CHICKEN. NEXT MEETING: Schmohz Competition 6:00 / Meeting 7:00 March 16, 2016

Transcription

1 The RUBBER CHICKEN NEXT MEETING: Schmohz Competition 6:00 / Meeting 7:00 March 16, 2016 Winter Beer Festival This last WBF was the 11 th annual, and the 11 th WBF I have attended! This year I poured for Gravel Bottom on Friday. After showing up at the brewery around 9, we got the trailer packed up, the beer loaded and headed for the park. We even kept track of Matt s Beer Invoice! Kind of. Set up is always an interesting time. The parking lot had been plowed but the plowing left a berm of snow up against the entrance to the tents. I set myself to clearing out the snow in front of the Gravel Bottom booth, but after I got it all shoveled out, I looked up and realized I shoveled it out for Arcadia Brewing! I did do a nice job, and they did give me a beer when I was done. All the different types of booths that get set up are always interesting. Some are very elaborate, some fairly basic. Dark Horse had the biggest production that I saw. They custom built two ramps onsite, fitted around the test poles, so that you went up one of two ramps, then got directed to one of two ten tap jockey boxes. They had it set up as if you were on the Mackinac Bridge complete with a center grate! It also amazes me the camaraderie among the brewery staff. During set up breweries were loaning and borrowing tools, helping each other with set ups, and sampling beers. I even saw a guy shovel out another brewery s spot! Pouring and attending on Friday is a different experience than pouring on Saturday. I remember pouring last year on Saturday, and when the general public was let in, it was like rushing the stage at a rock concert! Lines formed immediately, and it was a hectic pace all day, keeping the beer flowing. Fridays are much more laid back. You hardly noticed when the gates opened, and although there were lines here and there, for the most part you could leisurely wander around and get whatever beer you want. It makes for a much more relaxed atmosphere, and access to the porta potties is never a problem, but perhaps there were fewer specialty beers to try. Of course, the weather was much better this year. It was in the 30 s on Friday, 40 s on Saturday. Pretty nice outdoor festival weather! Last year it got down below 0 overnight, and only into low double digits during the day! Almost all the beer froze, unless the brewery was really well prepared to add some heat during the day, but a lot of high ABV beers froze. The first day, the biggest problem was beer freezing in the lines. Saturday, a lot of kegs were just plain frozen! I think it had to do with where your pallet of beer got stored overnight. If your pallet was near the middle of the stack, the beer kegs on the outside insulated your kegs. But if you were on the outside of the stack, more exposed to the elements, you got froze out. Last year, Railtown s keg of 10% Imperial IPA froze up. We had the tap line clipped, and about 25psi on the keg. It was dripping out what I think was about 20% ABV Citra Warrior IPA! The first few WBF s I went to, I tried to go in with a Beer Plan: Taste this one, taste that one, keep notes, etc. That s just no fun. Especially when you review your notes the next day, and you can t read them! Nope. I go into it a lot more relaxed. If I catch wind of a special release, I ll go try for it. Or if I want to talk to somebody at a particular booth, I ll go there for a few pours and shoot the breeze. As far as what beers I liked this year, I didn t really try a lot of different beers had to drive home. And pouring for part of the time cuts into your drinking time, according to Vice President Gavin. But this year, there were a few standouts of the ones I tried. One of my favorites was Brewery Vivant s Barrel Aged Wizard Burial Ground, a bourbon barrel aged Belgian Quadruple at about 11% Just fabulous, and I m a sucker for barrel aged beers. The BOB s Peanut Butter Porter was another favorite, and it won over a peanut butter beer skeptic that I took over there specifically to try it. Railtown s Best Mooed Ever Imperial Milk Stout was

2 awesomely great, and Gravel Bottom s James and the Giant Peach Gose was a crowd favorite. And pouring on Friday, I had a lot more time to answer questions about it. What s a Gose? What s the name mean. Can I get a double pour? I think I poured more (and drank more) of that beer than any other while I was pouring for GB. And they blew the keg by 1PMSaturday! Great job by The Brewsquitos, winning the Kent District Library s Book Themed Beer competition with that one! Pales in Comparison Taken in part from Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Published: Author: Dave Carpenter Were you to present a taster tray to a craft-beer newcomer and ask your subject to identify the pale ale in the lineup, he or she could be forgiven for pointing to the Pilsner. The pale in pale ale is a holdover from a time when most British pints were opaque, while today s pale ales are almost universally a translucent copper hue, somewhere between blonde ale and amber. The name might not be as apt an appellation as it once was, but pale ale is more relevant than ever. Walk into any pub in Britain and you re virtually guaranteed a pint of bitter, lovingly pumped up from the cellar with a swan-necked beer engine. And American pale ale lies at the very heart of the Hophead Revolution, offering a blank canvas upon which to slather hops even while retaining enough malt backbone to remind you that it isn t an IPA. Pale ale s appeal lies in its ability to invite endless experimentation while remaining an intimately familiar everyday ale. When your palate can t take another sour and your liver has had it with imperial stout, pale ale is the old friend you keep coming back to again and again. From Whence It Came Once upon a time, all beer was dark and smoky thanks to rudimentary malt kilning techniques that involved wood fire and offered brewers little control over the drying process. As technology improved, malts became increasingly lighter in color, culminating in the so-called white malt that brewers in Burton-on-Trent favored in the 1800s. So popular was this extra pale malt that Czech brewers stole the idea and invented what we now know as Pilsner malt. Armed with this new pale malt, British brewers exported vast quantities of pale ale to India before it began catching on in Britain as a refreshing alternative to various brown and black beers. Thus, pale ale as a distinct style emerged initially as pale ale for India and later as the diverse family of English bitters whose starting gravities were eventually driven southward by taxes and wartime rationing. English Pale Ale English pale ales are affable and approachable. Also known as bitter, English pale ale is a single continuum of beer styles (more on that in a bit), with some examples barely breaching 3 percent alcohol by volume ABV) and others climbing to 6 percent ABV or higher. These beers also tend to have wonderfully evocative names such as Workie Ticket (Mordue Brewery), Old Hooky (Hook Norton Brewery), Big Lamp Bitter (Big Lamp Brewery), and Old Speckled Hen (Greene King Brewery). Built on a foundation of nutty, biscuity British pale malt, English pale ales almost invariably feature a healthy measure of crystal malt, which adds caramel or toffee-like depth. Some examples also include a bit of toasted or roasted malt, more for color than flavor, and others even sneak in maize or sugar adjuncts from time to time. In English pale ales, hops are almost always of English origin. Floral, earthy East Kent Goldings hops are perhaps most closely associated with English pale ale, but minty, grassy Fuggle comes in a close second. Styrian Goldings from Slovenia also find their way into these beers, but Styrians are biologically Fuggles, not Goldings. Common bittering hops include Challenger, Northdown, and Target. A defining feature of English pale ale is a recognizable complement of fruity esters that derive from the signature yeast strains that ferment these ales. As a general rule, English strains are moderate attenuators and highly flocculent, which means that English pale ale tends to be brilliantly clear and full-bodied. It is this fullness on the palate that makes even low-gravity examples sturdy enough to prop up a night of larking about. English pale ales are usually at their best when served in the traditional way, which is with low carbonation ( volumes, or 2 3 grams per liter, of CO2) and at cellar temperature (50 55 F/10 13 C). When English pale ale first came on the scene, pub customers commonly requested pints of bitter to distinguish such ales from sweeter, maltier mild ales. The name stuck, and nowadays, the term bitter typically implies a cask-conditioned draft product that one purchases in a pub, while pale ale means a bottled beer meant to be consumed off premises. Finally, a note on nomenclature. Bitter, ordinary bitter, special bitter, best bitter, and extra special bitter (ESB) are all English pale ales: They differ only in their relative strengths. The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) 2008 and Great American Beer Festival (GABF) 2014 style guides divide English pale ale into three completely arbitrary categories, shown in the table below.

3 A long time comin... Hi Acme Cider backers and friends! It's David here. I thought it was high time to post an update and give an idea of what's been going here at the intergalactic headquarters of Acme Cider these last couple months. First off, Lori left this morning for Portland, Oregon for this year's CiderCon. I'm staying here to work, drink our cider and get lost in the neighboring woods. So, if I'm not home by dusk, send out a search party. If I'm face down in the snow, please turn me over. While at CiderCon, Lori is taking the first steps on becoming a Sicera. Yup, it's not a typo. It's the cider equivalent of a beer Cicerone. She's taking classes along with hobnobbing with cidermakers from all over the world and attending seminars regarding anything to do with the production of hard cider. She'll be filling me in on the happenings. About our cider: We've been experimenting with recipes and now have 4 ciders that passed our taste tests. My favorite is a Jalapeno cider. Not too much heat at the finish and a very organic grassiness accompanied with apple. Next is a hopped cider [nice balance], Ginger (Lori's favorite and by others who have tested) and rounding out the four is a 'common' or unflavored natural cider. (another favorite & pretty damn good stuff!) Licensing: We submitted paperwork to the state and feds some months ago. Our TTB license from the feds is currently under review and the state status is 'awaiting investigation'. Which means a visit to our facility when assigned. In advance of this, I invited the local state agricultural agent here last week and he did a walk-through of the production area and he was satisfied. He may be the same person to do the formal inspection so we are feeling pretty confident after the butt-load of work we put in. Whew! In another bit of news, "Acme Cider Co." is now a registered trademark in Michigan and also an application has been filed with the federal government as well. We've been asked how can someone get our cider? As soon as we get our license, we will be self-distributing. We will sell bottled cider in 4-packs here at start and have it in some area bars in kegs! I'll keep everyone posted. Many thanks from us B T B BY DICK THUNDER I was born at an early age... What happened in May, 1932? Amelia Earhart lands in Ireland, the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic. Al Capone enters Atlanta Penitentiary for income tax evasion. Goofy, AKA Dippity Dog, makes his first appearance. The most decorated and accomplished Primetime Brewer is born. John Applegarth has been brewing longer than most of us have been alive. His big smile and unassuming nature belie a highly skilled, and capable brewer with a serious competitive streak. John Applegarth s first batch of beer was in He and a friend were hitchhiking home to Muskegon when they stopped at a small store for a soda. A can of Malt Liquor on the shelf caught his eye. The clerk told him it was for making bread but during prohibition people would make beer out of it. What a great idea! When they got home, he asked his grandmother, who was a wealth of knowledge on every subject, how to turn this can of syrup into a refreshing beer. Following her instructions John combined a crock from the basement, a yeast cake from his mother s stores, and some water. In time, and with zero sanitation, he had a bubbling cache of yeasty smelling water. Grandma had said to hold a flashlight close to the surface of the liquid. When the light s circle is about an inch across, count the bubbles. So many bubbles in a minute meant it was done. They bottled it and drank it. Some of it. It was not good. It was so yeasty as to be nearly unpalatable. Humble beginnings. John did not brew too much after that initial foray. As life went on he toured Europe at the courtesy of the US Army. During his 2 years in Germany, he published an award winning battalion newspaper. This paper was the pride of the battalion and especially his superiors. Upon returning home, he started a family and a career in insurance. Throughout this time he still made wines and tried a few more beers but nothing too spectacular. He was more focused on fishing. He won many fishing trophies over the years. These awards still hang on his crowded walls. Despite his best efforts, he was never able to develop his fish finding super power. Between his fishing and his career, he kept his competitive spirit well feed. John built a professional reputation for being tenacious and competitive in his field. When asked if he had him dream job, he said that if he had to do it all again he would consider becoming an acrobatic juggling unicyclist. He eventually retired an accomplished and hardened negotiator as an insurance litigation specialist. Then things got real. From the beginning, the Primetime Brewers was geared towards education and competition. This suited the born competitor. John joined Primetime Brewers when his friend and club member, Larry Simonson, dragged

4 him to a meeting in John had recently retired and was looking to get more involved in a hobby he started 46 years earlier. He was struck by the amount of knowledge and experience that the members of the club showed. John started brewing constantly. Excited to find a new way to feed the competitive beast, he entered his first beer competition that spring of He began to redecorate his basement with medals and ribbons won at beer competitions all over the country. If you get the opportunity to see John s brew hall, do not hesitate. The walls of several rooms and a hallway are dripping with accolades and awards. He recently said, I got lots a ribbons. I threw away the thirds to make room for more firsts and seconds. He doesn t even know how many he has. He won his first AHA medal with a Biere de Garde but really does not have any style that is his favorite to brew. He will say that everyone should have an English Mild on hand. There apparently is nothing he cannot brew. He says that when he is confronted with a beer style that does not work out to his liking, he keeps trying to improve that beer until he is satisfied. His advice to other brewers is to always be refining your beers. Use competitions as a way to get good feedback and establish a good relationship with a shipper so you can enter competitions. A 6-pack here and there helps. Moving into his 85 th year this May, John has slowed down some. He now enters only Siciliano s Homebrew Cup, the AHA, and the Michigan Beer Cup. He ceases production in the summer months and only brews September through April. When asked how he feels about the club 22 years later, he says it is still the Premiere Homebrew Club in the area. He likes that PTB is still competition and education oriented. He also enjoys the comradery of the PTB members. No other club has the same level of connection, expertise, and experience that PTB offers. In the future, he would like to see the club continue to expand its involvement in the community. More special brew days, and more collaborations with pro-brewers and fellow homebrewers alike. John Applegarth stands tall in the Homebrewing community. To this day he continues to garner awards and praise for his finely crafted beers. His entire life is punctuated with accomplishment and accolade. Next time you seem him shake his hand. When you speak to him you may need to speak up but when he speaks, listen closely. -DT North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout Clone The November 2016 club competition is 20C, Imperial Stout. It s time to start thinking about brewing one! Old Rasputin is produced in the tradition of 18th century English brewers who supplied the court of Russia s Catherine the Great. The Old Rasputin brand image is a drawing of Rasputin, a Russian peasant, mystical faith healer and a trusted friend to the family of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia, with a phrase in Russian encircling it A sincere friend is not born instantly. Old Rasputin clone, found in July/August 2007Zymurgy, is a huge, complex beer, heavy on flavor and aroma, with lots of warming alcohol. It will age well, but with lots of late hops, you may want to let it condition for only a month or so. As with any high-gravity beer, pitch double the yeast you normally would it s a great beer to pitch the dregs of another beer into. The California ale yeast does very well with this beer, and can handle the extra-high gravity. The grain bitterness is controlled very well with the use of dark crystal and brown malts to temper the roast and chocolate. The first sip might not be too friendly, but sincere friends are not born instantly. INGREDIENTS For 5 Gallons (19 L) 14.0 lb (6.35 kg) pale two-row malt 1.0 lb (0.45 kg) Carastan malt 1.0 lb (0.45 kg) 120 L crystal malt 0.5 lb (227 g) chocolate malt 0.5 lb (227 g) brown malt 0.25 lb (114 g) roast barley 2.0 oz (56 g) Cluster pellet hops, 7% a.a. (60 min) 1.0 oz (28 g) Northern Brewer pellet hops, 9% a.a. (2 min) 1.0 oz (28 g) Centennial pellet hops, 10.5% a.a. (2 min) American or California ale yeast SPECIFICATIONS Original Gravity: Final Gravity: ABV: 9.3% IBU: 43 SRM: 33 DIRECTIONS To brew the Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout clone, mash grains at 152 F (67 C) for 60 minutes. Mash out at 158 F (70 C) for 10 minutes. Sparge and proceed with boil, adding hops at specified intervals. Chill to 70 F (21 C), aerate or oxygenate well and pitch ale yeast slurry. Ferment at 68 F (20 C) until fermentation is complete. Partial Extract Option Substitute 9.9 lb (4.5 kg) light malt extract for the pale malt and increase Cluster hops to 2.75 oz (78 g). Steep crushed grains in 150 F (65.5 C) water for 30 minutes then sparge with 170 F (77 C) water. Add extract, bring to a boil and add hops at specified intervals.

5 PRIMETIME BREWERS COMPETITION PAGE 2016 Club Competition Calendar Jan Historical Beers (27) Feb Best of Cellar Cider (All) Mar Pale American Ale (18) Apr British Bitter (11) May Best of Cellar Beers (All) Jun Beer Pairing Dinner Jul American Lager (1A&1B) Aug Beer made with Michigan ingredients Sep Mead (All) Oct Double IPA (22A) Nov Imperial Stout (20C) Dec Christmas Party 2016 Brewer of the Year (To Date) Jessie Colclasure 12 Eric Fouch 12 Joe Beirling 8 Brent Zomerlei 8 Jeremy Gavin 4 George Lawlor First Thursday Destinations Jan Mitten Feb Railtown Mar Osgood Apr Trail Point May Pike 51 Jun Bistro 57 Jul Perrin Aug GRBC Sep Gravel Bottom Oct Brewery Vivant Nov TBA Dec TBA SAVE THE DATE(S) Feb 29-Mar 9 First round shipping (AHA comp) Mar 16 PTB Meeting April th Ann. Siciliano's Homebrew Comp Judging April GLINTCAP May 7 Beer City Big Brew on the Calder Jun 9-11 AHA National Conv., Baltimore Other events at: Primetime Brewers Facebook Page Club Officers President: Eric Fouch V. P.: Jeremy Gavin Treasurer: Jeff Carlson Sec & RC Editor: Chad Zomerlei (fouch.eric@gmail.com) (jabrews@gmail.com) (carlsonj@gvsu.edu) (zomerlcp@gmail.com) SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS THEY SUPPORT US!! Welcome our newly listed sponsors! Coldbreak Brewing 57 Brew Pub Gavin Legal Pilot Malt House Month Style Beer Club Competition Cider competition results: 1st Eric Fouch Ice Cider 2nd Joel Bierling New World 3rd Jeremy Gavin New World Last Brent Zomerlei Unbalanced

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