March's meeting was held at our favorite location, Chelsea's. The meeting was a little light as far as officers attending. Both our President, Rich Byrnes, and our Treasurer, Dave Peters, had better offers. The rest of us just had to somehow muddle through.

As V.P., I opened the meeting with the announcement that one of our own brewers, Tyler Barber, has taken first place in the American Homebrewers Association's club-only stout competition, the "Stout Bout". Tyler won with his Imperial Stout which he entered first in our club's "Stout Bout" in January. I know, as one of the people fortunate (read "smart") enough to have participated in that judging that it was mighty-fine brew. As the winner of our club's contest, F.O.R.D. sponsored Tyler as our club's representative in the national competition. Great going, Tyler, you're making us all look good!

Next I announced the the date for the annual Beer-B-Que has been moved to August 29th. This was due to the availability of Centennial Park. So, mark your calendars, folks. We want this one to be the best yet.

Moving on to our club's competitions, I announced the winners of February's Mild & Brown Ale competition, offered to take the entries for March's Classic Pilsner competition, and discussed upcoming competitions. The results of the Classic Pilsner competition are later in this newsletter.

Finally, I discussed the club's equipment purchases. We now have a grain mill, suitable for connecting to a power drill, which can borrowed from the club by any member in good standing. The reason we decided to buy the mill was that, since we now have a Pico System to loan, most members don't have a mill to grind the pounds of grain needed for all-grain brewing. However, it is not necessary to check-out the Pico System to use the grain mill. They are treated as separate equipment.

Also, the club is currently shopping for a "jockey-box". A "jockey-box" is a cooler with tap(s) on the front and cooling coils inside. The idea is that you pack the coils in ice, hook up your room temperature kegs to it and draw cold beer from the taps. It is a portable method of serving keg beer. Tyler Barber is the club's equipment manager. Contact him if you want to use any of the club's equipment. A complete equipment list is published later in this newsletter.

I then turned the floor over the effulgent Johanne Wilson, our club's Librarian. She discussed the club's latest purchases and the general state of the library. We have quite a selection of books to loan to members. Please take advantage of them.

Johanne then presented Jim Rice with the Brewer of the Year plaque. This plaque is awarded, along with a Brewer of the Year mug, to the club member that accumulates the most points in the beer brewing competitions. The plaque is a traveling trophy with 12 brass plates, each to be engraved with the name of each year's winner. I guess we'll need a new one for the "Brewer of the Year - 2009". Jim gets to hang on the the plaque until next year, when he passes it on to the next champion. (Unless, of course, he repeats!) The mug he keeps forever.

Johanne then turned the floor over to the gregarious Chris Frey, our club Secretary. Chris gave a presentation on the use of the Pico System for all grain brewing. This included many pointers on avoiding problems and what to do if you somehow don't manage to avoid them. He discussed screen setup, controlling the boil and stuck sparges. (Just wrap your lips around it and blow.) He did not try to give a class on the basics of all grain brewing, pointing out that there are plenty of books on the subject. Finally, he encouraged anyone interested in all grain brewing to come by one of the club demos or contact one of the many club members that are experienced with it. After all, our charter does say we are an educational organization.

Our meeting then turned into the social chaos that we've all come to expect with a bunch beer freaks. We looked at beer, smelled beer, drank beer and talked about beer. God, I love these meetings!

The next meeting will be held at Chelsea's on Tuesday, April 28th. 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. 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.

May 2nd is going to be a big day. In fact, it's going to be Big Brew '98/National Homebrew Day! Big Brew '98 is the record-setting attempt of the simultaneous brewing of many small homebrew batches of the same beer recipe by homebrewers across the nation. It is also to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of National Homebrew Day and the 20th anniversary of the American Homebrewers Association.

The recipe that we will be brewing, "Big 10/20", is based on Little Apple Brewing Company's "Big 12" Barley Wine, created and brewed by Rob Moline and winner of the Gold Medal in the Barley Wine category at the 1996 Great American Beer Festival.

We are spoken for as far as the club PICO is concerned. However, anyone who is interested should still plan to brew with us. You will need to bring your own equipment and supplies, although Merchants will provide the water for brewing & chilling. So, bottom line, if you want to brew, bring your pots, burners and materials and we will see you there! And you don't have to brew a barleywine if you don't want to. You're free to brew whatever you like. More details will be provided at the April meeting.

The date for the annual Beer-B-Que (August 29th) is fast approaching. I need help in organizing this momentous event. The tasks include:

• Soliciting raffle prizes from home brew stores, brew pubs, etc.
• Planning games/activities for adults and children
• Moving equipment
• Planning food
• Etc.

Here is a list of our club's equipment for those of you who don't realize what we have. If you'd like to make a batch of beer at home but it's a really nice day outside, you can check out one of our propane burners and brew that beer in comfort of your backyard. If you have a really great pale ale that you kegged, then you could check out the counter-pressure bottle filler and bottle a few beers for an upcoming homebrew competition. You can schedule to check out any of the equipment by contacting Tyler Barber, our Equipment Manager.

PICO System 3 kegs/kettles 3 lids 1 lighter 3 heat shields for pumps 3 gas lines 1 gas manifold 3 water lines 1 garden hose (7' long) 3 thermometers 1 sprinkler head 2 large clamps 1 small clamp 1 box misc. rubber washers 1 roll pipe tape 4 rubber gloves 2 pumps 1 thermo blanket 1 propane tank (40 lb.) 12 stainless steel plates for false bottom 4 slotted copper halves for false bottom 3 burners 1 wooden paddle 1 immersion chiller (50 ft.) 1 electrical 3-way plug adapter

12 Keg Bar System 1 finished 6'x2'x4' bar 6 pin-lock (coke) "IN" disconnects 6 pin-lock (coke) "OUT" disconnects 6 ball-lock (pepsi) "IN" disconnects 6 ball-lock (pepsi) "OUT" disconnects 12 picnic taps with line 1 curtain 2 airline manifolds (6' long) 1 CO2 3-way fitting 2 male fittings for CO2 lines 1 flushing unit Malt Mill Counter-Pressure Bottle Filler 1 bottle filler 1 rubber gromet 2 clear liquid lines (4' long) 2 red air lines (4' long) 5 female quick connect fittings 1 3-way splitter 1 ball-lock (pepsi) disconnect 1 pin-lock (coke) disconnect 1 pin-lock (coke) socket 1 instruction manual

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The hops used to flavor and preserve beer appear to be toxic to some cancer cells, according to researchers at Oregon State University (OSU). The hops contain antioxidant compounds called flavonoids. When applied to different types of cancer cells in laboratory dishes, one particular flavonoid -- xanthohumol -- was toxic to cancer cells.

"We treated human breast, colon, and ovarian cells that were cancerous with concentrations (of flavonoids) that were not harmful to normal cells and found that some of the hops flavonoids were toxic to cancer cells," said Donald Buhler, an agricultural chemist with OSU's Agricultural Experiment Station.

In one experiment, the researchers found that the flavonoids inhibited cytochrome P450, an enzyme that plays a role in cancer development. And a second experiment in mouse cells showed that the flavonoids enhanced quinone reductase, an enzyme that detoxifies potential carcinogens. The findings were presented at the recent International Society of Toxicology meeting in Seattle, Washington.

The researchers are planning additional studies and caution that their conclusions do not encourage excessive beer consumption.

"Obviously, there's a down side to drinking," said Buhler. "It might be possible to find a way to get (the flavonoids) to people in capsules or some other concentrated form," he said.

The study was funded by the Hop Research Council, the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the US Department of Agriculture, and OSU's Environmental Health Sciences Center.

Last month's contest was Classic Pilsners, an AHA competition. This included style categories 15a (German-style pilsner), 15b (Bohemian-style pilsner) and 15c (American-style pilsner). The winners are:

Tyler Barber will be our Club's representative in the AHA Club-only Classic Pilsner competition. (Dare we hope for another victory?)

This month's competition is "Brewer's Choice". This is a free-for-all with no style guidelines. If you brewed something that you want judged and couldn't figure out which category to enter it in (or just don't want to wait), this is the contest for you. So, bring your entries to this month's meeting or call me to make other arrangements. Also, if you've been considering joining in on the judging sessions, we could probably use your help on this one. We expect a lot of entries and we do have to drive home when it's done.

May's contest is Alt/Kolsch. I have yet to find a good set of style guidelines for this category. The AHA doesn't have any (at least not on their web site). Hopefully, I'll have some by this month's meeting.

June's contest is "Weiss is Nice", an AHA Club-Only competition. This is a contest of the AHA major category "German-Style Wheat Beer" (19) including "Berliner-Style Weisse" (19a), "German-Style Hefeweizen/Hefeweissbier" (19b), "German-Style Dunkelweizen" (19c) and "German-Style Weizenbock" (19d). These do not include fruit beers.

Start brewing now for these upcoming contests!

With the warm weather making a comeback, the BBQ and party season is about to start. There are some very famous and reputable breweries now making non-alcohol (NA) beers. Actually, that should be low-alcohol beers... less than 0.5% alcohol by volume.

After tasting the following nine NA beers, I've come to a rather disturbing conclusion. There are basically two kinds of NA beers: 1. Watered-down versions of that brewery's regular beers (sort of like the difference between whole milk and skim milk), and 2. Beers that taste like they weren't fully fermented. I'm still looking for a NA beer that has that "real beer" flavor and aroma so that I can enjoy the flavor of a few tasty beers, but still be the responsible, designated driver for my friends and/or family. Maybe one day a brewery will find a way to make a full-flavored beer that also happens to be non-alcoholic. Maybe even a robust porter with lots of roast malt and hops flavors and aromas. Oh well, I can still dream...