April 1994 Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsman Vol. 2 No. 4

This Issue:
Last Months Meeting: 1
Next Months Meeting: 1
Club Business: 2
Upcoming Events: 3
Competition News: 3
Stout Recipes: 4
Swap/ Sell/ Buy 4
Beer Trivia: 4
Brewers Profile: 5
Survey: 6

Well gang, what do you think of the new layout, now that this is done in columnar format, does that make this look more like a real newsletter? If anyone has comments on the appearance of the Brew News, or any suggestions for new features or columns please contact me directly.

Last Meeting:

Last month's meeting was the first warm weather meeting we have ever had. The temps hit 70 that day, enough to make you real thirsty (How convenient) and the turnout was pretty good. We had 17 people show up including 6 new members (or potential members). Interestingly enough there were a number of people at the meeting that were on their 1st batch, or hadn't yet started brewing. This is a real positive sign that our hobby is getting more popular every day.

Tom Herron and Neal Petty both had gone to the "Blessing of the Bock" festival in Milwaukee in mid March and talked about it. It was an indoor event where homebrewers and microbrewers came together to enjoy beer. The event was held on the first day of spring and this is the 6th year (Or 7th?) that this event has been held. There were some homebrew clubs there that had information tables set up, Neal remembers seeing one of the clubs actually had a professional quality video put together showing how to homebrew. Sprecker brewery had a Cask (Oak) of a Bavarian Dark beer which was cask conditioned, and tapped the traditional way, wooden faucet and all.

I attempted to demonstrate the Benjamin Machine Products counter pressure bottle filler (as advertised in Zymurgy) but due to technical difficulties (the knob broke off in my hand) I was unable to finish the demonstration. I contacted the Mfg. the next day and they acknowledged a bad run of knobs and sent me a new knob the next day. Unfortunately I won't be able to finish the demonstration until the picnic later this fall (more later about this in the newsletter) because of the warmer weather (the beer must be chilled very cold). There was a lot of club business going on at the meeting but I will sum that up in a separate column.

April's Meeting

Neal will be talking about recycling beer (taking a not-so good batch and turning it into something drinkable.

I will be talking about the Mason Jar method of making yeast starters.

The competition this month is

Stout.

CLUB BUSINESS

Where do I begin for club business. First off, Sandy Bruce has volunteered to become our treasurer. This entails managing an account for our funds, taking in dues money, and dispensing money for club expenses. If anyone buys something for the club (like a T-shirt, or book for prizes, or supplies for administrative purposes) you must turn in a receipt to get reimbursed. If a receipt is not readily available, try to get the vendor or supplier to sign a note stating the price of the item in question. If you want to get reimbursed at the meeting, you must submit a receipt to Sandy prior to the meeting, she will then withdraw the funds needed from our account at the Credit Union. Sandy will not just bring money to the meeting without reason.

Secondly, Tom Herron has volunteered to become our Vice President. The roles and responsibilities of this post have not yet been clearly defined but will evolve and change as time goes on. Tom was previously the competition chairman and will continue to coordinate the competitions until he can find someone to replace him.

Doug Geiss has volunteered to become our librarian. Our library currently consists of the last two issues of Zymurgy, two other issues of Zymurgy, two issues of Brewing Techniques, two copies of "Cats Meow" (recipe collection), two copies of a book on hop growing, a couple of mead newsletters and some misc. handouts. Doug is going through my personal collection of Zymurgy and Xeroxing out any relevant articles. I have donated most of the materials in the library myself and would encourage others to pitch in as well. If you have a book you no longer reference or duplicate copies of a magazine, go ahead and donate it. Doug has the library in a portable crate type system (hanging file folders) and will bring this to each meeting, if he can't make a meeting, I will bring it. We (the executive staff) have decided to make the library available to paid members only, and you are limited to checking out 1 item at a time for 1 month only, if you return an item to Doug early, you may check out another item at that time. If you have any requests for materials, please write down the title, author, price and where you saw this item. If we feel this book or magazine would be of interest to the entire club, we may very well buy it. We could also subscribe to some publications. We get a free subscription to Zymurgy, but we could also subscribe to a mead newsletter ($10) or Brewing Techniques ($25), please turn in any suggestion to Doug.

We had an executive committee meeting the other day where we discussed many things, one of the more important things was Dues. We will be coming out with a written copy of our guidelines and bylaws hopefully within a couple of months which will include all the dues info, but what I can tell you now is the following:

Our fiscal year will start January 1st, (this is a bonus for all current members that paid your dues early last year). New members will pay $25, and members signing up for another year of membership will pay $15. This figure does go down for members joining after July, new members will pay $17.50 and current members who may quit and not sign up again until July will pay $7.50. A family membership is $40 for new members and $20 for every year after.

Executive positions are one year in length, starting Jan 1st. Open elections will be held in November, and December is the transition month.

There are currently two committee positions open for the taking. Tom needs a replacement for organizing the competitions each month, this entails rounding up a couple of judges, making sure we have prizes available, and organizing the judging. This person also helps develop the competition schedule for the year.

The other position open is special events coordinator. This person would be responsible for pricing out T-shirts, organizing any outings, helping set up any tours or field trips etc, etc, etc

UPCOMING EVENTS

The biggest upcoming event is the 1st ever F.O.R.D.

Beer-B-Que. This event will take place Saturday August 6th at Tom Herrons house in Warren. This will be an afternoon-late night event centered around homebrew and family. Each club member (paid only) will be invited along with a guest, children are welcome but you will be responsible for them. We are trying to secure some responsible teenagers to be baby-sitters of sorts (for a fee!) but plan on watching your own brood. The game plan is to do a pig roast! Doug Lacureaux who may become a member has gone to the farmers market many times before and picked out a fresh pig, slaughtered it himself and barbecued it on a specially designed pig roaster. I have had pig this way many times before and can vouch for its excellence. The club funds will go towards the pig($40-70) and from there on in it will be a pot luck. Our yet to be named special events coordinator will organize the pot luck portion with a sign up so we don't have 35 bowls of potato salad. We will not have the bad beer competition like we had talked about, no sense killing our taste buds over nothing. Tom has a fridge that can hold a few kegs and everyone is welcome to bring any homebrew they want. We are stressing though that this is open to paid members only. We'll have volleyball, and a bonfire at the end of the night.

COMPETITION NEWS

The brown ale competition last month drew 7 entries but due to a shortage of time, one entry was pulled that was slightly out of category anyway. Congratulations to Lynn Bruce whose brown ale took 1st place, Tom Herron come in 2nd and Tom Sieja came in 3rd. I will start including at least the 1st and 2nd place recipes each month, in fact, if you're entering a beer, go ahead and bring a copy of the recipe anyway. This month's competition is Stout, this includes the following sub-categories:

11A) Classic Dry Stout

Black opaque, light to full medium body. Medium to high hop bitterness. Absence of low levels of roasted barley (coffee like ) character OK. Sweet maltiness and caramel malt evident. No hop flavor or aroma. Slight acidity/ sourness OK. Low to medium alcohol. Diacetyl low to Med.

11B) Foreign Style

Stronger version of classic dry stout.

11C)Sweet Stout:

Overall character sweet. Black opaque. Medium to full body. Hop bitterness low. Roasted barley (coffee like) character mild. No hop flavor or aroma. Sweet malty and caramel evident. Low to medium alcohol. Low Diacetyl OK.

11D) Imperial Stout

Dark copper to black. Hop bitterness, flavor and aroma medium to high. Alcohol strength evident (7-9%) Rich maltiness, fruitiness/esters OK. Full bodied, low Diacetyl OK.

This is an official AHA competition so the winner will get his/her entry sent in to the AHA for national competition in lieu of a prize. You must be a club member to compete in this one. Next month is Pale ale, and June is the generic category, light summer beer, this could be almost anything. that fits that description.

Here are the winning recipes:

Lynn Bruce's IPA

6 Lb. Amber extract (60 min.)

1 Lb. Crystal malt

1/2 Lb. Toasted malt

2 oz. N. Brewers (60 min.)

1 oz. Cascade (15-20 min.)

liquid ale yeast (1028)

1 tsp. Irish Moss(15-20 min.)

3/4 cup corn sugar

O.G. 1.055-1.065

The grains were cracked and added to 1.5 gals water until the boil started.

Tom Herrons Brown Ale:

4 LB Ironmaster Northern Brown ale.

3.5 LB Munton & Fison Light

Yeast lab British Ale yeast

Boil 3.5 gals. water and syrups for 1 hour. Primary ferment 3 days, secondary 10 days. OG=1.045, FG=1.015

MORE RECIPES

I thought I would include some stout recipes (food that is) for ways of using up the stout you have, not many people truly appreciate a good stout, but hidden in these recipes you may surprise some people.

Black Russian Rye Bread

4 cups medium or dark rye flour

2 tbs. dry yeast

2 cups stout (110)

4 tbs. butter, melted

2 eggs

1/2 cup honey

3 tbs. caraway seed

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tbs. salt

3 to 4 cups bread flour

baking parchment

1 egg white for glaze

2 tbs. honey for glaze

1) place 1 cup rye flour in a large bowl and stir in dry yeast. Pour warm beer over, and whisk thoroughly. Cover and allow to rest in a warm spot 15 to 20 minutes.

2) Stir butter, eggs, honey, caraway, cocoa, and salt into the yeast mixture, whisking until well combined. Add remaining rye flour 1 cup at a time.

3) Stir in remaining flour one cup at a time, using your hands once the dough becomes too heavy for a spatula. continue adding flour until the dough begins to pull away from the side of the pan and kneading can begin.

4) Knead vigorously by pushing, folding and turning, adding only enough flour to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands or the kneading surface.

5) When dough is smooth and elastic, coat the inside of a large bowl with 1 tbs. vegetable oil. Press the ball of dough into the bowl and turn it over, coating the ball with oil.

6) Cover and allow to rise in a warm spot until doubled. When doubled, pinch down and divide in half, allow to rest, covered for 5 minutes.

7) form the dough into oblong or peasant loaves. Place on well greased parchment, cover, and allow to rise until doubled.

8) brush tops with glaze mixture. Lightly score with serrated knife. Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes until the tops are dark and the bottoms are well browned.

STOUT FLOAT

This is an easy one, simply place a generous scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream in a tall glass of stout, I swear I didn't make this one up folks. It's in the book.

I also have several recipes for desserts with stout (mostly chocolate based) Let me know if you want any of them and I'll send them to you.

SWAP, SELL, BUY

This is the first time this column appears so I hope to see it get bigger each month.

For Sale: 1 20 Lb. CO2 tank, tested and filled, $85, see Rich Byrnes, I will bring it to the meeting in case.

Wanted: 2 gauge regulator or any other kegging equipment, see Doug Geiss.

Merchants warehouse in Royal Oak is planning a homebrewers swap meet sometime this summer, tables will be available to rent and all clubs will be notified. Tony wants to have it in the parking lot, but I'm trying to talk him into having it in a park where we can procure an alcohol permit, and trade sips as well as supplies.

Tony is getting ready to place a big hop rhizome order, so if you want to get a particular rhizome, call Tony at Merchants Warehouse (between 1:00 and 9:00) at 546-7770 and place your order. Rhizomes run around $3-4 I think.

BEER TRIVIA

Country Liters/yr. $/yr.

Germany 143.00 200.2

UK 104.07 399.6

USA 87.98 202.4

Spain 72.51 174.2

Japan 58.36 174.5

France 40.15 49.0

Italy 21.99 56.0

Age: 25

Profession: Automotive designer, DEW-98/Jaguar engine

Outside interests: Darts and remodeling/construction.

Brewing since: January 1993. (16 months)

# of batches: 16

How started: Conversations with Neal Petty and Frank DePifiano gave tom the initial "bug" to get him started. His first taste of a stout that Frank had made, clinched it for Tom, he was hooked.

First Batch (also his worst): a wheat beer named, Northless Weizen, aptly named because this beer wasn't going anywhere. The recipe was from Alan at Wines Unlimited in Royal Oak, where Tom bought most of his equipment. The recipe is as follows: 1 can Ireks wheat, 1 bag light extract dme, 1 LB wheat grains, 1 oz. hops and dry yeast. Of course, no told him to crack the grains (so he didn't), and no one told him not to boil the grains (so he did). The end product was a cidery, fizzy terrible tasting beer with absolutely no head.

Best Batch: Tom credits batches #2, 6, and 15, all Brown ales, with being his best, all are very similar. Tom is sold on Ironmaster brown ale kits. He experimented with using table sugar, corn sugar and CO2 force priming for priming his beers, and is extremely proud of the last batch which was kegged, this beer took 2nd place at last months meeting. (see recipe in newsletter)

Favorite Batch: Easily brown ales, Tom is not a hop lover, and this is his favorite style.

Tom credits knowledge with helping him improve as much as he has.

Please fill out this survey, even if you did fill out the last one, your help is greatky appreciated!!!!!

Name

Work Address (Ford Only)

Work Phone (Ford Only)

Fax #_____________________(I will call first if I ever need to fax anything)

Profs ID (again, ford only)

Home Address_____________________________

City/State/Zip_____________________________

Home Phone________________________________

OK to submit home address to mail order firms for club discount registration?? Yes_____ NO________

OK to publish Home Phone number for other club members??

Yes_______ NO__________

Special Skills:

Lagering_______ All Grain__________ Kegging__________

Hop Growing____________ Yeast Culturing___________ Mead Making_______

Skill Level: Beginner_______ Intermediate_________ Advanced__________

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© 1995, 1996 by Pat Babcock

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Last updated 11/14/96