The Brewsletter

Novembeer 2008

 

 

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

www.hrbts.org

 

 

Vote for Change! President’s Podium – Jason Kuller

 

First off, Thanks to will and Jonna for yet another amazing Octoberfest celebration with great food, beer and another very good silent auction.  Well that time has come around again, it is one of our most glorious rights as beer and especially homebrew loving Americans, it is the right to vote.  This year is our opportunity to make great things happen as we prepare to elect the next wave of leadership for the Hampton Roads Brewing and Tasting Society.  We are accepting nominations for all leadership positions as we will open nominations at the November meeting and close them just prior to the vote in December.  Our elected offices include: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor, and Competition Coordinator. Our Meeting Coordinator position is appointed by the president but also has a voice on the board.  I want to take this opportunity to encourage all members to consider running for office.  It is through new faces and ideas that our club will continue to grow and evolve.  All nominations can be emailed to me at president@hrbts.org.  Our goal is to have a majority of the nominees selected prior to the December meeting.  In other election related news, the  is having a really cool beer drinking (real) presidential election poll based on the number of beers that are bought in each candidates’ name.  Check it out here http://www.beerknurd.com/page.php?s=2008ElectionNite

   November also plays host to the annual “Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day” sponsored by the AHA.  This annual event will be held on Sat. November 1 and everyone is encouraged to participate by either lending their homebrew skills to help those not versed in the art of brewing or by those non-brewers to get with it and start the hobby that very well could take over your life (and I mean that in a good way!). Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day is this Saturday, November 1! Over 100 sites across the country have already registered this year. For the 2007 celebration, 1377 homebrewers introduced 557 new people to the wonderful hobby of homebrewing, producing over 1970 gallons of beer. Find a site to participate or add a new location of your own.  For more information check out http://beertown.org/events/teach/index.html Happy brewing, whether teaching or learning it is bound to be the start of a beautiful thing!

  Finally, I would like to turn everyone on to a couple of pretty stellar beer finds of late.  If you are not a hop-head you may want to fast forward to the next section.  First off, Sierra Nevada has just released its 12th annual “HARVEST” Wet Hop Ale   (http://www.sierranevada.com/beers/harvest_series.html).  This is a beer that is made with hops that are harvested and brewed with on the very same day for a very tasty hop experience; it is in better beer stores now, but since it is seasonal and limited, you better get it before it is gone. Also a long time chilly weather celebratory Holiday time staple beer, Sierra Nevada’s 2008 Celebration Ale is just perfect this year, the hoppy, malty delicious balance is just great, especially with an abv of 6.8%.  Get ready to Celebrate!

Many Cheers - Jason

 

Meeting Location – Diane Catanzaro

 

Magnolia Steak & Seafood Company

November 5th at 7:30 p.m.

 

As the weather chills and a beerdrinker’s fancy turns to thoughts of pumpkin ales, winter stouts, and hearty ales, the HRB&TS meetings move indoors, to sample drink and food at some of the area’s most hospitable restaurants. (My criteria for “hospitality” is fairly stringent….places that welcome our noble crew of motley beerdrinkers to occupy part of their restaurant, allow us to bring in our homebrew, and have some nice craft beers available for purchase). The November meeting will be at Magnolia Steak & Seafood Company in the heart of Ghent.  While this is a new meeting location for HRB&TS, “Magnolia Steak” has been serving great food and craft beer for 17 years.

So, the day after the big election (you may have heard about this on the news) HRB&TS members will have a chance to celebrate and/or commiserate with some tasty craft beers. Whatever way your political winds blow and whoever winds up in the White House, HRB&TS members have always had a common love for beer and a fellowship that transcends political orientation. Whether your politics run red, blue, or purple, we can clink glasses in a toast to whomever will be our next U.S. President. He is going to need a boatload of good wishes to steer this ship of state back on course!

 

Magnolia has a very nice craft beer selection both on tap and in the bottle. This restaurant is in the location that used to be Master’s Restaurant 20 years ago. Masters was the location of the very first HRB&TS meeting that Chris and I attended! It was at this meeting that we decided to try homebrewing. We sat in the bar area, all 10 of us, and did a blind taste test of several non-alcoholic beers (why exactly we did this I’m not sure). I do recall that Clausthaler was the winner.

While meetings start officially at 7:30, many of us early birds will gather beginning at 7 to get a head start on food and beer! Please reward Magnolia Steak’s hospitality by ordering something to eat. The range of food offerings is vast and patriotic! Appetizers like Red-white-and-blue nachos (these may make you spontaneously salute), the sausage (these and laws you don’t want to see being made) and cheese platter, and barbeque shrimp (wild-caught American) should earn many votes. A raw bar will be shucking responsibility, I mean clams and oysters. For you cowboys there are Angus beef steaks and cuts like ribeye, porterhouse (beery appropriate), and for you big-city types there is NY strip and Delmonico. Fat cats will top these with earmarks like crabmeat, carmelized onions, blue cheese, or a special brandy sauce. Should all these decisions be too taxing consider the All-American burger, Texas salad, iceberg wedge (act quickly before it melts off the Alaska coast), the populist seafood pasta, or the suspiciously foreign and veg-friendly linguini with pesto.

 

See you there! Bring homebrew!! But no commercial beers are allowed. The restaurant has a nice selection of craft beers.

 

Magnolia Steak and Seafood (www.magnoliasteak.com) is located in Ghent, at 749 W Princess Anne Road Norfolk. It is at the corner with Colley Avenue. 757-625-0400. There is a modest parking lot next to the restaurant, on Colley Avenue. If that is filled you can find on-street parking nearby.

 

Directions: It’s in Ghent. Near the NARO. For those of you needing more specific guidance…

 

Directions: from VA Beach - I-264 W to Waterside Drive exit.  Follow Waterside Drive, turn left on Brambleton, then right on Colley Ave. It is several blocks down, on the right.

From the Peninsula via HRBT- I-64 E to Granby St exit.  Follow Granby St for about 8 minutes.  Granby makes a right turn at the light by the Norfolk Zoo, by the way.  When you reach the intersection at W. Princess Anne Rd, turn right. It is about 7 blocks down at the intersection with Colley Ave.

 

From the Peninsula via MMBT - cross the MMBT on I-664, take exit 9 “164 Portsmouth.  Follow signs (look carefully) that say ‘Midtown Tunnel to Norfolk’ Take the Midtown tunnel, you will flow onto Hampton Blvd., then turn right on W Princess Anne Rd. One block down, at intersection.

 

From Chesapeake - Take Waterside Dr exit and follow VA Beach directions.

 

Competition Corner – Patti Messier

 

This month’s judging was held at the lovely home of Mark Johnson, in nearby Chesapeake.  We had quite a mix of judges, both experienced and apprentice.  Our six judges (Tom Byrnes, JP Messier, Mark Johnson, Rob Camlin, Matt Murphy and Brian Vasquez) enjoyed the selection of ESBs.  After the deliberations, the results were as follows: 

First Place, Greg “Gus” Gustafson, good for three HRBTS Cup points; 

Second Place, JP Messier, good for two HRBTS Cup points; 

Third Place, Mark Johnson, good for one HRBTS Cup point.

 

 

So the race is winding down again and there is only one judging left!  Let’s have some competition!   Start brewing now!

 

2008 HRBTS CUP STANDINGS (as of October 31)

 Name of Brewer(s)

Total Points Accumulated

 

J. P. Messier

38

Tom Byrnes

14

Jason Kuller

11

Doug Boyd

6

Chris Jones/Diane Catanzaro

6

Greg “Gus” Gustafson

3

Tim Hobbs

2

Mark Johnson

1

This could easily be you….

…if you get brewing!

 

 

2008 HRB&TS CUP BREWING SCHEDULE

Month

Style

Category/Sub

AHA Event - Deadline

November

(Oct 22)

 

Extra Special/Strong Bitter

 

8C

 

---

December

(Nov 19)

Christmas/Winter Specialty Spiced –

Must Use Cinnamon

 

21B

 

---

2009 HRB&TS CUP BREWING SCHEDULE

Month

Style

Category/Sub

AHA Event - Deadline

January

(Dec 17)

 

Oatmeal Stout

 

13C

 

---

February

(Jan 21)

 

Scottish 60, 70, 80

 

9A, B, C

 

---

March

(Feb 18)

 

Belgian Blonde

 

18A

 

---

 

Quit throwing away your used yeast vials! – Patti Messier

 

Hey, all you brewers out there!  We need you to save your used White Lab Yeast vials HRB&TS will begin collecting your empty vials and redeeming them with White Labs to earn some great prizes for our raffles.  JP Messier will be collecting them at the monthly meetings as well as the judgings.  So gather those empty vials and hand them off to JP at the next meeting!

 

Beer Recipes

Due to some technical difficulties, J.P. Messier’s award winning Extra Special Bitter Recipe will appear at a later date – when he can access a crashed computer.

 

Due to close newsletter publication and judging dates, we were not able to include Gus and Mark’s recipes in this newsletter.  They will appear in December’s newsletter.

 

 

Second Annual Virginia Sports Hall of Fame Beer Blitz

Saturday, November 15, 2008
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

206 High Street, Portsmouth, VA 23704

This is a BJCP/AHA Sanctioned Competition sponsored by the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and conducted by the Colonial AleSmiths and Keggers (CASK) homebrew club in Williamsburg, Va. Registration is open October 17 to November 7.  They desperately need entries, judges, and stewards.  I will be there as a steward and taster – YUM YUM.  For more information or to sign-up, checkout out their website

http://www.vshfm.com/beerblitz/index.html

 

Note from the Editor – Shana Pribesh

Want to be an officer in social club but have none of the pesky responsibilities?  You could be Newsletter Editor!!  One a month you put together the newsletter from stories sent to you by *other* officers and members.  It’s easy – but time for me to pass on the mantle because I have a two-year old that wants to ‘help’ (aka crash my computer) each month.  If this role interests you, talk to me at the next meeting or email me at editor@hrbts.org.

 

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