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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Taste and Gender ("Alexandre Enkerli")
  Airation in meads. (Christopher Bartlett)
  Oak chips and pumpkins ("Kevin Gray")
  women and beer - nature vs nuture? (Michael Hetzel)
  2006 MHTG Franco-Belgian Challenge (Eric Schoville)


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Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 02:03:14 -0400
From: "Alexandre Enkerli" <enkerli at gmail.com>
Subject: Taste and Gender

Thanks to all of those who answered my query on beer and gender!
It does seem that my original message wasn't clear enough. Apologies for that.

It was never my intention to generalize and I was explicitly trying to
get away from the stereotypical "girlie beers" (wheat and/or fruit).
As it so happens, this stereotype seems well known among this group,
which is quite telling. This stereotype is not at all universal.

My intention was to get some "success stories" from people who have
gone beyond the stereotype and have been able to brew a beer that
would convince someone that there is more to beer than what they
thought before. The gender angle is important for several reasons, but
it wasn't my ultimate goal to divide taste by gender.
There is, however, an association between taste and gender. Partly
physiological (bitterness during pregnancy) but largely cultural. This
association has interesting consequences on the craft beer industry.

I do still argue that there are beers which are associated, by beer
drinkers, with either gender. Thes stereotypes are in itself
fascinating as it seems that people are using them to assess something
about their personal identity. Members of the industry use these
stereotypes in many ways. It seems from this discussion that their
strategy is misled.

Feel free to comment some of these issues further on my blog:
http://tinyurl.com/h6wgw

Deep apologies for the misunderstanding.

- -- 
Alexandre, in Montreal (where real men also drink wheat and fruit beers)
http://enkerli.wordpress.com/


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Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:45:50 -0700
From: Christopher Bartlett <bridgeweaver at khanfusion.net>
Subject: Airation in meads.

I admit to some confusion.  I have mad several meads, but haven't 
really thought much about the process, so I have a couple of 
questions, specifically about aeration.

We are always told to airate the heck out of proto-beer at pitching 
time.  I caught something on the fly in the last week that suggests 
that mad aeration would be a bad thing, I think the comment was 
something like "think about oxidized wine" but I'm not sure of the context.

So, should I airate my mead at pitching time?  If I'm going to 
experiment with the incremental nutrition regime mentioned earlier 
this week, (could someone provide me a reference where I can read 
more about this) should I airate at each addition of nutrient?

Thanks for this wonderful resource.

	Christopher Bartlett (still waiting to know if I'm subscribed to 
mead lover's so I can target my questions there.)




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Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 14:13:48 -0400
From: "Kevin Gray" <kevin.gray at gmail.com>
Subject: Oak chips and pumpkins

Two questions:
I've heard a lot about using oak chips to simulate barrel aging. I've
also heard that you can soak those chips in bourbon or whiskey first,
to simulate bourbon or whiskey barrel aging. I noticed that Jack
Daniels and others sell oak chips from discarded whiskey barrels for
use in smokers. You can probably see where I'm going with this--could
you conceivably use JD barrel chips in a beer to simulate a whiskey
flavor? And if so, how would you first ensure that you weren't
introducing some undesired micro-organism?

Also, along the same lines, I read a post at
http://www.thebrewsite.com/2006/09/18/pumpkin_beer_ruminations.php
that talks about using a pumpkin as a primary fermentor. Has anyone
done this? I can't see trying it with a full 5 gal. batch, but what
about a partial one? Or, I was thinking it might be easy enough to
make a pumpkin cider, since cider is relatively cheap and easy to
prepare. Or even a no-boil kit. Anyone?

Thanks,
Kevin

*********************
http://kevbrews.blogger.com


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Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:26:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: Michael Hetzel <hetzelnc at yahoo.com>
Subject: women and beer - nature vs nuture?

Disclaimer - the following generalizations* are by no means serious or
fully thought out.. this is just an off the cuff response to the
thread. Personally I've spent equal efforts on friends of both sexes to
enjoy real beer - if they already like beer, I try to get them to try
new types. If they don't like real beer, its because they haven't had
the right kind yet. But this is about women and beer.

Now that we have that out of the way, I posit the following.. the
acquisition of the taste for beer is a function of knowledge,
overcoming bias/predisposed notions, and.. some other things. Or in
other words enlightenment and open-mindedness (and the other things) -
at least on the 'nuture' side. It is in the bias/predisposed factor
that sex and peer pressure enters the equation. 

The 'nature' side is of course tastebuds, nerves, and the neurons that
do the associations.. but lets skip all that for simplicity since in
this everyone is different and the same. Besides my argument is about
the 'nuture'.

So cancel out the nature side, this term goes to zero.. ah yes and that
leaves nurture. So why do women seem* to like beer less than men? Its
because of society's expectations implanted when we're young - men are
to drink beer (macho), women are to drink wine (sophisticated), etc.
Couple that with the watery, bland swill that passes for beer and
dominates the market in the US, and of course most women will pass on
beer - its the smarter thing to do! I'd definitely drink wine before
BudMillerCoors, and I shudder when I recall the crap I drank in
college. So that brings up the sense of responsibility to educate folks
(not just women!) about what real beer is - beer has been given a bad
name in the US and its our job to spread the good word! Women seem*
more resistant and thus get our focus (plus we try to impress), because
the average BMC drinker says 'beer is beer, so sure I'll try it'. Its
an easier transition for them. Also the elephant in the room wants to
point out that more men brew beer than women, which the digests and hb
clubs reflect. So think of those of us who preach not as blowhards but
as activists fighting sexism! We're not pushing women out, but trying
to bring them in. 

FWIW, the women I've transformed into beer afficiandos seem to rather
enjoy the barleywines and belgiums (maybe because thats what I drank
most? most complex flavors?), and at least in Poland women prefer beer
to vodka (there is no wine to speak of there). But even in Poland where
high abv beers are appreciated, I was alone in my relentless quest for
Zywiec porter. Apparently its an acquired taste reserved for foreigners
(and it may be my favorite beer).

To sum up my thoughts: beer is an acquired taste, in the US there are
societal factors in regards to preference, and talking about beer (with
men or women) is a lot more exciting that talking about work.

Mike Hetzel
Worcester MA

* - bold type




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Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 14:37:48 -0500
From: Eric Schoville <eric at schoville.com>
Subject: 2006 MHTG Franco-Belgian Challenge

The Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild is proud to announce the 4th
Annual Franco-Belgian Challenge Cup, which will be taking place on
Saturday, November 11th, 2006 in Madison, Wisconsin (Exact location
TBA).  This contest is an attempt to encourage the homebrewing of French
and Belgian-style beers.  As such only French and Belgian-style beers
(BJCP Category's 16-18) will be judged.   Entry fee is $5 and the entry
deadline is 11/1/05.    All beers will be judged on 11/11/06 (and
11/12/06 if necessary).

Please see http://www.mhtg.org/ for further details and entry forms.

Additional information and judging/stewarding contacts:
Mark Schnepper mschnepper at yahoo.com   or
Mark Alfred hulsie2002 at yahoo.com



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