The Brewsletter
August 2009
The Official Newsletter of the Hampton Roads Brewing & Tasting Society (HRB&TS)
President’s Podium – Jonna Walker
August is here and it is hot! It’s time to drink a nice light, fruity flavored beer.
Hopefully we have a lot of homebrews to sample at the next meeting. Remember this month's beer is "Fruit Beer”. If you haven't brewed any lately, then please bring commercial brews to share.
Our picnic/campout is just around the corner, August 21st and 22nd. I hope everyone interested has made reservations. Day visits for just Saturday will be fine (it is just a long drive home after a fun afternoon of beer tasting and picnicking with our friends). We need a head count for planned attendance to picnic portion for weekend, so we know how much food to provide for picnic. Please specify if you are a vegetarian, so we will have enough veggie burgers. Picnic will start about 2 PM on Saturday. If you are bringing a screen room, canopy or anything like that to share, please let us know.
If you attend our picnic, you get to meet our new kitten, "St George's Dragon". Named after the brewery, because that’s where I found him when returning empty kegs. We call him George for short. He has already been camping one weekend. I think he is a party animal!
I want to thank Doug and Diane for hosting the last judging. Fruit Beers, WOW, they were great! Thank you to all who submitted beers and to those who took part in judging them.
Jonna Walker
President HRBTS
Meeting Location – Diane Catanzaro
Did somebody say “pool party?”
The HRB&TS’ August meeting is Wednesday, August 5th, at 7 pm., at the Chesapeake home of Matt Murphy and his wife Heather. Considering the hot steamy weather we’ve been ‘enjoying’ lately you may be cheered to note that the beautiful in-ground swimming pool that graces Matt and Heather’s property will be beckoning HRB&TS members to plunge, wade, chill, frolic, and cavort. (Note I did not say splash!) So, heed the call and bring your swimsuit (and a towel) to enjoy the swimming pool. As I recall from last year’s meeting at the Murphy’s the hot tub was also awesome…highly recommended. Children are welcome, however parents must closely supervise them as the swimming pool is filled with water! Water is much more dangerous than beer. You’ve never heard of anyone drowning in beer, have you? Except, perhaps metaphorically.
Burgers and veggie burgers, yeah, we’ll have ‘em for your dining pleasure. Any side dishes or munchies you wish to bring are welcomed. AND remember to tithe our host and hostess, Matt and Heather, with an extra homebrew or nice commercial brew to thank them for their fabulous hospitality in hosting the HRB&TS. Fruit beers are the beer of the month…yum…. but bring any type of homebrew or interesting craft beer to share with your beer brethren and alewives.
If you are a taster, or have not been brewing, we only have a few more meetings where commercial beers are allowed, because in cooler weather we’ll be meeting in restaurants. In restaurant meetings homebrew is allowed but we can’t bring in commercial beers purchased elsewhere. So, be sure to turn on the kind homebrewers who share their beer with you each month to some of the interesting craft beers that you’ve been discovering. Or, a beer that you’ve been meaning to try but you didn’t want to be responsible for drinking that entire 750 milliliter by yourself! Your homebrewing friends in the HRB&TS are here to help!
Speaking of fruit beers, Chris and I just returned from two weeks in Belgium with fourteen college students, studying alcohol’s relationship to culture. It is abundantly clear that the fruit beers of Belgium are extremely appealing, especially to those who think they don’t like beer. The sweetened cherry lambics, like Liefmann’s, Lindeman’s, and Boon’s krieks were a big hit. These beers help people comprehend the range of flavor profiles that exist in beer, to the surprise of those who thought all beers were bitter. They also liked the sweeter gueuzes right from the start. The tangy, sweet & sour flavors of the Duchesse were the next to capture the imagination of quite a few students. Then they started enjoying Belgian blonds and tripels. By the end of the two weeks, many were trying the unsweetened lambics and gueuzes and appreciating the sour flavors. One student mentioned, after we toured the Stella Artois brewery in Louvain (owned by AB-Inbev), that the Stella at the brewery (really more of a huge manufacturing plant) didn’t taste as good as the Stella Artois at home. I wondered why this might be. Then it occurred to me that his palate had changed, and now that he is drinking beer with real flavor the Stella is feeble in comparison. Factoid: that one location’s two canning lines churn out 140,000 cans every hour. No, that is not a typo. And that is not counting the bottling line, just the canning lines! The “brewers” or more accurately I’d guess “brewing technicians” sit at a large computer bank that looks like NASA mission control, with twelve monitors devoted to brewing and another twelve devoted to fermentation. I guess they can brew wearing Gucci footwear… so much more stylish than those rubber boots… as their feet are not going to get wet at any stage of the brewing process!
We toured nine breweries (Halve Moon, Cantillon, Alvinne, Huyghe (“Delerium”), t’Smisje, Vapeur, Abbaye des Rocs, Blaugies, and Stella Artois), visited the Hops Museum, attended Vapeur’s Open Brew Day (with HRB&TS members Ron and Jeannine Jones, who also joined us at Alvinne, Huyghe, t’Smisje, and Abbaye des Rocs), saw the tomb of the real Duchesse of Burgundy, and had various lectures and presentations on alcohol, culture, and related topics. We visited Amsterdam and went to three awesome museums, including the Reijksmuseum where we had a special tour highlighting themes of alcohol and culture. It took a lot of planning and was a busy two weeks but it definitely was a fun and rewarding experience. I will send a link to the photo gallery once it is ready.
Jean Van Roy, owner/brewer of Cantillon Briouwerij poster at the Hops museum in Popering
in Brussels, receiving Schaerbeek cherries
Competition Corner – Tom Byrnes
I wanted to start by thanking Doug and Diane Boyd for hosting the fruit beer competition. This was a very close competition and our 7 entries excelled in flavor and creative use of fruit. Our 3 judges: Doug, JP and Will and guest judge Brian Bishop, a home brewer from Elizabeth City, had a tough job as all entries appeared to be of ribbon quality. The scores ranged from 20.5 to 33.5 with most entries falling in the lower 30’s range. JP continued his quest for a 3-peat by taking first place with a blackberry weizenbock (33.5). Tom took second place (32.5) with a sour cherry ESB and JP rounded off the night with third (31.5) with a Belgian cherry blonde (my personal favorite).
Brewing points are listed below:
|
2009 HRBTS CUP STANDINGS |
|
|
Name of Brewer |
Points Accumulated |
|
Tom Byrnes |
14 |
|
JP Messier |
14 |
|
Doug Boyd |
8 |
|
Jason Kuller |
5 |
|
Gus Gustafson |
4 |
|
C hris Jones |
3 |
|
You could be here …. |
?? |
This contest is currently tied and several members are within striking distance, making for a close finish with 4 beers remaining. All members are encouraged to brew and enter this contest. The more beers we have the better our competition becomes and the more homebrew we have at the meetings. The next competition will be the unique Spice Beers will be held on August 20 @ 7:30. The location will be determined later. You can also receive 3 points by brewing a 5 gallon batch of beer for the upcoming club picnic.
|
2009 HRB&TS CUP BREWING SCHEDULE |
|||
|
Month |
Style |
Category/Sub |
AHA Event - Deadline |
|
September (August 20) |
Unique Spice/herb in aroma and flavor |
Loosely based on 21 A, B |
|
|
October (Sept 24) |
Saison |
16C |
|
|
November (Oct 22) |
Belgian Strong |
18 A-E |
Nov/Dec 09 |
|
December (Nov 19) |
Smoked Porter |
22B with base style in 12 |
|
|
2010 HRB&TS CUP BREWING SCHEDULE |
|||
|
Month |
Style |
Category/Sub |
AHA Event - Deadline |
|
January 2010 (December 17) |
English Brown Ale |
11 A,B,C |
February 16, 2010 |
|
February 2010 (Jan 21) |
American Ales |
10 A,B |
March/April 2010 |
|
March 2010 (Feb 18) |
Braggot |
26B |
|
We really need members who would be willing to host a judging at their home. Judging will be held on Thursday’s two weeks before each HRBTS regular meeting. The dates will be: Aug 20 Sept 24 Oct 22 Nov 19 and Dec 17 (3 weeks prior due to Christmas). If you are willing to host please email me at tombyrnes@verizon.net to reserve your month.
Volunteers Needed: Since I will be at GABF during the Saison competition on September 24, I need somebody to run the event that night. I will find a location and deliver the materials prior to leaving for Denver, you will need to run the competition and record the scores. Unless I get a person to agree to run the event, I will have no choice but to move this competition to September 17 which is 1 week earlier when I can attend.
If you are willing to host future events or run the competition on 9/24/09 please email me at tombyrnes@verizon.net to reserve your month
1st Place – HRBTS Cup July 2009, Blackberry Weizenbock, Brewer: JP Messier
2nd Place – HRBTS Cup July 2009, Sour Cherry ESB, Brewer: Tom Byrnes
3rd Place – HRBTS Cup July 2009, Belgian Cherry Blonde, Brewer: JP Messier
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.