December 1993 The Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsman Vol. 1 No. 4

Happy Holidays gang! I hope that you have all recovered from turkey day and are gearing up for Christmas. I figure by the time you receive this, we will be down to 14 shopping days left, yikes, I know I have a long ways to go yet, but I love working under pressure. Our last meeting was another good meeting with a really good turnout. We saw a few new faces including Dave West, the inventor of the Pico brewing system, and a long time member of the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild. Dave West and Neal Petty gave a pretty nice report on the Taste of the Great Lakes festival (at which one of Neals' beers placed for an award) Both Neal and Dave are also official AHA beer judges, and gave us a good idea of the preparation and testing that goes along with that process. It sounded really interesting and I think maybe a little later in the year we may try to organize a study session for anyone interested in becoming a certified judge. Actually, AHA Brewers publications just came out with a book called evaluating beer, which should be an excellent study guide. This book will be available at all the big homebrew supply shops. Lynn and Sandy Bruce mentioned that they were ready to start their first batch, they had gone to Brew & Grow to buy all their equipment and had been reading up on brewing and were ready to go. I'm sure we all look forward to hearing about their first batch, maybe even tasting some of their first batch. Most of the rest of you had brought samples of recent brews which were excellent. Dave West had brought some 3 year old Belgian ale which was quite good, and some raspberry beer that was a bright pink color, and quite tasty as well. Ben Edwards was there in the beginning before the meeting started and gave a little tour of the brewery section to a small handful of people that were there early. Ben had a long day however, and couldn't stay for the meeting, Richard mentioned possibly stopping in but their was a play or sporting event that night, and the restaurant part got quite busy.

Competition News:

Well, our first ever Fermentals competition was a success, 6 people brought in porters for the competition. Dave and Neal headed up the judging, with 2 other people sitting in learning the judging process as they actually judged. When all was said and done, one porter came out a unanimously in first place, mine I'm proud to say. It was an extract brew from the winners circle book. The recipe was close to the Melt in your mouth creamy porter recipe in the book. The beer I was trying to emulate was Labatt's Velvet Creamy Porter, the beer that made me fall in love with Dark beers in the first place. One of the members profs'd me with a suggestion for including recipes in the newsletter. I will start to include recipes with each newsletter including both contest winning recipes, and any recipes that other members wish to share with the rest of the club. Recipes can include food recipes as well as beer recipes, as long as they have beer as in ingredient, or are a food that goes well with beer (how's that for including all foods known to man, except maybe pez candies)

This month's competition will be Christmas or Holiday spiced beer, again, there is no real style guidelines for this beer, just a festive tasting brew. One thing we will do differently at this meeting is to do the competition at the beginning of the meeting, when everyones' taste buds are fresh.

January's competition will be another AHA club only competition, this means we will have a competition at our January meeting, and the winner will get to send his or her beer into the national competition. The name of the competition is Hail to the Ale, I don't have the specifics as I sit and write this newsletter, but I promise to by the meeting. I'm guessing it will be a pale ale competition, but I can't be certain.

I have included the AHA calendar in the back of this newsletter so I won't repeat all the competitions here.

RECIPES:

The winning porter recipe is as follows

BLACK LUNG PORTER:

6.6 Lbs. Northwestern Dark Extract 4 oz. Chocolate Malt

2 lbs Crystal malt (60 l) 4 oz. Black Patent Malt

1 oz Chinook (60 mins) 1/2 oz. Hallertauer (20 mins)

1/2 oz. Hallertauer (5 mins) 1 tsp. Irish Moss

1 Pk. Wyeast 1056

Crack grains and steep at 155 for 30 mins, remove from heat, dump liquid and grains into colander above brewpot, sparge the grains thoroughly with hot water. I used a carboy for the primary with a blowoff tube, and a carboy for the secondary as well. My OG was 1.048, and terminal gravity was 1.013. The beer was kegged and force carbonated, so no priming sugar was used.

WASSAIL:

This is a recipe from the book Great Cooking With Beer by Jack Ericson

"Waes hale," (loosely translated, "all hale to you") or wassail, goes back at least to Medieval times when farmers would pour ale on to the roots of their orchards' trees at Christmas to thank the gods for the fall harvest and as a toast to next year's crop.

6 crab or sour apples 8 Tbs. brown sugar

3 pints British ale (or 2 pints ale, 1 pint stout or porter)

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger 6 whole cloves

1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 lemon, sliced thin

1 1/2 cups dry sherry

Roast apples in oven at 350 for 30 mins. Place ale, sugar, spices, and sherry into pot and heat on stove for 15 minutes, but don't boil. Take apples out of oven, cool, slice, and place in bottom of serving bowl. Dust with spices and add lemon slices. Pour hot ale mixture into punch bowl and sprinkle more spices on top. Serve hot in punch glasses.

Here's a suggestion for all that left over porter from last month (if you have any) This recipe is also from the great cooking with beer book.

Classic Beer Cheese Dip

1 Lb. shredded sharp cheddar cheese at room temperature (temperature important!)

3 cloves garlic, mashed

1 TBS Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. dry mustard

2-3 dashes tobasco sauce, or to taste.

1 cup beer (porter or dark ale)

1/2 tsp. salt

combine cheese, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and tobasco sauce in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add beer, a little at a time until the mixture is of spreading consistency. Taste for salt and adjust if necessary. Pack into an airtight container and chill thoroughly. Serve at room temperature

.

Beer-Cheese Dip for Vegetables

2 C. Shredded cheddar cheese at room temperature

2 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

1/4 tsp. dry mustard

1 clove garlic, mashed

2-4 dashes tobasco sauce, or to taste

1/8 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

dash paprika

1/2 C. beer (light lager)

Combine cheese, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and tobasco sauce in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add beer, a little at a time until the mixture is smooth. Taste for salt and adjust if necessary. Pack into an airtight container and chill thoroughly.

Garnish with fresh paprika and serve with raw vegetables

I hope you enjoy these recipes over the holiday season, and if you have any of your own you'd like to share, please get a copy to me and I will be sure to put it in and credit you for the recipe.

The Ye Olde Brew News is the official newsletter of the Fermental Order Of Renaissance Draughtsman. The club meets once a month on the 4th Wednesday at Traffic Jam & Snugs, in Detroit (4268 2nd street, Ph. 831-9470) Dues are set at $25 a year and membership is open to everyone who wants to be a part of our merry gang.

The President /Secretary is Rich Byrnes, Rbyrnes2 (profs id)

The Vice-President/Treasurer is Mike Preston Mpreston (profs id)

UPCOMING EVENTS:

I just got the lowdown on the eccentric day party, it's still on the 17th, but there will be no cover charge. The bar will be open for business as usual and will be serving all their beers on tap as well as their eccentric ale, the eccentric ale will probably go for $5 a bottle, and there's an outside chance they will sell it to go. Their will be no food served, just bar munchies so eating beforehand is highly recommended, also, bringing your own food in is illegal. I would personally recommend picking up a tubby's sub and leaving it in your car for a snack in the evening. I was told again that they open at noon and by 4:00 the place is packed. The phone number if any one wants more info is 616-382-2338(main) or 616-382-2332 for the tap room. I myself will probably go up on Saturday to the brewery for a tour and tasting.

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Last updated 11/14/96