Home Imbrewment

November 2004

The Official Newsletter of the Hampton Roads Brewing & Tasting Society (HRB & TS)

www.hrbts.org

The President’s Podium – Chris “C.J.” Jones

This election stuff is getting on my nerves. It’s difficult to have a pleasant conversation with folks from the other side without getting acid reflux and having to lip synch your conversation just like poor Ashley Simpson had to fake her way through, uh, overcome her handicap, last weekend on Saturday Night Live. Two completely different visions of the future for us, and perhaps two dissimilar directions for us to move in. Home brewing club! Tasting society! Home brewing club! Tasting society! Such discord!

Wait, you didn’t think I was talking about national elections, did you? Come on, that’s a slam duck for a beer lover. One candidate periodically enjoys a fine malted beverage, probably out of the correct glass, while the other one is a tee totaling, DUI-earning abstainer. You want to control the World’s Most Powerful Nation, but you can’t control yourself when you’ve had a couple of beers? If we could put a keg of Victor’s Barley Whale in the hands of Iraqi insurgents, Middle Eastern extremists, Chechen separatists, etc., there would be no more shooting, because all of those folks would be kicking back, drinking one of the finest barleywines ever made, resolving their differences, and probably electing Mr. Perotti as their supreme ruler or King.

OK, enough politics.

Last month’s meeting “vas vunderbar”. Lots of German and German inspired food at the Walker abode, and the usual fine assortment of great beers and great camaraderie, made for a delightful Wednesday night.

Earlier this month, we had our Club India Pale Ale contest. Richard “I am the Brewing Borg - resistance is futile, you will be assimilated” Pigeon had a slim, but not insurmountable lead in the HRB & TS cup, with two contests to go. Could his relentless brewing drive lead him to the Cup, or would Diane and I rise up, like the Red Sox against the Yankees, and catch him at the end. Read on, and you’ll find out.

The Daily Press recently ran a series of stories about our favorite beverage on October 24, 2004. Prue Salasky penned a couple of articles that had me reaching for a twelve ouncer. Go to the Daily Press web site, www.dailypress.com, type “beer” on their search engine, and read on. Registration for their site is required to read the pieces, but registration is free. Prost!

See you in a week or so.

Wynkoop Beerdrinker of the Year Contest – C. J. Jones

The annual Wynkoop Beerdrinker of the Year contest is upon us. Never heard of it? The Wynkoop is one of the original brewpubs in downtown Denver, Colorado. Their owner, John Higenlooper, is so revered in D-town that they recently elected him as their Mayor. On February 26, 2005, a panel of appropriately robed and wigged judges will crown someone “The Beerdrinker of the Year”. Now that’s a title to strive to win. It will be a fine representative of either gender who has had many fabulous beer drinking experience, who revels in malted beverages, who boldly goes where no light beer drinker goes, and who lives barley and hops. Interested in entering the contest? Go to the Wynkoop web site, www.wynkopp.com/beerdrinker/entry.htm and sign up. I’ll have brochures at our next meeting that I can give you if you are temporarily web-challenged.

The Next Meeting Location – Diane Catanzaro

The next HRB&TS meeting will be November 3, at Granby North Restaurant, in the Homeramafabulous Ocean View section of Norfolk. Granby North has a good beer selection and a varied menu that suits any price range. They also are really hospitable and took good care of us on our inaugural visit last year. They are kind enough to allow the HRB&TS to “take over” the left-side dining room in their smoke-free restaurant. That’s right, no ashtray smells or indoor pollution to mask the fresh flavors of fine homebrewed ales. The meeting starts at 7:30, but feel free to join us around 7 if you want to hang out and get started on dinner before the crowd. Granby North is at 9619 Granby Street
Norfolk, 757-588-6728.

Directions:

From VA Beach:

If you are near Shore Drive, take Shore Drive West, it turns into Ocean View Ave. Turn left on Granby at the light after Judy Boone Realty. OR take I-64 to the Granby St exit, head North on Granby St to Granby North. If you hit Ocean View you’ve gone about 2 minutes too far.

From Norfolk:

Take Granby Street North to Granby North. Unless you live in Ocean View, in which case just drive there, cause you know where it is already!

From Peninsula :

Take HRBT, get off on 4th View exit just after the tunnel. Turn left after the exit. Then turn right onto Ocean View Ave (Rt 60). Almost immediately, you must take the right exit ramp for “Ocean View - Rt 60" to stay on Ocean View Ave. In a couple of miles you will make a right on Granby St, and the restaurant is on the right in a minute or two.

Save a Vial, Win A Prize – Tom Byrnes

On a recent visit to White Labs web site, I noticed that they have a program that allows brewers to collect empty yeast vials and trade them in for prizes ranging from a shirt to having Chris White come to your house on brew day. If all White Labs users band together and save these containers, perhaps we could get some good raffle prizes out of the deal. Take it away Doug.

The Great American Beer Festival – C.J. Jones & Diane Catanzaro

Early October is a great time of year. The weather’s a little cooler, the leaves are changing colors, and there are 1454 different beers from 334 breweries to taste at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver, Colorado. That’s a lot of sippin’, but someone has to do it. Both of us, along with two of our neighbors, Scott and Cindy Mackey, hopped in a plane headed West, to spend quality time with my brother Marty and his wife Lisa, and attend three glorious days at the GABF.

This year, an estimated 28,000 people entered the Colorado Convention Center for the purpose of checking out the best beer brewed in America. Three days (Thursday, September 30, through Saturday, October 2, 2004), and four sessions of around four hours each, of tasting the most amazing craft beers. You can meet the brewers as well as beer writers, beer judges, homebrewers, and people from all over the world who share a passion for beer.

Once you entered the hall, you immediately had that “cat in the seafood shop” sensation – so many choices, so little time. We started out by checking out the wonderful fruit beers made by the New Glarus Brewing Company, New Glarus, WI. They had one beer made from raspberries and another made from apples, and they were very fruity without being candy-like. Their Raspberry Tart won the Gold for Best Fruit Ale, out of 36 entries. All of which, I might add, were available for tasting.

After we had our first round of one ounce samples, Marty and Lisa went to the Oskar Blues (Lyons, CO) table, where they sipped beers with Dale Katechis, the “Dale” of Dale’s Pale Ale, and with Eddie Spaghetti and Dan “Thunder” Bolton of the Seattle WA based band, The Supersuckers. Eddie and Dan were pouring Dales and Old Chub. Rock ‘n roll and barley ‘n hops together, the way they were meant to be. Diane went off to find imperial stouts to enjoy with the chocolate that Pete Slosberg was giving away. After selling Pete’s Wicked Ale for a zillion $$ he is now “Cocoa Pete” and promoting a line of chocolates to savor with darker beers. Cindy left in pursuit of barleywines, and I headed off to find Belgian style beers. Scott went off to find the Coors Light Twins, and although he didn’t find them, he did find another pair of blonde beer beauties to have his picture taken with.

There were a lot of big beers present. There were more barleywines than I could count. There were probably twenty imperial stouts aged in oak barrels. The biggest beer in the building was something from the Boston Beer Company, either Utopia or Millenium, I can’t remember the name. It was 25% ABV. Sheesh, no wonder I can’t remember the name. The Dogfishhead Brewing Company of Delaware had their “Randall” there, a former pool filter that was filled with five plus pounds of whole leaf hops. Through that hop filter bed ran their 120 Minute IPA, and that turned an already hoppy delight into an upside your head hop wallop. Randall was manned by none other than Dogfishhead’s founder and beer visionary, Sam Calagione. Saturday night Sam fronted his bad-ass band, The Pain Relievaz , at Falling Rock Taphouse; you may have heard some of their phat grooves like “Brewer’s Bling-bling” and “I Got Busy with an AB Salesgirl.” They’re only jammin’ on some of the most socially relevant lyrics since Memphis Slim’s “Beer Drinkin’ Woman,” y’all.

There were great beers from the East and West coasts and all parts in between. Perhaps the best stop the entire weekend was the Pizza Port - Solana Beach, California table. Their beers were unbelievable. We craved Cuvee de Tomme, a Gueuze named after Pizza Port brewmaster Tomme Arthur (who won Small Brewpub Brewmaster of the Year). We worshipped La Woody, a nicely sour Flemish Red. Both are aged in oak barrels and as Belgian as you can find this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Their Hop 15 is a killer pale ale that has 15 different hop varieties added to it. We both agree that this was one of the best pale ales we’ve ever had. In fact, Chris thinks this was the best beer at the GABF. Diane votes for a three-way tie with Tomme and La Woody!

Fun stuff! There were also a coffee-beer category, with gold winner Cup of Mud Java Porter from Blind Tiger Brewery of Topeka and silver winner Cup of Joe from CJ’s Brewery & Grill in La Jolla. Too bad CJ’s Brewery didn’t sell a t-shirt, they’d sell at least one. So many interesting beers and beer-people. People who love craft beers are some of the coolest people. There were guys dressed as kegs, senior citizens with hops in their hair, and a big red firetruck that is also a complete brewery in the middle of the convention hall. Garrett Oliver was pouring beer for his Brooklyn Brewing, definitely the best-dressed brewer, wearing an impeccably tailored Nehru-necked gray wool suit. Charlie Papazian was signing autographs and promoting homebrewing. Michael Jackson gave a speech and praised Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper for founding the Wynkoop brewpub, and credited beer for the economic revival of Denver from the brink of decay to the thriving, vibrant city it is today. What a cool city… their Mayor founded a brewpub and is friends with Michael Jackson!

Let’s say that at some point in your evening, you get this hankering for food. On one side of the convention center you could grab some pie from a pizzeria. In one corner of the hall, there were a series of cooking demonstrations where chefs from Johnson and Wales University teamed with brewery representatives to cook fine food made with fine beers. My brother Marty extolled the virtues of Old Chubb, while a J & W chef used it to make quesadillas. The shrimp had been marinated in Old Chubb and cilantro, and the quesadilla was packed with unbelievable flavor. IF that didn’t float your food boat, there was a sushi bar right in the middle of the hall. You can’t beat that - sip amazing beer, eat wasabi, and drink more amazing beer.

You’ve probably had some of the beers present at the GABF as you’ve traveled the US of A, sat at a great beer bar in your neighborhood, or perhaps while sharing ales with your friends in the privacy of your own home. You can go to the AHA’s web site, www.beertown.org/events/gabf/04winners.htm, and peruse the list of festival medalists to see how many of the Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists have passed over your own lips. There were a handful of winning medalists from Virginia at the GABF. Looking at beers that we have access to in the Norfolk, VA area, in Category 25, German style Octoberfest/Marzen, Old Dominion’s Octfest won the silver medal. In Category 34, Classic English-Style Pale Ale, the Starr Hill folks from Charlottesville won the gold with Starr Hill Pale Ale.

For those of you that were concerned about the success or failure of Colorado’s biggest export, Coors Original won the Gold Medal in the flavor packed Category 22, American Style Premium Lager. Thank goodness for those cool insulated railroad cars.

This Year’s Brewing Schedule – C.J. Jones

Cut this out and tape it to your refrigerator along with those pictures drawn by your children!

Month	Beer of the Month (BJCP Style #)	AHA Club Only Contest (Yes/No)	HBBTS Judging Date
November	India Pale Ale (7)	Yes	10/20/04
December	Barleywine (12)	No	11/17/04
January 2005	Spiced beers (22)	No	12/22/04
February 2005	Strong Belgian Ales (18)	No	1/??/05
March 2005	Will be decided by 2005 HRB & TS Club Officers

As you can see this year is almost history. Next years AHA contests will be January 2005 Irish Red Ale, March/April 2005 Sour Beers, May 2005 Extract only. Be thinking about other styles you would like to see in our contests next year. Feel free to email your ideas to me at kmstfb2@exis.net The new officers will set the schedule after the election in December. I’ll pass any suggestion on to them.

Competition Connection- Tom Byrnes

The IPA contest is in the books, 6 brewers combined for 12 entries to show off their hop-laden creations. Also tasted were several commercial IPA’s, some of which were not as good as the member’s entries. Again this contest was pretty tight, reflecting some quality entries. Thanks to CJ for running this contest so I could judge and to all who entered this competition.

The finalists of this contest are listed below:

First Place: CJ/Diane 37.75

Second Place: Victor Perrotti 36.0

Third Place. Richard Pidgeon 35.4

If you would like to hold a judging meeting at your house, please let me know.

Here are the rules for the HRBTS CUP: This years contest will run from January through December of a given year. Members will accrue points from entering and winning the contests sponsored by the club. The only criterion is that multiple entries in the same contest must be different recipes. Points are as follows: 5 points for 1^st place, 4 for 2^nd, 3 for 3^rd and 1 point for entry. The entry point is not awarded if the beer places in the contest. It is intended to encourage entries. The club officers may also award points for members brewing for special events. The Competition Coordinator will keep the points. The club president will be the final arbiter of any disputes.

Here is the current HRBTS Home Brewer of the Year points.

HRBTS CUP 2004 STANDINGS

BREWER	CUMULATIVE POINTS
Richard Pidgeon	82
CJ/Diane	66
Tom Byrnes	26
OVBC (Mike Q, Rob, Erin, John and Catherine)	23
Victor Perrotti	20
Mike Pensinger	17
Doug Boyd	14
Rob Purcell	10
Phil Swanson	6
Will Walker	5
Corey Pettiford	2
Joe Rainer	1
John Pearson	1
Dodge Hickman	1

Our last contest for the year will be barley wine, a great way to finish the year. This has always been a popular contest thanks mainly to Victor’s annual barley wine brew fest each December. Both events are not to be missed. We will be using the 1999 guidelines to judge this category so plan your entries accordingly. It is expected that the BJCP will switch to the new guidelines after the first of the year. Currently the AHA is using the old guidelines for their sanctioned competitions. Both sets of guidelines can be accessed at www.beertown.org.

I would like to remind members that both Homebrew USA and Wine and Cake offer HRBTS members a 10% discount when you pay by cash or check. A similar discount is available at Homebrew.com. In order to qualify for these discounts you must have your dues paid up and be on the member list that Doug provides to these retailers.

Just A Thought- Tom Byrnes

I have noticed that several members enter their beers using clear or green bottles. While this is permissible under AHA contest guidelines, these types of bottles do not protect the beer from ultraviolet light that adversely interacts with the hops. This interaction creates a skunky smell and taste in the beers, which significantly detracts from the overall flavor and aroma. Brown bottles do offer protection against light and in my opinion should always be used. Whether you brew extract or all-grain, formulating the recipe and brewing beer takes a significant amount of time. It seems a shame to detract from your effort by making a packaging choice that will not afford the maximum protection for your beer. The choice of bottle color is even more critical when storing your beer for prolonged periods of time. Beer should always be stored in a dark environment and the longer you keep your brew the more opportunity you have for light exposure. Storage temperature is also a significant factor. Try an experiment put a few green bottles of your brew in sun light and taste them at different time intervals, you will taste a noticeable difference.

About the HRB & TS

The Hampton Roads Brewing and Tasting Society is dedicated to promoting the enjoyment of home brewing. The annual dues are $15 per individual and $20 per family. Members are encouraged to support the reasonable enjoyment of beer and observe the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Federal government, and the Golden Rule. Persons attending HRB & TS meetings and events are solely liable for actions attendant to their participation. HRB & TS maintains a NO SMOKING policy during all meetings so that members may better enjoy fine beers. Smoking is permitted in meetings held in restaurants in the facility’s designated smoking areas.

Visit the HRB & TS online at www.hrbts.org.