The BrewsLeader October 2004 Vol. 21 No. 10 IMPORTANT READ THIS FIRST James River Homebrewers’ HalloFest Party Saturday, October 30 7PM – until the Pregnant Lady Kicks Out Jeff & Stasi York --REMOVED-- Beware the Haunted Tent Enter if You Dare! Best Costume Contest! Prizes for Best Beer Related Best Couple Scariest Ugliest Other categories as deemed appropriate by someone in charge Costumes NOT Optional We have brewed up a great fest beer for the occasion. If you're not costumed up, no beer for you! Club Provides Sausages & Rolls Condiments & Soft Drinks Plates, Utensils & Napkins And, of course, Beer! You Provide Side Dish or Dessert (bring serving utensil) Chairs (unless you want to stand all night) More Beer! So get dressed up and come out for a great time! See You There! Upcoming Events Oct 13 Club Meeting Mark Thompson of Starr Hill Brewery Will Speak to Club Oct 30 HalloFest Party @ Stasi & Jeff York’s Nov 10 Club Meeting Style Discussion – Spiced/Fruit/Vegetable Beer AHA Club Only - IPA (Cat. 14) Nov 13 AHA Club Only IPA Nationals – hosted by James River Homebrewers Nov 17 Board Meeting Dec 8 Club Meeting Election of Officers Style Discussion – Winter Warmers Dec 11 Holiday Party @ Steve Jarrett’s Jan 12 Club Meeting This is Your Brain on Alcohol Jan 19 Board Meeting Jan ?? Club Brew for St. Patrick’s Day Feb 9 Club Meeting How to Judge Beer Feb ?? Legend Anniversary Party Mar 9 Club Meeting Annual Club Championship Mar 12 Brews Cruise Mar 19 Board Meeting Mar ?? St. Patrick’s Day Party September Meeting President Tedd Smith welcomed members and guests, and thanked Tom Martin and the rest of the Legend staff for their gracious hospitality. Feature: Stasi and Jeff York discussed India Pale Ale – the history, the flavor, the aroma. And we sample some fine examples of this hearty style, including Arrogant Bastard, Yard’s, Dog Fish Head 90 Minute, Bear Republic Racer 5, anchor Liberty and Gorton’s. This is the next style coming up for the AHA Club Only Competition coming up in November. Stasi pointed out that this category has been expanded to three sub-categories in the BJCP style guidelines: British IPA, American IPA, and Imperial IPA. Thanks again, Stasi and Jeff for expanding our horizons! Raffle: Another great one! Prizes included cool glasses, kegs, a bucket, a t-shirt, and a tray. Amanda Anderson wom Mystery Prize #!, a bag of malt, and Jeff Hewit won Mystery Prize #2, a Kwak beer glass. ***************************** First Annual Mongolian Clusterbrew We held our First Annual Mongolian Clusterbrew last month. Following are reports and comments from the Organizer (Ring Master?) Steve Severtson, and Team Captains Woody Elliott, Dan Mouer, Keith Shelton and Tedd Smith. Steve Severtson The First Annual JRHB Mongolian Clusterbrew Before all else, a hearty thanks to Bob and Jeane Henderson for all their efforts in making the Clusterbrew a success, from preparation of ingredients, filtered water, plenty of hose water, setting up a cover, and providing a picturesque area for us to brew. Thanks guys!!! FUN!!! The only description! A number of folks turned out to brew for the Winter Solstice (politically correct despite the event name) party. Four batches of three styles were made, an all-grain IPA, a partial-mash IPA, a Stout, and an American Brown Ale. There was plenty of equipment and a plethora of advice shared. We also had a number of visitors from the Chesterfest across the street. One couple wanted to know if they could come by that afternoon to sample the beer. Maybe White Labs is working on that, hmmmm. Woody Elliott The morning had a rough edge to it because I went to the Maymont Wine & Beer Tasting Friday night!! I arrived around 8:30 to find Tony already setting up and heating the water. What a trooper!! At least I had my coffee in hand!! But my fearless companion, Jake, made sure I brought the my brewing components!! Well, we started with a plan, really!! We were brewing a Nut Brown Ale looking for a OG of 1060. Which we did end up hitting in a round about way. First, we had to guess, because we forgot our measuring cup, how much water to put in the Mash Tun. Amazingly enough, we hit our temp at 153F! Coffee does help the hazy brewer. Then, after an hour or two of resting and sparging, the aroma of 1/2 oz of Mt. Hood First Wort Hopping was very evident!! Steve is a BIG fan of FWH!! Finally, boiling for an hour and all the additional Dogfish Head-style hoppings we came out with a OG of 1070!!! Well, everyone was surprised and then we realized we only came out with about 4 gallons of Wort!! SO, more mad science and we added 3/4 gal and the FG was 1059... Right on target!!! Everyone made some great looking beers and December should be a great party! I hope Steve has plenty of cots for everyone!!! Cheers!!! Woody Dan Mouer I. The Mission The team, comprised of Dan, Ted3, and Paul, set out to demonstrate how anyone can step up from extract brewing to partial mash brewing with ease, and without a lot of expensive and complex gadgetry. This was a challenge, of course, since Dan has done almost exclusively all-grain brewing for years, and Ted3 and Paul both have only brewed using extracts, with or without steeped grains. So, since none of us knew what we were doing, we were sure we would have lots of fun! Our guiding principle: K.I.S.S. The target brew was an IPA. Dan worked out the recipe using Promash. A few tweaks to the original recipe were made both during and after the brew session. The grist bill: 3 pounds Maris Otter 2 pounds Munich 1 pound 60L crystal ½ pound Victory ½ pound wheat malt This was all supplemented by 4 pounds light liquid extract, for a 6-gallon batch with a target O.G. of 1.056. Our hopping regime utilized all three designated hop types, for a total of 5 ounces of hops (including dry hops for the keg), and for a target of 50-55 IBU. In actuality we had aimed to draw 2.5 gallons of wort from the boil and add that to 2.5 gallons water, but we drew more wort and added more water, so our original 5 gallon batch became a 6 gallon batch. Therefore the recipe was modified and Dan had to boil an additional two pounds LME with an additional ½ oz of Northern Brewer hops back at home to add to the brew to make the numbers. The quantities above include the additional malt and hops. II. Narrative of the Action The team arrived at the Area of Operation (Weekend Brewer’s parking lot) at 8:30 AM, sharp. Donuts and Coffee were in evidence, and there was already steam rising from kettles. We unloaded and set up our brewery, consisting of two 5-gallon Igloos (one a hot water/sparge tank, the other a mash/lauter tun); a propane burner, a five-gallon stainless pot, an 8-gallon, well-used, somewhat rusty enameled canner (the wort chiller!). We doughed-in by 9 AM, striking an initial temperature of 148 degrees. Within ten minutes we raised the temperature to 154, diluted the mash, and sealed the mashtun. The tailgate of Bob’s pickup held the sparge tank, and served as our command post (and leaning post). It wasn’t too much later that the air filled with gales of Northern Brewer wafting from our neighbors, Team Ted(d), with their shiny, silvery, three-tiered stack of stainless! Somewhere nearby Keith was walking around probing various liquids with a digital readout thingy and enzyme-sniffing dogs. The sparge went without a hitch. While Team Ted(d)’s Phil’s Whirlygig Sparging Widgit spun in crowd-pleasing circles, Dan’s team squeezed the little plastic pincher valve on the vinyl hose from Igloo #2, spritzing 168-degree water over the top of a beautifully formed grain bed, sitting on a plastic false bottom, in Igloo #1. In about 25 minutes, sparging was complete and crystal clear wort was delivered to the boiler. Ted3 and Paul kept the rolling boil rolling while Dan beat a retreat up Ironbridge Road to Mug and Chalice, returning with a carton of IPA’s for the team’s lunch. Coffee and donuts only go so far in a brew session. By 12:30, Dan’s Team’s Mongolian IPA was in the bucket—not in an oversized carboy with blow off tubes to bubble into bottles of bleach water. Certainly not into any sort of stainless steel conical with rotating racking tubes and cooling jackets and inert gas ports! The White Labs WLP002 had been pitched without making a starter (remember K.I.S.S. was our guiding ideology). As we drove out of the parking lot, the aroma of hops lingered in our noses and the bitter-fruit smack of Dogfish Heads 90-minute Imperial IPA coated our lips. A good day. III. Lessons Learned The first lesson is that brewing in public can be fun. Looked like darn near everyone had a good time. Another lesson is that the public has a very dim understanding of brewing. I refer especially to one young man who came by during the latter stages of the boil and asked if the beer would be ready later in the afternoon. He and his girlfriend wanted to taste it after spending some time across the street at Chester Fest eating funnel cakes and barbeque. We will have to wait for the Holiday Party to learn the final lesson: whether or not beer made in cheap gear with malt from a can compete successfully with the “big boys.” The competition will be especially keen between Dan’s Team and Team Ted(d), who also made an IPA in their shiny, well-oiled, brewing machine. Time will tell! Respectfully Submitted Dan Mouer Keith Shelton RE: St. James Gate in Chester. Morning arrived far too early on Sept 11th. After prying my bloodshot eyes open and hammering the alarm clock for several minutes with a ferocity that could only be inspired by several hours of drinking Belgian Tripples the night before, I shakily rose. The day promised to be bright and sunny, a perfect September morning for brewing. I simultaneously cursed the beer gods for the night before, but in the next breath prayed to them that I wouldn’t somehow.... how to be delicate here for those with sensitive ears, ah I have it... copulate inappropriately... in endeavoring to make a drinkable beer in the hours that were to follow. As usual, I had not had the forethought to pack my brewing gear into the pickup the night before, so I frantically searched the closets, attic, shed, car trunk, backyard, crawlspace and every other location near the house in the hopes that I would remember everything needed for a basic “remote brew”. For those of you that have never tried to brew elsewhere, but with your own equipment, a brief warning, plan ahead. Make a list, revise it, add to it over the course of several hours of though. Then toss it in the garbage and grab everything that you own that you have ever used, or think you might ever use to brew beer. Most people tell themselves and everyone they know that wants to brew beer for the first time that you don’t need very much equipment. In theory this is true but as we all know that in reality it is a lie we tell to ensnare hapless victims into becoming homebrewers. It seems that when we go into Bob’s or look online there is some nifty gadget that we have to buy because we are certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it is going to make our brew sessions either better or easier. I know Bob may ban me from the store for saying it, but seldom is that true. But seldom and never are two different things, so we keep buying. Anyway, I digress, so by the time I was ready to leave the entire bed of my Nissan pickup, the cargo area behind the seat and my lap was overflowing with brewing gear. Upon arriving at Bob’s, several of our worthy competitors, looking far too chipper for 8:30 A.M., had already arrived. My brewing associate, Graham, pulled up and we quickly unloaded the truck and filled our pot with some of Chester’s finest mountain spring water. Thanks to power of propane, 30 min later we were ready to dough in our grain. The Cluster brew requisite amounts of pale 2-row and crystal were reinforced with yet more crystal, liberal amounts of chocolate, flaked barley, black patent and just a splash of wheat because we all like to have good head (on our beer). If you hadn’t figured it out from the grain bill already, in homage to Steve Jarrett we were making a pre-pro pilsner! A few minutes of enthusiastic stirring by Graham and we popped on the cooler lid. In a mere 60 min we hoped that the magic spell we had cast would convert that pile of worthless grain into something far more useful. Then we cooled our heals, heated our sparge water and pickled our livers. With Bob’s help, some fitting and a 50ft coil of copper tubing we also fashioned an immersion chiller to replace the one I had destroyed because, in my haste to actually drink beer rather than make it, I left it outside through a hard freeze last winter, bursting the tubing. After 60 min we were ready to sparge and I was shocked at the first runnings. Apparently I had drastically miscalculated the grain bill. Instead of the pale gold color of a prep-pro pilsner, the wort had the taken on the color of used motor oil drained from a diesel truck that had just driven nonstop from Moscow to Siberia. After a short conference with the team, we did what any good brewer does and changed the style of our Cluster brew concoction from a pilsner to an Irish stout. Not just any Irish stout mind you, but, as Graham christened it, “Infinite Gravity Stout”. The sparge went without a hitch, although we stopped it early when gravity of the runnings, but not the color, went below acceptable levels. Better four gallons of good beer than five gallons of swill I told myself as a little tear of sadness formed in the corner of my eye. Later I calculated the brewing efficiency at about 60% which is pretty lousy, but since the club picked up the tab it’s not my problem. Sixty minutes of blessedly uneventful boiling, two hop additions of varieties and quantities guaranteed to under whelm the hopheads in the club and we were ready for that new chiller. Despite the tepid Chester water temperature, 50ft of copper chilled the wort down to pitching temperature fairly quickly. I decided to wait to pitch the yeast till I got home. I was afraid that White Labs virile Irish ale yeast would kick so quickly that before I got home I would be cleaning foam out of the passenger seat of the truck where the carboy of precious pre-beer patiently waited. While I was packing, Graham was cleaning. I made a mental note to myself to do more of these brews and always get Graham to help. My grimy brewing equipment looked better than the day I bought it by the time he was done. Sort of like one of those elves that fixes shoes at night while the cobbler sleeps, not that Graham looks anything like an elf, it’s just that my mind wanders in funny directions sometimes. To make an already long story only slightly longer, the beer safely made it home and into the cool, dim confines of the utility room, right next to the beer cooler and the cat box. It was covered with a Ukrops paper bag (which I somehow find fitting). Despite my concerns about foam over, the yeast kicked in very gently and primary fermentation finished in about a week, perhaps that Baptist Ukrops bag frightened it a little. I will have to switch to Food Lion next time (that also seems appropriate, but for an entirely different reason). At the time of this report, the beer has been racked into the secondary to wait for several more weeks before I will keg it and put it into the cooler to wait patiently for the grand unveiling at the Christmas party. Despite my best efforts, it isn’t half bad, so we should have a fairly passable dry stout for the party. If I don’t drink it all first. Cheers, Keith Tedd Smith The team of Ted, Tedd and Tom brewed an all-grain IPA from the basic building blocks that we were assigned. We started at 8:00am, and were mashing by 8:30am. We put hops in our mash and then hopped three more times in the boil, and then dry-hopped the primary. Our starting gravity was 1.052, verified by Steve Severtson. We finished the boil, cleaned up our mess, and were outta there by 1:00pm. We plan to bottle the brew in 22's rather than keg, just for variety at the party. We look forward to seeing our names on the Paddle of Honor. Tedd ***************************** AHA Club-Only Competitions From time to time, the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) sponsors competitions based on a particular style. These competitions are open only to AHA-affiliated homebrew clubs. Each club holds a competition on the particular style. The winner’s brew is sent off to the AHA to be judged with the winners from other homebrew clubs around the country. Bring in five bottles – two for the local competition and three to send off if you win. Competition schedule: Nov - IPA (Cat. 14) – Note that we will use the new BJCP Guidelines – Hosted by James River Homebrewers When the entry dates are set, we will include the competitions in the Upcoming Events listing. Winners earn Homebrew Club of the Year points for their club. ***************************** The BrewsLeader is the official publication of James River Homebrewers PO Box 486 Richmond, Virginia 23218-0486 Monthly Meetings All meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month at The Legend Brewery, 321 West 7th Street, Richmond, Virginia. Homebrew tasting at 6:30, meeting at 7:00. We are grateful to Tom Martin and the rest of the Legend staff for their gracious hospitality. Officers and Board of Directors President: Tedd Smith xxx-xxxx Vice President: Dan Mouer xxx-xxxx Treasurer: Bobby Yenney xxx-xxxx Secretary: Jeff Hewit xxx-xxxx Member @ Large: Denise Pierce xxx-xxxx Competition Coordinator: Stasi York xxx-xxxx Asst. Competition Coordinator: Steve Severtson xxx-xxxx Web Master: Ronnie Anderson xxx-xxxx Directors Woody Elliot xxx-xxxx Jack Jackson xxx-xxxx Steve Jarrett xxx-xxxx Joel Trojnar xxx-xxxx Ted Warren xxx-xxxx Jeff York xxx-xxxx Web Site www.jrhomebrewers.org Submit Articles Articles or other items of interest from the membership are welcome and should be submitted to the Secretary. Email to xxx@xxx.xxx. Dues The date after your name on the address label is the due date for your dues renewal. To renew your membership, just bring your dues - only $20 - to the next meeting, and give them to the Treasurer (or another officer if he isn’t there). If you wish, you may mail your dues to the Club at PO Box 486, Richmond, VA 23218-0486 Inclement Weather Policy If the Richmond city Schools are closed due to inclement weather on the day of a regularly scheduled Club meeting, the meeting will be cancelled, and re-scheduled for the following Wednesday – this will be confirmed by e-mail. Remember Drink Responsibly - Don’t Drink and Drive! Members and guests at James River Homebrewers meetings and events are individually and solely liable for any and all actions attendant to or resulting from their participation. James River Homebrewers PO Box 486 Richmond, VA 23218-0486 Don't take it too seriously, it's only beer!