February 1998

[Greenblood]

Minutes of the January 8th Meeting

Seminar: Barry Fitzgerald gave an interesting and informative talk on beer labels. He said that when he suggested the topic, he thought it would be fairly straight forward and simple, but when he started researching-mostly via the Internet-he discovered that there was much more depth to the topic than he thought. Barry covered the early beer labels, which were not labels at all, but basic information embossed in the glass, as well as the advent of paper labels that included more information, as well as a distinctive design, such as the red Bass triangle, which allows for easy identification of the beer. He also discussed label design and the different origins of label art ideas.
It was a well-done presentation.
Thanks Barry!

On-line version of Barry's Seminar

Some links to Beer Label sites:
Beer at Kat'z Saloon-Reviews of various beers accompanied by the label. Also links to web cams worldwide.
Collection of label scans from Kirt's Beer Page

Next Month's Seminar: a mashing round-robin discussion featuring Robb Hensleigh, Dwight Burnham, and Rob Johnson beginning at 7:30.

The business meeting started about 8:25. To be honest I forgot to look at the clock. Hey, I'm new at this secretary stuff and was just filling in because our new secretary was not in attendance, and the rest of the group told me that the VP's job was to fill in wherever needed. Hmmpf. I don't recall that as being part of the job description. I only took the job because I thought I wouldn't have to do anything. Anyway, onward.

Clean Up Crew: The clean-up crew was Robb Hensleigh and Bill Siebenaler. Thanks guys!

Election of Officers:

The first order of business was to elect new officers. They were unanimously voted in as follows:

President-Barry Fitzgerald
Vice President-Ellen Jensen
Secretary-Robert Johnson
Treasurer-Joe Yoder
Biermeisters-Andrew and Lisa Suddith

Congratulations Doug & Sherry!
Former President and New Father Doug Holub put in a short appearance at the beginning of the business meeting for the swearing in ceremony and to hand over the Grand Pubah hat. More important, however, is that he gave us a family status update. Doug & Sherry are the proud new parents of Harley Douglas, who graced the world with his presence at 8:14 a.m. on Jan. 7. He weighed in at 7 lbs. and measured 19 1/2 inches. He is perfectly healthy and pretty darn cute to boot. As it happens, Little Harley was born in the same week that Harley Davidson rolled out the first motorcycle in the KC plant. Coincidence? I don't think so. But you make the call.

Members in Attendance: Tim Beroni and Jamie Rusconi, Dwight Burnham, Pete Clouston, Barry Fitzgerald, Robb Hensleigh, Jeff & Ellen Jensen, Bill Siebenaler, Andrew Suddith, Dale Wheeler and Joe Yoder. Doug put in an understandably brief appearance, and both Liam Riggs and Bob Oswald made it over before the end of the meeting.


Old Business:
Christmas Party: Thanks were given to Jeff & Ellen for hosting the Christmas party. There was good attendance, and it was a good time.

Glasses: Glasses? What glasses? We made an informal motion not to bring up glasses until at least April, so you didn't hear it from me.

Bag Stuffers: At the November meeting we had discussed bag stuffers to be handed out with purchases at the brew shop and at Jensen Liquor. Barry brought the finished design in, and members voted unanimously to use the design. Members also voted unanimously to use club funds to print 100 copies (we decided that Barry would shrink the design so that two would fit on a page) for distribution. We also voted to make one poster-size copy to hang in the brew shop as an advertisement, unless the cost goes above $20, in which case the project will be aborted. By the way, Lisa, Andrew volunteered you for this project, and now it's in print!

LBG on the WWW: Obviously you know about the Lawrence Brewer's Guild Web Site. It's being updated at least every month. Any recipes, links, or pictures would be much appreciated. Just contact Pete Clouston with your info. We have been linked by about a half dozen other homebrewing sites and appear on a few search engines.

Treasurer's Report: There was no Treasurer's Report, but I anticipate one next meeting, Right, Joe?

New Business:
Membership Dues: It's membership renewal time. Dues are $16 per member, $22 per family. There was some discussion by Dale Wheeler and Robb Hensleigh about trying to sneak in under the family plan. being first cousins and all, but that idea was squelched pretty quickly by the other members present. They each had to pony up the $16-sorry guys, but good try.

Screen Printing: There was talk of using screen printing with Barry's bag stuffer design, but after the glasses non-event [oops, sorry. Did I say glasses?], not to mention the Great T-shirt Debacle, the idea was tabled to sometime in the hazy future so fast that I didn't get down the names of who brought up the idea.

We adjourned the meeting at 8:50.


Monthly Tasting
A reminder... In November meeting the club voted to raise the commercial tasting donation to $2 per person to cover the cost of the beer. February's beer style is Bock.

January's flavor of the month was mead and/or melomel and because only one or so examples of the style were available, we waived the commercial tasting for the month and tried members' examples instead. Following are the meads/melomels we tasted and some comments about them. If I left any out, I apologize. The more I drank, the harder it was to write. Hiccup.

Bill Siebenaler said both his orange and raspberry melomel were from the same recipe. The raspberry is close to 2 1/2 years old.

About the orange:
"Waaahoooah!! Gawd dang that stuff's potent."-Ellen Jensen
"It may have a little zing, but it tastes good."-Tim Baroni
"Tang with a zip."-Andrew Suddith

Pete Clouston's Sweet Mead:
"Pete's Sweet mead. It's like candy, but good candy. It's good that its carbonated."-Barry Fitzgerald
"It's almost like a Spumante."-Jeff Jensen

Doug Holub dropped off a variety pack to try: a two-year-old dry cherry sparkling melomel, blackberry and raspberry.

About the cherry:
"Wow, that is really dry."-Jamie
"Boy, them cherries is mellowed, compared to when they came off the tree. It floats over the tongue and just disappears."-Bill
"Very light and dry, not sweet at all."-Barry
About the blackberry:
"This is tart. Yum."-Jamie
About the raspberry:
"The raspberry really comes through. You know what it is right away."-Joe

Barry also brought a bitter that got good reviews.
"Wow, Barry, this is a mead? Woah, this is a good mead. I can't even taste the honey. Oh, it's not a mead? It's a bitter. Ooh, well I like it."-Bill Siebenaler.

Dwight's XXX-mas stout was good, but you practically had to shove Jeff out of the way to get to it, and we all but pried off the top of Joe's 5-litre keg to get the last drops of pale ale.

And last, but certainly not least, we need multiple words strung together in sentence form, preferably expressing cohesive thoughts about beer and beer-related topics. That's right. We need articles! Almost anything beer related will work, even if it's just a few paragraphs relating a brewing incident or a brewery review. Besides, if we don't start sending Dwight material, he might quit handling the production of the newsletter, and then YOU will have to do it AND find ALL the material. Please send all newsletter items to Dwight before the first of the month for that month's newsletter. Thank you one and all. Oh, one last thought. Those of you who are regularly not showing up to meetings are MISSING OUT! You know who you are. It takes dedicated members to make a successful club, besides, the more the merrier.

Ellen Jensen
Acting Secretary


Late Breaking Treasurer's Report
A total of nine memberships were paid at the January meeting, 3 family memberships and 6 singles. The LBG checking account has a current balance of $397.64.
Joe Yoder, Treasurer

February Beer Tasting to be Bock
No one seems to know what Bock means. The literal translation is goat, but that makes little sense in a beer context. Some brewers believe that Bock is a corruption of Einbeck, the German town credited with the development of the style. Regardless, Bock beers are very malty and fairly high in alcohol. Lagering gives these beers an incredibly clean taste, free of fruity and estery yeast byproducts. A deep, chocolatey, candylike flavor characterizes the best examples, with just the right amount of hop bitterness to balance the delicious maltiness. Helles Bock makes use of lots of pale malt so roasty and caramelly flavors are not present. Lager these brews slowly, and be patient.
AHA National Homebrew Competition Style Guidelines

a) Traditional German Bock-Copper to dark brown. Full body. Malty sweet character predominates in aroma and flavor with some toasted chocolate. Low bitterness. Low hop flavor, "nobletype" OK. No hop aroma. No fruitiness or esters. Low to medium diacetyl OK.
b) Helles (light) Bock-Pale to amber. Other characters same as traditional German Bock without chocolate character. Medium to full body.
c) Doppelbock-Light to very dark; amber to dark brown. Very full body. Malty sweetness evident in aroma and flavor can be intense. High alcoholic flavor. Slight fruitiness and ester QK, but not very desirable. Low bitterness. Low hop flavor, "nobletype" OK. No hop aroma. Low diacetyl OK.
d) Eisbock-A stronger version of Doppelbock. Deep copper to black. Very alcoholic.

O.G. (Plato) Percent alc./vol. IBU's SRM
Traditional German Bock 1.066-74 (16.5-18.5) 6-7.5% 20-30 20-30
Helles (Light) Bock 1.066-68 (16.5-17) 6-7.5% 20-35 4.5-6
Dopplebock 1.074-80 (18.5-20) 6.5-8% 17-27 12-30
Eisbock 1.097-116 (23-29) 8.5-14.4% 26-33 18-50


Kansas City Bier Meisters 15th Annual Homebrew Competition
The Kansas City Bier Meisters are once again holding their annual homebrew competion. The festivities are scheduled for February 20 and 21. The deadline for entries is February 7. Entry forms are available at Bacchus and Barleycorn, 6633 Nieman, Shawnee Mission, KS (913) 962-2501 or online at http://www.sound.net/~jweerts/kcbm.html. This is an American Homebrewer's Association sanctioned event as well as a Qualifying Round of the Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing. You don't have much time left so hurry up and get your entries in or register for the special events.

Special Events-"Breakfast with Fred" On Saturday Morning they will be serving a omelette breakfast prepared by Chef Dan, during which Fred Eckhardt will be presenting a humorous discourse about the New Beer Revolution, "Everybody's got to be Somewhere, That's why I'm Here." Cost $8.00 per person.

Sirloin Stampeed Dinner by Danial Turner CWC/CLUB Chef. Advanced registration and payment of $15.00 per person is due no later than February 7, 1998.


AHA's Club-Only Competitions
The Club-Only Competition program offers AHA Registered Homebrew Clubs and opportunity to compete nationwide with other homebrew clubs. Each competition focuses attention on a specific style of beer or mead, giving clubs the opportunity to educate their members in these styles by focusing on them at club meetings or tasting events.

All AHA Registered Homebrew Clubs are eligible to compete, but only one entry may be entered from each club. Procedures for selecting a club?s entry are determined by the club and vary widely. However, it is important to remember that each club-only entry could actually represent up to a dozen or so entries at the club level.

Our plan for the Club-Only Competitions in the upcoming year is to acknowledge this higher level of competition by securing better, more appropriate prizes and awards for the individual brewer and the club represented.
1998 AHA Club-Only Competition Schedule

March 98-Stout Bout Club-Only Competition
(AHA Style Category #11 a, b, c, d & e)
May 98-Classic Pilsener Club-Only Competition
(AHA Style Category #15 a, b & c)
August 98-Weiss is Nice Club-Only Competition
(AHA Style Category #19 a, b, c & d)
October 98-Best of Fest Club-Only Competition
(AHA Style Category #17 a & b)
December 98-If It's Not Scottish...Club-Only Competition
(AHA Style Category #8 a, b & c and #10b


Derby Brew Club-1997 Homebrew Club of the Year
When you think of AHA sanctioned homebrew clubs, the Sonoma Beerocrats of California or the Chicago Beer Society probably come to mind. After all, these large clubs have been synonymous with making good beer and earning the prestigious Homebrew Club of the Year award. Well, that was until this year when a little brew club from Derby, Kansas took all honors at the 1997 National Homebrew Competition in Cleveland. The Derby Brew Club advanced eight beers to the second round of the competition, won three gold medals, and captured the coveted Homebrew Club of the Year award.

Just who is this little know club from the heartland of America? And how did they raise to fame? Let me tell you a little bit about our club and how we achieved this status.

"The Derby brew Club was organized in 1991 by four guys who wanted to improve the process of making beer," says Mike Jones, one of the club's founding members. "When we began to form the club, I remember thinking, I don't want to be a beer geek! But, a lot has changed since then." Today, the club has an active membership of about 18 members. The occupations of our members are as varied as the beers they brew: a doctor, a mechanic, a lawyer, a housewife, a judge, some engineers, a banker and a couple of managers. Most of our club members are all-grain brewers.

Our club attributes its recent success at the National Homebrew Competition to four things: a continued emphasis on education, brewing at club meetings, our mentorship program and feedback from AHA competitions.

Education is an important element of the Derby Brew Club. The mission of our club is to educate people about homebrewing and improve the process of making beer. "We"re not afraid to share our knowledge of brewing with each other," says Rodger Clark, vice president of the club. "When one of our members learns something, the whole club benefits."

At club meetings, our members take turns brewing different beer styles and demonstrating new brewing techniques. This has been especially helpful for introducing the process of all-grain brewing to new members. Brewing at meetings has also helped members to learn about the different processes for various beer styles.

The club also offers a mentorship program where new members are introduced to all-grain brewing. In the program, new members work side by side with more experienced members formulating recipes, assembling equipment and learning appropriate brewing techniques.

The Derby Brew Club is very active in competing in AHA sanctioned and all the AHA Club-Only Competitions. Feedback from competitions, both positive and negative, helps our members become better brewers and makes our club more competitive. Our club has earned a reputation of being able to compete with the larger clubs like those in Denver, Chicago and Seattle. "We're not afraid of competing against the big clubs," boasts Chris Kaufman, a former AHA gold medal winner. "We'll take their ribbons because we're good brewers." The club also hosts their own AHA sanctioned competition, the Greater Wichita Open, which is a good proving ground for brewers on their way to the AHA National Homebrew Competition.

Our recipe for success has proven effective for our club, and we will continue endeavoring to improve our product and processes in the future. Through strategic competitiveness we hope to make the Derby Brew Club synonymous with brewing excellence.
Kip Innes, Secretary of the Derby Brew Club