2012 Q1 Meetings/Schedule

January: We will NOT be having a normal January first Tuesday of the month meeting. We will have a beer social the second week in January at a place TBD (likely Republic or Town Hall). The Upper Mississippi Mashout planning and prep will be in full swing, so please be sure to volunteer!

February 7th.  Club tour and mini-meeting at STEEL TOE BREWING in St. Louis Park (barely west of uptown area).

March: Tentative club party. Likely March 9th (Friday night) or March 10th (Saturday eve), but still very much in planning stages. Location TBD.

April: Normal meeting, targeting the back room at The Muddy Pig. Also likely will be a club big brew this month.

Club Updates January 2012

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!

December 6 Club Meeting

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.

October Club Meeting

The October SPHBC meeting will be held Tuesday October 4th 7pm upstairs at the Happy Gnome!  [NOTE: This date was corrected, previously was listed as 10/6]
If you want to bring a beer for consideration as an entry to the Specialty/Experimental/Historical Beers competition please do so.
If you want comments on your brews: Bring at least 2 12 ounce bottles to make it around the room, they should be labeled with Your Name, and Style (without labels it is chaos). Also, bring your recipe & brewing notes because you will be questioned about your ingredients and brewing process. You cannot expect recommendations for improvements on a beer if you don’t remember what’s in it!

Mead / Cider / Perry

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.

Hops

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.

Base Malt

What is a good base malt?
Depending on what your looking for:

Optic is as malty as you can get.
Pearl is the UK equiv of Rahr pale.
Golden promise has a touch of biscuit but lots of apple.
Halcyon is a very clean UK lager malt w/o the DMS
Dingeman pale is like cross between MO and Optic and a little darker than the rest.

Barley is the fourth most important grain crop in the United States. Barley is one of the oldest cultivated grains. Grains found in pits and pyramids in Egypt indicate that barley was cultivated there more than 5000 years ago.
Half the barley grown in the US gets used for livestock feed. As feed it is nearly equal in nutritive value to kernel corn. It is especially valuable as hog feed, giving desirable portions of firm fat and lean meat. The entire kernel is used in feed, generally after grinding or steam rolling. Malt sprouts from malting as well as brewers grain–byproducts of brewing–are also valuable livestock feeds.
Around 25 percent of barley crops are malted in the US. Of the malted barley some 80 percent is used for beer, around 14 percent for distilled alcohol products, and 6 percent for malt syrup, malted milk and breakfast foods.

September Club Meeting

Fletty passed around some traditional mead from various varietals of honey for sample and discussion, including: raspberry, blackberry, tupelo,  a blend of the 3, and an ’09 fruit mix. Jeff follwed with mystery beers, where we had to guess if they were pro or homebrewed. Some of the comments included…
“This makes my beer taste better.”
– Richard
“Pliny is like Bud Lite compared to this shit.”
– Fletty