The Palm Beach Draughtsmen's

Brews News

Keeping the Traditional Art of Brewing Quality, Hand-crafted Beers Alive Through Education and Promotion

Volume 6, No. 8

September 1999

BJCP TEST RESCHEDULED

Oktoberfest!!!!

Wo kann ich finden Oktoberfest?

For those of you wondering what happened to the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) examination that we were supposed to have last month. . . well, it did not happen.

The BJCP has a four month advance notification policy, and we could not meet the deadline. If you are still interested in taking the exam, fear not, my young judges-to-be, for we have rescheduled the exam! The test will be given on Saturday, November 13th, 8am, at Brewzzi's Brewpub in Boca.

The test will take approximately three hours, and will consist of essay questions and a tasting/judging section.

For those who want to take the test, but are afraid they won't pass, again, fear not! We have study guides at the Hombrewer's Outlet, (for

those computer-types, you can download one at www.BJCP.org) and we will have one or two study sessions in late October/early November, to help prepare and to ease those fears.

Hey, if I can pass it, anyone can!

The benefits of the exam are several. Taking the exam is a great way to get an in-depth understanding about the different beer styles, and will help you learn what to look for, as far as good and bad flavors and characteristics of the different styles.

Becoming a judge is a fun way to learn more about beer, and will help you become a better brewer. What more could one ask for? If you are interested in taking the exam, contact me prior to the November meeting. The cost is $50 for first-timers, $30 after the first time, and $15 if you want to improve your score in only one of the two sections.

Guten Tag heir damen und herren!

Yah, one of the Palm Beach Draughtsmen's premier parties is almost upon us. The final Oktoberfest of the millennium will feature some of the finest beer ever brewed, by our own Draughtsmen. Fifty-five gallons of the stuff will be served at the celebration set for 11:00 am Saturday, September 18th at the Tuskeegee Pavilion in Okeeheelee Park.

Fran, the new Brewmeister at Brewzzi's in Boca will hopefully be donating a keg, as will Neil Avdellas courtesy of Hurri

cane Reef. We'll also have the always entertaining people's choice competition so don't forget to bring some brew along.

Preparations have already begun, but we need your help. Club members and even non-club members are encouraged to bring along a side dish for everyone's enjoyment. Tickets are $12.50 for members, $15.00 for non-members and need to be purchased at the Home Brewer's Outlet. If you can help out with anything, please contact Troy Webster or Vince Yeck (they're on the club phone list) and volunteer.

World's Largest Beer Festival

Oktoberfest takes place in Munich, Germany during the last two weeks of September every year.

It originally began in 1810 to celebrate the marriage of Bavarian Prince Ludwig and Princess Theresa. The party was so much fun, it has been repeated ever since.

During the 16 days

of Oktoberfest in Munich, approximately 1,310,814 gallons of beer will be consumed. Only six major breweries in Munich are allowed to supply the beer. In 1882, Spaten created the famous amber-colored Oktoberfest beer. It was such a sensation, Spaten has been making it every year since.

When is a Budweiser not a bad thing?

Before you yell BLASPHEMY, See page 4

Page 2

The Gormeister Speaks

Let Me Tell You Somethin'. . .

The Palm Beach Draughtsmen's Brews News

I may tell ya a lot. I may tell ya a little, but I will tell ya sumthin.

For openers, it seems like Andy's six to eight people turnout for our summer general meetings have been 20-25 people! I guess the Biologist can't count. (By the way -- cute baby.)

I want to thank the members for coming and making the meetings a great success -- nice going!

Victor did a great job in our education segment. For those who did not attend the August meeting, we had a blind tasting of different styles of stouts; commercial and homebrews. For those who didn't make it, I'll leave it to the tasters to let you know what was best.

I hear tell our own Dano went to his wife Susan's High School Class Reunion in Girard, PA. (I don't know the year--50s, 60s, 70s?) As

usual, Dano caught hoof in mouth disease. If you ask, I'm sure he will be glad to tell anyone his stories. Here are a few questions to ask: Is Chauncey still alive? Was Susan pissed? Is the woodchuck still chucking? Why were you almost stranded at the airport?

Don't forget FLAB September 16-18.

Keep Brewing,

Gormeister

Dan Oliver Editor

710 Colonial Rd.

West Palm Beach, Fl. 33405

[email protected]

Betty Turso Editor

4294 Empire Way

Lake Worth, Fl. 33463

[email protected]

Bill Eubank Assistant Editor

Officers

Gorman Selph......................President

Andy Rodusky..................V. President

George King.........................Secretary

Andy Rodusky......................Treasurer

Committees

Education.........................Victor Sears

Activities.......................... Betty Turso

Dan Oliver

Oktoberfest....................Troy Webster

Vince Yeck

Hurricane Blow-Off......... Dan Oliver

Dave Mathews

Web Page..........................Jan Laboda

Membership Information

Applications for membership

Applications for membership are available at

Homebrewer's Outlet

4734 Okeechobee Blvd.

West Palm Beach

or write to

Palm Beach Draughtsmen, Inc.,

P. O. Box 2101

Royal Palm Beach, Fl. 33421-1074

Visit our website at: http://fourtunecity.com/littleitaly/giotto/175/

For Club Informations:

Gorman Selph (561) 793-4054

What Ales You?

Dan Oliver

Dear Ale Breath-

I've been trying to make a fruit beer with the Oregon Coast Concentrate. When is the best time to add the fruit? Once I added it after the boil in the primary just before I pitched. The other time I allowed it to steep for 5 minutes before transferring to my primary. Both times I seem to have lost most of my fruit flavoring. Someone told me to cut back on the bittering hops (I used 2.5 oz. Goldings the first time and 1 oz. Northern Brewer the second time) What's a guy to do? Also how much concentrate should I normally use?-Fruitfully yours in Boynton

Dear Fruit-Normally, you should use 1/3rd of a can of Oregon Fruit Concentrate, according to Paul Wilson of

Home Brewers Outlet. But ahhhh grasshopper, use it as you go into secondary fermentation. And to make it even FRUITER, use a cup at bottling time to carbonate. And the best part is, Oregon Fruit Concentrate is pre-sterilized, so you don't need to pasteurize it. Also, you definitely should cut back on the bittering hops. You don't want them competing with the fanfruitastic essence of your brew.

Dear Scorch-Howboutcha? I was wondering, what's a better conductor of heat, aluminum or stainless steel? And which one distributes heat more evenly? I'll betcha you can't answer this question, cause you're dumber than a box of rocks! -Rattlesnake

Dear Snake-Well I must say your knickname is well deserved, but I'm going to be the

professional one here and answer your stinking question anyway. The thermal conductivity of a material is based on some understanding of the molecular structrure. From an Engineering perspective, Aluminum has a better conductivity than Stainless Steel.

Some comparisons:

Material K

Copper 232

Aluminum 130

Steel 26

Stainless Steel

ANSI 303 8.08

ANSI 316 8.20

The number (K, conductivity) is Btu / (hr . ft*ft . F . ft). [F =

fahrenheit, hr = hour, ft = feet]

con't next page

page 3

PUB CRAWLING IN JOLLY OLD ENGLAND

Mel Thompson

pale. I knew at that point that my perception was right on.

Our favorite pub was The Turk's Head in the northern town of Lincoln, also our favorite town on our trip.

The proprietor Tom Bradley was kind enough to take us on a tour of his cellar and give us a lesson in cask conditioning. In my next life I hope to be a proper cellarman in an English pub. Drawing a fresh pint directly off the cask after just the right amount of time for the secondary fermentation is an indescribable pleasure.

We visited pubs in each and every town or village we passed and did not have a bad beer or a negative experience of any kind. The Brits we encountered were exceptionally friendly and made us feel at home in a foreign land.

In closing I must mention our pilgrimage to

Bateman's Brewery in Wainfleet on the East coast in Lincolnshire where we were afforded a private tour of the brewery and an entertaining several hours in the tasting room quaffing cask conditioned XXXB and Valiant and several others of their exceptional beers which, by the way, are no longer exported the US. Bateman's is a perennial winner of the Great British Beer Festival and a subject in Michael Jackson's Beer Hunter Series.

We hope to go back to Great Britain in several years and crawl to new pubs and Breweries. I don't want to run out of time again and miss Young's Brewery in London.

Cheers, Mel

There are several things one discovers very quickly in Great Britain: Pubs are a way of life, the average Brit knows more about American history and current events than all but the most informed and interested American, and the EURO is OUT!!

In fact it was suggested on more than one occasion for an alliance between Great Britain, Canada and the USA. I may have been patronized by over friendly Brits, but its not a bad idea in a rather simplistic way.

The pub is a way of life—and what a life. A plethora of fine bitters from which to choose and priced according to alcohol content, and very consistent from one pub to the next.

And then there's the food, oh never mind. Actually the food is not as bad as most think if one sticks to known dishes.

We actually had some rather tasty dishes and even the fish and chips dipped in Theakston beer batter at a pub near Buckingham Palace in London was delicious. You could actually taste the beer! And believe it or not, we were in the pubs FOR THE BEER!

We went on a historical pub crawl along the Thames River in London and visited some great pubs including the King George, the oldest pub in London.

My absolute favorite beer on this tour was Young's bitter. It was bigger and hoppier than most English bitters and as a testament to this perception, an American tourist preferred a tasteless Irish pale to the great Young's

What Ales You? (con't)

Beer Fact

For example, that is why Aluminum is used in Volkswagen engines — conducts heat. It was required for air-cooled engines like the bug. An Engineer would have to balance the greater thickness you would need (since is Aluminum is 1/3 the strength of steel) vs the better conductivity Aluminum has. Note: You also asked , "Why is it a better conductor?" The reason is that a material's ability to conduct heat is related to the "free" electrons available to trans

mit the energy that is exciting the molecules. Copper has many "free" electrons and it is very good (and consequently the same reason it is used for Electronics (conducting electricity)). Stainless steel is so good because there are very few "free" electrons. There aren't any to even bind with Oxygen — thus no rust — Duhh. That is also why you cannot get a magnet to stick to Stainless (there are no "free" electrons with

spin to react to the magnetic field). So put that in your pipe and smoke it. . .

In 1740, British Admiral Edward Vernon ordered his sailors'

rum rations watered down. Upset, the men mockingly nicknamed him "Old Grog" after the stiff, course-textured wool grogram coats he wore in bad weather. Today, "grog" refers to weakened drinks.

Brewer of the Month

page 4

The Battle for Budweiser! When a Budweiser is not a Bud!

company. Since Budweiser Budvar is a government owned company, this tactic has not worked.

Anheuser-Bush maintains that they were the first to market a product called "Budweiser". In fact, they were selling Budweiser 20 years before Budweiser Budvar . However, the Czechs maintain that since the Samson brewery has been operating in Budweis since 1795, they have the right to the name because the word Budweiser means "from Budweis". Therefore, the battle rages on!

Budweiser Budvar is marketed in the United States under the name of Crystal. So, pick up a Crystal and toast the other Budweiser!

Joe Hughes

It is common knowledge that Anheuser-Bush of the United States sells its own leading beer under the name of "Budweiser."

However, the Czech company Budweiser Budvar registered the name "Budweiser" before the American company of the same name. Therefore, Budweiser purchased in Czechoslovakia and other European countries, such as Spain is from this Czech company. This galls Anheuser-Bush to no end. It has been battling the Czech company in court over the past century and has even tried to buy the

Nickname: I have never had one that stuck, however, I have recently been dubbed Golden Joe by DanO.

Business: General Contractor/Electrical & Structural

Inspector/Consultant and Commercial Brewer Wanna-Be

I started brewing: I first brewed in the early `80's but stopped because it tasted like CRAP!, although it did have the desired effect, at that time. I Began brewing again after I attended my first Draughtsmen meeting at what was once the Irish Times. After meeting and sharing experiences with the brewers there, my beer made significant improvements.

Favorite beer to drink: Lagers, all of them, but especially Swarzbier.

Favorite beer to make: My house beers are a Mild Brown and an ESB/Pale, but my favorite to make is Pilsener.

Most embarrassing brewing moment: I have two. The 1st. was while brewing with Gregg Pope, recently, when I cracked his carboy while moving mine. His broke, mine didn't (but I did end up replacing his, ouch! that hurts the pocketbook and makes for an expensive batch, too!).

The other was when I made my first Belgian Strong and fermented in the garage. The ferment was so vigorous, because of the heat, that the air-lock became clogged and the batch exploded all over the garage ceiling. My wife was not pleased. (They just don't have a sense of humor about those things!)

Pet Peeves: Brewers who are not sanitary. Then they want me to taste their (spoiled) beers. People who think I'm a beer nerd, while they are drinking a Bud or Lite beer! People who think a homebrew Stout (3.5-4%) is too strong, while they drink a 5% corn/rice fed Bud or Lite!

People who think any beer with flavor is too strong, while

they drink a Bud or Lite!

People who drink beer only to get drunk, as they buy another 12-pack of Bud or Lite!

People who drink Bud or Lite!

Shall I continue? (Gee, do you think Joe has something against Bud?)

Most people don't know I: I am really from another planet. At least that's what my wife tells me! (or was it out of this world?. . .I forget)

If you were a beer, what kind of beer would you be? Drank!

page 5

Pumpkins, Spice, and Everything Nice

Although it may be hard to believe, the "crisp" fall air is just around the corner! With it brings football, Halloween, the brilliance of leaves changing colors on the Red Maple trees, and a merciful end to another long Marlins season!

In the fall mood yet? If so, then let your thoughts turn to some of the darker, heavier and sometimes spiced brews of the fall and winter and start putting away those lawnmower beers for yet another year.

One of the spiced

entrants in this class of brew is ale accented with pumpkin. It is not too early to get a pumpkin beer going for the fall, for what better beverage to round out a hearty Thanksgiving feast?

Either fresh or the unpreserved pumpkin pack will do nicely, along with some of the "pumpkin pie" type spices, such as cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg.

The following is a receipe Nick Marshall and I recently used. While the brew is still young (this style should lager for a couple of

months to smooth out the spice/pumpkin profile), it already shows promise, with a nice "pumpkin pie" nose, and pumpkin flavor in the finish.

A couple of caveats: If you decide to mash with pumpkin pack like we did, it can be a pain, as it tends to partially clog false bottoms (I don't know if there are any problems with mashing fresh pumpkin). Adding oat hulls to the mash is a possible solution, as is mashing the pumpkin pack in a separate pot, with

a small amount of grain. Extract brewers should not have any problems with the pumpkin.

Also, you do not want to go heavy on the bittering hops, as they will compete with the spices, and be careful with allspice-- a little goes a long way. Finally, I've found that a yeast that finishes a bit sweeter lends a nice compliment to the pumpkin and spices! Enjoy!

For 5 gals:

Eng. Pale Malt - 8 lbs

Cinnamon - 1 Tblspoon (spices added last 2 mins of boil)

Crystal 40 - lb

Allspice - 1/2 Tblspoon

European Ale Yeast #1338

S.G. 1050

Fermentation temp: 62 - 64F

F.G. 1018 - 1020

(for extract brewers, replace pale malt with 6-8 lbs of pale malt extract)

Don't Be Fooled By The Can!!!

Bottles and cans that say the contents are "draft" or "draught" are misleading. "Draught" means "drawn fresh from the tap." This is literally impossible in a canned or bottled product.

Brewers in the U.K. have made a can containing its own mini nitrogen canister (a widget). It bursts when the can is opened. This is the closest thing to a "draught" beer in a can -- close, but not the real thing. Beer For Dummies.

Brews in Brief

Lauderdale American Brewoff

In case you have not heard yet, the Fort Lauderdale Area Brewers are having an AHA sanctioned competition. The "Fort Lauderdale American Brewoff" will be held on Thursday September 16 through Saturday September 18, 1999.

The competition will be held at the Downtowner Saloon in downtown Fort Lauderdale Florida. A map and address for the event is located on Flab's webpage:

(http://www.pompano.net/~davef/flab/competition.htm).

You all more than welcome to attend and we would greatly appreciate any help in judging and stewarding. I will be sending out a more detailed letter about the competition but wanted to email all the people I could.

If you have any questions that the webpage doesn't answer, please feel free to email me or call. I will have my address and phone numbers below. I hope that we will see some of you attend and especially send in an entry or two.

Thanks for your time,

Dave Fisher

National Competition Coordinator

Fort Lauderdale Area Brewers (FLAB)

[email protected]

Home (954) 570-8737

Office (954) 389-1400 ext. 12

SEPTEMBER MEETING

The next general meeting of The Palm Beach Draughtsmen will be September 9th at the Home Brewer's Outlet at 7:30 PM. Let me repeat that: 7:30 PM.

This is a meeting not to be missed! The education segment will consist of tasting traditional Oktoberfest biers. If you've brewed one lately, bring it along and we'll be happy to sample and critique it!

Additionally, we have a lot of business to cover with the yearly Oktoberfest party approaching. So, Draughtsmen, put this on your calender and Be There!!!

It's time to Brew for the Holidays!!

Draughtsmen, join us for the Barley Wine Brew-off at Greg Pope's on Sunday, August 29th. Call for directions and info. Greg - 561- 582-3473. The Barley Wine will be sampled by Draughtsmen at future meetings and parties in the years to come as it comes of age.

Traditionally, Barley Wines are aged for a year or longer. They are strong beers with high gravity and a high alcoholic content. Their natural sweetness is usually balanced with a high rate of hop bitterness. In fact some Barley Wines are meant to be aged for over 25 years. However, I'm sure we'll sample ours by the New Year's party, 2000.

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Upcoming Club Events

8/26 Business Meeting @ Lost Weekend, 7:30 PM

9/9 General Meeting @HBO. 7:30 PM

9/10 & 11 Emerald Coast Beer Festival- Pensacola

9/16-18 FLAB American Brew-off

9/18 Oktoberfest @ Tuskeegee Pavillion, 11 AM

9/30 Business Meeting @ Paddy Macs 7:30 PM

10/14 General Meeting @ HBO 7:30 PM

10/23 Club brew for Christmas Party TBA

10/28 Business Meeting @ John Bull, 7:30 PM

11/6 Possible Pub Crawl TBA

11/11 General Meeting @ HBO, 7:30 PM

11/13 Possible date for BJCP exam

11/18 Business Meeting @ Red Lion, 7:30 PM

12/9 General Meeting @ HBO, 7:30 PM

12/11 Christmas Party- Betty's and Bill's

12/30 Business Meeting - to be announced

Put these events on your calender!!!

Official Palm Beach Draughtsmen T-shirts $12.50 each

100% Cotton Pocket Tees

Logo on back and front pocket

All sizes available

See Mel or place order at next meeting

Official Palm Beach Draughtsmen Pint Glasses $3.00 Available at HBO

ENTRIES FOR FLAB AMERICAN BREW-OFF DUE SEPT. 11. DRAUGHTSMEN DROP OFF PACKED, READY TO SHIP ENTRIES AT HBO BY SEPTEMBER 8TH.

Palm Beach Draughtsmen's

Brews News

4294 Empire Way

Lake Worth, Florida 33463