April 2002

Next Meeting:

The next meeting will be at Russ and Amber's House, located at 639 Kourt Drive, Eugene on Monday, April 8 at 6 PM. Denny will demonstrate batch sparging and Russ will show us how to can wort for yeast starters.  For more information or directions, please call at 461-1548.

And Now a Word from President Robin Chitwood:
Thank you to Kent and Janie for hosting the club meeting.  Janie  reported that the February beer dinner and raffle earned about $350 for the club.  Janie also distributed the profit and loss statement for January 1, 2001, to March 15,2002.  If you were not present and would like a copy please contact Janie.

Kent built a counter-flow wort chiller.  No one was injured, and Ron Hulka won the chiller in the raffle.  Kent reminded us that raffles are a great source of revenue for the club.  Donations of brewing related items can help fund events throughout the year.

Thanks to Denny and the sponsor for our new web site.  Check it out at www.hbd.org/cascade.  Denny would like us to email beer reviews and items of interest for the site.  Warm weather is on the way so vitalize your spring wardrobe.  Club T shirts are on sale; all sizes only $10 each.

We would like to welcome another new club member, Matt Jarvis.

Support Native Oregon Beer (SNOB) hosted a tasting at Cornucopia March 15th. Some of the great beers offered were:  Rogue Smoked Dopplebock, Hawks Frog Wort, Terminal Gravity Barley Wine, Oregon Trader IPA, and Wild Duck Stout.

The KLCC Spring Brew fest is March 29th and 30th, 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Check out their great web site for beer info.  If you are interested in volunteering to pour contact KLCC.
President continued:
Steve Mathys at Willamette Homebrew has agreed to have CBS info at his table.

Next meeting is at Russ and Amber’s house April 8th at 6:00 P.M..  Denny will demonstrate batch sparging and Russ will show us how to can wort for yeast starters.

See you at Russ and Amber's.

Cascade Brewers Society Fundraising Dinner

By Jodi Ranuio

On Saturday evening, February 23, 2002, the first Cascade Brewers Society fundraising dinner was held at Janie and Kent's.  And oh what a night it was!!

Sixteen paying guests sat down at 6:30 p.m. to begin a scrumptious 5 course dinner created and prepared by chefs Janie Tucker and Karen French.  The lovely table setting was made very inviting by the candles and fragrant Daphne table arrangements.  Each place setting had individually personalized coasters created by Kent McDonald.  Along with the wonderful food were 4 beers brewed by our very own brewmeisters Kent McDonald, Robin Chitwood, and guest Chuck Link.

The dinner courses and the complimenting beers were as follows:

? Spring salmon salad with baby veggies-Saison by Kent & Robin

? Asparagus soup with crème fraiche and cumin dinner rolls-Vienna by Karen & Robin

? Raspberry framboise sorbet

? Thyme chicken in puff pastry, jasmine rice, zucchini and carrots with almonds-Martzen by Kent

CBS Dinner continued
? Carmel nut tartlets, Mocha crème and White chocolate mousse-Oatmeal porter by Chuck Link

Throughout the evening prizes such as shirts, beers, posters, memberships, and a mash paddle were raffled off to those guests who purchased tickets.

Everyone had a wonderful fun-filled, tummy filled evening.  Many, many thanks to Janie, Karen, Robin, and Kent for all their hard work, dedication and craftsmanship that went into making this evening so special.

San Francisco Pub Crawl Update:

The dates for the pub crawl have been set and the plan is to leave Eugene on Thursday, April 25 and drive by chartered bus to the Bay Area.  We will return to Eugene on Sunday, April 28.  Open space on the bus is still available, so if you are interested please contact Robin Chitwood at 342-2397.

On Tap Around Town:

By Russ Kaz^*$#@zak

During last month's newsletter, I mentioned some of the newer beer establishments in Eugene that offer a wide variety of beers or choose to offer a limited number of taps and frequently rotate the beer selection

This month I want to feature a pub that has supported beer diversity in Eugene for over 6 years.  Actually, the pub has offered more than just beer diversity and has been bucking more than the beer trend of being tied to a beer distributor.  This establishment is one of the first to offer all vegetarian foods, lower than average beer prices, variety of music  (featuring local and big name musicians), and comedy (at times featuring Eugene’s own “Funny Man”  and bartender Ty Conner) all in a great non-smoking atmosphere.  Yes, if you know Chris or Russ then you already know this place.  If you are a new member and really like beer, music, and people; then you should check out Sam Bonds Garage, which is located at 407 Blair Boulevard in the historic Whitaker Neighborhood.

This pub has always been open to beer suggestions from "Us" self-proclaimed beer critics/experts.  They will listen to what beers should be put on tap and have gone out of their way to put on some rare, expensive to purchase with little profit, beers.  Recommendations that have been placed on tap have included the following:  Alexander Rodenbock, Widmer Bourbon Bock, Rogue Brutal Bitter (ask Chris about that story), Eggenburg Ur-Bock 23, Schrenkerla (sp) Smoked Ur-Bock, German Kolsch, Rogue Imperial Stout, beers from Hales Ales and many more.

Please stop by and have a beer and then come back the next day cause most likely the some of the eight beers on tap will have been rotated.
 
 
 
 

Our Newest Member(s):

Mat Jarvis
2294 Minnesota St.
Eugene, OR 97402

Shirts for Sale:

If you are interested in a club T-shirt ($10 each), please contact Steve McCornack at 689-1181.

Roseburg Brewfest

The Roseburg Station, a McMenamins establishment, is having a small festival, on April 20, 2002.  The event will feature beer from Tom Johnson, Roseburg Head Brewer (CBS member), and breweries and brewpubs that reside in the southern portion of the state.  Yes, they might not know how to tie their shoes, but they do know how to brew beer.  The breweries from down under will include the following:

? Caldera Brewing Company, Ashland

? Hawks Brewing Company, Roseburg

? Standing Stone Brewing Company, Ashland

? Walkabout Brewing Company, Central Point

? Wild River Brewing Company, Grants Pass

? Rogue Brewing Company, Newport (The first brewery from down south, Ashland, now in Newport)

Coffee Beer…A Breakfast Drink?

By Russ Kaz^*$#@zak

About four years ago, a good friend of mine who noticed the similarities of dark beer and coffee asked me to brew (no pun intended) a coffee beer for her.  At the time, she had tasted some of commercially available coffee beers, but was unimpressed.  She felt that that the beers could have had a stronger coffee aroma and flavor.

After tasting the beers she referred too, then doing a literature research (books, magazines, and internet), and asking various brewers about their coffee beer making techniques.  I came to the following realization that, the only way brewers make coffee beer is to add a liquid extract of some sort (i.e. hot or cold brewed coffee/espresso) to a dark beer (porter or stout).

So, in order to make a coffee beer I first brewed a Porter for the base.  After the beer was fermented, I went to a local store to purchase some coffee beans.  While dispensing the bulk coffee, I thought to myself, "God this smells great, if only I could just capture this aroma in a beer".  Then I realized why not?  If brewers want to capture the fresh aroma of hops in a beer, they do it by adding hops directly to their fermenters (dry hopping).  The reason being that if you add them to the
boil, you lose a majority of the volatile aromatics, contained in the hops, to the atmosphere.
 

Coffee Beer continued:
After I got home, I did not grind the beans and make a batch of coffee/espresso as you would expect.  No, I was going to try something completely new and different, even at the risk of losing 5 gallons of good beer.  I lightly crushed about an once of the French Roast beans and placed them in a nylon mesh bag.

The bag was then suspended inside the 5 gallon keg of beer using ultra-fine dental floss slipped between the o-ring and keg lid.  After a day and half, I removed the bag of crushed coffee from the beer.  The beer was carbonated and after about a week we tested the beer and Wow!, we were both blown away that this beer had such a strong and very fresh coffee aroma and flavor after only a day and half of contact time.

I just recently revisited this beer and brewed a new batch of a Black Butte style Porter for Amber, who is currently on a dark beer binge.  This time I upped the amount of coffee to 2oz per 5 gallons for 2 days.  Recommended coffee due to the darkness/richness of roast is French Roast.  I like the degree of roast (black and greasy) and freshness from the local coffee roasters Cafeto or Equator.  The base beer was a Porter (see below for the recipe), but any dark beer will work just adjust the amount of coffee according to style.

Coffee Porter  Recipe: (75 min infusion mash @ 153F and 90 min boil)

Grain
43.6% 10.50 lbs. Pale Ale Malt (2 Row) 2L
43.6% 10.50 lbs. Special Aromatic Malt 5L
4.1%  1.00 lbs. Chocolate Malt 475L
2.5%  0.60 lbs. Light Chocolate Malt 170L
6.2%  1.50 lbs. CaraMunich 60L
Hops
 28.35 g Centennial 9.00% ,  75 min.
 21.26 g.  Sterling  6.70% , 30 min.
 21.26 g Sterling   6.70%, 5 min.
Batch Size (GAL):        12.00
Total Grain (LBS):       24.10
Anticipated OG:          1.058
Anticipated IBU:          24.9
Pitch with WYeast 1084 Irish Ale and  ferment at 68-70F.

If you are interested in this coffee beer and would like to taste a CBS exclusively created beer, come to the next meeting.

Upcoming Club Meetings and Other Events:

April 8, 2002 Russ and Denny Technical Meeting (batch sparging, wort canning, and stepping-up a Wyeast culture).
April 20, 2002 McMenamins Roseburg Station  3rd Anniversary/Brewfest
May 4, 2002 Denny’s House:  AHA Big Brew Day.  Official recipes this year are an Old Ale from Homebrewer of the Year Steve Jones, and a traditional Maibock from George Fix.

Events continued:
June 8, 2002  Eugene Pub Crawl
July 5, 6, & 7, 2002  Clark Creek Campout and Annual Club BBQ (start brewing for this fest)
July 20, 2001  Robin & Karen’s House:  Kolsch Club Brew Tasting Night

Editors Note:

In the article, Who, What, When, Where, Current, Not-active Club Members, the professional brewer Teri Fahrendorf was omitted from the Professional Series list of brewers.  Teri has been a member of CBS for over 10 years and the Brewmaster for the Steelhead chain of  brewpubs.

Information/Articles for the newsletter are due to the newsletter editor by the third Sunday of the month.  Email the information to russkaz@eudoramail.com.

Club Information:

For over 20 years, Cascade Brewers Society is a sometimes formal, but mostly informal club devoted to the appreciation and art of creating fine alcoholic beverages (you know; beer, mead, cider, and wine).

For more information regarding the Cascade Brewers Society, please contact Kent MacDonald at 935-5711 or Robin Chitwood at 342-2397.

You can be placed on the electronic mailing list or receive copies of the newsletter by sending your email address to russkaz@eudoramail.com.

Yeast Dregs

Submitted by Mark Dillion
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Advertisement from the Willows Journal (California), circa 1939.