What's Brewing' in Cybeerspace...

Vol. I No 2

P.G. Babcock

"Warning! Thermal barrier..."

Transgressions on the net are dealt with swiftly and mercilessly. In good times, you represent an intelligent entity from which entertainment is derived; either through your wisdom, or your search for the same. When you slip, you become a faulty data stream. Your opinion must immediately be shown valueless. You get 'flamed'!

Avoiding becoming tinder for a flame-fest is fairly easy - not much different from in normal conversations. Since the there isn't a recommended daily allowance for asbestos, it serves the intrepid surfer to know and follow some guidelines.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF NETIQUETTE

First: Never forget the impersonal nature of printed matter. Because it generally carries none of the emotion and inflection of the spoken word, what may be innocuous in conversation may be regarded as an insult on the net.

Second: No commercial advertising is welcome on the net; unless you own the server upon which you are advertising or are expressly invited to advertise there. An isolated, unsolicited endorsement of a product is fine.

Continued on page *..

May's Minutes

Once again we met at Traffic Jam's in May, discussions with the Berkley Front ended when their final offer to our club was a $75 charge for their upstairs room, or $6 per head. Things were fine until they became a real popular meeting establishment and the owner realized that he didn't need to rely on homebrewers such as ourselves to help sales. We are continuing to search for alternate meeting sites to Traffic Jam & Snugs where we might conduct more demonstrations at our meetings, if anyone has any suggestions please see Neal or myself.

Tim Tepatti started the meeting by reviewing some of the pig roast-home brew-b-q specifics. The committee met at Tom Herrons house some time back and came up with the following list:

1) tickets will be $5 per person, this will cover the porker himself and other necessities.

2) Each member may bring a guest (also $5)

3) Bring Lawn Chairs!

4) Plan on Volleyball, Horseshoes and ???

5) The pig roast is Aug. 5th, starting at 2^ish.

6) You will be asked to bring a dish, Tim is starting a list (see newsletter), please sign up for a dish, this will help ensure no duplicates (how many potato salads can we eat!) Everyone can vouch from last year this worked out excellent, feel free to stray from the list if you have a specialty dish. I have 3-4 different beer cookbooks if anyone wants recipes for dishes with beer in them.

7) Tickets will be printed and sold.

8) there will be a 50/50 raffle with many prizes at the pig roast itself.

If anyone has any questions about the pig roast please contact anyone on the committee- Tony Treusch, Tim Tepatti or Tom Herron.

Neal gave a quick review of the Nat'l homebrewers day at Merchants Royal Oak on May 6th. Close to 200 people stopped by to see us perform. The owner was quite pleased and is trying to coordinate a similar event at his Dearborn store, and Toney was rather impressed and has invited us back to do an Octoberfest Brewola in the lot (He's pushing for us to wear Leiderhosen, we're still negotiating!). To all the people that got some free wort that day, it would be a nice gesture to "donate" a bottle or two to Al Czajkowski's friend who donated the tent (would have been a scorcher otherwise!) and a bottle or two to Toney Randazzo who provided all the ingredients and brewing space.

We do now get a discount at Merchants in Dearborn, the club discount card SHOULD be to you by this meeting.

Neal demonstrated a typical kegging setup with all the components and an overview of how to keg beer, there was a handout on the subject, if you missed it and would like a copy, please contact Doug Geiss.

Doug brought in the new books in the library and went over the new policy, due to the large (heavy!) size of the library, he won't be bringing in the whole crate anymore, you must contact him ahead of time if you want him to bring a book or magazine.

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

F.O.R.D. is an associate member of the American Homebrewers Association. F.O.R.D. encourages letters, opinions, articles for publicat- ion and information from members and friends of the club.

Correspondence should be directed to:

Rich Byrnes,

30972 Cousino

Warren, MI 48092

Voice/Fax 810-558-9844

usfmczgm@ibmmail.com

CompuServe 75113,411

The 50/50 raffle this month went towards the pig roast and $46 was raised for the Pig Roast and Sandy Bruce won the other $46, Congrats to Sandy!

Corrections

In all the confusion last month with the new addition to my house I forgot to mention that Tom Sieja just got betrothed so a belated congratulations to Tom & Linda.

A belated thank you to ALL the volunteers at the Nat'l Homebrewers day festivities, in thanking people in last months newsletter I overlooked the brewers themselves. I heard nothing but good things from the spectators. Our club was perceived as being very knowledgeable and professional and that's why we have been invited back. This will be an annual event, and I see it getting bigger and better each year.

New Members

Last month we had 2 new members join, Doug Wood and Jeff Walters. We look forward to sampling their beer soon!

More Cyber-Beer

Pat Babcock has just fired up his BBS (Bulletin Board Service) for S.E. Michigan Homebrewers. Simply set your modem to 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit (8n1) and from 300 to 14,400 baud. Simply dial 313-397-7915 to join (FREE!!!!) There are many areas of the bbs, including one just for our club. Brew-Beerd BBS Is affiliated with Home Brew University, a Nat'l BBS.

Water Analysis

This is the most recent water analysis at the time of printing (from Feb. 21) ,measurements are in mg/l.

Detroit Area (Water Works)

Magnesium 8.2

Calcium 26

Sodium 4.8

Sulfate 23

Chloride 7.0

Calcium Carbonate 73

East Side (Lake Huron)

Magnesium 8.0

Calcium 26

Sodium 4.6

Sulfate 21

Calcium Carbonate 73

Chloride 6.2

Downriver (SW Water Plant)

Magnesium 8.0

Calcium 26

Sodium 4.8

Sulfate 20

Calcium Carbonate 73

Chloride 6.3

Calcium Carbonate is the same as Total Alkalinity as you are reading a water analysis.

The next set of numbers have been collected by David Draper from Sydney Australia and published on the HBD. These are water analysis from famous brewing city's worldwide,.

Burton

Magnesium 62

Calcium 269

Sodium 54

Sulfate 638

Calcium Carbonate 275

Chloride 36

London (city/well)

Calcium 90/52

Calcium Carbonate 82/ 104

Chloride 10/34

Magnesium 6/32

Sodium 22/86

Sulfate 24/32

Dublin

Calcium 118

Calcium Carbonate 156 or 319

Chloride 19

Magnesium 4

Sodium 12

Sulfate 53

K'oln

Calcium 104

Calcium Carbonate 152

Chloride 109

Magnesium 15

Sodium 52

Sulfate 86

Vienna

Calcium 200

Calcium Carbonate 118

Chloride 12

Magnesium 60

Sodium 8

Sulfate 12

Pilsen

Calcium 7-10

Calcium Carbonate 14

Chloride 3-5

Magnesium 3-4

Sodium 2-3

Sulfate 4-5

Munich

Calcium 75

Calcium Carbonate 148

Chloride 2

Magnesium 18

Sodium 2

Sulfate 10

This information is more useful to all grain brewers, but it helps to explain how styles evolved globally.

...Cybeerspace Continued from page 1.

Continuously touting a product followed by an affiliation disclaimer wears a little thin on one's credibility after a while. And if you actually ARE affiliated, it is usually discovered in short order. -=<*Shudder.*>=-

This rule also generally applies in the 'local' posting areas of service providers such as CompuServe, Prodigy, etc. Some have gone as far as to cancel memberships due to advertising on their services. Usually, though, they 'kill' your post and give you a warning.

It's a paradox: the net welcomes your business, while shunning your advertisements from most forums. If you own a business and you wish to advertise on the net, find a provider that allows you to post and maintain a 'Home Page' on the web (subject of a future article).

Third: Know your subject. No-one goes down in flames faster than the surfer without data. Don't offer up what you don't know. Conjecture and opinion should be offered up as such; but even this is no guarantee of flame-free discourse.

Except for 'age old, long held, often memorized' information, I generally surf with a collection of references and a dictionary. I have annotated the table of contents and indices of these books to better reference many of my favorite 'battlegrounds'. This is overkill, admittedly, but I don't get flamed often, either! Quoting 'chapter and verse' sends most flame-throwers searching for fuel elsewhere.

Fourth: In case the third item fails, know when to back down. You may find your expertise challenged by a better-experienced individual, or a 'collective' of experts. The result of this confrontation may be the loss of a long-held belief. Admitting that an idea exists simply because 'that's the way I've always done it' or 'that's what I was told' is not losing face - it's learning. And defending an ill-founded theory or opinion in front of an audience of thousands, perhaps millions of potentially better informed readers can very quickly become unpleasant. And usually comes to a bad end, credibility-wise.

Five: Be timely. It is poor form to perpetuate dead threads. And very irritating to those who take the time and make the effort to remain current. If you get an Internet publication in a collection form, read the entire document before answering a question, asking a new question, or jumping in any way.

Continued on next page.

Six: Keep your sense of humor. Even the most serious of forums gets 'nailed' by a joke now and again. Sometimes, the joke will be lost on you, and you'll react. This can be embarrassing, if you let it be. Don't let it be. The best retort is 'OOPS'.

Seven: Give a joke away. Granted, part of the fun of a well thought-out joke is to try and 'catch' people. Well thought-out jokes are appreciated. The endless thread resulting from those who took it seriously is not.

Eight: Stay focused on the subject of the forum. Don't talk about cars on a beer forum, for instance, unless the car is full of beer.

Nine: When flaming, be quick and to the point. And follow all the pertinent suggestions from above. Use facts as your weapons. Use references as your shield. You can get personal, but its not advisable. Lying (like 'My brother-in-law the microbiologist sez...') is reserved for acts of absolute desperation - only use it when you know your opponent is on the ropes and your point is believable/valid enough to 'make it work'. (Integrity should prevent this, right?)

Ten: Don't take yourself too seriously. Don't 'take it in the face' when someone's opinion differs from yours. Many times, the differences turn out to be in semantics only. Incomplete disclosure can also cause differences. Besides: there's more than one way to do anything. Acknowledge and learn from the difference, then move on.

Eleven: (I never could really count.) When responding, always try and repeat enough of the original article to make it recognizable. This goes hand-in-hand with the 'long-dead thread' issue.

This year, I began compiling HBD's and uploading them to America Online's Beer and Brewing forum to create another archive site. Very shortly thereafter, Long Dead Threads came back to life. People were responding (late) as they read; but only in terse prose such as 'Yeah, I do that, too' or 'I only use glass'. The problem, I think is obvious.

Frame it as a question:

>John Doe asked about having his intelligence removed via his left nostril...

Well, John, I had half removed through EACH and can tell you it's better from the right...

Or use the Snip-And-Quote method:

John asks:

>I am far too intelligent, at least <snip> Should I have it removed through the right or >from the left nostril?

Well, John, I had half removed through EACH and can tell you it's better from the right...

Twelve: Don't help them flame you. Use proper grammar. Spell words correctly. Avoid the profane. The purpose of a flame is to assert one's credibility over another, for the most part. Appearing uneducated only helps their case.

Well, that's it for this month. Next month, we'll look in 'The Mailman's Bag'!

New Positions.

Pat Babcock has stepped up to the plate to become our Business Manager, and Mike Preston will become the Assistant Editor for the Ye Olde Brew News. Gosh I love volunteers!

Who's on First?

In Canada Guinness is brewed by Labatt. Australia's Castlemaine XXXX is brewed in Tennessee by Coors at the Killians plant. Killians is also brewed in France and the Netherlands by different companies, and nobody brews Killians in Ireland. Stroh owns 37% of Sleeman and Sleeman brews Stroh and Schlitz in Canada. Molsen brews Coors in Canada and Asahi brews Coors in Japan and Scottish and Newcastle brew Coors in Britain. Coors imports Steinlager and Anheuser Busch imports Carlsberg /Kronenbourg.

Molson imports Heineken and Corona, Labatt imports Dos Equis, Tecate, Carte Blanca and Rolling Rock to Canada. Miller owns 20% of Molsen and brews Molsen's Red Dog through Miller's Plank Road Brewery. Labatt brews Budweiser for Canada. Labatt licensed its' Ice Brewing technology to Coors. Molsen is owned by Miller, Fosters and Molson. Molson makes Fosters for Canada and Fosters imports Canadian brewed Molson to Australia. Courage of London brews Budweiser and imports its' Watneys through Molson. Japans Asahi owns 17% of Fosters. Molson makes Asahi in Canada to sell in the U.S., Molson does not distribute Asahi in Canada but it does distribute Kirin. Asahi makes Coors in Japan. Anheuser Busch makes Kirin Ice in Los Angeles but only sells it in Japan.

Phew, is it any wonder we all became the great homebrewers we are today?

(This article originally appeared in the Libations newsletter of the Kalamazoo Libation Organization of Brewers, compiled by Tom Fuller, with all info coming from All About Beer.

June's Meeting

June's meeting is Tuesday June 27th at 6:30 P.M., but the Pico brewing will begin promptly at 4:00 and hopefully be done by 8-8:30.

To get to Neals home go South on Southfield Freeway until it turns into Southfield Rd. Stay in the right lane and right after the Railroad overpass you will be turning right on Roosevelt. Go straight through the first major intersection and Roosevelt turns into Allen Rd. Turn right on Champaign (second stoplight, 2 lights very close). Take Champaign across the railroad tracks to the first stop sign and turn right on Winona. 8114 Winona is the 3rd house on the left. Call Neal at 382-1166 for more info.

The Wort made that night will be raffled off with funds raised going towards the Pig Roast. We can chip in on a pizza or brats/burgers.

BRING LAWN CHAIRS!

Due to a gross oversight on my part the FERA bulletin Board is incorrect, I correctly reported that last month was Scottish Ales (no entries anyways) and this months competition is light summer beers, but the FERA bulletin board had different styles, please accept my apologies (sheesh, I'm only one guy!)

However, just to re-iterate:

July: Weiss (AHA)

August: Porter

Sep: Octoberfest/AHA

Oct.: Fruit Beers

Nov.: Brown Ale/AHA

Dec.: Barley Wines

Holiday Beers

Recipes

This recipe was pulled from the HBD>

Rick's Wicked Summer Ale (Wheat ale w/ lemon)

4 lbs. American 2-row pale malt

3 lbs American 6-row pale malt

3 lbs wheat malt

1/2 cup crystal malt (40L)

1 oz cascade pellets 6.3%

1/2 ounce Tettneng pellets -flavor-(4.5%AAU)

Grated lemon peel from 2 lemons (do not use the bitter white pith)

Juice from 2 lemons

Wyeast 1056 500ml starter

Step-mash: Add 2.25 gal of 129degF water to crushed grains and stabilize to 122-124degF for 30 min. Add 1.25 gallons of 199degF

water to bring temp to 149degC; hold there for 90 min. Mash out,

sparge, etc.

Bring wort to a boil and add Cascade hops. After 30 min., add 1/2 ounce Tettnang hops, lemon peel, and lemon juice. Boil for another 30 min. Or so until volume is about 6 gallons. Chill wort, put into fermenter, let trub settle out for a few hours, transfer clear wort to a sanitized

glass carboy, and pitch yeast.

OG= 1.052 (for a lighter beer, bring volume to six gallons)

When bottling, add 3/4 cup corn sugar and juice and zest from 2 lemons.

(Apologies to the author, I lost his name.)

This is a Pete's Wicked Summer Ale clone recipe, I highly recommend Pete's!

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© 1995, 1996 by Pat Babcock

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Last updated 11/14/96