Our last meeting was Wednesday, May 27th at Chelsea's, our home away from home one day of the month. There were about three dozen anxious members of the F.O.R.D. Club. Anxious to have the officers of the club dispense with "business" and get on to the main event!

Rich briefed everyone about the upcoming Michigan Brewers Guild Festival call for homebrewing volunteers. They need 180 servers, and they want to cull through the homebrewing clubs for eager volunteers to staff the finest Michigan beer taps to the paying participants of this event. And you probably guessed where I am going with this next. If you pull a shift, entrance fees are waived, you get a cool "I've been here, done that" type of tee-shirt, a sampling glass and time to try out the various brewers. The date of this event is July 25th. Contact Rich Byrnes to register. See article further on for more details.

Rich then requested a vote from the gathered forum as to what the club's appetite was for the oft-mentioned, but not yet purchased "Jockey Box". The option of a 4-tap, 2-tap or no box was proffered and the majority elected the 2-tap system. Perhaps Rich will have it in the clubs possession by the next meeting... stay tuned.

Tony was unable to join us, so I picked up the bottles and delivered them to him on a day he was feeling better. I mentioned the upcoming Michigan State Fair. We started to enter a few more last year, so save 2-3 of your best bottles and mark your calendars. See related story further on.

Finally, it was the moment everyone was waiting for, Crispy and Rich to shut up, for crying out loud, and Aldo Mastero's turn to shine. As many of the club remember, Aldo is the Mid-west Distributor for Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Fullers and other great brews. We had a great Christmas demonstration of several lines of beer that Aldo distributes and this evening we were in for a treat. He brought four cases of nine beers representing both the Hacker-Pschorr and Paulaner lines. These German beers ranged from cloy dunkel-weizens and clean Pilsners to Munich lagers and Oktoberfests, delicious bocks and double bocks (Salvator rules!) and a variety of other quality beers.

Aldo warms up to people who like beer and like to talk about beer. He shared with us the lore regarding a certain Brother Barnabus who asked the good father so many centuries ago that if he could only eat bread and drink water during the Lenten season, wasn't beer essentially the same then? The good father not only agreed with this logic, but also decreed that it most be strong. The club will be raffling off a tent-sized Brother Barnabus tee-shirt, donated by Aldo, at the next 50-50 club drawing.

Along with the tales of the two breweries, Aldo regaled us with in-depth information on each beer, along with great anecdotes, and a great quote, "It may just be marketing bullshit, but it really is a great story and should be true!". Several people filled out their evaluation sheets and Aldo really appreciates this feedback. One of the last things we talked about that evening was that he would like to get with us to do the English line again this coming September or October. Ow, twist my arm Aldo. Stay tuned!

And then the typical club back-stabbing and bad-mouthing ensued for the rest of the evening.

Our Tuesday, June 23rd meeting will be at a NEW location for us, the BierGarten in Dearborn. The BierGarten is located at 22184 Michigan Ave in Dearborn, almost right next to Buddy's pizza right in the heart of downtown Dearborn. The phone number is 313-561-7711 for more info. When I was there for lunch a week ago, the only beer they had on tap was Guiness (darn) but the beer cooler had 47 different beers including many Sam Adams, Bells (2 Hearted Ale!), imports and Atwater as well. The food was very reasonably priced and quite excellent too. I had a Rueben sandwich and a Patty melt on different occasions and both were outstanding. The meeting will start at 6PM or pretty darn close to it.

On Saturday, June 14th, I had a "Little Brew '98" at my home. The night before tornado warnings preceded the 50+ mile an hour winds, but by Saturday morning, the skies had cleared. I had borrowed the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild's (AABG) pico-brewing system, our club's system, my system, and Mike O'Brien of Pico-Brewing Systems brought one of his pico-brewing systems. With all 12 half-barrels lined up in my back porch, it made for an impressive sight. Steve, Gabrielle, Johanne and Jerry, Doug and Kathy and myself started with a hearty breakfast and then went to task.

We brewed Oktoberfest, Scots Brown Ale, Nearly Nevada Pale Ale and Wheat beer to boot. Throw in a "trash" beer made with the second running of some of the batches and some liquid extract, fresh Styrian Golding hops and we ended up brewing a collective 69 gallons by 5:00. Over 100 lbs. of spent grain were flung to the corners of my lawn and a few hundred gallons of cooling water found it's way over to my neighbor's back yard.

Several members of the AABG stopped in to check on progress and share a homebrew. Even the Saline Reporter's photographer caught us in action. Definitely a good time. Joanne - as a postscript, that yeast from Copper Canyon literally was in a riotous ferment that night and was oozing all over the place in the morning - sweet.

Last month's contest was Alt/Kölsch (not for AHA competition). This includes style categories 18a (German-style Kölsch/Köln-style Kölsch) and 18b (Düsseldorf-style Altbier). The winners are:

This month's competition is "Wiess is Nice", an AHA 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.

Also, this month is the Label Contest! Bring your finest beer label artwork for our panel of judges to peruse. The labels should not be attached to bottles. The label on the left is one designed by Gary Shewchuk. Gary's label recently won the "Everybody's A Comedian..." award in Brew Your Own magazine's 1998 Gonzo Label Contest. Check it out in the June edition of BYO magazine. Congrats Gary!

July's competition is "Lawnmower Beers". This is an open competition with the emphasis on light, refreshing beers. Yes, even your Bud Light knock-off could be entered.

August's competition is "Best of Fest", an AHA competition. This is a contest of the AHA major category "Vienna/Marzen/Oktoberfest" (17) including "Vienna" (17a) and "Marzen/Oktoberfest" (17b).

The Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Festival will be held at Greenmead in Livonia Michigan, July 25, 1998. The Festival will showcase the beer and food of all Michigan Brewers Guild members. The Michigan Brewers Guild is a non-profit trade member organization dedicated to the promotion of Michigan brewed beer and consumer education. Greenmead, a turn of the century period 92 acre farm, is a National Historic Landmark.

Festival attendees will be able to visit period buildings, interact with volunteers dressed in period attire performing period tasks. A special beer tent will feature Michigan micro brewed beer, food, breweriana, beer related exhibits and demonstrations. The event is co-sponsored by the Livonia Historical Commission, Merchant's Fine Wine, Orbit Magazine, Michigan Beer Guide and JV Northwest. Public welcome, hours are 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. Tickets are $25.00 and are available at any Michigan Brewers Guild establishment, any Merchants Fine Wine location or by mail from Rex Halfpenny, Executive Director, PO Box 648, Leonard, MI 48367. This first annual event is a fund raiser for the Michigan Brewers Guild and is expected to be a sell out.

Greetings Homebrewers! Volunteers are needed for the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Festival. We are hoping to staff the beer tent with Michigan homebrewers. Preliminary plans call for 24 pouring stations broken into 6 sections of four stations. Each section will require 10 volunteers (a team leader, a runner, and 8 pourers) to work each shift. We have decided to split the day (six hours) into three shifts instead of two to allow volunteers more time to enjoy the tasting and to make the shifts more ejoyable too. First shift will be expected to help with set-up 11 - 12 and then work a pouring station from 12 - 2. Second shift will work a pouring station from 2 - 4 and will be expected to help with tear down (6 - 7). Third shift will be expected to work a pouring station from 4 - 6 and help with tear down (6 - 7).

Volunteers will be provided with a festival staff t-shirt and a tasting card and are invited to attend the V.I.P. tasting from 12-1 as well as the general admission tasting when they are not working.

The Greenmead grounds provide a perfect outing (outside the beer tent) for the whole family so volunteers should feel free to bring spouses and children.

Two men were adrift in a life boat following a dramatic escape from a burning freight vessel. While rummaging through the boat's provisions, one of the men stumbled across an old lamp. Secretly hoping that a Genie would appear, he rubbed the lamp vigorously. To the amazement of the castaways, one did come forth. This particular Genie, however, stated that he could only deliver one wish, not the standard three.

Without giving much thought to the matter the man blurted out, "Make the entire ocean into beer!" Immediately the Genie clapped his hands with a deafening crash, and the entire sea turned into the finest brew ever sampled by mortals. Simultaneously, the Genie vanished to his freedom. Only the gentle lapping of beer on the hull of their craft broke the stillness as the two men considered their circumstances.

The other man looked disgustedly at the one whose wish had been granted. After a long, tension-filled moment, he spoke: "Nice going! Now we're going to have to pee in the boat."