The next meeting will be held back at Sisko's in Taylor on Tuesday, October 26th. Sisko's is located on Monroe (between Telegraph and Southfield), just south of Vanborn. Their address is 5855 Monroe and their phone number is 313-278-5340. Sisko's also has a website at http://www.siskos.com/. The competition for this month is Strong Ales. As usual, the thirsty hard-core who want dinner will start arriving around 5PM, people will drift in for an hour or so, and we will start our meeting around 6PM.

Another year is just about gone. It came with pub crawls (Thanks, Tyler! Oh: and congrats!), it came with Big Brews (Thanks, Crispy!), it came with a meeting at the Fire Academy (Thanks, Rich!) and Dragonmead (Thanks, Gabi!). It came with a wonderful Septoberfest Brew-B-Que (Thanks, Jim and your committees!) which I had to miss (Thanks a lot, stupid virus!). It came with a new e-mail discussion system (Thanks, HBD!), some new faces -big ones and tiny little ones - into the fold. It came with involvement of the membeership, our sense of community, and our comaraderie. I cannot possibly thank all who have served the membership of the Order this year. Every one in the club has contributed in some way or another. Thank you all! This year in particular has demonstrated that the FORD club is not just a group of people huddling together under a common interest. No! We're that and much, much more. We are a community; a family. I thank all who have worked to makke this year's meetings and events a success!

Next year, the 2000 membership year, promises to hold many interesting activities and new challenges for the Order. As the hobby apparently shrinks against the availability and economy of well made, interesting and flavorful beers, it is those of us who hold the hobby as a diversion and a challenge - we who love to brew - who are chartered with supporting the industry to ensure the availability of that which allows us to brew. Also, the 2000 AHA National Homebrewers Conference is to be held in Michigan! For those who have not been able to attend one in the past, this one is local! Anyone who wishes toget involved with the planning and execution of the event are welcome to send the word "subscribe" in an e-mail note to michigan-request@hbd.org to get in on the MIY2K planning conversation.

With that, it is time once again to think about elections for club officers. Holding a FORD office is as big or small a burden as you wish it to be - there are many great members in the organization who help out in organizing events and perticipating in the meetings. Please consider serving as an officer for a year. Elections will be held in November with results announced at the December meeting. We'll take nominations for office at the October meeting. Anyone interested in running can nominate themselves, and those nominated who are not present at the meeting will be notified so that they can accept of decline the nomination prior to elections. If anyone not running for office (like me, for instance :-) would like to volunteer to serve as the Elections Official this year, please contact me immediately!

The club offices are described below:

• President - The President is the chief executive officer and chief administrative officer of the club. The president establishes the meeting sites and presides as chairperson during the meetings. The president has authority to execute contracts based upon Executive Board approval, and co-sign drafts against the treasury. The president also has authority to appoint committees within the club (equipment, business managers; committee chairs, etc). The president represents the club at at least two of the monthly (except summer months) FERA General Council meetings. FERA provides a free meal to entice attendance, and a formal Christmas party in December as a reward. Becaue of IRS rules, the president of FERA clubs must be an active, full-time Ford Motor Company employee.
• Vice President - The most important role of the VP position is to perform the duties of the president in case of absence. The VP isa voting and active member of the executive committee. The VP also schedules and organizes the club's homebrew contests, including maintenance the prize inventory and organizing the judges. The VP also leads the coordination of the annual picnic (Beer-B-Que).
• Secretary - The Secretary is responsible for taking minutes at executive and regular meetings and transcribing them for the newsletter; copying and distributing hard-copies of the newsletter to those without web access or e-mail (via intercompany mail and US mail). Unless other arrangements are made, the Secretary also serves as the Newsletter Editor and Webmaster for the club. These duties can be delegated to volunteers who agree to take the position for the election year.
• Treasurer - The Treasurer collects dues from members, deposits monies into the savings account, dispense monies for various expenses (postage, club-owned equipment, raffle items, meeting tab shortages). The Treasurer is responsible to keep a balance of savings account and ensure the account is up to date. As with the President, the Treasurer must be a full time Ford employee.
• Librarian - The Librarian maintains the club library and keeps a record of where the various journals and books are. The Librarian, in concert with the Treasurer, raises funds trough the 50-50 and "item" raffles to purchase new titles (the library has been funded through raffles rather than dues). The Librarian also brings the library to club meetings to ensure members have regular access to it. Finally, the Librarian, with the Webmaster, ensures the Library Catalog on the club website is kept current with the items in the library and their status. The Librarian may also, at their option, make the library available to members between meetings.

Well, what can I say... this years Beer-B-Q was one of the best! Kathy Loftus, Doug Geiss, Tyler & Connie Barber, Mike Arend, Jim Racine, Chris Frey, Gabrielle Palmer and myself met at Jim Racine's house in August to plan the event. Jim and Marie Racine made us dinner and we worked out all the details for the Beer-B-Q. The weather was perfect, no heatwaves or rainstorms, it was just right! Once again this was a freebie to club members, but unfortunately many people RSVP'd that didn't show up and we overbought and over spent on food and such.

The food this year was top notch! Tyler Barber went to Dearborn Sausage and bought several different types of brautwursts and sausages to go along with our Octoberfest theme. Rich Byrnes brought a whole mess of soft pretzels and different mustards to sample as well. Doug Geiss manned the grill while several other people helped out as well.

Thanks to all who donated for the raffle and thanks to Sue Merritt for actually running the raffle. Thanks to Jim Racine for organizing the whole event, booking Janni Anni the clown to entertain the kids for an hour or so. Thanks to all who brought kegs of beer to share and stocked our bar, Jim Racine even brought a half barrel of Greektown Red (more details to follow on Jim's new business venture). Gabi made another outstanding rootbeer this year that was a hit with everyone. The food that everyone brought was outstanding, from Marla's famous Jambayala to Pat Babcock's Hummus (too bad Pat was sick and couldn't be there to see it disappear). Pat was kind enough to forward his recipe after so many people asked him for it (recipe to follow).

Anyways, I hope I didn't forget anyone, it's not intentional, trust me. Thanks to all who participated this year and we look forward to your ideas for next year!

Ingredients:

4-15oz cans	chick pees (aka garbonzo beans), drained
1 c	Tahini (Sesame paste or butter)
3 t	Cumin SEED
2/3c	lemon juice
4 cloves	garlic
1 t	salt
1/2 T	buttery salt (Yoder's buttery popcorn salt is best)
2 T	sesame seeds
var	water
var	Fresh ground pepper melange to taste
var	Paprika (Spanish or Hungarian)
2 bags	pita bread, plain or wheat; "not flavored"
1 c	Olive oil

(var indicates variable quantities. The recipe will provide a starting point)

Equipment:

• Pastry Brush
• Food Processor
• Spatula
• Oven
• Large cookie sheet
• 2 small loaf pans
• Garlic press
• Mortar and pestle or other means for crushing spices (if you don't have one, get one. There's nothing like freshly crushed spices, and no better way to do it. I bought a new one a couple o' months ago at Lechters. Best ones are stone - this one is marble. They don't like boiling hot water - a spill killed my old one :-( They're anywhere from $6 to $60. I typically shoot for the ~$12 to $15 range for the kitchen. Most suitable...)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

PREWORK:

Spread the sesame seeds out in the bottom of a loaf pan. Spread the cumin seeds out in the bottom of another loaf pan. Place in preheated oven at 350°F. Toast until the sesame is golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside. Crush cumin with mortar and pestle to a powder.

Garlic oil:
Crush 2 cloves garlic into oil. Add buttery salt. Mix well. Mixture will tend to settle out as it sits, but the garlic flavor will also suffuse it as it sits. Let it sit as long as you can! Simply mix it up with the pastry brush before dabbing the bread.

Chips:
Quarter the pita loaves, cut each quarter into three pieces (twelve per loaf). Separate twelfths into their halves (front to back). Spread out on sheet with crust-side down, in rows like so: \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\. Using the pastry brush, stir the oil mixture. Dab oil mixture sparingly onto each pita wedge. Bake at 350°F until crispy.

Hummus:
Put peas, lemon juice, 1/4c water and remaining oil mixture into food processor. Pulse until well mixed. Add tahini, 2 cloves crushed garlic, cumin, salt and pepper. Run processor on continuous until smooth; stopping to turn with spatula as necessary. Add additional water until the hummus is of a good consistency - like thick oatmeal.

Spread into a suitable serving dish, and sprinkle with toasted sesame and paprika.

Alternately, you can mix seeds into hummus after food processing. Using it as a garnish is "false teeth" friendlier, though. Sesame oil can be added to the hummus to enhance the sesame flavor, but I find this to be a bit too much.

Michigan breweries took 5 medals (2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze) at the 1999 Great American Beer Festival held earlier this month. Winners included:

• Local Color Brewing Company of Novi, MI won a gold medal in the German-Style Pilsener category for their Smooth Talker Pilsner.
• Atwater Block Brewery of Detroit, MI won 2 medals, including a gold medal in the European-Style Dark/Münchner Dunkel category for their Atwater Dunkel and a silver medal in the German-Style Märzen/Oktoberfest category for their Atwater Blocktoberfest.
• Bob's House of Brews of Grand Rapids, MI took a silver medal in the European-Style Pilsener category for their Das Dort.
• Kalamazoo Brewing Company of Kalamazoo, MI won a bronze medal in the Other Strong Ales or Lagers category for their yummy Bell's Expedition Stout.

For a complete list of winners, check out http://www.beertown.org/GABF/99gabf/99winners.htm

As a few of you may know, I inadvertently introduced Scott Day (proprietor of Brew & Grow) to his new bride, Lisa. They were married last month and enjoyed a long honeymoon in Europe, encompassing several countries, and finished up at the Oktoberfest celebration in Munich. When they returned home, Scott went back to work and found his shop and warehouse, how shall we say, somewhat less than acceptable. I volunteered to help him clean up the warehouse on a Sunday, and while we were straighting things up, he generously offered me some surplus grains.

Now, these grains have been in the warehouse for upwards of six months (no big deal), and some of them had mice get into the sacks and enjoy a snack. Ugh, I know what you are thinking, what about the mice feces?!? Crispy, I ain't drinking no rat-sh*t beer that you brewed! Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew! These sacks of grains contained pre-measured bags of specialty grains. Any that have holes in them (indicating mice with good taste) have been discarded and only those that are intact are coming to the October meeting. That's right, even I can't handle the volume of specialty grains here. They include:

Belgian Biscut American Crystal 20°L American Crystal 60°L Belgian Roasted Barley British Roasted Barley British Black Malt

Special B Belgian Cara Pils British Cara Malt Pilsen Malt British Cara Pils Light Crystal Malt

These grains come from Pauls, DWC, and Briess. To be fair, I would like to restrict everyone to 5 pounds of grains (your choice until supplies run out, mix and match to your hearts desire!) until everyone gets what they want. E-mail me at my work address (cfrey@ford.com) and let me know what you would like! It's free! And thank Scott the next time you see him (and congratulate him on his beautiful new bride!).

World beer production in 1998 increased 1.6% from a year earlier to about 133 million kiloliters, up for the 14th consecutive year. The biggest five producing countries are the United States (up .05%), China (up 5.3%), Germany (down 2.7%), Brazil (down 0.3%) and Japan (up 0.5%). Russia, eighth in output, showed the biggest growth rate of 24.6% thanks to increases in consumption among women and young people. Increases in areas such as China, Taiwan and Japan reflect growth of U.S. domestic brands such as Budweiser (perhaps the world's largest contract brewer) and international brands like Heineken that are brewed under contract license by beer manufacturers in those countries.

A study conducted in Finland indicated that drinking a beer a day reduced the risk of kidney stone formation in men by 40%. The trial of 30,000 male smokers was conducted with beer, wine, distilled spirits, milk, coffee and tea. Beer was the only drink that significantly reduced the risk of kidney stones. The hops in beer may be the reason. Hops may inhibit the release of calcium from bone. Kidney stones are primarily calcium.

Beer Events, Meetings & Competitions Gabrielle Palmer

• October 26 (T) - FORD Meeting at Sisko's in Taylor, "Winter Warmer" Competition (AHA), Category #10 a & b.
• November 17 (W) - FORD Meeting at Sisko's in Taylor, Stout Competition, Category #11 a, b, c, d & e.
• December 14 (T) - FORD Meeting at Sisko's in Taylor, Spiced Holiday Ale/Barleywine Competition, All Style Categories.