March 2000

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Greenblood
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Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 2:22 pm
Location: Lawrence

March 2000

#1 Post by Greenblood » Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:33 am

Minutes of the February Meeting

Cleanup Crew: Pete & Joe

Members in Attendance: Bill, Dwight, Sherry, Pete, Joe, Rich, Andrew, Barry, Doug, Jeff, John, and Xan.

Guests: Mark Gettys and Reuben Anderson.

Treasurer's Report: As of January 5, 2000, the balance was $762.06. Recent checks issued to Parks and Rec. for the shelter house to host the BrewFest, ECM for meeting space, and postage to mail newsletters.

Old Business
Seminars: Several great ideas were presented. Future topics include Mead, Internet resources for the homebrewer, wine making, and a round robin discussion on RIMS. Also discussed visiting the Free State Brewery again in October. Other topics were suggested, but we need volunteers. If you would like to present a seminar, please contact Doug Holub or Joe Yoder.

Dues: IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN - PLEASE PAY YOUR DUES! Membership dues are $16 per person or $22 per family. Please contact Doug Holub to join or renew your membership.

Library Books: No new books. See Joe to check out books.

BrewFest Committee: Shelter #7 (on the right) has been reserved. This is the shelter that has horseshoe and volleyball facilities. The band Bluestem is confirmed for the entertainment, and Dale Wheeler has offered to smoke the food again this year.

Yeast Bank: New additions include Bavarian Lager and Edinburgh Ale.

New Business

2000 Boss Challenge: 9th Annual Homebrew Competition to be held Saturday, April 15, 2000, at the Maple Tree Inn in Blue Island, IL. This is a sanctioned AHA competition. Entries are accepted March 30 - April 13. For more information visit .

Cybervillage: The Lawrence Public Library contacted Barry asking if we would like to be included in their cybervillage database. They are asking for us to fill out an information sheet and provide 10-15 handouts describing the club. Vote carried, so Barry will check and see if we have any flyers left.

Free State Brewmeister Banquet: Free State Brewery is holding their 11th Anniversary Brewmeister Banquet on February 22, 2000. Tickets are on sale now for $25.

Circle S Ranch: Circle S Ranch offered to have us up and cook food to match our homebrew. Joe will check into this and get more information.

St. Patrick's Day Party: Saturday, March 18th at the ECM building. Jackie Rager will present a seminar on mead. This will be a potluck function. Corned beef and cabbage will be provided, but please bring a dish. For more information, contact Dwight Burnham or Andrew Suddith.

Beer Contributors:
Barry: Porter
Doug & Chris: Imperial Stout
Dwight: Big Bertha Pale Ale
Joe: Stout
Pete: Pale Ale and a Stout
Andrew & Doug: Rauchbier
Bill: Coffee Blues Stout

THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR HOMEBREW!

Meeting Adjourned.


Commercial Tasting: Beers with Smoked Malts.
Bert Grant's Perfect Porter - Yakima, Washington

"Chocolately Beer" - Joe
"If this is mild smoke, I can't wait to try the really smoky beer" - Barry
"Chemical smoke flavor" - Sherry
"Coffee in the nose" - Dwight

SkullSplitter Orkney Ale - Scotland

"Smells like another sausage" - Doug
"It wasn't as sweet as I expected" - Rueben
"More summer sausage, the last one was salami" - Sherry

Goose Island Christmas Ale (Smoked Brown Ale) - Chicago

"You can smell this more than you can taste it" - Dwight
"Unique, but.." - Bill

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier - Bamburg, Germany. FIRST PLACE WINNER (6 votes)

"Rib smoke" - Mark
"This is great!" - Rueben
"Mesquite smoke. In a word, Yum!" - Bill

As an added bonus, Doug and Andrew brought a Rauchbier to the meeting, so we added it to the tasting. SECOND PLACE WINNER (hands down)

"Very dry" - Barry
"Charcoal flavor in the finish" - Jeff
"Is that Kingsford?" - John

Xanthippe Stevens
Secretary



Free State Brewery 11th Anniversary Brewer's Banquet

Jeff, Ellen, Rob, and I trekked to our favorite hangout Tuesday night to partake in an evening of fine food and beer. Steve Bradt, Free State's head brewer, narrated our way through the evening's beer selections and head chef, John Thompson, prepared and discussed each course of the meal. The beer and food styles were from Belgium and Northern France.

We started with Saison Dupont accompanied by assorted French & Belgian cheeses, fresh fruit, beer bread, and smoked cod. The Dupont was light and quite delightful. Appetizers were finished off with Pertotale Faro Ale. Much darker than the Dupont, the Pertotale was malty and had a sour lacto-bacillus aftertaste.

The salad course consisted of a mixed green salad with wilted chickory topped with Belgian Wheat Vinaigrette. Accompanying this course were two wood-aged beers, Castelain Biere de Garde and Brasseurs Biere de Garde. Both beers exhibited a musty bouquet often associated with wine.

The entr?e began with Hennepin Belgian Style Ale. This beer had a minty finish and what I call a chicken bouillon smell. The food portion of the entr?e was Waterzooi, a peasant style chicken stew, and Carbonnade Flamande, ale braised beef. We enjoyed Ommegang's Abbey style Ale and Affligem's Dobbel to finish off this course. Both were noted as having a noticeably higher alcohol content, seven and eight-and-a-half percent, respectively. The Abbey was also noted as having a bourbonesque flavor.

Dessert consisted of Honey Vanilla Custard with Smouteballen, a Westmalle Trippel, and New Glarus's Raspberry Tart. The Trippel was way carbonated, which really woke up the palate in preparation for the Smouteballen (imagine a Cafe du Monde beignet set in raspberry sauce). The New Glarus Raspberry Tart should have been called Raspberry wine. I noted that it looks like wine, smells like wine, tastes like carbonated Raspberry juice!

The excellent food, beer, and presentations by Steve and John made this a very enjoyable evening at the Free State.

Xanthippe Stevens


Partyin' in N'awlins

Stephanie and I made the trip to the N'awlins area the week of Jan. 12-18. A high point of our visit was the Abita Springs Brewpub, north of New Orleans, off of I-12, in Abita Springs, LA. We enjoyed sampling their beers and cajun fare. The following definitions are copied from their placemat:

Amber is brewed with crystal malt for a rich color and smooth flavor with just a hint of caramel.

Abit Golden is smooth and light. Just four ingredients is all it takes-imported English lager malt, Mt. Hood hops, Weihen Stephan yeast, and pure Abita spring water.

Abita Turbodog is made with a combination of pale caramel and chocolate malts. Willamette hops provide a clear finish that offsets the characteristic sweetness of this dark ale. (Stephanie's favorite)

Purple Haze is a crisp American-style wheat beer with fresh raspberries added during secondary fermentation. Its subtle coloration, glorious aroma, and tartly sweet taste make it a most pleasant brew.

Andygator is a barleywine.

Seasonal beers:
Abita bock: Jan. 1-March 15
Abita red ale: March 15-June 1
Abita Wheat: June 1-Sept. 1
Fall Fest: Sept. 1-Nov. 15
XXXMAS Ale: Nov. 15-Jan. 1

I did some really good work on the cask-conditioned double bock! A little sweet but very drinkable. The place has a nice pub atmosphere, scrumptious crawfish muffin appetizers...and outdoor tables, too. We'll refresh ourselves there again next year.

Bill & Stephanie Payne


Ready for Camp?
Oldenberg Brewing Company is putting on two beer camps this year: March 24-26 and Sept. 22-24. They are held at the Oldenberg Brewing Company in Ft. Mitchell, KT, five miles from downtown Cincinnati.

The camp will include discussions with counselors, beer guides, and various beer aficionados; a Friday night tasting of 12 classic styles with Daniel Bradford; The Beer Brewfett, a sampling of more than 250 international and domestic beers; The Beer Camp Song (huh?); Seminars on such topics as the History of Beer, Belgian Beers, and Worldwide Beer styles; Featured speakers from U.S. microbreweries and national importing companies; A tour of the American Museum of Brewing History & Arts; hands-on brewery observation; Visit to local brewpubs and taverns; Grand Banquet with every dish made with beer; Sunday's Hair of the Dog brunch, etc.

Cost is $419 per person/single occupancy; $339 per person/double occupancy; $339 per person/3 or more in room.

See Ellen for more info and registration form.


Killin' Time in Orlando
My business is finished earlier than expected in Orlando, and I am unable to get an earlier flight back, so I have some time to kill in the airport. I am somewhat disgruntled at the prospect of a five-hour wait and trudge (with my computer, purse and carry-on) forlornly toward the mall area, trying to figure out what the heck I'm going to do for five hours (I could work, of course. After all, I have my computer, and I work for an online company...) I look up, and what should I see but a sign for the Shipyard Brewing Company. How convenient. (a small smile starts to curve the corners of my mouth.)

Still slightly skeptical (I am in an airport, after all), I sit down and look at the menu. There is a list of brews and descriptions. Hmm. It appears to be a real brewpub, not an ersatz Cheers bar that tries in vain to make weary travelers feel as if they're at their neighborhood pub where everybody knows their name. I turn around and, lo and behold, there are the big stainless-steel brew kettles and storage tanks. Well, well, well. Suddenly, this inconvenient wait became a little less inconvenient..

According to the menu, this is the world's first airport microbrewery. I have no way to verify this at the moment, so I will take them at their word. The idea for this brewery started in Kinnebunk, ME, where the company opened a brewpub several years ago. Then, it opened a microbrewery in Portland, ME. A few years ago, the company opened a brewpub here at the Orlando airport. It kegs and supplies brew to several local restaurants and bars. They have four regular beers on the menu, plus a brewer's selection beer that changes periodically.

The waitress is really nice (as was almost everybody that I encountered in Orlando; I mean go-out-of -their-way nice, not just polite), and when I ask her about the beers and the sampler, it quickly becomes obvious that she knows beer. She does not give me the standard, "Yeah, well, this one is a light beer, and it's pretty good, and that one is a dark beer. I haven't had it, but people seem to like it." She is able to describe the beers by their hops and malt characteristics. She understands the styles! Incidentally, her husband is the head brewer, and they also homebrew and are members of the Central Florida Home Brewers club, which, by the way, is hosting its annual Sunshine Challenge. Entries are due May 5.

Anyway, I decide to order the sampler so that I can try all of them. Here goes.

Goat Island Light: A shipyard favorite that's low in calories with a pleasant body and mild hop flavor.

Color is light, looks like your Big Three beer. Not much on the nose, but catch a bit of hops. Definitely that wet cardboard taste prevalent. Balance is pretty good-neither hops nor malt overpowers the other. Not much head retention.

Export Ale: full-bodied yet lighter in flavor. Maltiness shows through initially, followed by a subtle and distinctive hop taste with a very clean finish. A golden ale with a coppery hue, reminiscent of a Canadian-style ale of old.

Smells like theater popcorn. Can you say diacatyl? Hmmm. I can taste the diacatyl as well. It looks beautiful. It's a very clear beer with a nice light coppery color, but there is little head retention. I'm getting lots of malt, as well. Definitely there is a hint of sweetness. Overpowers the hops. I'm not getting the hop taste on the finish.

Next up is the Old Thunder Extra Special Ale, which the waitress, Katie, tells me is an untraditional ESB. This one seems pretty close to style, or it's unconventional equivalent. Reminiscent of Redhook's extra special butter, but there is some balance, and some hop flavor pokes through. This one is quite drinkable.

Here's the official description from the menu:
Ruled the 1988 English Champion Beer, an untraditional English bitter. It has hints of sweetness with apple fruit aromas, a deceptively smooth texture, as well as a long, dry, hoppy finish (What!!??!, Where?).

Next up is the Blue Fin Stout, which is nitrogen pushed. It's rich, dark head, darker than Guinness, which is my standard for judging stout, since I have so much experience drinking it at G Willikers. But I digress. The head looks rich and creamy and rather dark, like cappucino. A very roasty nose. Smells like coffee. The taste is roasty. Lots of black patent, and there's definitely more than a hint of coffee in the flavor as well. So far this is my favorite. It is rich and is beefier flavor than Guinness, but tasty.

There is one more beer left to try-the brewer's selection, which, right now, is a brown ale, but it is just barely brown. I've gotten ahead of myself. Here is the official menu description of the stout:

Blue Fin Stout: A classic Irish stout with a deep, almost black body and a creamy white head that is always a pleasure to drink (no argument here). Blue Fin Stout is brewed according to tradition with only premium ingredients.

OK, back to the brown ale that's not so brown. In fact, if I were judging it, (and in a way, I guess I am), I would have to say the color is off. It looks more like an amber ale. Not much brown to it. The nose smells of butter. This seems a slighter more malty, deeper version of the Extra Special Ale. I don't get many of the brown ale characteristics at all. It is definitely drinkable, though.

I give this brewpub a medium rating. The beers are drinkable but not outstanding. However, I tend to like more hoppy beers, and none of these could be classified under that category, so Dale, you would probably like them better. If any of you are in Portland or have some time to kill in the Orlando airport, give the place a try.

Ellen Jensen

Unlike Sherry, I was drinking both prior to and during the writing of this review.

Discount Days at Bacchus & Barleycorn
LBG members receive a 10% discount from Bacchus & Barleycorn, March 6-11. Please show membership card or bring newsletter. Bacchus & Barleycorn is located at 6633 Nieman Rd. in Shawnee (913-962-2501).

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