The BrewsLeader December 2004 Vol. 21 No. 12 IMPORTANT READ THIS FIRST Holiday Party December 11 6:30 PM – ?? Steve and Kimmie Jarrett’s --REMOVED-- Club Provides Meat! Condiments & Soft Drinks Plates, Utensils & Napkins And, of course, Beer! You Provide Side Dish or Dessert More Beer! Directions --REMOVED-- See You There! From the Secretary This is my 96th, and final, edition of the BrewsLeader. Hard to believe I’ve been doing this for eight years. Time flies when you’re having fun. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve as your Secretary. However, I have to admit I am looking forward to coming to a meeting empty handed, except maybe for a bottle of homebrew. Brew On! Jeff ***************************** UPCOMING EVENTS 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 AHA Club Only – Irish Red Ale (Cat. 9D) 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 Tidewater Virginia Mar 16 - Board Meeting Mar ?? - St. Patrick’s Day Party Apr 13 - Club Meeting Style Discussion – Porters Apr ?? - Dominion Cup May 11 - Club Meeting Style Discussion – Session Beers May 18 - Board Meeting May ?? - Club Brew for Oktoberfest ***************************** IPA Competition Report The James River Homebrewers hosted the AHA India Pale Ale Club-Only Competition November 13. It was a rousing success. Our own Bobby Yenney, with the help of his Dad, brewed the red ribbon winner. Following is Stasi York’s report: We had a really good time, it was much easier than our annual competition – half the number of beers and only 3 categories! The site (Mekong Vietnamese Restaurant) was awesome, we had a really nice banquet room with 4 round judge tables, a food table and HQ table for Steve & me. The food was delicious, and we need to seriously think about getting some of those giant lazy susans for future competitions! (No more "please ass the..."). Owner An was very interested and helped us out throughout the day as we plied him with samples. Here are some of the facts- We received 52 entries from 26 states and Canada (California had the most entries with 6, Michigan & Florida each sent 5.) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada- 1 Alaska- 1 Washington- 1 Oregon- 1 California- 6 Idaho- 1 Colorado- 2 Oklahoma- 2 Utah- 1 Minnesota- 1 Wisconsin- 1 Michigan- 5 Indiana-2 Illinois- 3 Missouri- 2 Ohio- 1 Texas- 1 Mississippi- 1 Pennsylvania- 1 New York- 2 New Jersey- 1 Maryland- 2 Virginia- 3 North Carolina- 2 South Carolina- 1 Georgia- 1 Florida- 5 The Winners #1- Paul Long of Strange Brew- "Ringneck IPA"- Newburg, OR - 14b #2- Bobby Yenney Sr. & Jr. of James River Homebrewers- "Hop Soup III"- Richmond VA - 14b #3- Travis Smith of Sonoma Beerocrats- "#12 Trip's IPA"- Santa Rosa, CA - 14b We are also sending prizes (thanks to the box of goodies from the AHA!) to the top scorer from the flights in each subcategory... 14a English- Stephen Gorczany of Beer Barons of Milwaukee- "Zanie's English IPA"- Waukesa WI 14b American- Mike Heckman of Mad Anthony Serions Homebrewers- ""Hop Juice Double IPA"- Ossian IN 14c- Imperial- Mike McDole of Diablo Order of Zymiracle Enthusiasts- "Blindsided by Hops"- Clayton CA (I'm thinking he should get the sleeve of Arrogant Bastard coasters?..) We had 13 judges (9 BJCP, 2 local brewers- Mike Banks of Richbrau and Madison Hill of Hops- and 2 novices), 2 stewards, Assistant Competition Coordinator Steve Severtson and Competition Coordinator Stasi York. Judges showed up at 11:30am, Steve & I left at 5pm- we judged from approximately 12-4. We had 8 tables of 5-8 beers each- 1 flight of English, 5 of American, and 2 of Imperial. The BOS table had 9 entries- 1 English, 5 American and 3 Imperial. I thought that was the fairest way to do it, better than just choosing the high scorer from each subcategory. ***************************** October Meeting President Tedd Smith welcomed members and guests, and thanked Tom Martin and the rest of the Legend staff for their gracious hospitality. Feature: Tedd and Mike Buddle presented spiced, fruit and vegetable beers. They discussed various styles and brewing techniques. Some great samples were provided, including Raspberry Lambic, Apricot Ale, Cherry Wheat, Pumpkin Ale, Scottish Heather Ale and Mike’s own Christmas Spiced Ale! Thanks again, Tedd and Mike (or is it Mike and Tedd?) for sharing your unbounded enthusiasm! Competition: We held the AHA IPA competition. Ten beers were entered – a great showing! Bobby Yenney took top honors and will represent the club at the IPA Nationals. Nominations: The membership will elect officers and directors at the December meeting. The Board of Directors has nominated the following members to serves as officers beginning January 1, 2005: Vice President ** – George Hatchell Secretary ** – Keith Shelton Asst. Competition Coordinator * – Woody Elliott Member-at-Large ** – Denise Pierce Directors * – Mike Buddle Glenn Edwards Bob Henderson Mike Hinkle Dan Mouer Ted Warren * One-Year Terms ** Two-Year Terms Additional nominations may be made from the floor during the December meeting. Raffle: Another great one! Prizes included a cool posters, glasses and coasters. William Spiesberger won the Mystery Prize – a bag of rice hulls. Bob Henderson promised a great holiday raffle for the December meeting. ***************************** 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 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. Note that all competitions will use the new BJCP Guidelines – go to www.bjcp.org for complete descriptions. Competition schedule: > Nov - IPA (Cat. 14) Hosted by James River Homebrewers > Jan – Irish Red Ale (Cat. 9D) > Mar – Sour Beers (Cat. 17) > Apr – Extract Beers – BJCP Categories 1-23 – extract must make up more than 50% of fermentables > Jul – Belgian & French Ale (Cat 16) > Sep – European Amber Lager (Cat 3) > Oct – Baltic Porter (Cat. 12C) 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. Club Championship We will conduct our Annual Club Championship at the March meeting. Start planning and get brewing! This is always a great time. Don’t miss it. More details later. Dominion Cup The Dominion Cup is our major event. This competition is open to any and all homebrewers, and will take place in April – final date to be determined. Start planning and get brewing for this, too! ***************************** Group Discussion Site Dan Mouer has set up new Club discussion site on Yahoo. This will serve to enhance communication among members. This service is in addition to the regular Club web site. Sign up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JRHB/ ***************************** Tipsy Bees Aid Research This different sort of buzz may unlock secrets about alcohol addiction Researchers at Ohio State University have found that honey bees react to alcohol in the same way as people do, and that bees may help scientists understand how alcohol addiction affects humans. "Alcohol affects bees and humans in similar ways - it impairs motor functioning along with learning and memory processing," said study co-author Julie Mustard. "Knowing how chronic alcohol use affects genes and proteins in the honey bee brain may help us eventually understand how alcoholism affects memory and behavior in humans." Researchers gave the bees various levels of ethanol and monitored how much time the bees spent flying, walking, grooming and even upside down. The bees were secured to a small harness made from a piece of drinking straw and fed solutions of sucrose and ethanol. The ethanol concentration ranged from zero to 100. The level of ethanol in the bees' hemolymph (the equivalent of blood) increased with time and the amount consumed. Bees that consumed the higher concentrations of ethanol spent the least time flying or grooming and spent more time on their backs. "These bees had lost postural control. They couldn't coordinate their legs well enough to flip themselves back over again," Mustard said. Fellow researcher Geraldine Wright added: "Honey bees are very social animals. We want to learn if ethanol consumption makes the normally calm, friendly honey bee more aggressive." ***************************** Beer Reward for Baby Jesus Brewery offers six cases for figure stolen from nativity The Southern Australia Brewing Co. in Adelaide is offering six cases of beer for the return of a stolen baby Jesus after someone swiped the infant Christ figure from a nativity scene. The nativity scene is part of the brewery's wider Christmas display - an Adelaide tradition for the past 45 years. Brewery managing director Mark Powell said security footage showed a man scaling a fence and swiping baby Jesus from his manger. "The Christmas riverbank display has been an icon event in South Australia and this is the first time that anything of this kind has happened," Powell said. "We are very concerned about the well being of baby Jesus and we are calling for his swift and safe return." Powell said the reward of beer shouldn't be necessary. "... you would have thought that the incentive of a guaranteed exit through the right door after purgatory would be enough of an incentive in itself," he said. ***************************** Beer for the Brain Can beer really make Bud wiser? Researchers at University College in London report that moderate alcohol consumption might be associated with higher cognitive ability, particularly for women. The study of 4,272 men and 1,761 women found that those who had consumed from one drink to 30 drinks in the past week scored higher on a battery of tests designed to measure cognitive ability. The effects were stronger among women. "Compared with abstainers, persons drinking one or two glasses of alcohol per day had a significantly lower risk of poor cognitive function," the authors wrote. Subjects who drank occasionally, but not regularly, performed better than non-drinkers, but not as well as those who had drank in the week prior to taking the tests. "In terms of cognitive function, we found that frequent drinking may be more beneficial than drinking only on special occasions," the authors wrote. ***************************** Barbie Gets Her Beer Finally, at the age of 45, Barbie can finally relax with a nice cold beer. A Munich designer has created a special Oktoberfest Barbie wearing an Alpine dirndl dress and hoisting a beer mug. Designer James Waldron says he created the Mountain Dirndl Barbie based on Julie Andrews' character Maria in “The Sound of Music.” And everybody knows Maria needed a cold one after chasing the von Trapp kids around all day. There is no word on whether Ken will get a pair of lederhosen for the event. ***************************** River City Cellars Beer, Wine and Gourmet Foods 2931 West Cary Street Richmond, VA 23221 (804) 355-1375 www.rivercitycellars.com 10% Discount to Members of James River Homebrewers ***************************** The WeekEnd Brewer Homebrew & Wine Supplies 4205 West Hundred Road Chester, VA 23831 (804) 796-9760 www.weekendbrewer.com 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!