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October 1993 The Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsman Vol. 1, No 3

Well gang, right off the bat I need to apologize again for getting your newsletter to you kind of late, but this time I had 1 week less to get it out. This will also be kind of a short one, seeing as how time is limited, and I'm going to make it up to you in a Gala Christmas issue. Last months meeting was by far the best ever. Turnout was great, we actually had close to 20 people there. Ben and Richard were not able to attend, but I hope they can make it to the November meeting to help judge the Porters. There were quite a few members that brought along samples of there latest brews and from what I can remember they were all delicious. Wayne Burns from the Detroit Carboys (my "other" club) happened to be at TJ's to talk to Ben & Richard and sat in on the meeting, many of you got to talk to Wayne, he is a really good guy and quite a proficient brewer. We finalized our name which was the high point of the evening, after looking at many words which start with the letter "R", we finally chose renaissance. I really like the sound of the club name, The Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsman, it conjures up an image of a large bearded man (Michael Jackson?) hunched over a large wooden vat, brewing up a special batch of ale for the King, I know it sounds goofy, but considering the history of beer making, probably not too far-fetched. Now that we are officially named, the next thing is a logo, these can take months to finalize, but I urge all of you to think about one, even if you can't draw, just sketch one out, and we'll find someone that can draw, no big deal. If anyone has any "other" suggestions for the name of the newsletter other than "Ye Olde Brew News", please let me know, you gotta admit though, it sure beats "Generic Newsletter". If anyone has any suggestions for the newsletter, articles you would like to see, questions you want answered, new features, comic strips (is anyone a cartoonist?) or whatever, please let me know, call me or profs me or see me at the meeting, I really want this to be something that you all want. For that matter, if anyone has any suggestions for anything club related, please let me or Mike know, this is important for all members to get involved in their club. I'm glad you all enjoyed the CO2 forced racking demonstration, it really is a good technique, quite safe and the benefits are well worth the small cash outlay for the racking tube and hose fittings. I had hoped to do a counter pressure bottle filling demo this month, but I haven't had enough time to play around with the filler to feel comfortable doing a demo, I will for next month, promise. Well, as I promised, this newsletter would be short so I can get it out on time. This months newsletter is NOVEMBER 17, the 3rd Wed, not the 4th. Also, next months meeting will be the 3rd Wed on account of the holidays. Don't forget the Porter competition this month, and the holiday spiced beer next month. Thanks again to those members who paid dues last month, and I hope to see some more this month, remember, Christmas is fast approaching and those discount would come in handy. Well, that's all the time I have to put this together, hope to see all of you at the meeting, Cheers!!

NEW PRODUCTS:

Due to a misunderstanding in last months newsletter, all references to prices and sale items will be deleted from this segment. This column is not designed to be free advertising for any supplier, merely an informative segment to let club members know what new and exciting products have hit the shelves of the big homebrew supply shops. I provide this information strictly as a service to club members, not as a service to the retail shops mentioned. Should there continue to be problems, I will next eliminate all references to a particular store and just cover the products themselves, and let each interested member call around to see who has each product mentioned. However, for the time being, I like to give credit to a store that is the first in the area to carry a particular item. I will also put in this column news about homebrew supply shops that are not sale related (i.e. tastings, expansions, etc...)

Merchants Warehouse:

Tim & Tony don't report any new items this month, but their cooler finally came in. They now have a 4 shelf single door cooler dedicated for fresh hops, so we will look for their supply to beef up in the near future. They also have half of another cooler for liquid yeast and hop pellets. The next Merchants tasting will be the 2nd week in January, possibly the 17th or 18th. this will be a walk around tasting, with all sorts of chips/salsas/pasta dishes/meats & cheeses and around 200 different beers. The estimated price is $30 and they will have more info as January approaches. Merchants is looking into a club discount card in the future, bar-coded just like the video stores to identify which clubs are using the discount(not available yet).

Brew & Grow:

Those of you that missed the October meeting missed the announcement that Brew & Grow has upped their club member discount to 10%. Brew & Grow now carries Hop Tech hops (as reviewed in the Fall Zymurgy), they have added a 3rd freezer to hold all these new hops. Also new from Hop Tech are beer fruit flavorings, these were developed exclusively for the beer industry only, they are available in the following flavors: peach, pear, cherry, raspberry & blueberry. B & G now carries dry gummed label making paper, an upside down carboy cap from Brew Co, an 8 gallon ceramic over steel stock pot, "BEER" the magazine, and clover honey in 1 LB, 5 LB, and 12 LB containers from Kallas of Wisconsin.

Wine Barrel Plus:

New at Wine Barrel are the following products: JSP Maltmill, Hanna Instruments digital PH meter, Penn refrigerator thermostat (goes down to 20) for lagering, peel & stick fermenting thermometers, 1 qt bottles of BEST iodophor, the upside down brewcap, gummed label paper (4 colors), mead spices, woodruff spice by the 1/2 oz (Mike Preston & I can verify what that can do to a beer, YUM!!), Mountmetlick Irish malt extracts (4 varieties), Polnischer Lublin polish hops, and believe it or not, Red Star dry yeast is back after a 12-18 month leave of absence for severe quality control problems, they have apparently worked out all the bugs in quality. Wine Barrel also carries Great Cooking With Beer, by Jack Ericson, Sake by Fred Ekhardt, and the brewing techniques magazine. The owner of Wine Barrel has now also extended a 10% discount to all club members.

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Last updated 11/14/96