Blow off from the Prez
Greetings and welcome to another edition of the SAAZ Newsletter. I gotta say, I think I am starting to get the hang of this and, dare I say, enjoying it! As the weather starts to warm up, there are a lot of great brewing events upcoming. This coming weekend is the Miami Area Society of Homebrewers (MASH) Coconut Cup competition. We have a wonderful Spring Party planned for March 20th; on April 24th, I will be doing a brewing demonstration with organic-only ingredients at Sunseed Food Co-op; April 23-24 is the Palm Beach Draughtsmen’s Hurrican Blowoff competition, and May 1st is the AHA Big Brew Day. That’s a lot for the next two months!
Don’t forget to bring your American Ale(s) (BJCP Category 10) to the Spring Party for the AHA Club-only taste-off to determine which one we send. Also, bring your stout(s) and recipes for evaluation in helping formulate a beer for Charlie and Jake’s! Of course, a side dish and a bag of ice are always good too.
In case you missed it, the February meeting was at The Broken Barrel Tavern in Palm Bay. This is the second meeting we have had there, and I believe it went very well (we only had a few people heckle me from the crowd). The educational topic was American Ales (BJCP Category 10) in preparation for the AHA Club-only. Kevin was nice enough to extend a discount of 15% off regularly priced drinks to SAAZ Members. You can get this discount any time by showing your SAAZ Membership card. And YES, I will have them available at the Spring Party.
I’ve asked our sponsors, both local and national, to let us know anything that might be new or innovative. The plan is that this content will be in the newsletter as both a way of educating our members and helping our loyal sponsors! Thanks to all who helped in this effort.
As many of you know, there is a Florida Senate Bill (#2062) introduced by Sen. Dave Aronberg from District 27 (parts of Charlotte, Glades, Hendry, Lee, and Palm Beach counties). This bill would remove the restrictions on 32-128oz bottles as well as selling growlers! I urge you to write your local senator (most likely Thad Altman or Mike Haridopolos) and ask them to co-sponsor and vote to approve this bill. Even if it doesn’t get through, they may remember it next session.
I would also like to recognize Matt Backus, Dave Webb, Aaron Guittar, and Mike Ellis for winning medals at the Best Florida Beer Championships for Homebrew last month. I hope to be picking up more medals for club members at the Coconut Cup! Aaron and Mike won two medals with the 2009 Commander SAAZ commemorative beer kits they won back in October. Great job guys!
One last thing I want to mention: the website traffic is up and moving. I think this is a great way to share information, so please use it. It is easy to sign up and use.
Well, I think that’s all I have for now. Continue to read further for more information about the things I mentioned. I will see you all at the Spring Party.
Spring Party
Its time for our first party of 2009 the SPRING PARTY! This is a family friendly event so bring the kids, parents, or your neighbor Ted! Set up starts at 10 with the festivities kicking off at Noon.
As always the event is free to club members and their families. Guests are more than welcome at $5 each. The club will provide meats and sodas so what will you need to bring?
• Side dishes (salads, desserts, etc.)
• Beer
• Ice
• More Beer!
• Your entries for the AHA American Ales Club Only Competition
• Your Stouts for evaluation for Charlie and Jakes
Directions to Rotary Park @ Suntree
From I-95:
Exit 191 (CR-509/Wickham Road)
Wickham Road East 3 miles to Suntree Blvd.
Turn left onto Suntree Blvd.
Cross US 1 into Rotary Park @ Suntree
From US 1:
Rotary Park @ Suntree is on the river at the intersection of US 1 and Suntree Blvd. in Melbourne
Dues:
For 8 regular meetings and 4 parties worth of great beer and fun membership would be cheap at twice the price!
Individual Membership = $15
Couple’s Membership = $25
Lifetime Membership = $150
Dues can be paid to the Treasurer at any club meeting or online at www.saaz.org via PayPal (it’s on the right side of the homepage!)
You don’t want to miss out on the benefits of membership!
Raffle
Do you have some homebrew supplies that you don’t use anymore? Maybe you upgraded or maybe you prefer another product? Consider binging your dusty supplies to the next meeting for the raffle. We have brewers of all experience levels, so I am sure we can put any brewing supplies to use!
Upcoming Competitions
Next Florida completion is just around the corner in Miami. It is taking place on March 12-13th. THAT IS THIS WEEKEND! So Judges help out if you can and go down and judge.
Coming up on April 23-24th is the Palm Beach Hurricane Blow Off.
Click here for more info.
http://www.palmbeachdraughtsmen.com/hurricane_blowoff%20info.htm
! Entries are due by April 9th!
AHA EXTRACT: The next Club Only Competition is extract only beers. This means all new brewers can be eligible for this event. Please bring your beers to the April meeting to be judged.
March Birthdays
Mike Ellis
Ramon Molledo
T-Shirts
Thanks to everyone who ordered T-shirts at the February meeting. They should be ready for delivery at the Spring Party
Local events
Earth Day Brew at Sunseed is coming up very shortly. At Sunseed’s annual Earth day Event Sean Gregg will be demonstration brewing extract pale ale. This event will be held on April 24th starting at noon. Look for more information in the April Newsletter and flyers at the store.
Big Brew Day May 1 will also be happening at Sunseed. This is the following Saturday after Earth day. So two weeks in a row to come see brewing demos. This Demo will start a little earlier and will have both all grain and extract demonstration. Start time around 11:00 am.
***Beer News Beer News Beer News***
Southern Tier and Blue Point are now in Florida! Be on the look out for them on draft and in the bottle!
Sponsor Information and Education:
Passivation: What is it & why should I care?
The thin layer which makes stainless steel stainless is why your equipment doesn’t rust. 1/100,000th the thickness of a human hair, your stainless steel (SS) passive layer is stressed by brewing & alkali cleaning and gone where scratched through (poof!). In a partially full SS vessel, the electromagnetic differential above/below the waterline can also breach the passivation over time.
Passivation is the process by which this stainless layer is restored.
A full-time, professional brewery will use an oxidizing acid, usually a Nitric/Phos blend, to initiate the passivation process and restore the stainless.
To keep their fermenters and kettle rust free, pro’s will perform this routine anywhere from monthly to annually. For Home Brewers, however, using a no-rinse acid sanitizer, like Star San, leaves your SS in an acid state allowing it to ‘heal’ and restore passivation during storage, sweet!
Dump sanitizers into my septic? No Way ! Can I put this stuff on my lawn?
Home Brewers with a septic system have a tough challenge for disposing of their sanitizer: in their gear bacteria is bad but in their septic, bacteria is essential. Once they’ve defeated the bacteria in their gear what do they do with their sanitizer?
Five Star offers a program which is uniquely positioned to help here. PBW is an oxygenated alkali cleaner which is biodegradable. Star San is an acid anionic sanitizer which is rendered inert by lifting its pH above 3.5.
So, when the homebrewer saves his PBW after washing his gear and then mixes his used Star San with his used PBW solution, he neutralizes the Star San. Even better, the mixed solution is oxygenated from the PBW (which the aerobic bacteria in the septic love!) and the raw materials in the Star San now serve as food for those bacteria.
Used in this manner the products which are unequalled in helping keep your gear clean and infection-free also serve to enrich the septic environment for the bacteria you need to break everything down there, wow!
Save Your Septic! Brew More Beer!
Written by Jim Jennings and Provided by your friends at Five Star Chemicals & Suppl