The Brewsletter

February 2009

 

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

www.hrbts.org

 

President’s Podium – Jonna Walker

 

As everyone who reads their e-mail knows, we have lost one of our long-time club members.  Mike Quanty will be greatly missed by his many close friends and fellow homebrewers. Last Sunday at the Botanical Gardens was a beautiful tribute to a wonderful, jovial, all around great guy.  He would have been impressed by the large turnout to his memorial service.  We will miss you Mike!

 

All of us (26+ 3 children) who ventured to Rehoboth Beach over Martin Luther King's holiday to tour Dogfish Head Brewery had a chance to be with Mike for the last time.  We also received a special treat by having Sam Calagione give us the tour (thanks to Diane Catanzaro emailing & asking him directly!).  He doesn't give these tours anymore; it was a special favor for our club.  Sam gave HRBTS 4 posters, which  he autographed and they will be raffled in the "silent auction".  We sampled some wonderful brews, Indian Brown Ale, 60 Minute IPA, Raison D'Etre and Red & White. WOW!  Later, we met up at the pub for dinner, all of us together upstairs.  Before leaving, many had their Dogfish Head growlers filled. We won't mention the pool, hot tub, sauna and steam room at the hotel!!!! Did everyone get homemade cookies upon returning to the hotel after dinner?

On Jan 24, a handful of our club members joined BARF for their 3rd annual "Richmond Pub Crawl.  Everyone was given a very nice T-shirt commemorating the event.  We rode a luxury bus, while watching the movie "Taken".  The plan (according to Liz) was to start at the top of the hill and work our way downhill all evening and the bus would be at Shockoe Bottom waiting. We were dropped near the top of the hill at Capital Ale  House.  It was a chilly night, but once we got started, we were plenty warm.  Most of the group proceeded farther up the hill to start at "Penny Lane".  Here we had a round of pints while enjoying the sounds of the "Beatles" in the background.  As we proceeded downhill our spirits went uphill.  Next stop was Capital Ale
House and their great selection of brews. They showed us to their downstairs room where our group played pool, threw darts and made merry with several rounds of pints and snacked on pretzels and other munchies.  Time was going by quickly!  A few blocks down, we found Richbrau Brewing  Company in a beautiful building.  We were ushered upstairs and another pint or two of so-so beers.  Across the street is Sine Irish Pub, many in the group took this chance for dinner.  They seated most of the group on their back porch, but many stayed inside where we shared food, drank a couple of pints and enjoyed the atmosphere.  Next stop was McCormack's Irish Pub.  A very interesting place, bartender had a great Mohawk, two young ladies showed up
scantly clad in white lace & faux fur with sparkles, a bearded man was drinking out of another guy's boot and the guy didn't know why!  One drink was enough for most and we headed over to Rosie Connolly's Pub, a very
charming place, we finished our drinking here and ran to the waiting bus. Everyone made it back to the bus by 10 PM to finish watching the movie!  I would recommend this trip to everyone in our club.  Thanks BARF for

extending the invitation to include HRBTS.

I want to thank Gordon Biersch for hosting our last meeting.  Sorry Alan could not give us a tour, but they are close enough that we can go there anytime. Nice to have a brewery in town.  Even nicer to have one in
your garage, basement or back yard!

I also want to thank CJ & Diane for hosting the last judging, where the officers present and the judges decided on the 2009 Brewing Schedule.  Hopefully we have a beer type for everyone and we will have more   people
participating in brewing competitions.  Check out Competition Corner and see who our new leader is!!!!

 Richard Pidgeon is teaching brewing classes.   The advanced class will be April 4, 9:30 to 3:30, and features brewing an all-grain beer in class.  It includes discussions on building a three tier brewing system, mash adjuncts, fruit and spice beers, brewing enzymes, how to calculate IBUs in your beer, kegging and keg care, how to rapidly carbonate your kegged beer (twenty minutes), and other advanced topics. Classes have hands-on exercises for the students. See:  http://www.wineandcake.com/browse.cfm/4,13463.html

Tickets go on sale for "SAVOR" Monday Feb. 2;  the event is on May 30th. Several HRBTS members attended this event last year and enjoyed it thoroughly.  This is a very upscale event.  People dress very nice. You get to talk to each brewer, who is excited to talk about their creation.  Then someone explains the food chosen to taste which each beer.  This is so one can "savor" the moment. www.savorcraftbeer.com   Early hotel reservations are recommended.

 

 Max's 72 Hours of Belgium starts Feb 13 thru Feb 15, perfect Valentine's Day trip to Baltimore.  Recommend early hotel reservations and flying, since parking fees are high and the drive back is so long after 72 hours of Belgium! www.max's.com

See you at the next meeting,
Jonna Walker,
HRBTS President

 

Meeting Location – Diane Catanzaro

 

Hmmm….where to meet in February? Last month we had a great turnout at Gordon Biersch. The month before was big fun at Bier Garden. Happy to be reappointed as club meeting coordinator for 2009, I wanted our February 4 meeting to be someplace special. The location would have to have a top-notch beer selection, a tasty menu that would please club members, and hospitable proprietors that would welcome our presence.

 

Guess where we are meeting!!  I will give clues, and we’ll see if you can figure it out. First some brews clues! This place has Legend’s Quad, Tripel, Brown, and Chocolate Porter on draft, along with St George Nut Brown, several beers from Starr Hill and Old Richmond, and all drafts are on Wed night special for $3. By the way, the Legend Quad is new and it’s spectacular. Have you figured it out yet?

 

Ok, here are some more hints! The bottled selection includes DFH 60 ($4.5), 90 ($6.5), and Chicory Stout, Heavy Seas Below Decks Barleywine, the Duchesse ($9; be still my heart), Chimay Red ($8) and Blue ($9) cap, Lindeman’s Peche and Framboise ($13), and Oxford Organic Raspberry. There are several beers from Unibroue, including Ephemere (take note Erin!) The canned selection includes Dale’s Pale Ale ($4). Virginia 12 oz beers, by the way, are only $3 on Wednesday nights, and the 22 oz Virgina beers are $6 bottle. If you still are clueless, may I gently suggest you get out more? Places with beer selections this sexy need to be on the frequently-frequented list of every beer lover in Hampton Roads!!

 

Maybe the food menu will give you some helpful hints. There is a focus on fresh, seasonal fare and Virginia farm products. Meats are mostly hormone-free and farm-raised. There are numerous pasta and vegetarian offerings, too. The entire restaurant is smoke-free unless somebody brings a homebrewed rauchbier. Ok, here is a big hint if you haven’t guessed already. It is in a section of Norfolk that is named after a city in Belgium. The hip guys who own this restaurant once appeared naked on the cover of PortFolioWeekly. (Sort of). Ok, if you don’t know where we are meeting by now you are sentenced to visit this restaurant frequently and tell your friends about it!!! Don’t YOU keep it such a secret that everyone has to guess where we can find this kind of stellar beer list in a nonsmoking restaurant! Code: The Anns. To decipher code: Just add a letter to each letter of Anns and you’ll have it for sure!!!

 

We have our own section of tables on the far left side of the restaurant. Come around 7 pm to get a head start on dinner and a beer. You may bring homebrew. Meeting official start time is 7:30. Hope to see you there!!

Can’t decipher the location, call or text me at 757 285-2287 and I’ll remove any lingering mystery!

 

Restaurant Address:

123 W. 21st Street in Norfolk, 627-2668. On 21st Street, at the corner of Omohundro. There is free parking on the street and in the parking lot behind the restaurant.

 

Directions:

From VA Beach - I-264 W to the City Hall Ave exit. Turn right on St. Paul’s Blvd. This becomes Monticello. When you hit 21st street, turn left. Its 2 blocks down on the left. (ps: if traffic is jammed up at the City Hall/St Paul’s exit, breeze past it in the left lane and take Waterside Drive instead. Stay straight till you hit 21st Street, then turn right).

 

From the Peninsula via HRBT- I-64 E to Granby St exit.  Follow Granby St for about 8 minutes.  (Granby makes a hard right turn at the light by the Norfolk Zoo, by the way).  When you reach the intersection at 21st street, take a right on 21st and it’s on the left in 2 blocks.

 

From Chesapeake - Take I-264 or 464 toward downtown Norfolk, take the City Hall Ave/St Paul’s Blvd exit. Turn right on St Paul’s Blvd. This becomes Monticello. When you hit 21st street, turn left. It’s 2 blocks down on the left.

 

From Suffolk - Take I-264 and follow the Virginia Beach directions from City Hall Ave/St Paul’s Blvd.

 

From Ocean View – Take Granby Street South, turn right on 21st Street! It’s on the left in 2 blocks.

 

 

Competition Corner – Tom Byrnes

 

Our Scottish ale competition was held at the home of CJ and Diane. This month’s judges Diane, JP, Jason, Tom and  Doug evaluated 4 entries with scores ranging from 24.25 to 32.5.  First place was secured by Doug Boyd (32.5) for the second month proving that there is life after stout. The runners –up were Tom in 2nd place (30.0) and Jason in 3rd (22.25) with a unique interpretation of the style. The evening ended with one member looking into his cooler and saying “you guys suck”.  However all four beers were worthy challengers and quite drinkable in their own right.

 

Brewing points are listed below:

 

2009 HRBTS CUP STANDINGS

Name of Brewer

Points Accumulated

Doug Boyd

6

Tom Byrnes

4

JP Messier

1

Jason Kuller

1

This could easily be you….

…if you get brewing!

 

It’s still early to get in on the brewing action and all members are encouraged to brew. The next competition will be Belgian Blonde Ales and is scheduled for February 19 @ 7:30. The location will be determined later.  March will bring the ever popular extract only category where any style is permitted.

 

Below you will find our brewing schedule for 2009. I think you will find something for every type of brewer. New brewers can jump in immediately with the extract competition while beers near the end may require extensive aging.

 

2009 HRB&TS CUP BREWING SCHEDULE

Month

Style

Category/Sub

AHA Event - Deadline

January

(Dec 17)

 

Oatmeal Stout

 

13C

 

---

February

(Jan 22)

 

Scottish 60, 70, 80

 

9A, B, C

 

---

March

(Feb 19)

 

Belgian Blonde

 

18A

 

---

April

(Mar 19)

 

Extract

 

All

Yes

May 2 2008

May

(Apr 23)

Black

IPA Clone

Loosely based on  14 A, B

 

June

(May 21)

 

Wit Beer

16A

 

July

(June 18)

 

Mead

24, 25, 26 A,C

 

August

(July 23)

 

Fruit Beer

20

 

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

 

2009 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 are also looking for 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: February 19 March 19 April 23 May 21 June 18 July 23 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.

 

Beer Recipes

1st  Place – Scottish Export 80 – HRBTS Cup January 2009, Brewer: Doug  Boyd

OG: 1.060  FG: 1.016

Batch Size: 5 Gallons

Primary:  10 days  Secondary:  7 days

 

7lbs Light Liquid Malt Extract

1 lb Carapils

.5 lb Roasted Barley

.5 lb Crystal 60L

.5 lb Peated Malt

.5 lb Chocolate Malt

1 oz Fuggles Hops

1 oz East Kent Goldings Hops

Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast

 

Put grains in a grain bag.

Heat 2.5 gallons of water to 150 degrees and steep grains for 30 to 45 minutes.  Add enough water for a full 5 gallon boil.  Add Liquid Malt extract and bring to a boil for 60 minutes.  Add 1oz Fuggles hops at the beginning of the boil. Add East Kent Goldings hops with 15 minutes left. 

 

Chill wort to 75 degrees and bring level up to 5 gallons.  Transfer to the fermentor and pitch the yeast.  Aerate (shake it!) 

 

++++++++++

 

2nd  Place – Downsized Scotch Ale – HRBTS Cup February 2009, Brewer: Tom Byrnes

A ProMash Recipe Report
Recipe Specifics

 

Batch Size (Gal):

5.00

Wort Size (Gal):

5.00

Total Extract (Lbs):

8.69

  

  

Anticipated OG:

1.073

Plato:

17.8

Anticipated SRM:

11.5

    

  

Anticipated IBU:

29.2

  

  

Wort Boil Time:

60

 Minutes

  

 

Grain/Extract/Sugar

 

%

Amount

Name

Origin

Potential

SRM

5.8

0.50 lbs. 

Crystal 40L

America

1.034

40

5.8

0.50 lbs. 

Munich Malt

Germany

1.037

8

5.8

0.50 lbs. 

CaraMunich Malt

Belgium

1.033

75

2.2

0.19 lbs. 

Peated Malt

Great Britain

1.038

5

80.6

7.00 lbs. 

Muntons DME - Light

England

1.046

5


Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops

 

Amount

Name

Form

Alpha

IBU

Boil Time

0.50 oz. 

Simcoe

Pellet

12.00

26.5

60 min

0.25 oz. 

Willamette

Pellet

5.00

1.5

15 min

0.25 oz. 

Goldings - E.K.

Whole

4.75

1.3

15 min

 

Extras

 

Amount

Name

Type

Time

0.50 Oz 

Malto Dextrine

Other

60 Min.(boil)

1.00 Tsp 

Irish Moss

Fining

15 Min.(boil)

 

Yeast

White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast

3rd  Place – Scottish Ale - HRBTS Cup February 2009, Brewer: Jason Kuller 

******  Not available ******

Previous Winners

Quiet Storm Stout    2nd Place,  January 2009, HRBTS Cup,    Brewer:  Tom Byrnes

Recipe Specifics

 

Batch Size (Gal):

6.00

Wort Size (Gal):

6.00

Total Grain (Lbs):

14.73

  

  

Anticipated OG:

1.065

Plato:

16.0

Anticipated SRM:

46.2

    

  

Anticipated IBU:

40.6

  

  

Brewhouse Efficiency:

75

 %

  

Wort Boil Time:

60

 Minutes

  

 

Grain/Extract/Sugar

 

%

Amount

Name

Origin

Potential

SRM

54.3

8.00 lbs. 

Pale Malt(2-row)

Great Britain

1.038

3

6.8

1.00 lbs. 

CaraMunich Malt

Belgium

1.033

75

3.7

0.55 lbs. 

Chocolate Malt

America

1.029

350

3.7

0.55 lbs. 

Crystal 105L

Great Britain

1.033

105

3.7

0.55 lbs. 

Roasted Barley

America

1.028

450

3.7

0.55 lbs. 

Black Patent Malt

America

1.028

525

6.8

1.00 lbs. 

Munich Malt

Great Britain

1.037

6

3.7

0.55 lbs. 

CaraPilsner

France

1.035

10

13.6

2.00 lbs. 

Flaked Oats

America

1.033

2


Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops

 

Amount

Name

Form

Alpha

IBU

Boil Time

1.64 oz. 

Fuggle

Whole

5.00

28.3

60 min

1.09 oz. 

Goldings - E.K.

Whole

4.75

9.2

30 min

1.09 oz. 

Willamette

Whole

5.00

3.1

2 min

 

Yeast

White Labs WLP004 Irish Stout Yeast

Mash Schedule

 

Mash Type:

Single Step

  

Grain Lbs:

14.73

  

Water Qts:

14.37

Before Additional Infusions

Water Gal:

3.59

Before Additional Infusions

Qts Water Per Lbs Grain:

0.98

Before Additional Infusions

 

Rest

Temp

Time

Saccharification Rest:

152

100 Min

Mash-out Rest:

169

10 Min

Sparge:

169

45 Min


Total Mash Volume Gal: 4.77 - Dough-In Infusion Only
All temperature measurements are degrees Fahrenheit.

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.