March 1998

MEL’S MEANDERINGS

It’s not too late to get a reward for all that hard work you put into your winter brewing. Get those beers bottled and enter them in the Hurricane Blowoff. The least you will get are some good comments from the many qualified judges that will improve your entries for next year. In addition, the Central Florida Sunshine challenge is coming the first weekend of May and the AHA competition follows shortly thereafter.

For me the real reward in entering a competition is participating as a judge, steward or just all-around gopher. What a great group of people with a common and very binding interest. If you are unable to participate in any of those ways, you owe it to yourself to come to the banquet (a really great party) following the day’s judging. Last year the food and beer was incredible and nothing less is expected this time around. Castaway’s has been very good to us. Go there and spend some $$. The restaurant has delicious food!

Drew, Jan, Andy and I just returned from the SAAZ competition in Melbourne and had an exceptional time. Drew is writing an article about the event so I will only comment that it was an absolute pleasure judging and spending the day with this group of Draughtsmen. I hope that next year we can take a larger representation as our services were sincerely appreciated by Lynn Seelos, competition organizer and the rest of SAAZ.

A liquor store called the Liquor Warehouse located at 2539 N. Military Tr. has Capital Brewing Co. Garten Brau for $8.99 a CASE! The Special is an exceptional bohemian pilsener. They also have Tucher Bajovator for $1.99/16oz bottle. If any one knows of any other deals out there for good beer, keep the club informed. The Hubbs (99 beers of the world) that’s been under construction for the past year should be opening soon in the old Jonathan’s pub at 45th and Village. This may be a good venue for planning meetings.

Make certain that you get April 18 on your calendars for the 2nd annual Palm Beach Draughtsmen Cajunfest. All the crayfish and catfish you can hope to eat, plus the great beers that YOU make. Tickets must be pre-sold to assure ordering the right amount of live "bugs". Tickets will be available immediately following the Blowoff.

Elections are coming up! The Executive committee has a slate of nominees and welcomes any other nominations to run for VP. Nominations will be addressed at the March meeting and the election will be held at the April meeting. So, Don’t miss them!

There is still lots of work and planning needed to pull off another successful Blowoff. If you are interested in helping come to the next planning meeting to be held on Saturday evening, Feb. 28 at Troy Webster’s. See you there and/or at the next general meeting Thur., March 12. Oh, by the way, we have decided to move the planning meetings to the FRIDAY preceding the general meeting at the request of the executive committee. What a great way to spend a Friday evening, in the company of our fellow Palm Beach Draughtsmen! Prost!

Mel

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

I just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone that it is Hurricane season again, Hurricane Blowoff that is. If you have not already volunteered to help, please do so. There are a lot of things that need to get done between now and the Blowoff and we can use all the help we can get.

As you can tell, we are getting more articles from the members, keep them coming. The more articles we get the more interesting the Newsletter will be every month. Along with articles, please send Beer Jokes and Recipes.

We have three Big Events coming up in the next few months: the Hurricane Blowoff, The Cajunfest, and May’s Brew in the Park. These and other important dates can be found on the calendar on the last page of this newsletter. And don’t forget to order your tickets for the Hurricane Blowoff Party and Cajunfest so that proper food arrangements can be made.

It was nice to see all the new faces at the last membership meeting. Keep on telling your friends so that we can continue to grow. (The more members, the more Beer to Sample) We have a lot going on these next couple of months, I look forward to seeing you all at the next event.

DRAUGHTSMEN SUPPORT NATIONAL CHARITY By George King

As previously reported the Palm Beach Draughtsmen’s annual Christmas Party was a Huge success. Gorman and Aileen were our gracious hosts. But… What happened to all those toys?

Thanks to the generosity of everyone involved, we collected close to 100 toys for "Toys for Tots." As you may know the U.S. Marines head up a drive every year for less fortunate children. Originally the toys were destine for the "Love Doctors" but time ran out so…

I have been riding in Bill’s Bikes – Toys for Tots Annual Motorcycle Parade for seven years and volunteered to take the toys on my sleigh this year. Having way too many toys to tote alone, I enlisted 2 elves (Also fellow Draughtsmen), Joe Simon and Greg Pope. My son Kyle rode with me, Shelly rode with Greg and well frankly, no one rode with Joe. Michelle took the Four-Door Ford Sled with all the presents that could not be bungied to our bikes. The parade was a little disorganized. The sponsor Bill, of Bill’s Bikes passed away last year and El Nino dumped buckets of rain on the event; canceling the event until the following weekend. No one told the PBSO, who has always been the assigned road guards. The parade goes from Bill’s at SR 441 and the turnpike to Dreher Park. After finding out that volunteer road guards get free tee shirts we cast a quick vote and decided to be traffic guards for the parade.

I can tell you, I had goose bumps riding behind the fire truck, siren blaring, leading the parade with 700+ Harleys (and Joe’s Kawasaki). Every year I feel so privileged to be a part of this great event. To be able to pass the fire engine and block vehicles with our bikes; then hear and feel the rolling thunder of bikes passing was especially thrilling. Two Thumbs Up! Ask Kyle!

Once we made it to the park we fulfilled our last guard post going into the park, until relieved by an uniformed cop. After parking our Scooters we made our way to the Marine Duce and a halves, where Michelle was waiting with garbage bags full of toys. There was a line of about six dump trucks full of toys. Handing the Marines the bags of loot in the sacred name of the Palm Beach Draughtsmen was the Foam on the Proverbial Ale. All that was left was a photo shoot with the PB Post. Joe, of course was not at all camera shy and did various poses, none of which they used… Can you imagine? So our entourage gathered up the cold Sam Adams from our saddle bags and enjoyed listening to the band and practiced our B.S.’ing.

Next year I challenge the club to go over the 100 toy count, and to come on out to the parade and show your support. You won’t regret it! Thanks to everyone who rode with us in Spirit…

George

            BEER STYLES of the WORLD

"BERLINER WEISSE"

This will be the first in an ongoing series of articles dedicated to beer styles of the world. We are all pretty familiar with the more popular styles, so I will try to discuss some more esoteric beers that you may or may not know very much about. By no means is this to be intended as the final word on a style, yet is a conceptual overview with facts and history combined to enlighten your interests in the many unique kinds of beer that are out there.

This month, the style is the Berliner Weisse. The actual origin of the style is vague, yet it is thought to be recognized in around 1680 when the special German tax laws first began recording various beer styles. In 1809 Napoleons troops began calling the beer "Champagne of the North", and it became a dominating style in Europe. During the latter half of the 19th century, immigrants, lusting for this style built breweries in the U.S. to brew this style of beer. The Berlin Imperial Weisse Brewing Co. in St. Louis and Berlin Weisse Brewing Co. in LaCrosse were two of the more well known that eventually closed down during prohibition.

This tart, and highly effervescent beer is similar to Lambics and Gueuze in lactic flavor. They are brewed with as much as 70% malted wheat, yet commonly use 50/50% combined with malted barley. They are low hopped (4-8 IBU’s) and have no hop or malt aroma. Refreshingly light (2-4srm) and low in alcohol (2.2-2.7% by vol.) and bitterness, yet traditionally acidic. To be a true Berliner Weisse, they have to be brewed in, of course, Berlin. These are two of the more popular commercial examples brewed, Schultheiss and Berliner Kindl. The brewing procedure usually is split into two batches with a German ale yeast in one, and lactobacillus delbruckii in the other. Fermented for a week at 59-77 degrees then combined and aged at 41-50 degrees for a few months. Hallertauer is the hops of choice, yet Spalt and Tettnang are also used. The specific gravity should be 1.028-1.032 (7-8 Plato) and finish around 1.004 (1 Plato).

This style is often served as "Red or Green" in such that to overcome and compliment the tartness, they add a raspberry or essence of woodruff syrup which gives the beer its color.

From the AHA Style Guidelines. 19-a...Berliner Weisse-This is the Lightest of all the German wheat beers. The unique combination of a yeast and lactic acid bacteria fermentation yields a beer that is acidic, highly attenuated and very light bodied. The combination of a Berliner Weisse is high, and hop rates are very low. Hop character should not be perceived. Fruity esters are evident. No diacetyl should be perceived.

Source: AHA, Zymurgy

HOW DOES OUR WATER COMPARE? By Andy Rodusky

I know it is easy to rag on our water supply, for its’ periodic hydrogen sulfide smell (you know, the rotten eggs) and chlorine content. However, have you ever wondered how the water coming out of your tap compares with those in the great brewing cities of the world? Have you also ever wondered if our water, with some level of treatment to remove the above problems, can be used to copy that in any of the great brewing cities? Also, can our water ever be used to brew without resorting to reverse osmosis (RO water) treatment and subsequent addition of minerals? I’ve thought about the above questions, and finally got off my lazy butt to call the local water treatment plant in Royal Palm Beach, to get a copy of the latest water analysis. The table below offers some comparisons of the municipal water in Royal Palm with water in some of the great brewing cities. The data and conversion factors for estimating some of the ionic concentrations are from Zymurgy, Winter 1991 (Vol. 14, No. 5) and Noonan’s Brewing Lager Beer, Brewers Publications, Boulder Co, 1986.

Brewing Waters – Ion Concentrations (mg/L or ppm)

(The "Hardness" column is total hardness)

It appears that the water in Royal Palm is not as "soft" as it is in Pilsen, but is on the lower side of the hardness scale, when compared to Munich and Vienna. The water in Royal Palm falls in the middle when comparing ion concentrations between all cities, except for chloride (Cl). The chloride concentration in the Royal Palm water supply is at least 4 times higher than that in the other cities. Of the other cities listed, the water in Royal Palm is most similar to that in London, although there is almost three times as much carbonate in the London water and the chloride concentration and hardness of London’s water and that of Royal Palm’s could not be compared.

So what does this mean in terms of brewing? While it is beyond the scope of this article to describe all of the flavor attributes imparted by the various ions, I did compare all ion (and other compounds not reported above) concentrations in the Royal Palm water analysis to concentrations Noonan suggested as being suitable for brewing. Of all the items compared, only chloride concentrations in Royal Palm’s water were higher (140 mg/L) than the maximum recommended by Noonan (100 mg/L chloride for beer with a starting gravity lower than about 1.048 – 1.050). Excessive chloride in brew water may result in brews with too much bitterness or saltiness in the palate.

So it appears that the water in Royal Palm meets most of the criteria described by Noonan for use as suitable brewing water. The same likely applies to any municipality in southeastern Florida that uses and treats groundwater to meet federal drinking water standards. However, I would strongly recommend obtaining a copy of your town or cities water report to compare to the above data.

(Continued Page 6)

(HOW’S OUR WATER? Continued Page 5)

But the question remains, if your municipal water is like that in Royal Palm, can it be used for brewing? The answer will vary depending on your desired level of control in the brewing process and other factors, but I believe that Royal Palm’s water, along with some tweaking, can be used to make good beer. I’d recommend filtering or pre-boiling the water prior to brewing, to eliminate chlorine and hydrogen sulfide. Learning to manipulate your water chemistry would also help your brews more closely match those styles you are trying to brew. Finally, while I feel you can use municipal water like Royal Palm’s to make many different styles of beer, I would still recommend using treated RO water for styles that require very soft water, such as Czech Pilsner. This is because it is easier to add minerals to water than to figure out how to take them out.

COMMANDER SAAZ HAS LEFT THE BUILDING !!!!!

Well at least he has left Melbourne. Where did he go you ask? Right here to West Palm Beach! Who is he staying with, you ask? How about your very own President, Mel Thompson! Yes that’s correct, Mel took best in show at this years Interplanetary Homebrew Blastoff with his fine example of an English Pale Ale. He did this besting one hundred thirteen other entries. The entries were divided into sixteen groups in which medals were awarded. The day ran smoothly, and the hosts were very welcoming. Judging began at nine thirty in the morning and finished about four in the afternoon. This years best of show judges were Andy Rodusky, Ron Rakiee, Ron Bach, Mack Monroe. They did an excellent job with sixteen different beers to judge. Following this article is a complete list of the winners. Maybe next year we’ll have more entries from the Palm Beach Draughtsmen, and more medals. Good luck in the Hurricane Blow Off.

"drewbrew"