In this issue:

Last Meeting Next Meeting The Prez Sez... Crispy's Year In Review Beer Judge Wannabes Sandy Bruce Retires! Competition Results - Porter

Logo Updated Help Wanted Spanish Recreate a Bronze Age Beer Rumor Mill - Hacker Pschorr Out of Business? Breweriana For Beginners & Beyond Beer Events, Meetings & Competitions Fermental Funny

The FORD club meet last November 18th at Sisko's for it's monthly meeting. A better than usual turnout brought some new faces, familiar faces and some thought to be lost faces. Once enough momentum was gathered (beer was sampled) the meeting was started by the multitalented, ambidextrous, as well as almost former President, Rich Byrnes.

We had a customer of Sisko's volunteer to be President, but once we indicated that the primary duty of the prez was to pick up the tab, he whisked out of there quicker than JFK left Dallas. Instead, our own Patrick Babcock, accompanied by his charming and delightful wife, Kim, indicated his willingness to carry out the office of President. Jim Racine stood up to be vice-president, Mike Arend will be the librarian, Rich Byrnes will take on the responsibilities of secretary, yours truly will take the money, and Sue Merritt has agreed to continue as the club mooch. And we anticipate that others will contribute their time to make this club the good thing that it is. Gabrielle Palmer who has taken the newsletter into the 90's by HTMLizing it, Tyler Barber who protects our club assets, Jim Bazzy seeking qualified beer events and speakers, and everyone else who contributes their time, energy, money, and beer to this fun thing we call the Fermental Order.

Jim Rice caught us up with ribbons for the various competitions over the last few months and invited anyone with an interest in learning about a style of brew to join him next month for the judging. While Christmas is just around the corner, this is an important competition for a couple of reasons. First off, the categories are Pale Ale/Barleywine/Holiday Ale. Pale Ale has to be included now because the AHA "Hail to Ale" competition entries are due in early January. Secondly, this is a category that usually garners multiple entries, so the more help judging, the easier it is getting through them. Third, how much Barleywine can YOU drink before your buds get full?

The rest of the meeting degenerated into the usual drunken brawl that follows lengthy announcements, pronouncements and denouncements. Over half the club slipped out the bathroom window, stiffing Rich with the tab. The management is asking that we return the urinal that once graced the men's room wall. Whoever thought of rigging the beer tap so that it flowed out the stuffed moose's nose should have checked to see if there was something up it's snout, what a mess! ( ;-) Just checking to see if anyone actually reads this column!).

The next meeting will again be held at Sisko's in Taylor on Tuesday, December 15th. 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 Holiday Ales and Barleywines. We will also be accepting entries for the "Hail to the Ales" competition. As usual, the thirsty hard-core who want dinner will start arriving around five, people will drift in for an hour or so, and by 6:00ish, we will start our meeting.

Rich Byrnes

Well, I said last month was my last notes from the prez... I lied, so impeach me. I can't tell you how proud I am of this club, a pet project that began 5 years ago. This may be old news for some of you, but I'm guessing many of you may have no idea how the club was started.

Back in the summer of '93 Mike Preston and myself were both members of the Detroit Carboys, a great homebrewing club on the East side, we had a lot of fun in the carboys, it was a small club (less than a dozen members) and we met at members homes every month. Mike and I realized that there was no club to serve the Detroit/Dearborn area and we set down to creating this club.

Our biggest stumbling block was a meeting location, but Mark Tenbrink talked to the owners of Traffic Jam & Snug, Michigans first brewpub and we had our first meeting in August of '93. About 18 people showed up and almost all of them paid dues that night, and I believe all but 2 of those are still members. We stayed at Traffic Jams for a couple years until we outgrew it and found a home in Dearborn... Chelsea's.

Our club had quickly grown from about 25 people in our first year to over 100 in 3 years. Our club was quickly recognized for it's quality of members and asked to be the club to work the Rivertown Beer fest, until they needed 100 volunteers and we asked other clubs for help. Our club has always had excellent rapport with the homebrewing retailers, we have done at least 2 or 3 demos a year for the retailers, showing how beer is made for the public (one year we did 3 different locations in one day).

Several people are responsible for the club's success. I credit every person who has volunteered for an officer position, especially Sandy Bruce who was our treasurer for 4 years, Neal Petty (president for 2 years), Chris Frey, Ted Geftos, Johanne Wilson, Mike Preston, Doug Geiss, Tom Herron, Tim Tepatti, Tony Treusch, Jim Racine, Mike Arend, Pat Babcock, and David Peters. This club has grown, we are more than the sum of the members, we are a community. It's true that as a club we only see each other once a month, but several new friendships have formed and people brew together, several husbands and wives are members together, I love seeing that kind of support and friendship over a hobby like this. We are a community of young kids with eager eyes, soaking up the advice of the grizzled elders of the club, sitting on the porch telling tales of what it was like brewing when they were kids, sharing a few secrets and recipes as they spin their tales. We are a family, all helping each other when needed, offering our help for the funky brews, and congratulations on the award winning ones.

My point is this (you knew there was eventually a point, right?) I look out at the club as I turn the reins over to Pat Babcock with full confidence in both his goals and ideals as the president (and friend) and in you as a club that we will continue to grow and prosper. Thank you for all your support for the last 2 years while I was president, and over the lifetime of the club as we all grew up together. Welcome to all the new members and new brewers to our family, hang on tight and enjoy the ride, I know I have!

What follows is not meant to be a comprehensive, definitive, or even accurate account of what the club did last year. Rather, it is the best synaptic-neuron transmission that my mind can recollect. Where did the time go?

January: Well, actually on New Years Eve eve (can I say that?), more commonly refered to as December 30th, Little Brew 1 was held at my humble Saline abode. Several club members quaffed prodigious quantities of homebrew while making even more. The club meeting was still being held at Chelsea's and HB 4850 had just passed, legalizing our hobby in our fair state. Finally, Gabi brings the newsletter into the 21st century by HTML-izing it!

February: Zoe Geftos is born, Local Colors opens in Novi. Short month, n'est ce pas?

March: We find out that the Rivertown Beer Festival is canceled. Club purchases a malt mill.

April: We learn that Tyler Barber took 1st place in the National AHA Club-only Stout-Bout!

May: Christian Peters is born. Aldo Mastro from Paulaner Beer distributors brings multiple cases of German beer to share and evaluate. National Homebrew Day (May 2) and the FORD club represents 3 sites (#51 - Merchants, Dearborn, #59; Wine Barrel Plus, Livonia; #61, Neal Petty's home). Club purchases tent.

June: Club meets at Bier Garten. Little Brew 98 held at Crispy's - 69 gallons produced.

July: Club meets at Doug Geiss's home and burns it to the ground (but we spared the tomato garden). Kenneth Babcock is born, as is his future drinking partner, Camryn Preston. Club purchases a jockey box.

August: Club begins to meet at new hangout - Sisko's; kitty-corner from Chelsea's. Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Festival beer tasting at Greenmead is big success. Club enjoys 4th annual Beer-B-Que.

September: Spent most of the month in jail, no one visited. I have no idea what happened in September.

October: Members of both AABG and FORD bail me out. Hold joint meeting at my home to pay them back. House trashed; moved into garden shed, but glad to have my freedom. Merchants in Dearborn discontinue homebrew section.

November: Jeez, I can remember November like it was just last mon..., oh yeah. See ya in December so I can finish this off!

Bill Pfeiffer tells me there are so few applicants for the February 1999 exam that (1) it may be canceled and (2) there will be a year or two to wait before the BJCP will hold another exam in our area (presumably to build up the number of applicants).

IF YOU ARE AT ALL considering the BJCP exam, please think about joining the February class, or you might find yourself wanting to take the exam with none available! If you don't do as well the first time through as you would have liked, you can always retake at a future date at a lower fee. Most who are ill prepared (like me), but have been brewing for any amount of time score high enough to be certified (as I did). I'll make the revised BJCP study guide available on the FORD home pages (the old one is still there, and is still pretty durned good) for anyone who has now been spurred to take the exam. Contact Bill Pfeiffer (email: meadmaker@livingonline.com) for particulars.

I noted via a message in my OfficeVision mail that Sandy Bruce has opted to retire at the end of this year. For those of you who don't know her, Sandy was our first treasurer and did a hell of a job! Even now she continues to push the FERA fund raising items in order to raise funds for FORD and keep us in good standing with FERA.

Please join me in wishing Sandy the best of luck! I'll miss seeing her in the halls of VOGO, as I'm sure others will! I hope retirement won't remove Sandy and Lynn from our roster as they'd be sorely missed!

November's contest was the Porter competition. This was a contest of the AHA major category "Porter" (9) including "Brown Porter" (9a) and "Robust Porter" (9b). And the winners are:

A big toast to all of the judges (Chris Frey, Tony Tantillo and Jim Rice) and a special thanks to Jim Rice for hosting the event.

This month's competition will be Holiday Ales and Barley Wines. We will also accept entries for the "Hail to the Ales" competition at that time. The judging will be held on Monday, December 21st at the home of Jim Racine. If you would like to help judge, please give Jim a call at 313-277-5516.

The original F.O.R.D. logo was designed by Rich Byrnes about 5 years ago. Pat Babcock had the idea of stretching out the tails of the banner on the bottom of the logo to add the "Est. 1993" verbage. Gary Shewchuk took on the task of cleaning up the text and adding the new verbage. Great job Gary!

SPECIAL EVENTS COORDINATOR:
Michigan's premeir homebrew club seeks a volunteer for the position of special events coordinator. This person would take on the task of coordinating the brew demos, and any other special club events we do throughout the year. Please contact Rich Byrnes (PROFS: rbyrnes2, Email: rbyrnes2@ford.com, Phone Numbers Removed) or Pat Babcock (PROFS: pbabcock, Email: pbabcock@ford.com, Phone Numbers Removed) if interested. Jim Bazzy has held the position for a few years but time constraints have got the best of him).

ASSISTANT BREWER WANTED:
Alcatraz Brewing Co. is looking for an Assistant Brewer. This is a 3 day a week, part time position. You must be available for day shifts, have an interest in beer and brewing, and be 21 or over. Experience is not necessary, but ideal candidates will have home-brewing or beer judging experience and be able to lift 55 lbs. Having some college level math and/or science and interest in brewing as a career is a plus. Full time work may be available to the right candidate. Apply in person or send resume to:

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Archeologists who scraped residue from the bottom of a broken clay jar have cooked up Bronze Age beer. In a feat reminiscent of Jurassic Park dinosaur-breeding, University of Barcelona researchers say they have recreated a batch of Europe's oldest beer. The result may not be for everyone -- thickish, on the dark side and a bit flat. Plus it has particles floating in it, and packs a 16-proof punch.

The 3,100-year-old recipe was pieced together through microscopic examination of scrapings from the bottom of a red clay jar found at an archeological dig known as Geno, in Spain's northeast Catalonia region.

Jose Luis Maya, a history professor, said Friday that he and other researchers turned to brewers at a nearby San Miguel beer plant for help in cooking up a fresh batch of old beer. And they insisted on brewing it by hand, like in the Bronze Age. "We did not use any of the technology at the factory," he said in an interview from Barcelona.

Maya said tests done on the Geno residue showed the brewers used barley and a kind of wheat called emmer. "They also added herbs as preservatives," Maya said. "That's the problem with beer. If you don't add preservatives, it goes bad quickly."

In its day, the Geno site was a settlement of about 100 people who abandoned it after a fire. For centuries it lay undiscovered, until soldiers digging a machine-gun nest in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 stumbled across it. The site has been under continuous study since 1976.

Maya said the Geno beer residue is the oldest ever discovered in Europe. But he noted that remains of sorghum beer made 9,000 years ago have been found in Sudan and that beer was widely popular among the ancient Egyptians.

Maya said his team's beer filled 400 bottles, which were unveiled Thursday at a tasting for university officials and the media.

The reviews were generally positive. Some of the tasters even said the beer should be produced commercially, but Maya ruled this out. "We just made it for fun," he said.

Munich, Germany - The rumor this week? That German brewer Hacker Pschorr is out of business. I contacted Therese Riegel of Paulaner North America -- the American importer of Hacker Pschorr beers -- and asked her for the low-down. Here's what she told me.

"The brand is NOT going out of business in any way, shape or form. The original brewery is located in a very prime real estate area of Munich. The Schorguber Group bought the brewery, and has moved Hacker Pschorr's production to the Paulaner Brewery, which is located in a larger area and can handle the added production," said Therese.

"The Schorguber Group, has begun using the original Hacker Pschorr brewery building for its offices, but Hacker Pschorr will be brewed with the same recipes by the same brewers as always. It's just the building and brewing location that has changed."

Be sure to visit http://www.paulaner.com/

The Breweriana hobby has enjoyed renewed interest with the growth of the Craft Brewing industry. From the close of World War II until 1983, the number of Breweries in the US steadily declined as small, local brewers could no longer efficiently compete with the larger regional and national brewers.

In 1983, an American brewing renaissance started in California and steadily spread from coast to coast. As the number of Microbreweries and BrewPubs increased, so did the number of collectors of Breweriana. Just for starters, here is a list of US Breweriana Collectors Groups.

• American Breweriana Association (ABA), P.O. Box 11157, Pueblo, CO 81001-0157
  website: http://www.a-b-a.com/
• Beer Can Collectors of American (BCCA), 747 Merus Ct., Fenton, MO 63026-2092
  website: http://www.bcca.com/
• East Coast Breweriana Association (ECBA), c/o John Stanley, 3712 Sunningdale Way, Durham, NC 27707-5684
• Microbes (ECBA/NABA Micro Chapter), c/o Chris & Roger Levesque, P.O. Box 826, South Windsor, CT 06074
• National Association of Breweriana Advertising (NABA), c/o Robert E. Jeager, 2343 Met-To-Wee Lane, Wauwatosa, WI 53226

EDITOR'S NOTE: Pat Wheeler has been collecting US Beer Labels for about 15 years, and has just over 11,500 different labels in his collection. In 1993 he retired from the US Navy after 22 years, and is now the Webmeister for the American Breweriana Association website, maintaining both the Association's Beer Label Exchange and their extensive label collection.

Beer Events, Meetings & Competitions Gabrielle Palmer

• December 10 - Seasonal Beers Tasting at Arbor Brewing Co., 7-9pm, $20. Call 734-213-1393 for details.
• December 11 - Eccentric Day at Kalamazoo Brewing Co. Call 616-382-2332 for details.
• December 15 (T) - FORD Meeting, Spiced Holiday Ale/Barleywine Competition, All Style Categories. Entries also accepted for the "Hail to the Ales" Competition, Categories #5 a & b and #6 a, b & c.
• December 20 - Brewers Reserve Dinner at Grizzly Peak Brewing Co. Beer dinner featuring kegs of special brews from '97 & '98 that have been put aside and aged for this dinner.
• December 21 - Christmas Seasonal Beer Style Appreciation Night at Rochester Mills Beer Co. with Rex Halfpenny, 7-8pm, $7.
• January 27 (W) - FORD Meeting, Specialty & Experimental Beers Competition (AHA), Category #23 a & b.
• February 23 (T) - FORD Meeting, Belgian Ales Competition (AHA), Category #2 a, b, c, d, e, f & g.
• March 24 (W) - FORD Meeting, English Bitters Competition, Category #7 a, b & c.
• April 27 (T) - FORD Meeting, Bock Competition (AHA), Category #12 a, b, c & d.
• May 26 (W) - FORD Meeting, Wheat Beers Competition, Categories #19 a, b, c & d; #6 c; and #2 g.
• June 22 (T) - FORD Meeting, Label Competition and Mead Competition (AHA), All Mead Categories.
• July 28 (W) - FORD Meeting, Lawnmower Beer Competition, All light-bodied beers will be accepted.
• August 24 (T) - FORD Meeting, Porter Competition (AHA), Category #9 a & b.
• September 22 (W) - FORD Meeting, Oktoberfest Competition, Category #17 a & b.
• October 26 (T) - FORD Meeting, Strong Ale Competition (AHA), Category #10 a & b.
• November 17 (W) - FORD Meeting, Stout Competition, Category #11 a, b, c, d & e.
• December 14 (T) - FORD Meeting, Spiced Holiday Ale/Barleywine Competition, All Style Categories.

Fermental Funny

Ye Olde Brew News published by the F.O.R.D. Homebrew Club

Editor: Gabrielle Palmer Contributors: Pat Babcock Rich Byrnes Chris Frey Gabrielle Palmer Club Officers: Rich Byrnes, President Tony Treusch, Vice President David Peters, Treasurer Chris Frey, Secretary Gabrielle Palmer, Newsletter Editor/Webmaster Sue Merritt, Photographer/Historian/Beer Mooch Johanne Wilson, Librarian Jim Bazzy, Special Events Coordinator Tyler Barber, Equipment Manager Doug Geiss, Business Manager

F.O.R.D. is a private, non-profit organization of homebrewers. The main goal of this club is to promote awareness and appreciation of the quality and variety of beer; to share information regarding technique, equipment and skill required to brew quality homemade beer; and to encourage responsible use of beer as an alcohol-containing beverage. Correspondence should be directed to: Chris P. Frey 275 S. Ann Arbor St. Saline, MI 48176 Work: 313-337-1642 Home: 734-944-6618 (w) chris.frey-ford@e-mail.com (h) Crispy275@aol.com Visit our website at: http://www.be.ford.com/brewers/ or external to Ford at: http://hbd.org/ford/ current circulation... 125