The Brewsletter
September 2005
The
Official Newsletter of the Hampton
Roads Brewing & Tasting Society (HRB & TS)
www.hrbts.org
The
President’s Podium – Tom Byrnes
Well, this newsletter finds summer quickly coming to an
end and with the fall comes cooler temperatures and resurgence of home brewing
. We held our lager competition, which yielded more entries than I anticipated.
It’s good to see that there still are lager brewers in the club. I was also pleasantly surprised that the
current issue of Zymurgy featured a picture of Diane sporting a pretzel
necklace and looking very happy (pp43).
This was taken at club night of the AHA conference last June. This is her second picture in this magazine
this year and I’m feeling like there may be two new AHA members to keep up with
her publicity. The most memorable summer
highlight was the marriage and subsequent celebration party of Rob and
Jodi. We wish you happiness and toast
unending glasses of homebrew in your honor.
Coming attractions to look for in
this newsletter include a bus trip to the World Beer Festival (see Mike P for
details), an Oktoberfest party in Oceana on October 1st, advanced
tickets can be bought from James, the beer manager at the South
Independence. Farm Fresh, and our own club silent auction to be
held at our October meeting. Brewers
Publications will also release the book Brew like a Monk by Stan Hieronymus
this October. This is the third publication preceded by Farmhouse Ales and Wild
Brews. Further in the future look
forward to our Transatlantic Showdown 2006, which will be held in
February. This contest will pit American
brews against their British counterparts.
This will be fun and give our members experience with entering, judging
and stewarding and hopefully make some money for our treasury.
See you at the
September meeting
The Next Meeting Location – Diane Catenzaro
Grab your spuds and get thee to the Virginia Beach home of
Dodge and Connie Hickman for the September 7 meeting of the HRB&TS....word
is if we are good boys and girls the original Mr. Monkey Business will fire up
the spud rocket, serving to simultaneously annoy the neighbors and keep rogue
Canada geese at bay. Should these assertive fowl try to commandeer our beers we
can more than defend ourselves....if it comes to lagerheads we may have
to call PETA out to broker a peace agreement.
In any case, Dodge and Connie=s
deck will the happening place, dress for outdoors weather, and bring one of
your homebrews (or a tasty craft beer) as a host and hostess gift for our kind
hosts. While the style of the month is lagers, of course feel free to bring any
style of homebrewed or commercial beer to share at the meeting. Don=t
forget to bring beer!!!!
Burpenfartzen Festival Bring the kids! – Diane Catenzaro
Did you ever dream of going to Oktoberfest in Munich, but somehow forgot to buy tickets to fly to Germany this
autumn? Did you think you really might head out the Great American Beer
Festival in October, but then you got busy with work and those plans just never
got off the ground? Well, those plans may be on your to-do list for yet another
year. Yet, as the weather cools you know you will be longing for a full
Saturday of Oktoberfest revelry, with clanking steins, leiderhosen,
bratwurst-eating, a parade, an oompah band, a petting zoo with real animals,
maybe even a good old-fashioned three-legged race. Well, if this doesn’t entice
you to bring the family for a day of Oktoberfest celebration, maybe the kegs of
Magic Hat beer might do the trick?
The Burpenfarzen Brothers, in association with the Robin
Hoods of Virginia Beach, are hosting what
promises to be the grandest Oktoberfest this side of the Rhine
on October 1 at Oceana. It is a charity fundraiser for Virginia Beach Kids and
the tickets are only $20/adult and for kids….free! Check out the details at http://www.burpenfartzen.com/. And
check out those brothers! James Bohland, the man responsible for the amazing
beer selection at the Farm Fresh at South Independence
and Princess Anne, is Jurgen Kuchenchef. I also recognize a couple of other brothers, Wilhelm Liebermeister and Junker Kommandant, and I will personally
attest that these are some of the coolest guys in the world, and civic-minded
to boot. You can buy tickets from James by emailing him at jbbohland@qmail.com.
Contest Date: February 19, 2006,
Time: TBA
Contest location: St. George’s brewery in
Hampton
Entry dates range from1/30/06 to 2/11/06. Judges may bring their entry the day of
contest but must preregister.
Entry Fee is $8 per entry
All registration materials, beer and money to be sent to Mellissa
Pensinger at HomebrewUSA
Categories will be: 8C, 10A & 10C, 11 B & C, 12 A & B, 13 A
& E, 14 A & B and 19 B & C
BJCP styles and judging guidelines will be followed
Contest will be BJCP sanctioned.
Treasurer’s
Report – Mellissa Pensinger
Beginning Balance this month: $1320.60
Deductions (picnic, cups, shipping, benchmarks, etc.):
(343.61)
Additions (refunds, raffles, etc.): $143.63
Balance: $1120.63
Please remember, the raffles are the only way the club is
making money (right now). So, save your
change and buy those raffle tickets!!!
We have a nice selection of donated raffle items for our "Silent
Auction" that will take place at the Octoberfest Meeting at Will &
Jonna's home. If you are planning on
donating any "larger" items for this raffle please make sure to get
them to me as soon as possible.
We have 3 new members joining us this month: Price Dodson,
Timothy Hobbs and Sam Pugh. Glad you
have joined us. Happy brewing!
2005 HRB & TS Beer of the Month
Schedule – C.J. Jones
Cut this out and tape it to your refrigerator along with
those pictures drawn by your children!
|
Month (2005 unless stated
otherwise)
|
Beer style name & 2004
BJCP beer style category number
|
Beer judging date ;
usually 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
|
|
Competition Corner for September 2005, Lagers – C.J.
Jones
Since last month’s competition news, gee, more news has been
made, so I’ll lay it on you.
In August we had our lager
competition. We actually had four
entries this year (four different styles, too), double the number from last
year. The quartet of beers was evaluated
by the incomparable palates of Will Walker and Diane Catanzaro (each
credentialed judges) and Doug Boyd and Rob Sisson. When the foam had settled, two entries were
tied for first place; here’s how things shook out:
First Place
(tie), Richard Pigeon, with a European Lager (good for three HRBTS
Cup points);
First Place
(tie), Diane and I, with a California Common (good for three HRBTS
Cup points); and
Third Place, Phil Swanson, with an American Lager (good for one HRBTS Cup
point).
Richard’s beer will be entered into the AHA’s “Club-only”
European Lager contest, where we hope it whips butts.
And here’s some hot news, just in over the wire. Dale
Ketechis of Oskar Blues Brewing Company, the brewery in Lyons,
CO, that make Dale’s Pale Ale, sat
down and sipped the four beers we sent to him as part of our “clone a Dale’s
Pale Ale” contest that we had in June.
Of the four entries (one from Victor Perotti, two from Paul Shurke, and
one from Diane and I), one was head and shoulders above the rest. It was described by Mr. K. as “nicely
balanced, with a nice hop aroma, and a good malty finish”, and was deemed to be
as Dale-esque as a sea level beer can be.
That beer was brewed by … Victor
Perotti. Vic, you rock. The second and third entries, Paul’s, were too bitter to be a Dale’s,
somewhat understandable since Paul had never tasted a Dales prior to trying to
brew one. The fourth entry, ours, was too bitter (what can I say,
we’re hop heads until the bitter end (bad pun), and gushed upon opening (we
learned that trick from the OVBC). So
here are your Dale’s standings:
First Place, Victor Perotti (good for three HRBTS
Cup points);
Second Place, Paul Shurke (his #1 beer); (good for two HRBTS Cup points); and
Third Place, Paul Shurke (his #2 beer) (good for one
HRBTS Cup point).
(The Table’s on the
next page)
So, here’s your up-do-date HRB & TS
Cup standings:
2005 HRB & TS CUP STANDINGS (as of 30 August 2005)
|
Name of Brewer(s)
|
Total Points Accumulated
|
|
C.J. & Diane Catanzaro
|
24
|
|
Mike Pensinger
|
13
|
|
Victor Perrotti
|
10
|
|
Phil Swanson
|
7
|
|
Tom Byrnes
|
6
|
|
The OVBC
|
5
|
|
Richard Pigeon
|
5
|
|
Paul Shurke
|
3
|
|
Cory Pettiford
|
1
|
|
Doug Boyd
|
1
|
|
You could be here ….
|
if you get brewing
|
Ribbons will be delivered to Tom Byrnes prior to the September
meeting, so he can pin them to your chests in front of everyone (I won’t be at
the September meeting; my band, Fat Tony,
has a gig that night at Port Warwick in Newport News). So, have fun in September, and I’ll see you
in October.
BREWS NEWS -
CHRIS “C.J.” JONES
Cogan’s on Colonial Avenue in Ghent has Stone’s Arrogant Bastard on tap; maybe you’re
not worthy, but you ought to go and try it anyway.
The Virginian Pilot
gleefully exclaimed that wine had overtaken beer as the sippin’ beverage of
choice for Americans. I’m not sure how
they determined that; did they count sales dollars, or the number of empties in
our recycling bins. Either way, you know
what that means, the counts aren’t accurate because we’ve been drinking
homebrews, and homebrews aren’t counted in the sales or bottle count figures
since we don’t report them to anybody.
So relax, have a homebrew, and don’t be swayed by the marketing efforts
of the wine biz.
The Colley Cantina
on Colley Avenue
in Ghent has Legend Pale Ale on tap, and it’s pretty
good; it’s no Three Floyd’s Alpha King Pale Ale, but there’s no crime in
that.
New at the Gene
Walter’s Market in Ghent,
Moretti La Rossa, a very malty, big
(7.2 % ABV) full flavored beer. Diane
and I had that beer in Italy,
and tasting it takes us right back to Florence,
and the sensations of Summer, great food, and a skin rash. Two out of three isn’t bad.
Homebrew USA
still has the best deal in town on bulk malt extract purchases.
If you’ve got some BREWS
NEWS and are too shy to put it in the newsletter yourself, email it to me
and I’ll make sure everybody gets the straight skinny.
Recipe of the Month – Tom Byrnes
About the HRB & TS
The Hampton Roads Brewing and Tasting Society is dedicated
to promoting the enjoyment of home brewing.
The annual dues are $20 per individual and $25 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.