April 2012 Newsletter

By Member Newsletters, Newsletter Recipients

In this edition:

  • Blowoff from the Prez
  • Secretary’s Report
  • Birthdays
  • 2012 Dues
  • Next Meeting – May 20th
  • The Broken Barrel 3 year Anniversary party
  • Upcoming Competitions
  • REWARD!
  • Beers Available in the Area
  • Competition Winners
  • Beer Education
  • SAAZ on Facebook
  • Raffle
  • Feedback

SAAZ Platinum Sponsor

Blow off from the Prez

Welcome to the April edition of the “Blow off from the Prez”. I have both good and bad news to report this month, but even the bad has a positive aspect.

What is the bad news? Our very own Drew Thaller is leaving Florida to return home to California. Drew has been the product manager for the Viera World of Beer since it opened and has been a major factor in its success. Now Drew will be working as a Belgian beer rep, traveling the state of California from bar to bar, forced to share a pint now and then with his customers. I wish him well. Tom Liska (also a SAAZ member) will be taking over as product manager. Glad to see we are keeping it in the family.

Now for the good news. MORE BEER! Kevin and the folks at The Broken Barrel Tavern will be celebrating their 3rd anniversary Tuesday, April 17th and we have all been invited. Kevin ends the e-mail by saying ” From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of everyone at The Broken Barrel Tavern, thank you so very much and I hope you have the opportunity to join us Tuesday and have some Great Beers and Win some Free Stuff!”. Good beer, great food, and free stuff. What more could you ask for? Well, how about another craft beer bar? Yes, I have it under good authority that Crispy’s Beer and Wine Bar will be opening their doors very soon (maybe as soon as the 20th). Those of you in the Rockledge area will have yet another choice when it comes to good beer. I’m looking for Chris and Joe to do great things here. Good luck guys.

So, good news or bad, it’s your call. The pint may be half-empty, but there is always another beer waiting to be poured.

Cheers,

Kip

Secretary’s Report

April Birthdays – Happy Birthday!

Randall Henry
Perry Penny
Jason Land
Daniel Schlegel
Jonathan Meek
Andrew Thaller
Mac Monroe
Catherine Thompson

Don’t see your name (and your birthday is in April)? It could be that Shelley doesn’t have a completed membership form from you. Ask her for one at the next meeting so we can include you!

2012 Dues

The first quarter of 2012 is over and all current members have surely paid their dues already! But on the off chance you haven’t been able to or have friends interested in joining you can do so for the low, low prices listed below!

Individual Membership = $15
Couple’s Membership = $25
Lifetime Membership = $150

Dues can be paid to the Treasurer (Anne Gregg) at any club meeting or online at our website via PayPal Click here to pay.

You don’t want to miss out on the benefits of membership!

Next Meeting – May 20th (Sunday)

This month’s meeting will be at World of Beer in Viera.

World of Beer is located at The Avenues. (Suite 119  2290 Town Center Avenue, Melbourne, FL 32940)

Click here for directions

The meeting will be Sunday May 20th at 2pm! In celebration of Craft Beer Week, we will be putting on a brewing demonstration.

As always, bringing homebrew to share is strongly encouraged, but please respect our gracious host and leave commercial beers at home.

Next-Next Meeting: June 16th, Summer Party, 10:30am setup, noon party! (tentative)

The Broken Barrel 3 Year Anniversary Party!

This Tuesday, April 17th marks the 3 Year anniversary of our little experiment to bring better quality food and beer to the Palm Bay/Melbourne Area. Short & simple of it all, without you it would not be possible, so we’re taking a day to not only celebrate, but thank you for your loyal business and unbelievable support! All Day Tuesday we’ll have food and beverage specials as well as give away and raffle items including the grand prize of a bottle of 2011 Sam Adams Utopias. We buy two every other year when they’re released just so we can raffle them off to you!!!

Food Specials

Lunch Special: $3 Ham or Turkey Sandwiches

Dinner Special: $0.39 Smoked Wings

Beverage Specials

$3 Sam Adams Boston Lager, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale & Florida Beer Florida Lager Pints All Day & Night!

$3 Washington Apple Shots All Day & Night!!!

$3 Ommegang Bottles All Day & Night

Vintage Cellar Offerings

Oh, and did I mention, we’ll be pulling out some beers from the Cellar from 2009!!!

Brooklyn Blast 2009

Terrapin Darkside 2009

Hebrew Jewbelation 13 2009

And why not open up some bottles as well…..

BFM Grand Cru 2009

Stone Vertical Epic 2009

Mikkeller Santa’s Little Helper 2009

Stone Double Bastard 2009

St Feuillen Christmas 2009

Raffle Items (5p-9p)

Glasses, Shirts, Signs, Bottles of Liqueur, Hats and more!!!

Grand Prize

2011 Sam Adams Utopias Bottle

From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of everyone at The Broken Barrel Tavern, thank you so very much and I hope you have the opportunity to join us Tuesday and have some Great Beers and Win some Free Stuff!

Cheers,

Kevin & The Broken Barrel Team

Upcoming Competitions

NASA ICC-6 (Inter Center Competition) – Saturday, April 28th

This April will be the NASA ICC-6 competition. It is a small event hosted by an inter-NASA circle but anyone from SAAZ can submit an entry.

Competition Date: Sat April 28th, 2012
Categories: Dark Lager (4) and American Ale (10)
Website: http://mashtronauts.pbworks.com/w/page/49239450/ICC
Time: Judging starts at 2 pm EDT (11 am PDT), finish around 5 pm EDT
View via Internet: http://evo.caltech.edu/
Submission date: All entries must be received by April 24th (Submit bottles to Andrew Carpenter by April 15th or contact him for shipping addresses of 2 judging locations)

Our very own Dave Webb won (tied) for Best of Show last year with his Chocolate LPR mead.

More details will be made available as they are received.

National Homebrew Competition

Registration Opens February 28

It is once again time for the world’s largest beer competition! The First Round of the National Homebrew Competition takes place at 10 judging locations across the U.S. this April. The best of the beer, mead and cider entries in the regional competitions advance to the Final Round of the competition at the National Homebrewers Conference in Seattle. Winners receive gold, silver or bronze medals in 28 style categories.

Dunedin Brewery’s Homebrewer IPA Throwdown 2

The Dunedin Brewery is holding its second annual IPA Pro-Am competition on June 2. They are looking for the next great IPA. Your beer could be it!

Main judging will be held the same day as the IPA Fest on June 2, 2012 at the Dunedin Brewery, 937 Douglas Ave. Dunedin, Florida 34698-4945. Winners will be announced at the festival. The best in show beer will be brewed on the Dunedin Brewery’s main system and will be sold to your adoring public!

Competition Rules

Categories:
IPA ONLY!
1.       English IPA
2.       American IPA
3.       Imperial IPA
4.       Black IPA/American-style Black Ale /Cascadian Dark Ale – many names, one great beer style
5.       Experimental IPA – wood aged, brewed with fruit, hybrid styles like Belgian or white IPA to name a few.

2 bottles per entry
Entry fee $6

The online entry system will be open from May 10 to May 26 – link to entry system on http://www.dunedinbrewersguild.com/.

One entry per category, 2 entries per brewer limit

Experimental category entries must state underlying IPA style and special ingredients/experimental treatment.

Entries must be dropped off no later than midnight Wednesday, May 30th

Drop off and shipping location — Dunedin Brewery, 937 Douglas Ave., Dunedin, Florida 34698-4945

BJCP-sanctioned

Open to all home brewers everywhere!

Judges needed —  We will need experienced home brew and commercial judges to help evaluate all of the entries. More details to come. Please email us if you are interested.

Contacts:

Mike Bryant, General Manager,  Dunedin Brewery– mlbryant@dunedinbrewery.com
Jim Colvard, Competition Organizer —  DBGBoard@dunedinbrewersguild.com

More info:

Dunedin Brewery — http://www.dunedinbrewery.com/Dunedin
Brewers Guild — http://www.dunedinbrewersguild.com/IPA
Fest Event on Facebook — http://www.facebook.com/events/313704252031709/?notif_t=event_invite

Check out the homebrewers association website for a list of the 2012 club-only competitions on the schedule.

REWARD!

Attention all SAAZ members!

Our friends over at Sunseed Food Coop are looking to reward the SAAZ brewer of the year, (highest point total in the Florida circuit).

The member with the highest point total will win a $100 gift card to Sunseed Food Co-op at the end of the year. So start brewing and remember to submit your creations!

Beers Available in the Area

Coasters Pub (Indian Harbor Beach) – facebook

  • Sierra Nevada Hoptimum
  • Harpoon Black IPA
  • Oscar Blues Ten Fidy
  • Stiegl Goldbrau

Sunseed Food Co-op

  • Cain’s from Liverpool
    – Bitter
    – Dark Mild
    – Export lager
    — all in 14.9 cans
  • MOA from New Zealand
    – Breakfast; belgian with cherries and Nelson Sauvin hops
    – Pale Ale
  • The Bruery
    – Four Calling Birds
  • Collaboration with Dog Fish Head
    —– Faster, Bigger, Better, Boulder
  • Lakefront Brewery
    – Bridge burner
  • Rukus brewing
    – Hoptimus Prime
  • Breckenridge Brewing
    – Oatmeal Stout
    – Regal Pils
  • Hitachino 3 day ale
  • Cigar City/Bruery collaboration
    Dos Costas Oeste graperuit wood, lemon wood, and cedar wood version
  • Anderson Valley
    Oatmeal stout cans
  • Bells Hopslam

World of Beer – Viera

New Bottles

  • Fuller’s Vintage Ale 2011, 8.5% (England)
  • Great Divide 18th Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA, 10% (Colorado)

SAAZ Platinum Sponsor

Competition Winners

Congratulations to our members that have recently received awards or recognition!

SAAZ Spring Fling With Smoked Wings

Best of Show – Beer

Brewer Name Co-Brewers Brew Name Style Medal Club
Glen Weimar Sean Gregg SAAZzilla Clone 14C 1st Space Coast Assoc. for the Advancement of Zymurgy (Rockledge, FL)
Josh Landin Indian River Grapefruit Ale 20 2nd Space Coast Assoc. for the Advancement of Zymurgy (Rockledge, FL)
Sean Gregg I am Zythos, Take me to your liter 10A 3rd Space Coast Assoc. for the Advancement of Zymurgy (Rockledge, FL)

A complete listing of the results can be found Here. 

14th Annual Domras Cup Mead Competition
  • Dave Webb – Silver Medal
  • Sean Gregg – Honorable Mention

Beer Education

Making a Porter Recipe

The Porter Beer Style

Porter is a English beer style that has become very popular in the United States. This week we will look at the origins of Porter, how to brew Porter at home and provide a collection of sample recipes. When I started brewing back in the 1980′s, the microbrewery revolution was still in its infancy, and it was difficult to find anything beyond the classic American lager in the stores. Yet dark beers were a passion of mine, and Porter was a perennial favorites.

History

Porter is first mentioned in writings in the early 1700′s, and the name Porter is derived from its popularity with London’s river and street porters. There are many stories surrounding the origins of Porter, such as one about it being a blend of three other beers, but more likely Porter was derived from strong brown ales of the period. Original porters were substantially stronger than modern versions. Wikipedia mentions that hydrometer measurements on 18th century Porters indicate original gravities near 1.071, or 6.6% ABV – about twice the alcohol of a modern beer.
Taxes during the Napoleonic wars drove the alcohol content down to modern levels. Porter was also the first large scale beer to be entirely aged before delivery, often remaining in vats or casks for 18 months before shipment to pubs. As the 1800′s started, breweries mixed aged porter with new porter to reduce storage times. Stouts started as a stronger, darker version of Porter, with most including the name “Stout Porter”. Eventually the “Porter” tag was dropped giving the modern style of “Stouts”. (Re: Wikipedia)
In another interesting side note, Porter’s popularity was so high that it was stored in huge vats in the late 1700′s, and there was an arms race of sorts between major breweries to see who could build the largest vas. According to Ray Daniels book (below), the largest vats approached 20,000 barrels (860,000 gallons) at the end of the 1700s. This compares to the largest in the world today which clocks in at around 1600 barrels, less than 1/10th the size. In October of 1814, a huge vat at the Meux brewery ruptured and reportedly wiped out an adjacent tank and devastated the neighborhood in a 5 block radius. In the ensuing chaos at least 8 people were killed.

Designing a Porter Recipe

Designing Porter recipes can be a lot of fun as the Porter style includes room for experimentation. Porters have an OG of 1.040 and up, color of 20-40 SRM and bitterness of 18-35 IBUs for Brown Porter, or up to 55 IBUs for higher gravity Robust Porter. The color is brown to black, and they have low to medium hop flavor. They are almost always brewed with a full bodied mash schedule (higher mash temperature of 154-156F) to give a full body taste. They have low ester, fruitiness and diacytl, are well balanced and have low to medium carbonation.
Traditional porters start with a Pale malt base, and typically add a mix of Crystal, Brown, Chocolate and Black malts to achieve a dark color and taste. Roasted malts are used only in Robust Porter styles. Pale malt makes up 40-70% of the grain bill (60-80% for malt extract brewers). Dark Crystal/Caramel malts are used for color and body and provide at least 10% of the grain bill. Chocolate and Roasted malts each average around 5% of the grain bill, with roasted malt less common in Brown Porter.

A variety of grains including Munich malt, Roasted malt, wheat and additives are also used. I will occasionally brew “kitchen sink” Porter which consists of whatever malts I have laying around over a pale malt base. Traditional Porter also made heavy use of Amber and Brown malts, though these are less commonly used today. Ray Daniels recommends a mash temperature of 153F, though I often go a bit higher (156F) to provide a full bodied beer.

Traditional English hops are the appropriate choice for Porter, with East Kent Goldings being a favorite of mine. Other good choices include Fuggles, Northern Brewer, Northdown and Williamette. Light dry hopping is appropriate to the style, though hops aroma should not be dominant. English ale yeast is traditionally used for Porter for its fruity flavors, though other high attenuation yeasts are appropriate. Irish ale yeast is also occasionally used by homebrewers. Adjuncts are only rarely added to specialty Porters. A London water profile (high in carbonates) is best.

SAAZ on Facebook

Check us out on Facebook! We’re just getting things rolling there but Like our page and stay tuned for exciting things to come. Check it out here.

Raffle

Do you have some homebrew supplies that you don’t use anymore? Maybe you upgraded or maybe you prefer another product? Consider bringing 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!

Feedback

We need your help! We are very interesting in improving the club and we’d like to hear what you think. If you have comments or suggestions about the Newsletter, Website, Activities, or the Club in general, please send an email to editor@saaz.org.

All feedback is welcomed! For example you can:

  • Share a topic for Beer Education
  • Share your Review of a Beer
  • Correct something in the newsletter or website
  • Express a criticism about anything related to the club
  • Offer a suggestion to improve the club

We want to hear from you! Email editor@saaz.org.