# 1 Light Scotch Ale

1st J.B.Flowers
2nd J.B.Flowers
3rd Tim Stemple

#2 Strong Scotch Ale

1st Byron Eastwood & Sandy Sandlin
2nd J.B.Flowers
3rd J.BFlowers

#3 Porter

1st Charlie Feder
2nd Richard Graham
3rd Dave Dixon

#4 Stout

1st Clint Metsgar
2nd J.BFlowers
3rd Pat Schneider

#5 Brown and Mild Ale

1st Richard Graham
2nd Ky Burden
3rd John Shank

#6 English Pale Ale

1st Steve Wesstrom
2nd Dave Dixon
3rd David Denning

#7 English Bitter

1st Steve Wesstrom
2nd J.B.Flowers
3rd Steve Wesstrom

#8 Barley Wine

1st J.B.Flowers
2nd Tony Stone
3rd Warren & Tony

#9 Celtic Specialty

1st J.B.Flowers
2nd Byron Eastwood
3rd J.B.Flowers

#10 Mead

1st J.B.FLowers
2nd Just Dave
3rd Ralph Spitz

#11 Cider

1st Larry Land
2nd Steve Wesstrom and Erin Moore
3rd Steve Wesstrom

Best Of Show !!

Charlie Feder- Robust Porter,
and J.B.Flowers- Mead.
 

AHA - It’s a Mead, Mead, Mead World (Mead)/ KOBB - Wheat (Any Kind).

Style Numbers - 25, 26, 2g, 6d, 19, and 21(fruit wheat). Entries due at July meeting.

North Texas State Fair - ? - More information to follow if this competition held this year. This has been a fun event in past years. Entries normally due around August 1st.

Second Annual Cactus Challenge. Sponsored by the ALE-ian Society Homebrew Club, Lubbock, Tx., September 23rd. Expect entries to be due the 1st week of September. More information to follow.

lubbock.homebrew@door.net.

AHA/KOBB - Porter! Style Numbers 9a and 9b. Entries due at the September meeting.

The 16th Annual Dixie Cup Homebrew Competition. Sponsored by the Foam Rangers, Houston, Tx. Last leg of the Gulf Coast Challenge. Awards/party 22 & 23 October. $6.00/entry before Oct. 10th- $10/entry up to Oct. 15th. For more info and styles see - http://www.foamrangers.com/.

NET Hoppers Fall Brew-Off. Sponsored by the NET Hoppers Homebrew Club of NE Tarrant County. Styles and entry dates will come later. See their web page at: http://welcome.to/nethoppers.

For those that joined us at the quarterly tasting at J. Gilligan’s (next likely tasting will be July at Humperdinks…) for the April Club Meeting, we got into a bit of a side discussion on Brewing Waters. I’d like to elaborate a little bit on Water and its effects on Brewing in what should be a monthly "help" column from Just Dave.

Quite frankly, unlike many areas of the brewing science, there seems to be little debate about water and the properties necessary in that water needed to brew different styles of beer. While we did have some KOBB club debate on this issue, it is my understanding that Beer styles in Great Britain and the Continent typically evolved from the particular waters available in that brewing local. The Brewmeister, through experimentation, came upon Styles that the particular water supply was more conducive to producing. Keep in mind that at the time that regionally historic brewing styles were formulated, the science of brewing had not yet even evolved to the point to know that Yeast is what fermented the beverage! The Ales of Burton-on-Trent are no coincidence; the Hard waters there married happily with light to amber colored ales and the water was also able to accept generous quantities of bittering hops without becoming harsh. In areas of Temporarily Hard water, waters that consist largely of Carbonates (that precipitate out during the boil hence "temporarily hard") darker styles evolved, primarily stouts and then later, the blended Porters. The many Soft water regions of Germany and Czech. were amiable to producing light colored lagers that could also be generously hopped.

Just as yeast has certain characteristics in its effects on your wort, so does the Water used during your Mash effect the characteristics of the wort that you end up with. While water is primarily the concern of "Mashers", any water that you use to top up an extract brew with should contain the same salts as the original mash did which produced your particular extract. As water is 90% of even the strongest brews, its effect on your end product is obviously pronounced.

Water in the brewing arena primarily falls into 3 categories: 1) Soft = less than 100 ppm (parts per million) dissolved solids 2) Moderately Hard water = 200 – 400 ppm and 3) Hard to Very Hard water = > 400 to over 600 ppm dissolved solids. For brewing purposes, we are interested in the following "salts" as it concerns the hardness of our water: Gypsum (= Calcium Sulfate), Precipitate of Chalk (= Calcium Carbonate), Potassium Chloride (KCl), Table Salt (NaCl) and for light gravity beers, Epsom Salts (Mg Sulfate). The Reason for the addition of brewing Salts is to Adjust the pH of your Mash. When these salts are added to your water and then Grain added to form your mash, each of the above salts split off into ions that either have an Acidic effect to the Mash (lowers the pH of the Wort) or a Basic effect to the Mash (raises the pH). Due to the rich variety of salts and minerals already available in malted Barley, we typically only have to make minor changes in our Mash pH through the use of the above salts. Each style of beer has a more favorable Mash pH for the ending Wort to have its most favorable fermentation characteristics. In general, Lagers use Soft Water with no additional Salts or Minerals other than what the Grain itself already provides. A Lager Mash will have a pH of 5.3 – 5.6 typically, a pH more conducive to the formation of dextrin sugars (i.e. more difficult to ferment by simple yeast) which results in a relatively sweeter finishing beer. Light Beers and Ales use Acidic Salts (Gypsum primarily) in order to lower the pH to the 5.0 – 5.3 level. Lower pH’s allow for quicker Mash conversion (the conversion of starch to a fermentable sugar) and produce a final Wort that is higher in maltose sugar (readily fermentable by yeast) and hence tend to finish "drier" than lager beers. Dark Beers typically use Basic Salts (Precipitate of Chalk primarily) to offset the acidic nature of the roasted grains to bring the pH back up to the 5.4 – 5.8 pH level. The simple salts KCL and NaCl are also used in Dark Beers to help bring out some sweetness in the final product offsetting the two-fold bitterness of roasted grain and hops.

This is not to say that these 5 Brewing salts are the only salts found in your water supply. There are dozens of "salts" found in our typical tap water. It is probably fair to say that most other salts in your water are of little brewing significance with the exception of Sulfur and Chlorine. Each of these minerals /ions is perceptible in the nose and palate at very low levels and hence water with these salts is likely problematic. Typically we wish to eliminate these substances from our brew-ing water by either filtering or boiling the water prior to using it to Mash our grain.

Just Dave will bring a chart to KOBB’s next meeting as to how to adjust your Water for proper Mashing pH for your chosen style of brew. In general however, please note the following guides:
 

1. Most of the Metroplex has Hard or Moderately Hard water and needs adjustment! This is particularly pronounced in well water supplied areas. You REALLY need to know the constituents of Your Water in order to properly adjust same.

The addition of salts is generally measured in per 5 gallon increments. For example, if you are asked to add 2 tsp. Gypsum to your Ale Mash but you are making 10 gals of beer (instead of a "typical" 5 gallon batch), you would add 3 tsp. to your 7-8 gals of Mash water needed for the 20-30# of grain that you will be using. Your Sparge water gets the same salts and in the same proportions as does your Mash water. As in the above example, if you added 3 tsp. of Gypsum to your Grain Mash, you would add the same 3 tsp. of Gypsum to your 7-8 gal of Sparge Water (in a recent club demo, George Fix indicated that worst case, your Amount of Sparge Water should equal your amount of Mash water if not slightly less).

Soft water is MUCH easier to deal with and adjust than is the Hard water found in most of our area. Hops, particularly Continental Hops, take on a harshness in Hard water. In many Hard Water cases, you either have to Dilute the water (with Soft) or Boil it and rack off the precipitated salts that hooked up during the boiling phase (brewing salts are typically added to the boil so that the harmful salts precipitate out leaving you better brewing water once you rack off the now softer water).

 
1. Just Dave has definitely found a Relax, Don’t Worry attitude when it comes to Mash pH. In 20 years of Mashing, I have found that if you know what Water you are starting with (and this is critical!), the adjustments on the chart will ALWAYS bring you within pH guidelines for that wort type. In other words, our grain is so good and consistent these days that adding the recommend salts for your starting water type will bring the pH perfectly in balance.

 
2. Don’t buck the system! Brewing Lagers with Hard water or Brewing Ales with Soft water will work, but your results will NOT be stellar. You will find that just as using a different type of Hop or using a different Yeast than the style calls for will result in a drinkable beer but not one that is characteristic of the Style that you wish to brew.

As well, a hearty Congrats to all of our New Officers. Richard Graham will assume the mantel and ably handle the duties of the Competition Co-Ordinator for KOBB’s 1999 – ’00 Club Year. His first "official" duties will be to co-ordinate the Club’s upcoming Mead and Wheat Competition. Entries for same due by the time of the July meeting (at Humperdinks?)!