Newsletters - March 2005
February Meeting Minutes
The February 2005 meeting of First State Brewers was held at the Weatherbee home. Attending were Jerry, Luke, Eric, Jeff, Scott, Jerry, Dave, Oliver, John, Cindy and Garrett. Scott opened the meeting by noting several beer-related events coming up:
- The Beer Hunter, aka Michael Jackson (not Jacko) to host the annual Book-and-the-Cook beer tasting at the University of Pennsylvania museum in Philadelphia. (Jeff thought that this event was the first or second weekend in March. It turns out that it is on Saturday, March 12.) Is there any interest, and who can organize?
- The Craft Brewers Conference, Philadelphia, April 12-16.
Then we talked about the upcoming trip to England and Germany. Scott noted that there is a new pub law in the UK, permitting pubs to stay open 24/7 (they now have to close at 11 pm). But it will not go into effect until we are safely out of the country. We then briefly discussed the itinerary. In York, we will visit the British Rail Museum. We will definitely visit some pubs, but we seemed to talk more about the breweries that we won't or can't see than about any that we DO plan to see. The Marburg, Germany portion of our tour will include tours of Marburg, the Krombacher Brewery, and the town of Giessen. Unlike the last trip, this one will include time for shopping. (We pause to recite the modified Man's
Prayer: "I'm a man. I can shop. If I have to. I guess.") Someone asked if we are planning to do anything for National Homebrew Day. No answer. Garrett mentioned that the website now has a page for recipes. Scott mentioned the new blog feature of the website, as well. That pretty much concluded the business portion of the meeting. We transitioned to the controlled, organized tasting by first taking a tour of the Oliver homebrew production plant. Pretty much everyone brought beer, and it did not matter whether it was homebrew or intriguing commercial brews. In other words, your humble servant forgot to note who brought what. But we did not run out, further reflecting our catastrophic success in practicing moderation. The next meeting will be the March meeting, because March is the month that follows February. According to well-established tradition, the March meeting is always held at the Carney household, where Guinness has been known to have been served by the host. This year should be no exception.
Recent Club Communications
From: Muzzle Head
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2005 11:06 AM
To: firststatebrewer@earthlink.net
Subject: New to Area looking for a club
Hi,
I picked this email address of the 'How do you brew' web site. I just moved to Elkton, Maryland and interested in finding a brew club. I've brewed for several years but only extract and bottles (mostly do to space). Now, I have an unfinished basement and would like to setup an 'all grain station' and begin k egging. Before I blow all the crazy cash to do this, I would like to see some other setups and such. Scott Calkins
From: Muzzle Head
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2005 3:26 PM
To: Scott Bieber
Subject: Re: New to Area looking for a club
Scott,
I checked out your blog.... excellent.. though I could not locate the $19 dollar corny kegs.
I'm very interested in hooking up with you all. As I
said I want to make the leap from extract to grain but
would like some advice and such.
Also I'm trying to find a cheap source for used brown bottles... any ideas... currently I have resigned myself to drinking store beer for bottles. When I moved I had to leave my bottles behind... I kept only my grolsch style bottles (hard to come by) but I they are now full.
Though I'm probably going to start to keg soon... I
love brewing and would like a convenient way to store
my beer. Of course I still want to share... so I have
to set up some system to 'tap and cap'.
Anyhoot I look forward to hooking up with you guys...
If anyone wants to share a few before the next meeting
let me know....
Scott
From: Garrett Sever
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 6:38 AM
To: Muzzle Head
Subject: RE: New to Area looking for a club
I put links directly to the cornies and the O-rings in the blog. He should be able to find them now. They are under "Homebrew Sale", not under the kegging section... Kegging rules. I have to bottle a batch of beer tonight and I'm not looking forward to it. Its that Berry Beer kit my kid sister bought for me.
* Garrett
From: Gerald J Carney
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 3:25 PM
To: Scott Bieber
Subject: Beer
Scott,
Do you remember offering to provide me with a Pale Ale to use as a base for some Black And Tan at the meeting this Friday. If you don't remember this is a request. If you do remember could you bring it over one night this week so I can get it settled down before Friday? Jerry
From: Garrett Sever
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 10:32 PM
To: 'Scott Bieber'
Subject: Wort's Hoppening
Scott,
So when are you sending out the newsletter this week?
I'll be bringing stuff for show & tell this month - My new (and as yet
unused) grain mill will be one of those things. I had hoped to bring my counter-pressure bottle filler, but unfortunately that order is currently held up due to my all-grain equipment being backordered... guess we'll have to wait until next meeting for that.
I also wanted to bring some servomyces capsules for folks to try out - That's the new all-natural yeast supercharger from White Labs that is supposed to make your wort ferment twice as quick and make your beer better. I've been chattering alot about it on the blog... Its like $10 for 6 capsules or something like that - can't really remember. But hey - especially for high gravity stuff, that could be a really big help. Unfortunately I'm still waiting for HDYB to get it in. I asked them to order it like 3 1/2 weeks ago and it still isn't in. Maybe miracles will happen and I'll pick it up Thurs or Fri. I'm not holding my breath :-(
Beer I'll bring this month is a Robust Porter. We'll see if folks like it. I do. What about you? What are you bringing this time around?
-Garrett
From: Michael DeGraff
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 5:22 PM
To: firststatebrewer@earthlink.net
Subject: Hi There, Blog Response
GD,
I too beat myself up about ordering brewing supplies online. On the other hand I usually feel like a sucker paying so much more for the exact same supplies from my LHBS. I usually order the majority of my supplies online and tend to pick up miscellaneous pieces at the LHBS.
I reason that paying 150% of online prices to a LHBS is worth it if you brew infrequently and you need the one on one advice from an experienced brewer. Other than that what advantages does a LHBS have over an online entity?
The deal on the corny kegs from Michigan can't be beat. I ordered four last month. They arrived in like 3 days! Also, they are much better than Carbonator Rental's kegs in my opinion.
Michael DeGraff
From: Josh Zimmer
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 9:44 PM
To: 'Scott Bieber'
Subject: RE: FSB Meeting Friday
Hmmm about 5 minutes away, I like that :) Just out of curiosity, what usually goes on at a meeting, besides beer drinking of course? And everyone usually brings a 6 pack? Josh
