est 1998. “I’m sure it'll be just fine”
Tin Whiskers Brewing Company
125 E 9th St, St Paul, MN 55101
Jeff and the Tin Whiskers crew have been very welcoming to our club by allowing us to use their space for our meeting. Homebrew is allowed, but please make sure you support them by purchasing beer from the bar, and make sure to tip well.
REMINDER:
The drop-off deadline for NHC First Round is Wednesday, March 9th. This is a great opportunity to get final feedback if you are unsure about what categories to enter your beers into.
Since the American Homebrew Association (AHA) has intensified their goal of disenfranchising as many homebrewers and competitors in the National Homebrew Competition (NHC) as possible we complain! Being the Saint Paul Homebrewers Club we like to be the best, and we like to organize stuff. Prepare for the 1st Annual Bitch about the AHAs NHC.
Rant Style guidelines:
Category 1 – Drunk:
A: Angry drunken rant
B: Loving drunken rant
Category 2 – Unintelligible:
A: Entire rant slurred into one word
B: Every work mispronounce
Category 3 – Insults:
A: Condescending
B: Passive Aggressive
C: Offensive
Category 4 – Holier Than Thou
A. I’m Always Right Because _________
B. You Should Never/Always Do X
C. Self Righteous Indignation
D. Unintentional Buffoonery
Category 5 – Open/WTF?!?!
A. Anything not covered in Cats 1-4
Category 6 – Sour & Bitter
A. Judge at fault
Don’t worry about the entry lottery system, just like the AHA we’ll change the rules to give the win to whomever we desire!
Thomas’ Strawberry Tupelo Honey Mead beat out every other mead entered in the National Homebrew Competition to become Meadmaker of the Year (again).Mead Maker of the YearSaint Paul Home Brewers Club – 5Brewing Network – 0
Our October SPHBC meeting is Tuesday October 2nd at The Muddy Pig. 7-9:30pm.We’ll have a couple blind tastings, discuss altbier and saisons and have plenty of time to share homebrew.
The Calagiones Scale measures a brewers passion in units called Deci-bags.
10 Deci-bag =
1 Calgione
10 Calgiones = A Full-on Brewing Douchebag
Level 5
Level 4
Level 3 – You are a brewing tool
Level 2
Level 1 – You are a full-on brewing douchebag
Wow, crazy week/end with the Upper Mississippi Mash-out… thanks to all that volunteered and entered. The club did really well overall with many people placing, too many to mention but results can be viewed on mashout.org.
February 7th Meeting
As previously mentioned, the February 7th meeting is at Steel Toe Brewing in St. Louis Park, just west of Lake Calhoun. 7pm start, wrap up approx 9pm. Plan is for a tour/talk + abbreviated club meeting. A few of us will likely head over to Muddy Waters on Lake/Lyndale after the meeting for more beer.
NOTE: Due to a mechanical issue, Steel Toe likely won’t have Size 7 IPA available.
March 10th Club Party (members only, RSVP required)
Saturday March 10th (early evening start) we will be throwing a dedicated SPHBC party. Great food and beer provided, homebrew is of course is welcome. You MUST be a club member and RSVP using the link below. Members can bring their spouse or significant other, but sorry no other guests are allowed.
New club VP, Eric Anderson
Mike Cleaver, our beloved VP from 2010-2011, recently stepped down due to time constraints. The club welcomes cellar-man extraordinaire Eric Anderson as the new club vice president. Very excited to have him on-board, he will be helping plan more club events, big brews and meeting topics. BJ Haun (Treasurer) and Jeff Halvorson (President) remain in current positions.2012
Dues and Active Participation
Dues are now payable for the 2012 year. Again they are $20*. We will accept cash or checks (made out to BJ Haun) at the February meeting. For those who won’t be there, please follow the instructions on sphbc.org or contact Jeff Halvorson to pay via PayPal. If all goes well, new cards should be available at the February meeting as well.
Active Club Participation: Members entering at least one beer as SPHBC into the Upper Mississippi Mash-Out (UMMO), MN State Fair, or National Homebrew Competition (NHC) and who volunteer (judge, steward, bottle sort, etc..) at at least one of these events are considered “active club participants”. Active participants are eligible for reduced dues, priority on big brews and other special deals/events.
CHECK YOUR EMAIL FOR MORE DETAILS. ALL QUESTIONS REGARDING DUES SHOULD BE SENT TO JEFF HALVORSON.
Club Work Shirts
We will ordering SPHBC work shirts sometime in February. They will be embroidered with the club name and the crazy viking logo. Estimated cost between $25-$30. If you are interested in a work shirt, please let us know.That’s all for now, see you next week!
We had a fun meeting, discussed a few topics: Extract Brewing, Upper Mississippi Mash-Out, Club Swag, 2012 Club Plans, and drank some beer. Style of the Month: Stouts (13A – 13F). We sampled our way up to Bells Expedition Stout (OG 1.11, ABV 10.5%). Consensus was this would be a good beer to stock up on and cellar. Fletty posed the question, “Why is it that on the web beere rate places RIS always rises to the top.” Answer: Because it’s so easy to hide the flaws from Mook Judges!
The next CoC competition is Dark Lagers – Brew NOW! They are due February 10. The category after that is Stout. If you fully comprehend the previous paragraph, you’ll want bring your best RIS to win. Stout entries are due March 17, 2012.
Scottish and Irish Ale entries are due Thursday, May 10, 2012.
Questions:
Back Sweetening a Cider
You don’t want to add the sorbate until the fermentation is very complete, i.e., clear and stable. Typically added AFTER the beverage has been sulfited. If there is any renewed fermentation with the sorbate present in the beverage you typically get an aroma and flavor of fresh cut geranium flowers (really the character of the broken stem) — very unpleasant.
So make sure your cider is clear, rack off any sediment, and then treat it with sulfites. Once it is obvious that fermentation is not restarting you can sweeten and add the sorbate at the same time.
by Joe Gerteis
Saint Paul Homebrewers Club
September 7, 2010
When you first start using a brewing software package, one of the first things the software asks you to do is to pick a formula for hop calculations. The common ones are Rager, Garetz, Tinseth, and Daniels. You may have heard people say that hop calculations are estimates only, and what really matters is consistency rather than absolute accuracy. In other words, what they are saying is pick one that works for you and stick with it. That’s true and it’s good advice. The problem is that brewers are often then forced to pick before they really know what’s involved in the choice. The simple practical advice is this: pick Tinseth and stick with it. But if you care about what’s going on and why, here’s the deal.
See Complete Article.
Congratulations to Steve Fletty, Randy Clay and Paul Dienhart who all won medals in the AHA 2011 competition.