December 1997 Issue 20
Inside This Issue
December 1997 Issue 20
Inside This Issue
by Craig Pepin
Calling all judges, calling all judges!
Code 6 (homebrew competition) reported at Steve and Clark's brewpub, January 17, 1998. Please respond to judge dispatcher Craig Pepin if you are not on another call.
The Southeastern Homebrewer of the Year competition is coming to Durham and is being co-hosted by TRUB and CARBOY. Entry in this competition is open only to brewers who have won a ribbon
in a recognized southeastern homebrew competition during 1997, but the chance to judge this competition is open to all, even novices. This is a particularly fun event to judge, because the entry numbers are not huge (we're expecting between 140 and 180) and the quality is generally pretty high. That means lots of good beers to judge and fewer gushers. As always, we need both judges and stewards.
Contact Craig Pepin at ckp@acpub.duke.edu, or 919-286-7344 if you want to join in the fun.
Due to the busy holiday season, the December meeting of CARBOY will not be held. The next meeting of CARBOY will be on Wednesday, January 28.
The next monthly CARBOY night at Harrison's Bar and Grill in Cary will be held on Tuesday, January 6. 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. Get a head start on breaking your New Year's resolutions! The gathering starts at 5:00 and ends when the last of us leaves.
This month's recipe is a special holiday treat. Last year Larry Matthews sent this recipe out on TRUB-NET. It changed my life. Enjoy!
OLD ENGLISH HOT WASSAIL
4 small baked apples
4 TBSP brown sugar
2 cups ale
0.25 TSP ground nutmeg
0.5 TSP ground cinnamon
0.25 TSP ground ginger
0.5 cup granulated sugar
1.5 cups dry sherry
-heat ale, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, sugar, and sherry
-stir until sugar is fully dissolved
-cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes, taking care not to let it boil
-pour into a punch bowl and float the baked apples in the punch
-serve in punch glasses or some other heat resistant cup
Makes 6-8 servings
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The following Club-Only Competitions will be held in 1998:
Stout Bout: March
Classic Pilsner: May
Weiss is Nice: August
Best of Fest: October
If It's Not Scottish...: December
by Tony Hewitt thewitt@nortel.ca
Guten Tag aus Deutschland!
Things are going pretty good over here. The other week my department was treated to a tour of the Tettnang brewery as a reward for a job well done (ok, so I was invited along just to shut me up...) The tour was very interesting and quite different from the microbreweries in the US.
First, this brewery only produces 4 beers:
 | Keller Pils (or Bio-beer). This is a beer produced
from earth-friendly materials. It has not been filtered and has a strong
hop flavor (Tettnang, of course). This is the only one of their beer
that come in a swing-top bottle.
| Export. This is a slightly sweeter beer with
less hops (Tettnang, again) than the Pils. I didn't really care too much
for this one.
| Coronator Dopple Bock Hell. This is the Weihnachten
(christmas) Dopple Bock produced starting in November. This is a little
different from the other Dopple Bocks I have had here, in that there
was a noticeable presences of hops (again, Tettnang). It is a little
more balanced than some of the others. It weighs in at about 7% ABV.
| Coronator Dopple Bock Dunkel. This is the beer
made for the Starkbier (strong beer) festival time. This is sometime around
Lent, I think. If I were to guess, this beer would have quite a
prominent Tettnang hops flavor..... I will report on this one after
it becomes available.
| |
(During the Hops harvest, sometime in September I think, they actually produce a Frisch (fresh) beer, made with the recent hand-picked harvest. This is not for sale outside the brewery, and only during this time.) The brewmeister gave the tour. Apparently, this brewer has been a family brewery for 7 generations (This was the 150 year anniversary). The entire operation, including the restaurant and distribution, is run by only 7 people. Of course, they made the statement that Anheuser- Busch makes in 4 minutes what they make in a year.
The tour started in the master control room. The mash-tun and brew- kettle were about half the size of those at Tomcats. There was an impressive electronic control board with neat little bells and lights. This was not explained. The interesting part of this room was that only 1/8th of each of these vessels were visible. They were actually built into the wall such that only the openings for each were accessible. The brewing process was quickly described (the tour was actually in English since only one of us spoke German). The brewery use ONLY Tettnang hops.
Next we entered the Fermentation room. There were 6 open-air fermentation tanks, each about as large as the brew-kettle. From here, they are drained directly downstairs to the conditioning tanks. The room below was filled with at least 16 conditioning tanks. These were large oblong tanks, laying down, rather than standing up. Here, we finally got to taste a beer. They gave us the export. Oh well. They actually climb into these vessels and scrub them by hand.
Next, we went up some stairs to where the hops (Tettnang, of course) were stored. Also hidden in this room were another 4-6 storage tanks. The hops are all whole hops, these guys frown at the use of pellets... On the way out of this area, we passed several other storage tanks, scattered around the building. The entire layout was a maze of rooms, each connected with hoses and pipes. Far different from the vast open breweries of the US.
Finally, we entered the bottling area. These guys had a major bottling machine. This was massive. Conveyor belts, pulleys, gizmos, clamps, gluers, and whatnots. I don't remember the bottling rate, but it was pretty impressive. The Keller Pils, though, has to be closed by hand since the machine cannot cope with the swing-top. Distribution of these beers is limited to a radius of only 20km. This means I have to drive about 12km to get this beer.....
The interesting thing, at least to me, was the amount of storage tanks. The beers produced are all lagers so storage takes quite a bit longer than the ale beers of the US breweries. I think that for the regular beers (Keller Pils and Export) the storage time was about 3-4 weeks. For the Dopple Bocks, it was 3-4 months before bottling.
After the tour we ate in the restaurant. The food was excellent and well worth a try. For the first round ordered the export which can be bought in giant 2 liter bottle. These bottle are not available outside the brewery because they would need an additional license to sell them. Included in the price of the big bottle is a nice little souvenir mug. Of course there are other items available for sale and we ended up buying a limited edition krug (stein).
by Steve Murphrey
We hope to see all of you on Sunday, January 25th at Steve and Donna Murphrey's house for our first club Super Bowl party. This should be a fun, family event (even though the Cowboys won't be playing). Spouses and children are encouraged to come. The available activities will include watching the game via satellite on the big-screen TV, eating and judging the chili you bring, playing foosball, playing backgammon, and sampling homebrew.
This will be a "pot luck" affair with a chili theme. Bring whatever food or beer you like. We'll have an informal chili judging. First place wins the "thrill of victory" plus one year's bragging rights. Last place gets to eat leftover chili until the Pro Bowl. Although informal, our competition will be registered with both the American Chilicookers Association (ACA) and the Chili Judge Certification Program (CJCP). We will use the ACA style guidelines as defined by ACA founder Charlie Pepperazian:
"The chili and any other primary ingredients should be evident in both flavor and aroma. Hop flavor or aroma is inappropriate in all styles. Color is based on style (e.g., Chile Verde should be green, Chile Colorado or Texas Red should be red, etc.). Clarity and head retention are severe flaws. Heat is also based on style (e.g., aroma from a New England Mild should not singe the nose hairs) and should be in balance with the other flavors. All chili should be full-bodied."
Chili will be judged according to the standard 50-point schedule:
| 10 Bouquet/Aroma:
| 6 Appearance
| 19 Flavor
| 5 Body
| 10 Eatability & overall impression
| |
If you will be attending, please let Steve know (via E-mail or phone) how many will be in your party.
Location: 4001 Old SturbridgeDrive
Phone: 779-4482
E-mail: swmurph@ibm.net
Driving instructions: The Murphrey's live a little bit south of Cary.
Get onto 1010 Road by any appropriate route (e.g., come south on Killdare Farm Road and turn left, come south on Walnut Street or Holly Springs Road and turn left, come south on Lake Wheeler Road and turn right, or come south on US 401 and turn right). Turn south on Bells Lake Road. (Bells Lake Road intersects 1010 between Lake Wheeler Road and Holly Springs Road. Look for street sign on the south side of 1010 Road.) Old Sturbridge Drive is the 4th street on the right (about a long mile south of 1010 Road). It's the corner house on the south side of Old Sturbridge Drive Parking: Just pull into any of the 3 large driveways.
So prepare your chili or fixings or whatever you like, and come on over. It should be a blast