October 1993 Vol. 1 No 2

OK, I admit the name is not a pretty one, but I haven't come up with a good name for the newsletter yet, and I sure am open to suggestions, please!!! For those of you who missed the last meeting, we now have an official name, almost. After a lengthy voting session in which Beerz 'n the Hood almost won (thanks to the bartender at TJ's for that suggestion) we came up with the Fermental Order of R.......? Draughtsman. (Get it, FORD, ha ha) Since it was a complete group drink tank, I mean think tank effort, we opened the bottle of Chimay and split it amongst all members who were there. As you can plainly see however, we never did decide what to do for the letter R. I will throw put some suggestions here, and urge you to come up with your own for the meeting. The list includes, but is not limited to the following: royal, regal, roasted, randy, rowdy, raunchy, raucous, renaissance, reckless, ragged, racy, random. I urge you to think about this one, because once we decide on the name, I'm sending it into Zymurgy and declaring us an official recognized club. In other words, Octobers meeting will be brought to you by the letter R, and the number 12, as in ounce ()

Now, this paragraph is not a pretty one, but one that must be addressed. Since initially putting up posters for this club, Mike and I have had no fewer than 60 people contact us to say that they were (are) interested in joining the club, I thing that's great, I welcome a large club, and will learn as time goes on how to handle a club that size. However, we have only had about 15 people show up at either of the two previous meetings. I understand if you can't make it to a meeting here or there, it happens, however, I don't know if you just missed the first couple of meetings, or you just aren't interested anymore. I asked in last months newsletter that people who weren't interested in the club to let me know, and I would take their name off the mailing list, only 1 person contacted me to say "please take me off, I can't ever meet on Wednesdays". People, please try to understand the work that goes into distributing 60 newsletters, I just cant keep up with it just for the sake of distributing newsletters, I'm not a publishing house. If you can't make it to this meeting, please call me at 32-32613, or 558-9844, or fax me at 39-04520 or profs me at RBYRNES2 (please do not profs anything to RBYRNES, that's my dad) or mailbox me at PO box 1587j NAAO, or call Mike preston at 83320 (no answering machine) or profs him at MPRESTON. What I'm trying to say is that this is the third and final newsletter I will be sending out to people that haven't been to any of the meetings or contacted us. The only exceptions are the 2 people currently on launch who will be contacting me when they get back in town (Right guys??). I don't want to appear insensitive, but we have to know who is interested in this club, and who isn't, thanks for understanding.

Now for another fun subject, Dues Are DUE!! This is the month we will start enforcing dues collection. I am serious about this, believe it or not. Dues are set at $25 a year and if you will bear with me, I will now demonstrate how this can be actually a profitable investment. As a club member you get the chance to network with many other brewers who are more than willing to help out with any brewing problems you may have, you will get a club t-shirt once we have an official logo but here's the clincher, the profitable part I promised you. Brew and Grow Has generously offered each member a one time 15% discount, and a 10% discount thereafter (just raised from 5%) so look at it like this, you join the Fermantals for $25, then you run out to Brew & Grow and blow $50 on equipment and ingredients and instantly save $7.50, you then proceed to brew a batch a month, averaging $20 in ingredients (if you use liquid yeast & fresh hops which you should anyway) and save another $2 a month for a total of $24 plus $7.50=$31.50, your return on investment is almost 25%, what a deal. Wine Barrel Plus also wants to extend a discount as well as Merchants warehouse (maybe, I'm working on it). Alternative Beverage is also extending a 5% discount on mail order merchandise to club members, but they're waiting for me to send in a list. Folks, plain and simple, you pay your dues, I submit your name to Brew & Grow, but not until then, and Scott & Bonnie are waiting for that list. There are operating costs associated with any club, and the time for dues is now, I have a dream...oops, wrong speech. OK, I'm off my soapbox now, but I hope I got my point across. Please see our treasurer, Mike Preston at the meeting to pay dues, and we will get your name to Brew & Grow ASAP, remember, Christmas is coming up fast and since you've all been good this year, you all deserve a kegging system with optional counter pressure bottle filler, or that grain roller you've been eyeballing, or that draft system through your 'frig door or a couple of 25 LB bags of extract or, or, or...........

Last Meeting

Septembers meeting was a fun one. For the first time, we all met with Rich Vincent, the owner or Traffic Jam & Snugs, and Ben Edwards, the Brewmaster. We got a tour of the facilities and a sample of a special batch Ben was working on. Rich & Ben also chronicled the long arduous task of opening up the Brewpub portion of TJ's. We hope to see Rich & Ben at every meeting if they can spare the time, remember, they're there all day long as it is. Ben was gracious enough to evaluate and critique the several homebrews that many members brought with them and we can hope that Ben & Richard will continue to offer this service to us. I sympathize with those members that live too far away to make going home an option, and had beer sitting in their car all day long, but winter is fast approaching and those samples will refrigerate naturally in the trunk. Many members did bring homebrews with them and I had a chance to taste some excellent beers that night, I only wish I could remember them all, but it was a long time ago. I really enjoyed meeting the members there and was glad to see a lot of conversation going on across the tables.

The next meeting is Wed, October 27th at 6:00 at Traffic Jam & Snug. Same time/Same place as always (see map for directions if you haven't been there yet)

Competition News:

Next month is the first ever Fermentals competition, this will be a porter competition, either robust or brown. The guidelines for a brown porter are O.G. 1.040-1.050, IBU's of 20-30, and alcohol level of 4.5% to 6.0% by volume. The guidelines for a robust porter are O.G. 1.044-1.060, IBU's of 25-40, and alcohol level of 5/0-6.5% by volume. The winner of the contest will have their beer entered in the AHA club only competition in December where it will compete with porters from across the nation, but only one from each club. The club will pick up the entry fees and shipping costs for this competition for the winner.

The December competition for the Fermentals will be a holiday spiced beer. There are no guidelines for the style of beer to be used as a base, but I can recommend that you use a light style beer so that the spice flavors will really show through. I have never tasted a holiday spiced stout in other words, but if someone wants to make it, I would love to try some. The suggested spices to use in a holiday beer are any or all of the following: Ginger (use fresh, it's much better), cinnamon stick, nutmeg, clove and orange peel. This is not a definitive list by any means, just the most commonly used ones.

Alternative beverage( one of the larger mail order houses) is sponsoring a national competition called the National Club Brew Off to be held on Nov. 12/13. Entries are due by Nov. 1st and I will have entry forms at the meeting for those who might be interested. All 33 categories and all the subcategories are eligible to be entered. You need to send a $5.oo entry for each beer you enter, and you must send 3 bottles of each beer you want entered. The unique thing about this competition is after all the judging is done, the top 6 scoring beers for each club are added up, and the top 3 scoring clubs will receive recognition. I highly urge everyone that has a beer ready to enter this competition. If you get anything out of it, it will be a judges scoring sheet evaluating your beer, it's nice to have that kind of qualified feedback.

Miscellaneous Stuff

For those of you that like Miller beer, there is a new product just on the market called Icehouse beer by Plank Road Brewery which is owned and operated by Miller Brewing Co. This is a new entry into the Ice beer category, coming in at a whopping 5.5% alcohol by Volume. I just saw it at warehouse club for $13 a case, Warehouse club also carries Molsen Ice Beer for about 12.50 a case, not bad prices all things considered. I haven't had a chance to sample Icehouse, but Mike Preston was actually able to track some down in Lansing last month, when Miller was using Lansing as a test market. .

You may have noticed that I have included the map and questionnaire once again, please file this map away for future use, because this is the last time I will be sending it out in every ones newsletter, from this point on, I will only give it out to new members, If you have already filled out a questionnaire, please disregard this one, it may look a little different, but trust me, it's the same questionnaire

If anyone has or knows of a used refrigerator far sale please let me know, mine took a deathly dump. I need a top freezer model only, side by side is no good, call me.

New Products:

Brew & Grow just got their shipment of domestic hops in (40 pounds worth) and expect their imported hops in a couple of weeks. Fresh hops sell for $2.20 per 2oz bag, and $4.00 per 4oz bag. Scott also expects delivery of the new brewpot system from the Save a Barrel Company by next week. This is a 1/2 barrel system like that used in the Pico system, but this has a better screen on the bottom, 2 thermometer ports, and a nickel plated ball valve drain, the retail price is $295, yes indeed, $295, but wait that's not all, you also get the amazing matching stainless steel lid, now how much would you pay. This handy brewpot also makes mead, ciders, barley wines and much much more. (sorry folks, no ginsu grain mills included)

Merchants warehouse has yet to acquire a dedicated freezer, but more beer has been moved out to make room for hops and yeast. How about mentioning to the owner each time you visit, "Gee, a full size freezer just for hops & yeast sure would be nice!!", there, maybe that will help. Merchants now carries Northwest Extract syrup in a box, each 3.3 LB box sells for only $6.39, what a deal. They also just got a shipment in of 6 Gal. carboys and are selling them for $16.95, again, what a deal. New from the yeast culture kit co. is the Level 3 culturing kit (see page 4 in the current zymurgy) for $49.99 and the yeast bank kit with one each of the following strains for $35, Tony may decide to break up some kits and sell these separately if enough people ask for them, but for right now, they are sold in a kit only. Actually, I was just told today that any of the following strains can be ordered separately and will be in a couple of days.

A01 California Barley wine, cream ale, IPA, porter, stout, brown ale

A04 Bavaria Dusseldorf Altbier, Kolsch

A06 Oregon porter, stout, imperial stout

A08 Dorchester barley wine (high residual sweetness)

A13 Dublin porter, stout, imperial stout

A15 England brown ale, cream ale, english bitters and milds, IPA

A16 Belgium trappist ales (Abbeys, doubles, triples)

A17 London(Young's) brown ales, cream ales, English bitters, Scottish bitters

A34 Edinburgh barley wines, scotch ale, strong ale, scottish bitters

A35 Belgium Belgian white beer

A36 Belgium Belgian ale

A37 Bavaria Dusseldorf Altbier, Kolsch

L09 Bavaria all German Lagers

L17 Pilsen, Czech. American lagers, Bohemian pilsner, German pilsner

M01 Bavaria American wheat, German weizen, dunkelweizen, weizenbock

M06 Montreal barley wine (champagne)

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Last updated 11/14/96