Upcoming JRHB Events

Wednesday June 11^th

Regular Club Meeting at Legends

“Summer Beers !”

Saturday June 21^th

Rhythm Bets & Brews Festival

Colonial Downs

Sunday June 29^th

Summer Party – BBQ Carnivore Carnival

2:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. at Dan Mouers

Wednesday July 9^th

Regular Club Meeting at Legends

Wednesday July 16^th

Board of Directors Meeting

7:00 p.m. at Legends

Saturday August 30^th

Dominion Cup Competition

Capital Ale House (downtown music hall)

For updated information and the club forum visit

http://www.jrhb.org/

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“I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.”

Shakespeare, Henry V

“This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption... Beer!”

Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, Friar Tuck

June 21, 2008

Rhythm Bets ‘N Brews Festival

A microbrew festival with live music, entertainment & horseracing … and we are looking for more volunteers to help run the taps. Two shifts are available….work one or both…..

10:45 am to 3:00 pm.

2:45 pm. to 7:00 pm

If you want to volunteer contact Denise Pierce

(XXX) XXX-XXXX xxx@xxx.com

Event Details:

Saturday June 21^st Colonial Downs Race Complex

11:00 am to 7:00 pm

25 different microbrews!

Sampling Mug and 5 sample tix - $10

Additional sampling tix $1 each!

Festival fare includes seafood, sausage, hotdogs, variety of desserts, and more!.

Enjoy beer from Richbrau, Legend, Starr Hill, St. George Brewing Company, Skipjack, Olde Richmond, Hook & Ladder, Magic Hat & more!

First 3,500 paid admissions receive a commemorative Turf Cup Beer Stein

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May Meeting Recap

President Mike Lang called the May 14, 2008 club meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. with approximately 26 folks were in attendance. Mike thanked Tom Martin and the staff of Legends for their continued support. A number of guests were recognized including Joe, Nick, Randy, and Kenny. Welcome to our newest member Randy Garrison!

May Meeting Recap (Continued)

The summer party will be held at Dan Mouer’s on June 29^th. The North Side Club Brew was scheduled for May 17^th but subsequently rescheduled for May 24^th at Mike Lang’s house. Details on the South Side Club Brew were still pending. Volunteers were solicited for the upcoming Rhythm Bets & Brews Festival

at Colonial Downs to be held on June 21^st.

New club t-shirts have arrived and are available on a first come first serve basis for $ 10.00 each.

The main event of the meeting was the annual Intra-Club Competition. Master of Ceremonies William Spiesberger and his trusty assistant John VanItalie organized the 31 club entries into six flights. Each flight was judged by a table comprised of the general membership and headed by an experienced judge. The competition among beers was very close in several of the flights, but a crack best of show judging team ultimately selected an IPA brewed by Joe Moore and Graham Cecil as the winner of the evening.

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Staff Photo - President Mike Lang samples some wort from the mash tun during the North Side Club Brew on May 24^th. A tasty milk stout was the goal of the day (yes… we saw him add the lactose this time) which, the beer gods willing, will be ready for all to enjoy at the summer party.

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Beer distributor really delivers

- Loveland Distributing gets kudos from beer companies and clients.

Richmond Times Dispatch Monday, May 26, 2008

By LISA ANTONELLI BACON

Leon Stepanian Jr.'s first job was separating beer bottles by color. "Green from brown from clear," he said. Stepanian was barely a teenager when his father bought Loveland Distributing Co. from founder Lewis Loveland in 1958. Fifty years later, Loveland has become a family dynasty in local beer distribution.

The company is vastly different from the little distributorship bought by his father, Leon Stepanian Sr., who got into the business by peddling the Richbrau label for Home Brewing Co. Loveland now delivers bottled water, soft drinks (including Red Bull) and more than 200 brands of beer to 1,600 bars, restaurants, convenience stores and grocery stores in central Virginia. The company supplies Miller beer products as well as other brands such as Coors, Corona and Yuengling. The company had seven employees in 1958. Today, payroll exceeds 170. Stepanian's late father kept the company's original name. "I don't think there was any particular ego to name it for ourselves," said Stepanian, now the company's chairman. "We probably didn't have enough money to change the stationery." But Stepanian and his father moved the business several times from its original location in a small building on Mayo Island eventually to a sprawling warehouse on Dabney Road in Henrico County in 1985.

The company is now run by the third generation of Stepanians - son Mark, 37, is president and chief executive officer. "They're a passionate organization," said Jeff Spain, general manager of the mid-Atlantic region for Miller Brewing Co., which this year named Leon Jr. a Miller Legend, a designation held by only 400 distributors in the U.S. The company also won Coors' 2007 Presidents Cup, a distinction bestowed annually on Coors' Top 20 distributors in the country. "We use the term 'execute with excellence,' which is a difficult thing to achieve in our business," Spain said. "If there is one distributor who lives it, breathes it, and uses it as their mantra, it's Loveland." As a beer distributor, Loveland not only distributes products but it markets brands as well. "They take the time to make sure the product is placed in stores correctly, that it's priced correctly," Spain said. "What sets Loveland apart is that when you walk into any given store, they have it done right. Other distributors can be a hit-or-miss proposition. Loveland dots the i's and crosses the t's."

Expanding the business has been a key focus of the Stepanian family. "In this business, it's either grow or die," said Chris Williams, a Loveland senior vice president who has worked for the company for 40 years. When Williams started working there, seven beer distributors served the Richmond area. Now two - Loveland and Brown Distributing Co. - represent the majority of national brands. Until 1981, Loveland's focus was distributing Miller products. "I began to have some different views on the multi-brand house," Stepanian said. Loveland hit a growth spurt then. "We actively sought older brands and welcomed new brands," he said, naming Yuengling, Guinness and Corona as three of the newcomers. Four years later, Loveland grew again, buying distributors' rights for beers such as Bass and Harp from a wholesaler who was getting out of the business. In the mid-1990s, Loveland bought Commonwealth Distributing Co., acquiring the rights to distribute more brands, including Rolling Rock and Colt 45. By then, local beer lovers were taking their tastes to a new level of sophistication. Imports were enjoying a surge among young adults. Boomers took to light beers. "Throughout that period, new faces came to Richmond," Stepanian said. As more microbrews and national brands became available, Loveland expanded its portfolio, essentially cornering a brew for almost every taste. In 2002, after two years of negotiations, Loveland acquired the brands owned by National Distributing Co. of Virginia and began delivering Coors, Corona, Sierra Nevada and Pabst beer, among others. "That acquisition alone grew Loveland 32 percent overnight," Stepanian said.

The business has grown since then. Loveland now commands about 63 percent of all beer distributed in the Richmond area, he said. Stepanian proudly notes that last year the company sold more than 5 million cases of beer. He did not provide revenue figures. Some of Stepanian's longtime customers regard the Loveland family as friends. Manny Méndez, owner of Kuba Kuba restaurant in the Fan District, is as devoted a customer as Loveland is a supplier. "It started with the grandfather [Leon Sr.], when I was a young man in the business, going to pick up beer on Saturdays," said Méndez, who then owned Moondance Saloon in Shockoe Bottom. Loveland "is not like most beverage companies that just care about sales. When it comes time for some kind of benefit, they're always willing to help" with in-kind or actual monetary donations, he said.

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BREWMASTER - G.J. BERNIER JR. DIES

Mr. Bernier, who retired in 1991, died Sunday May 18, 2008 at his Baltimore home from complications of a chronic disease. He was 81.

A native of Richmond, Mr. Bernier attended Benedictine High School until moving to Baltimore to attend boarding school at Mount St. Joseph's High School. He joined the Navy during World War II, serving in Guam as a Seabee in the dredge equipment division. He studied at the United States Brewers' Academy in New York and worked briefly at Lykens Brewery in Lykens, Pa., before returning to Richmond.

The family brewing tradition started when George’s great-great grandfather brewed his first beer in Germany. Mr. Bernier continued the legacy when he became a brewmaster at Richmond's Home Brewing Co. in the early 1950s, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. He worked for Home Brewing Co., which manufactured and distributed Richbrau Beer, until 1969, when the company closed, and he took a job as brewmaster at the F.& M. Schaefer Brewing Co. in Baltimore.

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Home Brewing Company History

The original Richbrau beer, which has no relation to the brew pub other than the name, was actually a brand of beer produced and sold by Richmond-based Home Brewing Company in the 1950s and 1960s. The brewery has roots that go back to the days when Jeff Davis called Richmond home.

Originally located on Buchanan’s Spring at Harrison and Clay Streets, Home Brewing's predecessors started shortly after the end of the Civil War when E. J. Euker built a brewery and several houses for his brewery workers. In 1873, Euker partnered with Henry Bowler to form the Clay Street Brewery, which lasted until 1877 when it was closed due to the depression of the era. The brewery was reopened by George Washington Robinson in 1879 as the Eagle Brewery but quickly failed and was closed in the following year.

Peter Stumpf reopened Eagle as the Richmond Brewing Company in 1892 and renamed it the Peter Stumpf Brewing Company in 1893. Stumpf did considerably better running the brewery than previous owners and added a two-story brick office building (1125 West Clay Street), brick stables (700 Harrison Street), and a beer garden. By the time of his retirement in 1897, the company had several franchises throughout Virginia and North Carolina and owned several saloons.

When Stumpf retired, the company was renamed Home Brewing Company and continued to operate successfully as a brewery until Prohibition. To survive America's darkest era, Home Brewing Co. became Home Products Corporation and produced soft drinks until Prohibition ended in 1933.

When the 18th amendment was repealed and beer was legalized, Home Brewing reopened with a vengeance, increasing its beer production to 50,000 barrels per year. In 1952, Home joined the competition and began canning its beer. By the early 1960s, Home was producing more than 100,000 barrels each year but was closed by 1969 due to higher operating costs and smaller sales.

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Beer Trivia

So what did you learn during your six years at college? Or maybe you just attended U of 7-11. Test your cheap beer knowledge! Guaranteed these questions won’t be on a BJCP exam. Answers are on the last page….no cheating by peeking in the refrigerator.

1) What two-digit number appears on bottles of Rolling Rock beer?

A. 69

B. 13

C. 33

D. 666

2) What is the slogan of Old Milwaukee?

A. “The taste you’ve always loved.”

B. “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

C. “Refreshment, Milwaukee-style.”

D. “So cheap you won’t mind the taste.”

3) What slogan did the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms force Coors Light to drop because it was misleading?

A. “Tap the Rockies.”

B. “The coldest-tasting beer in the world.”

C. “It won’t slow you down.”

D. “Brewed with pure Rocky Mountain spring water.”

4) What year was Pabst Blue Ribbon selected “America’s Best” ?

A. 1776

B. 1812

C. 1893

D. 1921

5) What beer used the popular advertising jingle “From one beer lover to another…..”

A. Ballantine's

B. Colt 45

C. Old English 800

D. Stroh’s

6) What brewery launched “Billy Beer” starting in 1977?

A. Falls City Brewing Company

B. Latrobe Brewing Company

C. G. Heileman Brewing Company

D. Plank Road Brewery

7) What beer hails “From the land of pleasant living” ?

A. Carling Black Label

B. National Bohemian

C. Milwaukee's Best

D. Hamm's Beer

8) What beer is sometimes popularly referred to as simply “The Beast”?

A. Red Dog

B. Icehouse

C. SouthPaw

D. Milwaukee's Best

9) “When your out of ____________ , your out of beer”

A. Schlitz

B. Blatz

C. Rainier

D. Olympia

10) “Flavor of a fine ale and the smoothness of a premium lager” is on who’s label ?

A. Anchor Steam

B. Labatt 50

C. Genesee Cream Ale

D. Molson Golden

11) High-G or Eight Ball is a term often used to refer to what high quality malt liquor?

A. Colt 45

B. Old English 800

C. Country Club

D. King Cobra

12) What beer is touted as the “National Beer of Texas” ?

A. Pearle

B. Shiner

C. Lone Star

D. Blue Star

13) "This is the famous _________ beer. We know of no brand produced by any other brewer which costs so much to brew and age. …….."

A. Budweiser

B. Red White and Blue

C. Old Milwaukee

D. Ballantine’s

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AHA – Club Only Competition

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 2008 BJCP Guidelines.

http://www.beertown.org/homebrewing/schedule.html

2008 -2009 Competition Schedule:

August 2008 – Mead

Minnesota Homebrewers Association of Edina, MN

Entries are due 7/25/2008

September/October 2008 Imperial Anything

Clinton River Association of Fermenting Trendsetters (C.R.A.F.T.) of Macomb Township, MI

Entries are due 10/11/08

November/December 2008

Celebration of the Hop (IPA)

Scioto Olentangy and Darby Zymurgists (SODZ) club of Delaware, OH

This competition covers BJCP Category 14 styles.

Entries are due TBD

January/February 2009

Belgian & French Ales

Silverado Homebrew Club of St. Charles, IL

This competition covers BJCP Category 16 styles.

Entries are due TBD

March/April 2009

Beers with OG > 1.080

Prairie Homebrewing Companions of Fargo, ND

This competition covers the following beer styles 5C, 5D, 9E, 12C, 13F, 14C, 15C, 16C, 16D, 16E, 18C, 18D, 18E , 20 Fruit Beer over 1.080 OG,

21 Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer over 1.080 OG,

22B Other Smoked Beer over 1.080 OG, 22C Wood-Aged Beer over 1.080 OG, 23 Specialty Beer over 1.080 OG

January/February 2009

Belgian & French Ales

Silverado Homebrew Club of St. Charles, IL Competition covers BJCP Category 16 styles.

May 2009

Extract Beers

Knights of the Brown Bottle club of Arlington, TX

Competition covers all BJCP beer categories (1-23)

As the entry dates are set, we will include the date that our local competition will be held in the Upcoming JRHB Events listing. Winners earn Homebrew Club of the Year points for their club.

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BJCP – Beer Style of the Month

Note: The 2008 BJCP Guidelines have recently been published updating the 2004 Guidelines. The 2008 revision has some minor wording corrections, updates lists of classic examples that are currently generally available, and has updates to typical gravities and other specifications for a number beer styles. The updated guidelines are available for download at

http://www.bjcp.org/stylecenter.html

11A. Mild

Aroma: Low to moderate malt aroma, and may have some fruitiness. The malt expression can take on a wide range of character, which can include caramelly, grainy, toasted, nutty, chocolate, or lightly roasted. Little to no hop aroma. Very low to no diacetyl.

Appearance: Copper to dark brown or mahogany color. A few paler examples (medium amber to light brown) exist. Generally clear, although is traditionally unfiltered. Low to moderate off-white to tan head. Retention may be poor due to low carbonation, adjunct use and low gravity.

Flavor: Generally a malty beer, although may have a very wide range of malt- and yeast-based flavors (e.g., malty, sweet, caramel, toffee, toast, nutty, chocolate, coffee, roast, vinous, fruit, licorice, molasses, plum, raisin). Can finish sweet or dry. Versions with darker malts may have a dry, roasted finish. Low to moderate bitterness, enough to provide some balance but not enough to overpower the malt. Fruity esters moderate to none. Diacetyl and hop flavor low to none.

Mouthfeel: Light to medium body. Generally low to medium-low carbonation. Roast-based versions may have a light astringency. Sweeter versions may seem to have a rather full mouthfeel for the gravity.

Overall Impression: A light-flavored, malt-accented beer that is readily suited to drinking in quantity. Refreshing, yet flavorful. Some versions may seem like lower gravity brown porters.

History: May have evolved as one of the elements of early porters. In modern terms, the name “mild” refers to the relative lack of hop bitterness (i.e., less hoppy than a pale ale, and not so strong). Originally, the “mildness” may have referred to the fact that this beer was young and did not yet have the moderate sourness that aged batches had. Somewhat rare in England, good versions may still be found in the Midlands around Birmingham.

Comments: Most are low-gravity session beers in the range 3.1-3.8%, although some versions may be made in the stronger (4%+) range for export, festivals, seasonal and/or special occasions. Generally served on cask; session-strength bottled versions don’t often travel well. A wide range of interpretations are possible.

Ingredients: Pale English base malts (often fairly dextrinous), crystal and darker malts should comprise the grist. May use sugar adjuncts. English hop varieties would be most suitable, though their character is muted. Characterful English ale yeast.

Vital Statistics:

OG: 1.030 – 1.038

IBUs: 10 – 25

FG: 1.008 – 1.013

SRM: 12 – 25

ABV: 2.8 – 4.5%

Commercial Examples: Moorhouse Black Cat, Gale’s Festival Mild, Theakston Traditional Mild, Highgate Mild, Sainsbury Mild, Brain’s Dark, Banks's Mild, Coach House Gunpowder Strong Mild, Woodforde’s Mardler’s Mild, Greene King XX Mild, Motor City Brewing Ghettoblaster

English Mild – Ad Nauseam Details

Mild ale is a low-gravity, malty beer that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1600s or earlier. Modern Mild Ales are mainly dark colored with an ABV of 3% to 3.6%, though there are examples of up to 6%.

Once sold in every pub, Mild was the largest selling English ale. It retains some popularity in the West Midlands, Wales and North West England, but since the 1960s has completely disappeared from many parts of the United Kingdom, and has been totally ousted by bitter and lager in the south of England. In 2002 only 1.3% of beer sold in pubs was Mild. Mild's popularity in Wales persisted as a relatively low-alcohol, sweet drink for coal miners.

The term mild originally meant young beer or ale as opposed to "stale" aged beer or ale. "Mild" was originally used to designate any beer which was young or unaged and did not refer to a specific style of beer. Thus there was Mild Ale but also Mild Porter and even Mild Bitter Beer. These young beers were often blended with aged "stale" beer to improve their flavor. As the 19th century progressed and public taste moved away from the aged taste, unblended young beer, mostly in the form of Mild Ale or Light Bitter Beer, began to dominate the market. In more recent times “mild” is interpreted as denoting "mildly hopped".

In the 19th century a typical brewery produced three or four Mild Ales, usually designated by a number of X's, the weakest being X, the strongest XXXX. They were considerably stronger than the Milds of today, with the gravity ranging from around 1055° to 1072° (about 5.5% to 7% abv). Gravities dropped throughout the late 1800s and by 1914 the weakest Milds were down to about 1045°, still considerably stronger than modern versions.

The draconian measures applied to the brewing industry during WWI had a particularly dramatic effect upon Mild. As the biggest-selling beer, it suffered the largest cut in gravity when breweries had to limit the average OG of their beer to 1030°. In order to be able to produce some stronger beer - which was exempt from price controls and thus more profitable - Mild was reduced to 1025° or lower. At that strength, it could scarcely be considered an intoxicating drink.

Though restrictions on brewing were removed in 1921, Mild never fully recovered its pre-war strength. It settled at around 1043°, still considerably higher than today. A dramatic rise in excise duty in 1931, from 80 shillings to 114 shillings per barrel, prompted brewers to cut their Mild gravities back to 1032-1035º. However, some breweries, such as Barclay Perkins, introduced a new Best Mild, at a gravity of 1043°.

Modern Dark Mild varies from dark amber to near-black in color and is very light-bodied. Its flavor is dominated by malt, sometimes with roasty notes derived from the use of black malt, with a subdued hop character. Most are in the range 1030°-1036° (3-3.6% abv).

Dark Mild ales are generally based on mild malt which is similar in color to pale malt. Mild malt is kilned at slightly higher temperatures than pale malt in order to provide a less neutral, rounder flavor generally described as "nutty". Dark milds typically make use of chocolate malt which produces complex undertones of vanilla and caramel (but not chocolate), and black malt, also called patent malt or black patent malt. Black malt is barley malt that has been kilned to the point of carbonizing, around 200 °C. The term "patent malt" comes from its invention in England in 1817, late enough that the inventor of the process for its manufacture, Daniel Wheeler, was awarded a patent. Black malt contributes an acrid, ashy undertone to the taste. In small quantities, black malt can also be used to darken beer to a desired color. Brewing sugars are also frequently used in Dark Mild recipes.

Beer Recipe of the Month

Dark Mild

Recipe is researched but untested as of yet….brew at your own risk !!

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00

Total Grain (Lbs): 6.63

Anticipated OG: 1.036

Anticipated FG: 1.008

Anticipated ABV: 3.67%

Anticipated SRM: 26.3

Anticipated IBU: 25.4

Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain Bill

Qnty. Name Potential SRM

5.00 lbs. Crisp Maris Otter UK 1.038 4

6.0 ozs. Simpsons Chocolate UK 1.034 450 4.0 ozs. Simpsons Black UK 1.027 550

8.0 ozs. Flaked Wheat USA 1.034 2

8.0 ozs. Light Brown Cane Sugar 1.047 0

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time

1.00 oz. Fuggle Whole 5.00 22.4 60 min

0.50 oz. Fuggle Whole 5.00 3.0 15 min

Substitute hop varieties: Target (watch the Alpha)

Yeast:

Danstar Windsor Ale Yeast (dry)

WYEAST 1275 Thames Valley

White Labs WLP002 English Ale

Mash Schedule: High carbonate content water. Single infusion 60 min at 153F. Sparge at 170F.

Add the sugar during the boil.

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Our Compliments to….

The WeekEnd Brewer

Homebrew & Wine Supplies

4205 West Hundred Road

Chester, VA 23831

(804) 796-9760

http://www.weekendbrewer.com/

River City Cellars

Beer, Wine and Gourmet Foods

2931 West Cary Street

Richmond, VA 23221

(804) 355-1375

www.rivercitycellars.com

(10% Discount for JRHB Members with JRHB Membership Card Only)

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