July 1997 Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsmen Vol. 5 No. 7

Last Month's Meeting

Chris Frey

Our last meeting was at Levagood Park on June 24th in Dearborn. Held outside during the hottest day of the summer (who could know), we did the only thing that made much sense - drank plenty of fluids and stayed in the shade. Thanks go to Jim Bazzy for putting this location together!

Unfortunatly, several things did not happen at the meeting. We did not have an unvieling of the clubs newest toy (come to the next meeting and see it for sure!). And Tom Majorosi from Atwater brewery who was scheduled to be a guest speaker was unable to attend the meeting.

However, we did hold the Kolsh competition and discussed many of the events that are listed herein this newsletter. The next several weeks find us invited, participating or performing demos throughout our area, so make sure to check your calendars and try to attend as many of these events as possible.


Next Meeting

JULY 1997 MEETING AT DOUG GEISS' HOUSE-Wednesday, July 23rd, approx. 5 PM

I guess that says it all. Here are directions:

DIRECTIONS TO DOUG'S HOUSE

NOTE : BRING LAWN CHAIRS, and any food you want (including steaks/chicken).

Doug has a grill, but any fast food restaurant imaginable is on Telegraph. See ya there!


Michigan State Fair Homebrew Competition

Jim Bazzy

Recipe and bottle forms, required for entry, can be obtained by contacting the Competition Director, Spencer Thomas, 1418 Golden Ave, Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 (313)-994-0072.

This is an AHA sanctioned competition and is recognized by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP).

Any Michigan made, non-commercial, home produced beer is eligible. Mead and Cider may not be entered. You may enter as many beers as you like, but you are limited to one entry per AHA sub-style category (ie., one dry irish stout, one sweet stout). Each entry will consist of 2 (two) bottles of at least 10 ounces (preferably 12 ounces). Brown glass is preferred. Attach a bottle form to each bottle with a rubber band. Use no glue or tape! Bottles should have no labels or other identifying marks. Black out caps with a permanent marker where required. A completed, detailed recipe must accompany each entry. Recipe and bottle forms may be duplicated.

Entry fee is $12.00 for up to ten entries. Your Social Security number MUST be included on the entry form. Checks must be payable to the State of Michigan. If you are entering only the homebrew competition, then you may send the State Fair Community Arts entry form, and check along with your beer.You should send one state fair entry form listing all the beers you are entering. For each beer, you should include one copy of the recipe form, and two bottle forms. Entries, including check and paperwork, may be dropped off or shipped to the following location:

Stephen Klump

11159 Tremont Ln.

Plymouth, Mi 48170

between Friday, July 25 and Friday, August 8, 5:00pm, 1997.

The first round of judging will take place in August prior to the Fair. Best of Show judging and Awards presentation will take place during the State Fair on Saturday, August 23, at 4:00pm in the community Arts Exhibit Hall contest area. The AHA 50-point rating scale will be used, with 25 points required for award eligibility. The Best of Show winner will receive a free entry into the AHA National Homebrew Competition and a Gold Engraved Carboy. Entries winning first place will be on display during the 1997 Michigan State Fair. Judging results will be mailed to all entrants after the Fair.

N0. AHA Style # Class

5100 5,7 English Pale Ale / Bitter

5101 6,24 American Ale / Common Beer

5102 4,8 Brown Ale / Scottish Ale

5103 18,19 German Style Wheat

5104 9 Porter

5105 11 Stout

5106 10,1 Strong Ale / Barley Wine

5107 2,3 Belgian Ale / Lambic

5108 14,15,16 Light Lager

5109 17,13 Amber / Dark Lager

5110 12 Bock

5111 21 Fruit Beer

5112 20,22,23 Specialty Beer

AHA Styles are listed in the Winter 1996 issue of Zymurgy.

Questions regarding entries, styles and class should be directed to the Director or Registrar. For info call: Spencer Thomas, Competition Director, (313)-994-0072; Stephen Klump11159 Tremont Ln., Plymouth, Mi., 48170, (313)-207-7570; Hal Buttermore, Competition Judge Director, (313)-665-1236. Both Tyler and Jim Bazzy can bring your beers to Hal if you do not want to send your in the mail or drive out to Plymouth. I can bring your brews to Plymouth if you would like. Entry forms are also available at Brew & Grow, so let's make sure that the F.O.R.D. club gets some participation this year!


Public Homebrew Demonstration


Part Deux

Chris Frey

As I mentioned in the previous newsletter, we are having another public homebrew demonstration at Merchant's Fine Wine in Dearborn. Club members are invited to participate on Saturday, August 2nd.


People who would like to participate need to contact me either at work (313-337-1642) or home (313-397-7001). Club members will receive a 20% discount for homebrew supplies purchased that day. Doug Geiss has volunteered to work with me on a pico brew; I need one more volunteer. Also, we have one extract brewer and have room for one more. So contact me if you would like to participate, otherwise come by and support us and enjoy your additional discount for the day!



Meet your Brewing Brothers

Rich Byrnes

Attention all fun seeking Fermentals...Our brewin Brothers in Pontiac, The Pontiac Tribe, have invited us to a joint social meeting at King's Brewery. A tour is planned and discounted pints of beer ($2 - cheap!) are scheduled. The tribesmen are planning on bringing homebrew and mead to share with us, we should do likewise (but only bring the good stuff! :-)

The date for this event is Thursday, July 31st @ 6:00pm.

This is a purely optional summer event (aren't they all? - ed.), but please plan on attending if possible. These are a good bunch of guys, several of which will be working with us at the Rivertown Festival. Directions from the Dearborn area to Pontiac via Telegraph are as follows:

Take Telegraph north till it ends (landmark - the Dixieland Flea Market). Be in the right hand turn lane and make a right on to Oakland Blvd.. Take Oakland down about one mile and on the right hand side you will see a green building with the King's logo on the front (they have no sign that hangs out in the road).





1997 Family Beer-B-Que


Rich Byrnes

This years event will be at Hemlock Park in Dearborn with a covered pavilion, private restrooms, and a playground close by. The day will feature eating, drinking, singing, merriment, entertainment, kids and adult games, prizes, a spectacular raffle, beer, July 26th.

The format is identical to past years...The club provides the main course (ham, roast beast, and turkey drumsticks) and the individual members will provide the salads, veggies, appetizers, side dishes and desserts (and beer).

Tickets are $5 a piece (kids under 12 free) and are available through Doug Lecureaux (810-757-6329-H / 313-323-8385-W) now. Tickets will be available at the door on the day of the event, but advance tickets are preferred since the money is needed upfront to purchase the food.

If you are definitely NOT coming this year, please let me know and I will take you off the list of contacts. If you are coming, please RSVP with a count of how many adults and children, and names (for name tags) and a dish. Also, if you plan on bringing a keg (last year we had almost a dozen) please let me know now or soon, and if it's coke or pepsi.


Beer - it's not just for breakfast anymore!


F.O.R.D. BREW NEWS



published by the F.O.R.D.homebrew club


Editor

Chris Frey

Contributing Writers

Chris Frey

Rich Byrnes

Jim Bazzy

Al Czajkowski

Club Officers

Rich Byrnes, President

Johanne Wilson, Vice-Pres.

Sandy Bruce, Treasurer

Ted Geftos, Librarian

Chris Frey, Secretary

Jim Bazzy, Event Coordinator

Tyler Barber, Equipment Manager

Doug Geiss, Business Manager


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.




Correspondence should be directed to:

Chris P. Frey

42686 Woodbridge Road

Canton, Mi. 48188

Work 313-337-1642

Home 313-397-7001

(w) chris.frey-ford@e-mail.com

(h) crispy@worldnet.att.com


Visit our website at: http://oeonline.com /~pbabcock/ford.html



current circulation.....137, and growing!



Homebrew Merchant Review


Crispy

This month I put the spotlight on Wine Barrel Plus, located on 30303 Plymouth Rd., in Livonia,

Michigan (313)-522-9463.

I meet with Mark and J.R. George, brothers and proprietors of this establishment. I also spoke with Gary Thompson, who works in their homebrew section. Both Mark and George have extensive backgrounds in homebrewing. Gary has been six years this October and Mark brewed his first batch over fifteen years ago.

The Wine Barrel moved to it's current location five years ago, but they were selling home-made wine supplies since 1978 and picked up homebrew supplies for beer in 1981. His brother told him he was crazy, that this was too small a niche to focus on, but Mark proceeded. He was also an avid homebrewer himself and it wasn't uncommon for him to finish up his retail hours at the store only to get home and brew until 2 or 3 in the morning.

When asked to tell the F.O.R.D. members what makes them unique they indicated that they are the largest independent retailer in Michigan. They are proud of their large selection of malts, hops, yeasts and brew tools and books. At one point they carried over 200 types of DME, but now carry around 100 varieties. This helps ensure that no one variety stays on the shelf too long. In yeasts alone they carry Wyeast, Yeast Lab, Edme, Whitbread and several others.

They also carry a large selection of wine making equipment and kits start from $55 and go up to $162.

They also indicate that if they don't carry an item that you want that they are willing to find it or find you something that comes awfully close. They carry bulk liquid extract and also have kegging supplies and equipment. They work with multiple suppliers, such as Kent Carlson, Northwest, Alexanders, ect. They plan to have a Web Page in the next month or two as well. One final note; they are open seven days a week, so if you forgot those 4 ounces of Black Patent and you wanted to brew on Sunday...


Help Wanted

Webmaster for the F.O.R.D. homepages. Must be a Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsmen member. Must be familiar with HTML, HTML editors, MSWord Internet Assistant, telnet and ftp. Must have own external internet account and/or firewall clearance in order to also maintain our external mirror site. Interested parties should contact Rich Byrnes (rbyrnes2).


Competition

Last month's competition was Kolsch, a brew rarely found in these here states. We had several entries, so the envelope please...

1st place - Tyler Barber

2nd place- Neal Petty

3rd place - Tyler Barber

Special thanks go to Neal for providing us an authentic example of the style. Rumor has it that he had it mailed to him from a friend in Germany. Yummy and it helped us nail the style a bit better. By the way, Neal, you look great in leaderhosen.

The competition for this month is Extract Extravaganza. This is an anything goes competition with only one rule, 75% of all the malt used in a recipe must come from extract.


Reasons for allowing drinking at work


Al Czajkowski

While most companies refrain from allowing consumption of beer on the premises, there are some arguments for changing that policy.

Reasons for allowing drinking beer at work include:

1. It's an incentive to show up.

2. It reduces stress.

3. It leads to more honest communications.

4. It reduces complaints about low pay.

5. It cuts down on time off because you can work

with a hangover.

6. Employees tell management what they think not what it wants to hear.

7. It helps save on heating costs in the winter.

8. It encourages carpooling.

9. Increases job satisfaction, because if you have a bad job, you don't care.

10. It eliminates vacations because people would rather come to work.

11. It makes fellow employees look better.

12. It makes the cafeteria food taste better.

13. Bosses are more likely to hand out raises if they are wasted.

14. Salary negotiations are a lot more profitable.

15. Suddenly, farting during a meeting isn't so embarrassing.

16. No one will remember your strip act at the Christmas Party.

Beer Stuff

If you read this far you probably have a hunger to read all things beer related. Well, this month's Orbit (July, 1997), a free monthly newspaper, is featuring it's seventh annual beer issue. Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rivertown Beer Festival is in there, including a program that describes every beer that will be available at the festival.

Another article discusses all the microbreweries in the area. Several other articles on beer round things out quite well. I found my copy at Borders Books (in the back, near the bathroom), and I believe it is also found at Merchants.

Finally, to fill out the page, Marc, Tony and I will be at the National AHA meeting this week. I will be taking in the entire measure, nothing but beer and speakers for four days! Kind of like a beer summer camp. I will report on what it is all about and if it was worth the time and money ( got to be; imagine 900 pissed off souls who had been drinking for four days, it's ugly!).








Chris P. Frey

42686 Woodbridge Rd.

Canton, Mi. 48188