Newsletters - January 2005
December Meeting Minutes
The regular meeting of the First State Brewers was held at the Sever home on December 17, 2004. We had a lot of beer from which to choose, so it took every pint of discipline to not over-indulge.
In addition to the usual good time, the following "official" business was
conducted:
(1) officer nominees were elected
(2) we reviewed the Pub Crawl to Baltimore on December 4
To recap, we visited Red Brick Station in the White Marsh Mall; the Ellicott Mills Brewing Company (near Scott's childhood home); The Brewers Art, north of downtown; and Olivers, aka The Wharf Rat, in Fells Point. Kudos to Jerry Carney for commanding the royal van. "Damn straight!", as Marty would put it. Respectfully submitted, Jeff
Recent Club Communications
Also, I forgot to mention that I have a new beer that I will tap for the meeting. Here is the recipe:
3 lbs plain light DME malt extract
1 lb Crystal Malt (60L)
1 lb Caramunich Malt (courtesy of Garrett Sever)
2 oz Amarillo hop pellets (courtesy of Garrett Sever)
1 oz Styrian Goldings (German) pellet hops
White Labs British Ale Yeast (WLP005)
I kegged it last night and it was fantastic! Garrett is right! Amarillo hops rock!
I also will be bringing the Dogbolter kit beer I brewed in November. It's tasting very nice, as well
Heavyweight Brewing Company Trip
Trip? What trip? Well, Marty Drinan and I went on a spur of the moment trip to the Heavyweight Brewing Company (http://www.heavyweight-brewing.com)
near Neptune, NJ last weekend. I have posted a few pictures on the web site at www.firststatebrewers.com. We sampled the Lunacy Belgian-Style Golden Ale and the Cinderbock Lager. Also, there were some guest beers to sample. I can't remember what my favorite was. It had a lot of hops and was in a growler. Maybe Marty will remember what it was.
I was pleased to finally meet Bob. Who? Bob from, "Bob & Zeke & Tony's 1999 Beer Tour of Belgium and Germany." Check out his web page. There is a hysterical account of his trip to Belgium and Germany with his son Zeke and friend Tony. Tony was also at the event, but Zeke was not there. Bob and Tony were both very friendly. Bob introduced me to all the brewers and homebrewers he knew.
Before we left, I made sure to buy an assortment of their brew which I will also share at the meeting!
Check this out. I just discovered it on Beertown.org.
Craft Brewers Conference
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Marriott Downtown
April 13-16, 2005 http://www.beertown.org/craftbrewing/index.html
Cheers,
Scott
From: Garrett Sever
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005
To: 'Scott Bieber'
Subject: Dubbelweizen
Well, the porter keg kicked tonight. I poured my first of the evening and the last of the keg... so the dubbelweizen is now in the kegerator. It hasn't aged as much as I probably would have liked, but hey - its tough keeping up with demand. Some things just can't age like I'd want to.... ;-)
I'll be bringing a growler of it to the meeting along with a growler of my Amarillo Pale Ale.
See you there!
-G
From: Garrett Sever
Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2005
To: 'Scott Bieber'
Subject: Dubbelweizen
Well, I took a gravity reading today and drank the sample - YUM. Banana and clove notes are present but subdued and not overwhelming. Its very smooth, and surprisingly enough its very clear. I won't need to fine it at all.
I still wish I had pitched the right yeast - I was really looking forward to having a nice dubbel, and I think it would have been fantastic. I'll just have to try to brew it again with the intended yeast.
Although my little yeast snafu did open the door for me to brew this tripel today w/o having to get another yeast... And I'll probably save the slurry and pitch it into my next batch of dubbel. It needed to be darker anyways.
See ya!
-Garrett
From: Garrett
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005
To: Scott Bieber
Subject: Whoops
Turns out that Morebeer.com is completely out of Amarillo hops! I just placed an order for another pound from a different site (NorthernBrewer.com), but I'm freaking out - how mean would it be for me to get you guys hooked on these hops and they weren't available anywhere! Not to mention that it'd be really hard for me to brew more batches of my Amarillo Pale Ale without amarillo.... At any rate, I've got the first 5 gallons in the kegerator carbonating this week. I intend on bringing a growler of it to the next meeting at Marty's. Hope you'll be there - I think you'll love this stuff. Now I just have to make sure it LASTS until the meeting - it sure didn't this past time. At least I've got a backup keg.... -Garrett
From: Gerald J Carney
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005
To: Scott Bieber
Subject: Stuff
Scott,
Newsletter Stuff. See if there is any interest in attending. Jerry
From: David Houseman
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Subject: MCAB VII
The Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing for 2005, MCAB VII, will take place on March 4th and 5th, at the Desmond Hotel and Conference Center in Malvern, PA. The organizers of the Qualifying Events for this competition have been asked to submit the names, address and email addresses for all qualifiers. When these have been received, individual notices will be sent. Until then all qualifiers should crank up the kettles or get out those stowed bottles of beer and prepare to send in your entries. The entrance fee will be $5/entry this year to offset competition costs. Further details will be posted on the MCAB email site at www.hbd.org and future postings to this forum. David Houseman Competition Organizer
From: Gerald J Carney
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005
To: Scott Bieber
Subject: Stuff
Scott,
Even more stuff.
Jerry
Subj: Weyerbacher Update
Date: 1/5/2005 7:27:07 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: Weyerbacher Mailing List
Weyerbacher Update
Open House, Heresy, New Equipment...
Open House: Saturday January 22nd, from Noon to 4 pm, we'll be holding our
annual Open House at the brewery. As in past years, we'll have 8 or 10
kegs of beer tapped at various locations throughout the brewery. Everyone attending is able to sample all of the beers available, as well as conduct a self-guided tour of the brewery. This is your chance to check out our new 25-bbl Brewhouse that just went on line in early December, and believe me, it's a big change for us! If you saw our old equipment and compare it to the new you'll know just what we mean. (See below for more info). A few snacks will be available, and best of all, its all Free! So come on out and beat the January blahs with our warm and welcoming event!
New Equipment: As mentioned above, our new 25-bbl Century brewhouse is a tremendously positive change for Weyerbacher. Doubling our batch size will help us to become more efficient and produce even better beer at the same time. The reduction in labor on this system will also allow us to do more experimental brews in 2005, and we've already planned several out, so keep watching our website for release details.
Heresy: Heresy is finally back! Due to the overwhelming demand for this beer when it was produced in July and August, we have decided that you must be satisfied, and we will make Heresy year-round for your enjoyment! The decision became obvious by September, but as we were maxxed out on our old brewing system, we had to wait until now to bring this fantastically intriguing beer back. You'll see it reappear in all markets throughout the month of January.
Upcoming: QUAD will be back in February, and Black Hole will be released into all markets this year as our March seasonal.
Your input, comments, and suggestions have helped us to become a better brewery over the years, so please keep 'em coming! Write us at info@weyerbacher.com. Hope to see you at the Open House! Cheers!
