Home Imbrewment

February 2005

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

www.hrbts.org

The President’s Podium – Tom Byrnes

Well, we survived the big election and now we can leave all of the rhetoric behind and get back to the task of brewing beer and promoting beer culture in Tidewater. In case you missed the meeting last month, we voted to keep unlimited entries in our contests. However, all other changes discussed in last month’s newsletter are still in effect. So now: Let the brewing begin.

This month we had several opportunities to immerse ourselves in beer culture. The really big news is that two of our members, CJ and Diane, separately placed in the top 12 in the Wynkoop’s Beer Drinker of the Year award. If they make the top three finalists, they will be flown to Colorado for a competition that incorporates creativity and beer knowledge. Congratulations to both of you, your club is behind you 100%. Also look for an article on our dynamic duo of brewing in last Saturday’s Daily Break section of the Virginian Pilot.

Under the “I think I died and went to Belgium” category, several of us went to the Spirit of Belgium conference hosted by the DC area brewclub Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP). This weekend was so awesome that it’s hard to describe in words. Think of being surrounded by giants in the Belgian and American craft brewing industry, tasting ample quantities of homebrewed Belgian style beer, imported Belgian ales and Belgian inspired American craft brews. Some of the beers were acquired by the Belgian embassy and are not available in this country. Some of these beers were very old, I tasted one from 1984 and it was still perfectly balanced and tastefully delicious. I’m sure you’ll see more about this later in the newsletter. I think I saw CJ taking notes between sipping brews. Thanks again to Rick Garvin and BURP for hosting this event. Another kudo for our club came when Jean-Louis Sits, operator of La Brasserie a Vapeur tasted CJ’s Westmalle clone and proclaimed it to be the best beer he tasted during the weekend. Those of you who attend February’s meeting should also have the opportunity to taste this brew. Rounding out our Belgian month, we did have our Belgian Strong Ale contest with 5 entries. Keep reading to see the winners.

One of my personal highlights of the conference was meeting Tim Webb whose book Good Beer Guide to Belgium and Holland served me well on our last three trips to Amsterdam. However, his lecture proved to be the most disturbing to me at the conference. He talked of the fact that the consolidation in the brewing industry was destroying craft beer in favor of cost-conscious tasteless brews that use adjuncts to save money. Mr. Webb predicted that our future might be that 7 of 8 pints of brewed beer will be brewed by three corporations, which leaves only one pint of craft brewed beer for the discriminating palate. This trend is already happening in Belgium and Czechoslovakia and is moving to Germany. For example, did you know that the largest selling beer in Belgium is currently a pilsner! Apparently, these corporations are buying up distributorships and offering price incentives on their mass-produced beers while increasing the price of craft brewed beer. Could Belgian beers go the way of the dinosaur; disappearing because of a changing environment? Heresy, you say, but most speakers at Spirit of Belgium believed that Belgian beers as we know them could disappear in 20 years. Now is our call to action!! As homebrews and aficionados of beer it is our job to purchase quality beers and educate the public about the craft brewing industry or we will become the guy on TV saying, “I can’t taste my beer”. The future of beer seems to be in our hands. See you soon Tom

The Next Meeting Location – Diane Catanzaro

Our meeting on Wednesday February 2nd meeting will be at Rom Thai Restaurant in Norfolk in their beautiful Thai sunset party room. Our typical meeting time is 7:30, but we are going to start at 7 so we can be finished by 9:30 or so. The location is very easy to get to, at Ward’s Corner in Norfolk. It is just off I-64 at the intersection of Little Creek Rd and Granby St., at the shopping center where Warehouse Music is located (formerly Tracks).

To allow for maximum relaxation and simplicity, Rom Thai will prepare a buffet for us with three popular entrees, pad thai (a traditional dish with noodles, ground peanuts, bean sprouts….this is flavorful and not at all spicy….great for those who tend to shy away from spicy dishes), green curry (cooked with coconut milk and basil leaves), and Ka-Phrao! (a spicy stir fry with chicken, thai chili, lemon grass, and special Thai sauce). The buffet will be $14.95 and is an excellent value.

BRING HOMEBREW if you’ve got some!!! In addition, we will have a case of Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA to augment Rom Thai’s regular beer selection of Singha and such. We cannot bring commercial beers to restaurant meetings, but homebrew is definitely welcomed and encouraged.

So, see you at Rom Thai. Oh, by the way, they close at 9:30, so we need to wrap up a bit earlier than usual. So, if you want to show up a little early (6:45 to 7) it wouldn’t hurt. If you can’t, that’s ok, we’ll see you when you get there!

Directions:

From VA Beach – Take I-64 West. Exit at Little Creek Road exit. Turn left off exit onto Little Creek. In about a minute or two you will see Warehouse Music on the left. It is in this shopping center, in the corner.

From the Peninsula – Take I-64 East. Take Granby Street exit and stay on Granby Street through two lights. As soon as you cross Little Creek, Rom Thai is on the left, in the corner of the strip shopping center.

From Norfolk – take Granby Street to Ward’s Corner. There it is, in the parking lot shared by Warehouse Music. About 8 minutes from downtown or Ocean View.

It is hard to see Rom Thai from the road, so just look for the Warehouse Music at the corner of Granby St and Little Creek Rd and turn into that shopping center.

Address: 7512 Granby Street, Norfolk. 490-7900.

A Trip to The Brewer’s Art – “C.J”. Jones

Baltimore – famous for crabcakes, the Orioles, a football team that left town under cover of darkness (curse that Robert Irsay), homicide, and of course, beer.

Last week, Diane and I were in one of the finer places to sip beer in Baltimore, The Brewer’s Art. It is located in a former townhouse in the tre hip Mount Vernon historic district, downtown. The exterior of the facility is quite impressive - hardwood floors, dark woods, a spacious bar and “fine dining” area upstairs, with a quirky, cavernous smoke-filled bar downstairs. What really impresses is what’s inside.

The food in here is righteous, and the beer is right on. Usually when I’m in a beer-o-centric place, the beer is what I’m focused on, while the food is in a supporting role. Since we’re in Academy Award season, at The Brewer’s Art, both the beer and the food deserve Best Actor nominations.

First, the beer. They make Belgian style beers here; on the day we visited, they had six on tap, among them Le Canard, Resurrection, Proletary, and a House Pale Ale. Their house beers are all very clean, and remarkably clear. If you are a rigorous believer in the BJCP style guidelines, two of their other beers hit the respective style guideline nails on their respective heads. Their Ozzy is a “devil of a beer”; a Duvel-like beverage, it had that Belgian-funk thing working, and was mighty tasty. Their Triple tasted like a Westmalle Triple, which is what you’re after when you make one.

Their “guest beers” were very exciting to see on a menu, and more exciting to see in your glass. We sipped Achel Trappist Brune, Hanssen’s Geuze, and De Dolle Export Stout, all from Belgium, and all were wonderful. By 9:30 PM, the “edge” that we had on after our five hour drive to get here had been successfully removed. It may have been 20 degrees outside, but after some quality Belgian time, it was warm inside. Once you’ve successfully warmed up, you’d better grab some food to chase down all of that beer.

The food here is adventurous and very satisfying. For an appetizer, I had butternut squash and apple soup with ricotta herb dumplings, and it was delicious (even though I think that soup was pumpkin, not butternut squash). Diane jumped on the house salad of baby lettuces, Belgian endive and oven-dried tomato chip with a fresh herb sherry shallot vinaigrette; it was small, but very tasty.

For dinner, I had a “winter vegetable beggar's purse”, a puff pastry filled with buttered leeks and mashed potatoes, drizzled with chive oil (mighty fine), while Diane had pan seared jumbo sea scallops with a baked lobster parcel, cauliflower essence and brown butter (mighty fine squared). Typically, if you go to Baltimore to eat, and you didn’t eat crabcakes, you made a seriously bad decision. In this case, crabcakes would have been a step south from what we ordered and enjoyed.

So there you have it – another place to add to your beer drinking destination list. If you plan on coming to Baltimore for the National Homebrewer’s Conference, the folks at The Brewer’s Art say they will have many fine beer events on schedule that you may not want to miss. For more information, go to their web page, www.belgianbeer.com, then plan on dropping in and sipping a few.

The Newsletter Naming Contest – Will Walker

Many thanks to those who have written me with suggestions for a newsletter name. Below are the submissions as they currently stand.:

Homebrewin's Worth Doin' 

Brew On

The Brewsletter

News in Brews

Head & Foam

Wort's Chillin

We will vote for best name by simple acclamation: the loudest cheer wins it! If you have a name that you’ve been meaning to submit, that just blows the socks off the entries above, but didn’t get around to it, see me at the February meeting before the vote.

Treasurer’s Report – Mellissa Pensinger

(Editors Note: Due to an editorial snafu last month, the January Treasurer’s report was left out. The gist of that report is reproduced here:

‘As of today Dec.31^st, 2004, the clubs bank balance is 484.81. I have collected 5 membership dues so far this year and I'm sure there will be more to follow at January’s meeting. The deadline to pay your dues is at the February meeting.’

We now return you to the regularly scheduled Treasurer’s report)

As of Jan 26^th, 2005, we have $936.47 in our account.  There are still several members that have not paid this year’s dues.  I have emailed and called all of them and hopefully they will bring or send the dues in!

I have received several great raffle donations from various companies/people and would like to say "Thank You" for supporting our brewing raffle! The Silent Auction for October is looking good! Does not mean you can't continue to donate gifts ~ we need/want all we can get! :)

With Tom's approval, I have ordered 250 business cards for the club; they should arrive soon. The cost of the cards was $8.95.  If you need some to "pass along" to your friends, please let me know. 

We would like to say "WELCOME" to our newest members:

Bruce Kincade and Shar Wolf

Greg (Gus) Gustafson

Richard Dixon

If I forgot someone, please let me know!

Brewing Schedule for 2005 – John

2005 HRB & TS Beer of the Month Schedule

Month (2005 unless stated otherwise)	Beer style name & 2004 BJCP beer style category number	Beer judging date (2005 unless stated otherwise; usu. two weeks before Club meeting)	Winner goes to an AHA Club Only Contest?
January	Spiced Beers (21)	15 December 2004
February	Strong Belgian ales (18)	26 January 2005
March	Brown ales (10C & 11)	16 February 2005
April	Fruit (20) & Cider (27 & 28)	23 March 2005
May	Extract (all)	20 April 2005	Yes
June	Mead (24-26)	18 May 2005
July	Dale’s Pale Ale clone (n/a)	22 June 2005
August	Belgian/French ale (16)	20 July 2005	Yes
September	Lagers (all)	24 August 2005	Yes, for European Amber Lagers (3)
October	Stouts (13 A-E, not F)	21 September 2005
November	Porter (12)	19 October 2005	Yes, for Baltic Porter (12C)
December	Holiday ales (21B)	23 November 2005
January 2006	Imperial Stout (13F) & Imperial Pale Ale (14C)	21 December 2005
February 2006	Doppelbock (5C) and Barleywine (19B & 19C)	18 January 2006

Entry Guidelines – John Mitchell

There is a new contest entry form on the hrbts.org site. This form can be used for all of our monthly contests. Most contests require only the Brewer’s and Entry information. Certain categories require the additional detail on the second half of the form. If you choose not to use the form on the website, the following information must be submitted in some manner with the entry to ensure the beer is judged according to the brewer’s wishes and attribution is given to the correct brewers: Name of all brewers, name of the entry (in case the same brewer has more than one), category and subcategory number and printed name according to the current AHA/BJCP style guidelines.

Winners are encouraged to submit the recipe form to the webmaster for posting to hrbts.org so others can share in the fruits of victory.

Competition Corner for Feb 2005, Strong Belgian Ales (18) – John Mitchell

After winter weather delayed the judging a week, we ended up with four BJCP judges to savor the five strong Belgian ales. Two of the judges had recently gotten some valuable experience judging Belgian beers at the Spirit of Belgium. We had a mix of tripels and strong goldens. The team of CJ and Diane took advantage of their experience gained on their recent Belgian trip to concoct a tripel and strong golden that tied for first with an average score of 35. Cory Pettiford took third with a strong golden that scored 31.5.

2005 HRB & TS Cup Standings

Name of Brewer(s)	Total Points Accumulated
C.J. & Diane Catanzaro	8
Victor Perrotti	3
Cory Pettiford	1
Tom Byrnes	1
You could be here ….	GET BREWING

Upcoming Regional Competitions - John

Raleigh, 3/12, Shamrock Open – Info at hbd.org/carboy. Typically about 150 entries. A good road trip to for judging or stewarding. Richard and I have both done so. Bonus – you get a free lunch!

Charlotte, 4/23 US Open – Info at www.carolinabrewmasters.com My former club, and home club of the owners of Homebrew Adventures. .About 150 entries.

Chantilly, 5/14, Spirit of Free Beer by BURP. Info from sofborganizer@earthlink.net.

BJCP News – John Mitchell

A BJCP exam will be given at the AHA convention in June. Visit www.bjcp.org for more info or to sign up. An exam will also be given in Raleigh sometime in July. For those interested, some brew club members from the Raleigh area are forming a study group for the exam. A lot of the participation will be in the form of the Beerstudy listserv, so anyone can participate electronically. There is already a study plan and lots of reference material put out by this group. Please contact me for additional info on how to sign up. You don’t have to be planning to take the test to subscribe to the listserv. You may just do it to learn more about beer styles and processes.

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 Mellissa provides to these retailers.

Libeery Report – Mike Pensinger

Well, after an inventory of the Libeery, I have made a list of the available books:

The Brewers Companion

Progressive Winemaking

The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing

The Homebrewer’s Companion

On to Mashing

Making Vinegar at Home

A Sip Through Time

Designing Great Beers

Homebrew Favorites

A Taste for Beer

Pocket Guide to Beer - 2 Editions

Brewing Quality Beers

Yeast Culturing for the Homebrewer

The New Brewers Handbook

How to Brew

Brewing The Worlds Great Beers

On Tap - Guide to North American Brewpubs

Style Series - Lambic

Style Series - Belgian Ale

Style Series - Continental Pilsner

Style Series – Bock

Magazines:

Zymurgy - Multiple Issues

Malt Advoicate - Multiple Issues

Brewing Techniques - Multiple Issues

The New Brewer - Multiple Issues

The libeery is open to all members in good standing. You can check any book or magazine out for a period of 2 months. Check outs can be made by sending me an email at libeerian@hrbts.org and requesting delivery to the next meeting or by stopping by HomeBrewUSA anytime during operating hours. I will also be adding a form to the website that will allow you to send a check out request. Donations to the Libeery are greatly appreciated. All donations will be marked as showing that you donated it and the month and year it was given.

I am going to try to add a book review to each newsletter. Obviously this results in a large amount of writing for the libeerian, so I am soliciting inputs for publication.

Brewing Book review – Mike Pensinger

Title: Brewing the Worlds Great Beers - A Step-By-Step Guide

Author: Dave Miller

Publisher: Storey Publishing

Price: $22.95 US ($29.95 CAN)

Dave Miller has produced a well written book covering all aspects of the homebrewing hobby in a scant 5 chapter, easy to read, book for the beginner through to the advanced brewer.

This book covers all stages of the brewing hobby. Starting with the basic brewing methods and recipes to match, Mr. Miller takes us through the steps needed to brew your first batch of beer.

The first chapter covers equipment, ingredients, yeast, and the methods used to prepare that first batch.

Chapter two expands on the basic methods outlined in chapter one. It covers the progression to liquid yeast cultures, full wort boils, lagering, and wort areation. Each of these methods are covered in plain language, without the in-depth "why" explanations of the processes. The chapter ends with another selection of recipes tailored to the more advance knowledge gained from chapter two.

Chapter three covers the homebrewer’s transition to all grain brewing through the partial mash method. Grinding grains, mash methods and techniques, and construction of a strainer are covered. Water composition is covered to the degree needed to carry out the partial mash recipes included at the end of the chapter.

Chapter four transitions to the all grain brewing process with illustrations of three tier brewing systems and mashing, lautering, and sparging techniques. By this time the homebrewer is fully versed in the procedures to complete the all grain recipes at the end of the chapter.

Chapter five progresses to the "semi-pro" world of brewing. Descriptions and illustrations of kegging systems, filtration systems, counter-pressure bottle filling, large batch brewing and information on formulating your own recipes.

Overall, this is a well written book. It is written for the base novice who wants to explore the world of brewing and not immerse themselves in the nitty-gritty of chemical reactions and processes. A solid choice for your basic brewer and as reference for the homebrewer’s library.

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.