Upcoming JRHB Events

Wednesday, March 11th

Regular Club Meeting at Legends

Growing Hops

AHA Club Only Contest

Beers with O.G. > 1.080

Bring entries to March meeting

Wednesday, March 18th

Board of Directors Meeting

Legends Brewery

For updated information and the club forum visit http://www.jrhb.org/

February Meeting Recap

The February meeting was called to order by President Mike Lang with approximately 55 in attendance. Mike thanked Tom Martin and the Legends Staff for their hospitality.

New guests: Kyle, Tim & Anita, Mick, Brian, Bridge, Tyler & Steven, Bill and Steve

New members: Larry & Jeanette

A new gavel shaped like a beer barrel was presented to President Mike Lang and the anonymous maker has offered to make a new one for each president.

The Legends Party was a success, with a good turn out and the generous tips will help subsidize the Brews Cruise.

Last call for Brews Cruise on 2/28. More on that later

March AHA club only contest is beers with O.G.>1.080. Bring entries to March meeting

National Home Brew Competition entries due by 3/1, and there is a $5 discount to AHA members

Club member Dan Mouer made it to the Best of Show round with his Saison. Congratulation, Dan, will you be bringing some to the March meeting?

In light of the current employment climate, there was a small job fare. Those looking for employment gave a brief background and those who knew of openings stated so.

Announcement was made about hops for sale. Amarillo, Simcoe and Cascade are still available.

5-minute brewer concept pitched by Mark; experienced brewers can share short tips with new brewers. February’s tip was about steeping grains to add color, character and richness to an extract brew. We discussed how to use grain bag. Suggested steeping temperature is 150-170°F for 30 minutes; do not boil as too much tannin will be extracted. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Continued presentation on Extra Special Bitters started with the demo by John Van Itallie on bottling from keg. We sampled the bottles from last month’s demo and tried to guess which bottle was from what method. Most guesses were accurate. John also discussed water profiles for this style and we tasted some commercial examples of ESBs also.

Meeting was finished with another excellent raffle with Bobby Lang’s able assistance. I believe she is the best “Vanna” we have ever had!

Meeting adjourned around 9:30

Brews Cruise 2009

Recap thanks to Dave Rockafellow; unfortunately, I was not able to attend!

Our Cruise Director Dave Rockafellow was able to pull some strings and delay the snow storm one day to allow 29 club members to have a very successful trip.  Andre (our driver for two years now) had the bus loaded and ready to roll at 8:30 after a quick breakfast of coffee, muffins and spent grain bread.  Our first stop of the day was Blue and Gray Brewing in Fredericksburg.  Head Brewer Madison Hill provided informal tours and answered questions while the club tasted his offerings.  At 9:30 in the morning it proved the adage "you can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning!".  Since their stout was not on tap, Madison provided samples right from the conditioning tank.  It was so good that the club decided to get a keg to have on the bus along with the keg of "Penniless Pils" that John Van Itallie brought along to share.

 

Our second stop was Pearmund Winery where the beer group proved we could appreciate the vine as well as the barley.  Many folks left with a bottle or two and the club voted on one to include in the raffle.  From there we took our appetites and thirst to Brewer's Alley in Fredrick, MD.  Head Brewer Tom Flores was all set up for the large group and had our meals promptly brought out while he provided samples and discussion.  After lunch, Tom took two tour groups around to show off his operation and answer questions.

 

From there it was a short ride to Flying Dog Brewery (yes the one that used to be in Colorado).  Wow!  Stephanie Highnote and the rest of the staff at Flying Dog (including the flying dog himself) really went out of their way to accommodate our club.  They stayed open well past the normal closing time and gave the group a private detailed tour of the massive operation.  They even made sure we would not be thirsty while we toured - they're good people.  After the tour, we had what could easily be described as the best tasting one could be imagined.  Not only did we have our fill of the usuals on tap but they even brought out some of the "ones we save for special occasions" for the club to taste.  Wow!

 

Once the last few members were pried off the bar at Flying Dog, we bid farewell and had a short drive down the road to the Dogfish Head restaurant.  As expected, the place was packed but Brian was able to squeeze us in and many folks grabbed a bite to eat along with the superb Dogfish Head beers.  Now at this point (or maybe earlier) you would like that maybe we would have lost a couple of folks, but no -- we still had 29 people -- in fact it appears it was the same 29 we started with!  Back to the bus for the trip home, we had a really great raffle with handmade brew items this year: tap handles from Larry Culpepper, bottle opener from Steve Sebastian and mash paddles from Dave Rockafellow, add to that wine, prizes donated from the breweries and the grand prize - two tickets to the Charles Town races donated by the James River Bus Lines.  With five fabulous stops Brews Cruise 2009 will be tough to top next year.

 

Photo thanks to John Van Itallie

March Meeting

Our March meeting will feature “How to grow hops.” Steve Brainerd will be enlightening us on the finer points of growing your own. If we are lucky, we may get to sample an IPA made with home grown hops!

The Man Who Orders Three Beers

An Irishman moves to the town of Dingle. His first night in town, he walks into the local pub, and orders three beers. The surprised bartender serves the man three beers, which he drinks quietly at a table, alone. An hour later the man has finished the three beers and orders three more. Again, he drinks the three beers quietly at a table alone. Then he pays his tab and leaves.

The next night the man comes in again and does the same thing. He does this for several nights in a row. Soon the entire town is whispering about The Man Who Orders Three Beers.

Finally, after a week, the bartender broaches the subject on behalf of the town. “I don’t mean to pry, but folks around here are wondering why you always order three beers.”

“Tis odd, I will admit.” The man replies. “You see, I have two brothers. One went to America and one went to Australia. We promised each other that we would always order an extra two beers and drink one for each of the two other brothers, to keep the family bond.”

The bartender and the whole town were pleased with this answer and soon the Man Who Orders Three Beers became a local celebrity and source of pride to the hamlet, even to the extent that out-of-towners would come to watch him drink.

Then one day the man comes in and only orders two beers. The bartender pours them with a heavy heart. This continues for the rest of the evening. He only orders two beers. Word flies around town. Prayers are offered for the soul of one of the brothers.

The next evening, the bartender says to the man, “Folks around here, me first of all, want to offer condolences to you for the death of your brother. You know – two beers and all….”

The man ponders this for a moment and replies, “You’ll be happy to hear that my two brothers are alive and well. It’s just that I, meself, have decided to give up drinking for Lent.”

AHA Club Only Competition

March/April 2009

Beers with OG > 1.080

Entries should be brought to the March Meeting.

BJCP Category	Style
5C, D	Dopplebock, Eisbock
9E	Strong Scottish Ale
12C	Baltic Porter
13F	Imperial Stout
14C	Imperial IPA
15C	Weizenbock
16C, D, E	Siason, Bière de Garde, Belgian Specialty Ale
18C, D, E	Belgian Tripel, Belgian Golden Strong Ale, Belgian Dark Strong Ale
19A, B, C	Old Ale, English Barleywine, American Barleywine
20	Fruit Beer over 1.080 OG
21	Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer over 1.080 OG
22B, C	Other Smoked Beer over 1.080 OG, Wood-Aged Beer over 1.080 OG
	Specialty Beer over 1.080 OG

Recipe of the Month

In honor of the 2009 Brews Cruise, this month’s recipe is for Spent Grain Bread, which was served on the Cruise. I have heard several people ask about what to do with the grain after brewing. Well, now you know! Thanks to the member who contributed this recipe…let me know who you are so we can give you proper credit!

Here is the recipe I used for the Spent Grain Bread.  I make mine in the bread machine on dough setting then take it out, let it rise and bake or just bake as bread in the bread machine.  If you don't have a bread machine I believe the recipe will work - just follow your normal bread making technique.

 

1/2 cup beer or water or last runnings from end of sparge

2 cups  bread flour

1 cup spent grain from your all grain beer batch

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp honey

2 tsp bread yeast

 

Watch while it is mixing up as the moisture in the grains varies (so you may need to add a little water or flour)

 

Enjoy. 

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)

The BrewsLeader is the official e-publication of the

James River Homebrewers

Monthly Meetings

All regular club 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 thank Tom Martin and the rest of the Legend staff for their gracious hospitality.

Officers and Board of Directors

Officers

President: Mike Lang – president@jrhb.org

Vice President: Dan Mouer – vicepresident@jrhb.org

Treasurer: Mike Hinkle – treasurer@jrhb.org

Secretary: Pat Webb – secretary@jrhb.org

Member at Large: Andy Rolfe – memberatlarge@jrhb.org

Competition Coordinator: John Van Itallie – competitioncoordinator@jrhb.org

Assistant Competition Coordinator: Brian Kinzie – asstcompcoordinator@jrhb.org

Web Master: Joe Moore – webmaster@jrhb.org

Directors

Mark Browski

Rober Doucet

Tim Moran

Steve Severtson

Eric Shelton

Ted Smith

Web Site

http://www.jrhb.org/

Submit Articles

Articles or other items of interest from the membership are welcome (encouraged) and should be submitted to the Secretary. Email to secretary@jrhb.org.

Dues

Membership dues are $20 per calendar year. Dues will be prorated on a quarterly basis.

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.

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