2. Select the "Options" menu and then the "Mail and News Preferences..."
  3. Select the "Server" tag in the window that appears
  4. The bottom part of the page should contain the News section.
    "News (NNTP) Server:" = news.ford.com
    "NEWS RC Directory:" = (DIRECTORY FOR NETSCAPE)\News
    e.g. Windows 3.1 = C:\Sys\Netscape\News
    Windows 95 = C:\Program Files\Netscape\Navigator\News
    "Get:" = 1000 Messages at a Time (Max. 3500)
  5. Select the "Identity" tag (next to the "Server" one you just selected)
  6. Fill in the following information
    "Your Name:" = your name (obviously)
    e.g. = Fred Smith
    "Your Email:" = (profs id)@ford.com
    e.g. = fsmith2@ford.com
    "Reply to Address:" =
    "Your Organization:" = Ford Motor Company or Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsmen
  7. Select the "OK" button

Reading Newsgroups:

  1. Open Netscape
  2. Select the "Window" menu and then the "Netscape News"
  3. Select any of the bold newsgroup names to read the articles

Adding Newsgroups:

  1. Access Newsgroups as above
  2. Select the "File" menu and then the "Add Newsgroup..."
  3. Enter the newsgroup you want to add in the box
    e.g. = rec.crafts.brewing
  4. Select the "OK" button

Displaying all Newsgroups:

  1. Access Newsgroups as above
  2. Select the "Options" menu and then the "Show All Newsgroups"
  3. Wait (this can take a few minutes)
  4. Click on the Newsgroup name to see the articles in it
  5. Click in the box next to the newsgroup to add it to your list

If you already have a list of newsgroups it will just show the articles in those groups. To see any new newsgroups since your list was created, read the next section.

Displaying New Newsgroups:

  1. Access Newsgroups as above
  2. Select the "Options" menu and then the "Show New Newsgroups"
  3. Wait (this can take a few minutes)
  4. Click on the Newsgroup name to see the articles in it
  5. Click inthe box next to the newsgroup to add it to your list

Now, there are several thousands of newsgroups on the internet. Ford has "censored" the groups to filter out any sexual or non work related groups. Does that mean every group on the intranet is work related? Not even close. There are lots of interesting groups under "alt" and "rec" headings. By using the "display all newsgroups" command you can see the entire list. Here's a list of some interesting groups:
Rec.crafts.brewing
rec.food.drink.beer
rec.food.drink
rec.food.cooking
rec.food.recipes
rec.autos.makers.ford.mustang
rec.heraldry
alt.folklore.urban
alt.great-lakes
mi.news
mi.misc

And the list goes on. There are several hobbies under the "rec" heading other than homebrewing. Now here's some terminology for those new to newsgroups.
Thread
Spam
Newbie
A list of messages arranged by topic (questions and answers)
Junk mail
Person new to the hobby or new to newsgroups

You will catch on to the terminology as you read more. Now, lets say there are 150 messages today, and there is a thread on brewing lambics. Do you have to read every message if you don't care to? NO! Click on any message in a thread, and click the thread icon at the top. This will mark every message in that thread as being read. Once you read a message you will notice the little green diamond disappears next to it. This message will not appear next time you open this newsgroup, you only want to see unread messages.

Now, lets say there is a recipe you read that you want to keep. You can either copy and paste to a document, or click on "file-save as" and change the filetype to text and give it a name and location. Lets say you see a question you wish to answer, or a thread you want to jump in on. Just click your right mouse button and hit "post reply" to answer the question. Lets say you wish to ask a question. Click the "To News" icon in the upper right button and fill in the subject line and write in your question. Server times vary, but many people will see your post immediately and may respond within minutes. You may see a post on the newsgroup, an answer via e-mail (profs) or both.

You do not need firewall access or e-mail access to use the newsgroups. You do not need anyone's permission to browse the newsgroups. They are Ford supported. There are several ford newsgroups that may be of interest to you as well. Are there risks? Sure, if you put in your real e-mail address and respond to address, you will more than likely be added to a junk e-mail list. This is unwelcome and called spam. Your option is to use a fake address. Many people add a word or two to their real address and at the bottom of their post. Indicate which word to remove for real e-mail (e.g. fsmith2.fake@ford.com, remove the word fake for real e-mail). This will prevent most spam from being sent to you.

Newsgroups are a fun, educational way to learn more about a hobby or topic that interests you. There are always A**holes that make them pretty sorry at times though, guys that like to insult people (flame) and ridicule others just for fun (beware of Edwin and Leo currently on RCB). Many Ford members are active on RCB including myself, Bryce Grevemeyer, Gabrielle Palmer, Gary Shewchuck and a few others whose names escape me at the moment. Gabrielle asked for advice on wood for a mashing paddle and got several helpful responses. This is a great resource similar in content to the HBD but a little more flexible.


Barleywine
Tyler Barber

Ingredients for 5 gallons:
12.5 lb. American 2-row pale malt
0.5 lb. Carapils
1.1 lb. Crystal malt 40 deg. Lovibond
0.25 cup Chocolate malt
3.0 lb. Laaglander light DME
2 tsp. Gypsum
1.5 oz. Northern Brewer hops @ 7.5% AA for 60 min
1.0 oz. Cascade hops @ 5.5% AA for 60 min
0.5 oz. Hallertauer hops @ 5.6% AA for 5 min
0.5 oz. Hallertauer hops @ 5.6% AA steeped for 10 min after end of boil

Yeast: Wyeast #1056 American Ale yeast, 1 liter starter

Mash Temps:
Protein rest - 125 deg. for 30 min.
Mash temp - 155-160 for 2.5 hrs.

Total boil time: 90 minutes

American-Style Amber Ale
Don Parisot

Ingredients for 5 gallons:
6.6 lb. Munton's extra light malt extract
1.0 lb. Munton's extra light DME
1.0 lb. Crystal malt 20 degrees L.
0.5 lb. Crystal malt 40 degrees L.
2 tsp. Gypsum
1.0 oz. Fuggle whole hops @ 4.0% AA for 60 min
0.75 oz. Cascade pellets @ 5.2% AA for 30 min
1.25 oz. Cascade pellets @ 5.2% AA for 10 min
1.0 oz. Cascade pellets @ 5.2% AA steeped for 15 min after end of boil
Bottle conditioned with 2/3 cup corn sugar

Yeast: American Ale, Wyeast #1056

Total boil time: 60 minutes
Original gravity: 1.062
Final gravity: 1.014
Primary fermentation: 18 days at 65 degrees F
Secondary fermentation: 8 days at 60 degrees F, with 1oz Cascade whole hops


1998 Competition Schedule
Date Competition AHA Style Categories
February 24 (T) Mild & Brown Ale Competition #4 a, b, c & d
March 25 (W) Classic Pilsner Competition (AHA) #15 a, b & c
April 28 (T)Brewer's Choice Competition Free for all
May 27 (W) Alt/Kolsch Competition #18 a & b
June 23 (T) Weiss is Nice Competition (AHA)
Label Contest
#19 a, b, c & d
July 22 (W) Summer Light Beer (Lawnmower) Competition Free for all
August 25 (T) Best of Fest Competition (AHA) #17 a & b
September 23 (W) Fruit/Lambic Competition #3 a, b & c and #21 a & b
October 27 (T) If It's Not Scottish... Competition (AHA) #8 a, b & c and #10 b
November 18 (W) Porter Competition #9 a & b
December 15 (T) Holiday Ale/Barleywine Competition
Also, entries due for January 1999 Hail to Ale Competition (AHA)
Free for all


Michigan Brown Ales
Chris Frey & Gabrielle Palmer

A side by side comparison of three of the best Michigan-made brown ales...
The Beers:

Motor City Nut Brown Ale
Motor City Brewing Works
470 West Canfield
Detroit, MI 48201
313-832-2700
http://www.mich.com/mcbw/

Duster's Classic Brown Ale
Duster's Microbrewery
114 North Main Street
Lawton, MI 49065
616-624-3771
http://www.phd.msu.edu/bice
/beer/Dusters_info.html

Bell's Best Brown Ale
Kalamazoo Brewing Company
355 E. Kalamazoo Ave.
Kalamazoo, MI 49001
616-382-2338
http://www.concentric.net
/~kazoodan/bells.html
Looks & Taste:
Nice, warm brown color. Good head retention with lots of bubbles. Low hops aroma with a slight citrusy/fruity aroma. A medium bodied beer that has an initial taste of bitterness that dissipates quickly, leaving a nice mild chocolate malt flavor; a quick sweetness that ends dry. Darker than the other two. Almost a black color with a red tint and a thick, creamy, brown head that looks like meringue. This beer starts with a wonderful floral hops aroma. The flavor is dominated by a sweet, creamy, chocolatey flavor balanced well with just enough hops without being obtrusive. Very smooth. Reddish-brown in color with a thick foam of tight bubbles. A sweet, malty aroma with some fruity esters. The flavor begins with a creamy, malty, chocolatey taste followed by a slightly dry, hoppy aftertaste. Just enough hop bitterness in theaftertaste to balance the whole beer out.
Ratings (out of 5):
Quaffable Quotes:
"I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer." -Homer Simpson


Upcoming Beery Dates
Rex Halfpenny
Feb. 20 Taste of the Hops at Grosse Pointe War Memorial $30.00 313-881-7511
Feb. 24 Great Taste of Arcadia III at 7:00PM. Wonderful five course meal servedwith Arcadia Beer. (We have attended one of these and it was truely a great presentation of flavorful food and beer!) Call 616-963-9690 for info and reservations.
Feb. 25 Winterfest at Schoolcraft College $30.00 at Merchants Fine Wines248-546-7770
Feb. 28 Mahalo Luau at Michigan Brewing Company, wear Aloha attire and get inon beach vollyball, a tropical luau, Hawaiian music, door prizes. No cover, just buy beer. Co-sponsored by Michigan Beer Guide and Things Beer.
March 7 Things Beer Anniversary, no cover, share your homebrew, beer and goodies 10am to 6pm.
March 17 Atwater's First Anniversary Party featuring Voodoovator Doppelbock.
April 7 Southfield Public Library, Meet and Eat lunch hour presentation Celebrating Beer in Michigan by Rex Halfpenny, Registration required, $2.00(TWO BUCKS) 248-948-0470.
May 20 Vintage Wine and Fine Beer Tasting, $25.00 for excellent wine, beer,food. I will have tickets for sale, (two for $40.00). An excellent tastingevent, limited to 300 people, all Michigan Brewers Guild Microbrew Memberswill be featured along with some truely great wines. Proceeds support theGreat Lakes Performing Artists.

Paulaner Distributor Seeks Approval
Chris Frey
I just spoke with Aldo Mastro of PD (the folks who supplied us with the varities of beers a few months ago). He has submitted everybody who wanted to be on the quarterly newsletter. He had indicated that if people didn't want their comments shared that they not put their names on their evaluations. However, he was kind enough to double check with me to request the potential publication of some of your comments in the quarterly newsletter. These would include your name if they are selected. If we have anybody who is on the Federal Witness Protection Plan, or has worked with the Germans in the 40's, who doesn't want their name published, please drop me a line.

If you wanted to get on their newletter, and didn't tell Aldo (ie, you have a big ego and want to see your name published), you can call him at 810-751-8194 or fax him your info at 810-751-0891.

Also, we have tenatively scheduled Aldo to return to our fair club meeting on May 27th. He will be featuring his German products for us to sample! God, I love this hobby!


Spent Grains Humor
Dave Hopf (from the HBD)

What to do with the spent grains you now have from brewing:

If you want to be kind to the earth and that steaming pile of sodden spent grain is giving you twinges of eco-guilt, don't go pawning copious loaves of spent grain bread on your friends and loved ones, they can't even get their freakin' dog to eat the stuff!!

Besides the obvious use of spent grain in the compost pile, some more creative uses of spent grain are:


Ye Olde Brew News
published by the F.O.R.D. Homebrew Club
Editor:
Gabrielle Palmer

Contributing Writers:
Tyler Barber
Rich Byrnes
Chris Frey
Rex Halfpenny
Dave Hopf
Sue Merritt
Gabrielle Palmer
Don Parisot
David Peters
Gary Shewchuk
Johanne Wilson

Club Officers:
Rich Byrnes, President
Tony Treusch, Vice-President
David Peters, Treasurer
Chris Frey, Secretary
Gabrielle Palmer, Newsletter Editor
Sue Merritt, Photographer
Johanne Wilson, Librarian
Jim Bazzy, Event Coordinator
Jim Rice, Club Rabbi
Tyler Barber, Equipment Manager
Doug Geiss, Business Manager
Joe Sellinger, Webmaster

F.O.R.D. is a private, non-profit organization of homebrewers. Its main goal is to share information regarding technique, equipment and skill required to brew quality homemade beer.

Correspondence should be directed to:
Chris P. Frey
275 S. Ann Arbor St.
Saline, MI 48176

Work: 313-337-1642
Home: 313-944-6618

(w) chris.frey-ford@e-mail.com
(h) crispy@worldnet.att.com

Visit our website at: http://www.be.ford.com/brewery/
or external to Ford at: http://hbd.org/ford/

current circulation... 130