April 2007
“News About Brews”
A Record-breaking Brewoff
The meeting at the British Beer Company in Walpole was a great time, with excellent beers on tap and interesting breweriana and gadgets on display by members. Thanks to Earl for graciously hosting us, and to Bill for setting that up. It looks like we may have occasional meetings at this location, which is a great thing. They love good beer there and care for it properly.
The following Saturday was also the annual South Shore Brewoff. This year our efforts paid off with a record number of entries (somewhere over 150). Those members who made the efforts to involve 'remote' brew shops and pick up the entries from there obviously helped, as did a more aggressive advertising effort. We were a bit hard-pressed to get enough judges for all those entries, and I don't know how late the judging went on Saturday (or if it was finished that day). Hopefully all went well, and maybe we will need to increase the number of judges in our ranks in order to avoid this in future years. A BJCP judge study group and test scheduling were briefly discussed at the meeting and may be pursued. If anyone is interested who was not at the meeting, they should speak up as well to make sure we can gauge interest and pursue this.
With the summer season coming up and a couple of picnics, don't forget to brew up some beer to share. And don't forget the group brew coming up May 12. And there's the Experimental club competition still tentatively slated for June (depends upon a location for the May meeting).
Brew On!
Jimmy B
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Index
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At a Glance (next meeting, events, quote and trivia) | ||||
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Sip by Sip (meeting minutes) | ||||
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It's All in the De-T-Ales (articles, reviews, etc.)
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At
A Glance…
Things
You May Want To Know, Or Not
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Club Events
May 8th – SSBC meeting at Frank White's (directions)
May 12th – SSBC's annual Group Brew at Bill Tredo's (directions)
Check the club calendar for more details on these and other upcoming events. |
Area Events
May 2-5th – New England Real Ale Exhibition (NERAX) (details)
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Next MeetingDate: May 8th Location: Frank White's Directions: click here Agenda: Food and Beer Pairing |
Beer Quote and Trivia
Because of it's size, Chicago should have become the major brewing center of the upper Midwest. So why did Milwaukee take this role?
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Sip
by Sip
Minutes
of the Previous Meeting
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Date: April 10th, 2007
Location: British Beer Company, Walpole, MA
Number of Members Attending: 20
Business
| The South Shore Brewoff is this Saturday. We're short on judges. We have 7 BJCP judges and need more judges and stewards. Registration is at 8-8:30 for the judges and stewards. Judging starts at 9:00. Plans were made to get one flight done before the event. |
| Food is also needed for the Brewoff. We have some food planned but need more. More food was offered by a few members, so we ended up having enough. |
| No location for the May meeting yet. It's a food and beer pairing, which means large attendance and the need for a location which has kitchen facilities available for several hours before the meeting. Peter had said he could host, but only on a weekend and our May weekends are pretty full with other events so not sure we could make this work. Some other ideas were bounced around and we will need to figure these out within the next few weeks. |
| The SSBC picnic can happen anytime in July except the last weekend. We also avoided the first weekend because it is around the 4th and people will likely be busy. We decided the 14th will probably be the date. |
| Since we're a homebrew club, we are hoping to have all homebrew for the picnic again (no commercial beers unless we find we will be lacking (which I highly doubt). |
| Group Brew is May 12 at Bill Tredo's house. We've got a new barrel which Jeff brought to the meeting and was to be dropped off at Bill's house following the meeting. Jeff will get yeast from Trinity ands Steve will get the ingredients. We need a food coordinator for that day as well, to make sure we get fed while we're brewing. |
| As far as paying for the group brew ingredients, we decided that brewers and bottlers should split the costs, similar to what was done this year but without looking for other members to buy shares. This means the treasury would need to front the costs again until the brew is bottled next year and costs are finalized. |
| There was little feedback/interest in the June pub crawl to western Mass., so it was decided to move it to late September (but before the fall beer/festival events start happening). |
| The Modern Brewer shop is looking to see if there is any interest in scheduling a BJCP exam. If anyone is interested we should get a study group together, and maybe even plan for an exam ourselves so that we have some control over it. Need to pursue this. |
| Mark Irwin brought up the idea of using 'Yahoo Groups' to manage our ever-changing member e-mail list. This would allow moderator/administrators to update the list with the e-mail addresses of club members, and everyone could just send e-mails to this list instead of needing to maintain their own lists (which frequently become outdated). It was agreed that this is a great idea, and Mark will take care of this. |
| Denver Trip - some members are going the weekend of June 23rd. There are still reasonably priced flights available, talk to Kevin soon if you are interested. The Wort's are moving their picnic to the following weekend to accommodate the fact that some SSBC members are away this weekend. |
| Earl from the British Beer Company brought us downstairs to their state-of-the-art cooling system. They use a nitrogen generator to supply nitrogen for their mixed-gas dispensing system. They have special units installed which prevent kegs from blowing foam, which saves them from losing 3 gallons of beer when each keg kicks. Earl talked about his philosophy on what beers go on tap, avoiding 'easy choices' for consumers (e.g. Stella Artois, Boddington's, etc.) and making them take a look at the list to find a beer they are interested in. Because of the volume of Bud Light they were having to lug upstairs in bottles, they did decide they needed to include that on tap as well, however. |
| Bill Tredo needs to know soon whether anyone else is interested in the England canal boat trip this fall. Let him know so plans can be made. |
| Steve Rose recommends The Publick House in Brookline for their extensive selection of Belgian beers and other draughts, and their cuisine a la biere (that's food made with beer). Click here for their tap list. |
Breweriana and Brewing Gadgets, presented by Bill Tredo (also Steve Gravel, Mary Anne and Steve Rose)
Bill shared his brewery/beer memorabilia and antiquities such as several steins and some old cappers. One stein was a McCoy stein made in 1968 that Bill bought for $48 and goes for $500+. Steve G. shared some of his trays, bottle openers and stein collection as well as brewing gadgets with the club. Mary Anne also had a tray and various items from years past. And Steve R. had some interesting tap handles which were just small knobs of metal, similar to a gear shifter (and sometimes used for that purpose!).
There were very interesting, and in some cases antiquated, pieces shared with the club, and there are plenty of resources out there if anyone is interested in getting involved in collecting beer-related items.
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Recipe of the Month
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English Barleywine
(March Club Competition Winner)
from: Jim Bowser
This recipe will be the basis for our Group Brew in May.
1lb Crystal 60l
2lb Maris Otter Malt
@150 degrees for 30min
10lbs extra light dme
12oz dark molasses
3oz fuggles 5%
2oz ekg 4.5%
1/2oz Target 11.5%
boil all for 1hr
1oz Magnum hops 15.1%
1tsp irish moss
last 15 min
1oz Fuggles 5% at end of boil
og 1.084
fg 1.025
3 safale dry yeast packets hydrated 15min. added after chilled to
70degrees
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It’s
All in the De-t-Ales…
Articles,
Reviews and Information
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Contents:
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Wort's Clone Contest Information
by Fred
The clone contest has been going on for at least 10 years. Rules are simple - closest to the target beer - not better or worse.
Winner picks for next year. The beer has to be available in bottles in this
area. I won with a Reissdorf Kolsch last year. We have done:
1991 San Miguel Dark, Tom Gorman
1992 Castleain Biere de Garde, Eric Haas
1993 Pilsner Urquell, Jay Hersh
1994 Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout, Jim Fitzgerald
1995 Anchor Liberty Ale, Mike Biblyk
1996 Old Peculier, Shekhar Nimkar
1997 Pete's Wicked Ale, Mike Biblyk
1998 BigFoot Barleywine, Mike Biblyk
1999 Fullers ESB, Shekhar Nimkar
2000 Sam Adams DoubleBock, Ken Jucks
2001 Brewery Ommegang, Hennepin, Ken Jucks
2002 Victory, Prima Pils, Jim Dexter
2003 Allagash White
2004 Brooklyn Double Chocolate Stout, Andrew
2005 LaChouffe, Ken Weber
2006 Reissdorf Kolsch, Fred
2007 Buzzards Bay Black Lager
Buzzards Bay Black Lager
Clone Contest
One of the ideas for a clone contest that worked well was going to the
brewery to have the brew master help judge the clone. There are several
microbreweries around here that do make interesting beers. One of the
styles we haven't done was Black Lager and Buzzards Bay has a very interesting one as part of the line. Sam Adams also makes that style.
I stopped at Buzzards Bay in Westport and the head brewer was very
supportive of the idea. He said he would be glad to host the tasting and
even gave me the recipe for 53 barrels. I think the consistency and the
beer have improved lately. If you have never been there, it is owned by
the same people that own Westport Vineyards and is just around the corner.
It would make a nice day to stop at both the winery and the brewery.
by Bill Gassett
Mild Ales
This isn’t so much a story about a specific style of beer as it is a story
about a term used to distinguish one style of beer from another.
And it goes like this.
In the 1700’s the term “Mild” was not being used to describe a
certain style of beer which we now use in reference to an English
low alcohol, low hopped beer. It was used to differentiate a beer
that was served only weeks after it was brewed instead of a beer
that was stored for up to 6 months or more. It was also used in
reference to a porter, the most popular beer in he late 1770’s, but
this was only to distinguish a new porter form a “stale” porter. The
stale porter being beer that was aged in the keg.
In the 1800’s there was a change in the taste of beer drinkers.
More and more beers started to be served new or fresh after the
brewing process. These beers were sometimes called mild. Even
by the middle of the 1800’s there wasn’t an actual style designated
as mild ale. This is due to the fact that most brown beers were
simply called ales, as long as they weren't stouts or porters. The use
of mild to designate a new beer was being used less and less
because almost all ales were brewed to be drunk relatively new.
Ales that were to be aged were called stock ales.
There was a big development in English Brewing in the 1820’s with
the development of IPA’s. Pale Ales had been around for awhile but
weren't as popular as as the old tried and true brown ales. The
development of India Pale Ales changed all that. Within 30 or 40
years lots of brewers were brewing pale ales of one kind or
another which meant that popularity of porter and stout waned
drastically. So another name for their brown non-porter beers
was needed and the term “mild ale” was chosen. Still at this time
there was not a specific style of beer know as Mild Ales. Porter
faded in popularity to almost non existent while pale and mild ales
increased in popularity. Milds being the favorite.
Around 1900 the strength of beers in general diminished. This was
mainly due to an Act of Parliament that taxed beer according to
the original gravity. Lower original gravity meant lower taxes and
weaker beers. When WWI broke out the shortage of materials also
meant weaker beers. This was probably the hay-day for beers
falling into the mild ale style. A relatively cheaper, easy drinking
beer that one could be consumed in large quantities, if one wanted
to.
After WWI beers grew in strength somewhat but probably not back
to what they used to be. Milds continued to be the beer of choice.
Things didn’t change much until the end of WWII. At this time
bitters became more and more popular as tastes changed and
drinkers became more affluent.
In the 60’s bitters surpassed milds as the most popular beer in
Britain and continued to grow popularity. In certain areas of
Britain milds still ruled but they were never to be the beer of
choice as they once were. Still, at this time there was not a specific
style of beer known as mild. Mild was a general time for lighter
brown ales.
But alas, the rein of bitters was not to be a long one. The
consumption of lagers was on the rise and sometime around 1990,
lagers surpassed bitter as the most drunk draft beer.
“THE ONCE-MIGHTY MILD ALE HAS NOW DWINDLED FROM BEING THE
STAR TO BEING JUST A BIT-PLAYER WHOSE PART COULD BE QUICKLY
WRITTEN OUT OF THE PLAY.”
But have no fear. Mild ales have not gone away completely in
England. Pale ales are still popular. Stouts and porters have stage a
come back. Bitters can be found everywhere and milds are still
being brewed. Somewhere along the line, mild ale finally did get
recognized as a specific style of beer. Numbers were assigned.
3.0% to 3.5% in alcohol. 10 to 25 IBUs. SRM 12-15. Usually light in
color and almost always light in taste. What probably started out
being the “common mans beer”, eventually rose to being the
dominate beer in Britain, only to be replace by a newer, faster and
stronger model. This replacement has since been replace itself by
a new and improved version of beer. How long will it be before it is
replaced. Time will tell.
I look at mild ales as, in a way, as England’s answer to Budweiser.
Sure one is an ale, the other a lager. But they are both brewed for
one purpose. As a beer you can sit down and pound down.
Beer
Trivia Answer
Because of it's size, Chicago should have become the major brewing center of the upper Midwest. So why did Milwaukee take this role?
Answer: After the fire of 1872 destroyed Chicago's breweries, Milwaukee brewer's flooded the market with their products.