March 1998 Issue 23
Inside This Issue
March 1998 Issue 23
Inside This Issue
 | National Homebrew Day
| Monk's Cafe
| Extract Beers
| March CARBOY Meeting
| CARBOY Night at
Harrison's
| Shamrock Open
| Cooking with Beer
| Receive The Fermenter Electronically
| Upcoming Events
| |
Mark your calendars, National Homebrew day is coming! This annual event is scheduled for Saturday, May 2. The event will be held at the Pale Ale (formerly Tomcat) Brewery in Raleigh. Directions and times will be published in next month's newsletter.
For those of you who attended last year, you know how much fun this event is. If you have never attended, come on down and discover how much fun taking over a commercial brewery can be!
The organizing committee is still weighing the options for lunch. Their decision will be printed in next month's newsletter.
This year, we will be brewing an Oktoberfest beer. This is a lager beer. Pale Ale's head brewer Blaise has
been kind enough to allow us to lager our beer for six weeks at the brewery. This should be plenty of time to develop the clean taste that is so important to a lager.
The key to a successful Oktoberfest beer is the rich malty taste, and full body. Traditional German brewers use a decoction mash to create this rich malty flavor profile. As dedicated brewers, we will do no less. The Pale Ale Brewery is set up to do infusion mashes. This means that we will have to provide extra heating capacity for the decoction. If you have a 15-gallon pot and propane burner that you can loan to the event, please contact event organizer James Kinn.
So what do we get out of this? Well, there is the fun of brewing on a commercial scale. Not to mention how you get to bond with other homebrews. Oh, we also get to take home 5 gallons of this exciting beer. You don't think I'd forget to mention the beer?
The final cost of the event will be approximately $30/ brewer. This includes the 5 gallons of beer. More details will be posted, as the become available.
For more details, contact event organizer James Kinn at: JamesKinn@aol.com.
The March meeting of CARBOY will be held on Wednesday, March 25 at 7:00 P.M.. We will meet in the BB&Y Restaurant.
Mike Lewandowski will be leading this month's beer education discussion. Mike will be discussing no- sparge mashing. If you are interested in this technique, stop by the meeting!
It just wouldn't be a CARBOY meeting without beer. So, to keep the tradition alive, we will include a tasting of our members' beers. Please bring at least three 12 ounce bottles (or equivalent) of either homebrew or interesting commercial brew. Feel free to discuss your beers as much or as little as you prefer!
The BB&Y Restaurant is located on the first
floor of the Caswell Building at 3700 National Drive, in the Koger Center
off Glenwood Avenue in west Raleigh. Owner Nick Jones allows CARBOY to
meet monthly at his restaurant when we don't have picnics or field trips
scheduled. BB&Y is open for breakfast and lunch each weekday. We encourage
members to visit BB&Y for a relaxed informal meal. Please let Nick
know you're from CARBOY when you visit his restaurant.
The next monthly CARBOY night at Harrison's Bar and Grill in Cary will be held on Tuesday, March 3. Every month, CARBOY members gather for the sole purpose of enjoying beer, food, and friends. Tomcat Ales are served for $2/pint, and appetizers are 1/2 off. Avoid the post-Groundhog Day blues and stop by! The gathering starts at 5:00 and ends when the last of us leaves.
Shamrock Open
by Steve Murphrey (swmurph@ibm.net)
The 1998 Shamrock Open, held March 14, 1998, in Raleigh, NC, is now history. Many thanks to all the
CARBOY and TRUB volunteers who helped to pull this off. Things appeared to go smoothly throughout the day, and I think everyone who attended had a great time. We all appreciated Richard Todd's English
Mild, pulled with his beer engine, and the Carolina Brewing Company's Spring Bock. Even the weatherman cooperated by providing a welcome break in our recent cold spell. The quality of this year's entries was great. None of the judges complained about having many bad beers. We had 100 entries, divided into 11 flights.
Here are the winners:
Best of Show: Mark Bailey (Traditional Bock)
1st runner up: Eric Midkiff (English Special Best Bitter)
2nd runner up: John Rice (Marzen/Oktoberfest)
Best extract beer: Eric Bodensieck (Herb and Spice Beer)
Strongish beers (Strong ales, Barley wines,Bocks):
1st Mark Bailey (Traditional Bock)
2nd Keith Klemp/John Purl (German-style Helles/Mai Bock)
3rd Jim Buck (Traditional Bock)
Belgian beers (Belgian and French ales, Lambics):
1st Steve Gale (Belgian-style Flanders Brown/Oud Bruin)
2nd Keith Klemp/John Purl (Belgian-style Dubbel)
3rd Craig Peppin (Belgian-style Lambic)
United Kingdom Ales (English mild, brown, and pale ales, Scottish ale):
1st Eric Midkiff (English light mild)
2nd Stephen Murphrey (Scottish Export)
3rd Michael Fennessy (Scottish Export)
American Pale Ales:
1st Fred Johnson (American Pale Ale)
2nd Mark Bailey (American-style amber)
3rd Mark Griswold (American pale ale)
English Bitter Ales:
1st Eric Midkiff (English Best Bitter)
2nd Bill Mendyka (English Ordinary Bitter)
3rd Marcy Eckert (English Best Bitter)
Dark Beers (Porter, German dark):
1st Mark Bailey (Robust Porter)
2nd James Kinn (Schwarzbier)
3rd John Rice (Robust Porter)
Stout:
1st Mark Griswold (Foreign-style Stout)
2nd Rick Theiner (Classic Irish-style Dry Stout)
3rd John Rice (Oatmeal Stout)
Classic Pilsener:
1st Bruce Barratt (German-style Pilsener)
2nd Jeff Gillette (Bohemian-style Pilsener)
3rd Eric MidKiff (German-style Pilsener)
Lightish Beers (German wheat, Kolsch, Fest, American lagers, CA Common):
1st John Rice (Marzen/Oktoberfest)
2nd Keith Klemp/John Purl (Weizen/Weissbier)
3rd Brian Dueweke (California Common Beer)
Interesting Beers (Smoked, Fruit & Vegetable, Herb & Spice, Specialty):
1st Eric Bodensieck (Herb & Spice beer)
2nd Jim Cross (Classic-style Smoked Beer)
3rd Bruce Pitner (Classic-style Specialty Beer)
Mead:
1st Jim Buck (Sparkling Melomel)
2nd Stephen Murphrey (Still Melomel)
3rd Stephen Murphrey (Still Melomel)
I have a confession to make. Some members of the homebrew community get on my nerves. Why? They think there is something wrong with being an extract brewer.
I can't count how many times I've heard beers introduced as "just an extract beer." This is nonsense! Extract beers are every bit as good as all-grain beers. In fact, extract beers consistently scored better at this year's Shamrock Open. You want to do well in competitions, use extract!
Generally, I brew all-grain batched of beer, but I don't do it for quality. In fact, my extract beers are every bit as good (and sometimes better) as my all-grain batches. I brew all-grain, because I think the extra involvement is fun. If I didn't enjoy playing with grain, I'd use nothing but extracts.
Why do people homebrew? Love of making and drinking beer. Extract brewers put their hearts and souls into their brews. This should generate admiration, not apologies.
Extract brewers should be proud of their beer. So let's stop apologizing and get back to enjoying beer!
Recently I had the good fortune to pay a visit to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the trip, I made sure I visited Monk's Cafe. For those of you who haven't heard of Monk's, it's like a slice of Belgium in the heart of center city Philadelphia.
I started the evening with a bottle of Petrus Triple. The beer was a dark gold color, with a slightly hazy appearance. The rich thick head looked like it belonged on the summit of a distant mountain. I was first struck by the smooth, full-bodied mouthfeel. Each swallow felt like silk going down. A noticeable up-front spiciness reminded me of coriander. The beer possessed low hop bitterness and flavor, which allowed the full malty flavor to shine through.
My second beer arrived just before the main course. I decided to follow the triple with a bottle of Scotch Silly. The first thing that I noticed about this beer was the very clean, malty aroma. A deep copper color seemed to jump out of the glass. The flavor was clearly dominated by malt. Very little hop bitterness was present, but somehow I didn't even miss it. This full-bodied brew stood up to the spices of my dinner without a struggle.
Dinner arrived right after the Scotch Silly. I ordered roasted chicken. The spices combined with each other so perfectly, I could not tell where one left off and the other began. Of course, that may have also been due to the alcohol found in these heavy beers! The chicken was accompanied by roasted potatoes and sautéed zucchini. A wonderfully satisfying meal!
Dinner was followed by a bottle of Chimay Grand Reserve. This is the Chimay found with a blue label. This is a full, rich, malty beer with a coriander spiciness for balance. This was another malty beer with little hop flavor or bitterness. Unfortunately, this beer did not survive the trip from Belgium in as good as condition as my previous beers. The wet-cardboard taste of oxidation reared its ugly head. There wasn't enough oxidation to ruin this truly classic beer, but it did detract from the overall enjoyment of a great beer.
If you ever find yourself in Philadelphia, make sure you visit Monk's
Cafe. It is located at 264 S. 16th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102, (215)
545-7005.
I have to admit, I am very excited about the prospect of making an Oktoberfest at this year's National Homebrew Day. This caused me to think about a great recipe that uses Oktoberfest beer. This is a tasty version of the classic hot potato salad.
Hot Potato Salad
| 8 each small new red and white potatoes, scrubbed
| 5 strips lean bacon, coarsely chopped
| 1 large onion, or 5 shallots, coarsely chopped
| 5 scallions, cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
| 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
| 1 cup Oktoberfest beer
| 3 TBSP balsamic vinegar
| 0.25 to 0.33 cups oil or bacon drippings
| paprika, salt, and pepper to taste
| 0.25 cups toasted crushed walnuts
| |
- Lower potatoes into boiling water to cover. Add a teaspoon of salt and boil just until tender (do not overcook). Drain, cool slightly, and quarter but do not peel. Place in a hot covered pan.
- In a heavy skillet cook bacon until crisp. Remove and set aside on towels to drain.
- Remove all but 3 tablespoons of bacon drippings. Sauté onion in drippings until golden. Add scallions and caraway seeds, sauté for 1 minute.
- Add beer to onions and simmer over medium-high until reduced by half. Pour in vinegar and oil and simmer briefly. Adjust seasonings.
- Add warm potatoes to sauce and simmer 2 minutes, turning potatoes gently. Remove from heat and place in serving bowl. Sprinkle with paprika and walnuts.
Note: If not serving immediately, cover and hold at room temperature.
Stir before serving.
TO INDEX
Receive The Fermenter Electronically
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CARBOY's Newsletter The Fermenter is the newsletter of CARBOY. As such, it relies on its membership for content. Please submit any articles, letters, recipes, comments, questions, or suggestions to the address shown below. Electronic mail to mlew@ntrnet.net is preferred, but not required. Thank you!
March 25: CARBOY meeting
April 7: CARBOY night at Harrison's
April 22: CARBOY meeting (we will select our entry for the AHA Classic Pilsener COC)
May 2: National Homebrew Day
May 18: AHA Classic Pilsener COC
The AHA Club-Only-Competition, Stout Bout, will be held in March. If you get started now, you should be able to get an entry ready.
If you find yourself with extra stout on your hands, you can always make a chocolate stout cake!