March 2011 Newsletter

By Member Newsletters

In this edition:

  • Blowoff from the Prez
  • Secretary’s Report
  • Birthdays
  • Next Meeting (it’s a Party!)
  • Upcoming Competitions
  • Local Events
  • Beers Available in the Area
  • Beer Education
  • Cooking with Beer
  • Equipment For Sale
  • SAAZ on Facebook
  • Raffle
  • Feedback

Blow off from the Prez

Welcome to another edition of Blowoff from the Prez.  As always, I am excited about the upcoming events we have in March.  To kick things off will be the Space Coast Craft Beer Festival sponsored by The Broken Barrel.  I want to thank all the members that volunteered to help with the SAAZ booth and other booths.  This event should be a great time, and hopefully a great opportunity to get the word out about SAAZ.  But it doesn’t stop there!  Two weeks after that is our Spring Party at Rotary Park.  By the ways things have been going, the weather should be great.  And the next weekend, we will be doing a Homebrew 102 course with World of Beer.  It looks like the month of March is shaping up well for homebrewing events!
On another note, we are progressing very well with the new website, and I believe it will also be up and running in March.  Look for an email or notification.  Josh has been diligently working on the website to make sure we have all the features we had before and MORE!!!  If you see him at the next meeting or event, be sure to give him a pat on the back or buy him a beer.
If you want to help represent SAAZ and enter your homebrew into an upcoming competition, now is the time to get cranking!  The Palm Beach Draughtsmen hold their competition in late April, and the Hogtown Brewers hold theirs in mid May.  If you have never entered or attended a competition, I would encourage you to do so.  They are a great way to get objective feedback about your brews and the competitions are always a blast!  Get to brewing while the weather is still cool!
More information is available as to dates and time of all the events I talked about and more, so continue reading for more great stuff!
–Cheers, Sean

Secretary’s Report

As most of the club is aware, the most recent meeting was held at the Viera World of Beer. The establishment was extremely gracious to allow our club to utilize the entire outside patio area for our meeting. Several members brought in samples of home beer and mead to taste, but the center of the meeting was the presentation by a true beer connoisseur, Don Ferris. Don gave a great presentation on German Lagers. He explained the history and the qualities of the style. Some of the samples made available to everyone were the Victory Prima Pils, Einbecker Schwarz, and Weheinstephaner Original. It was a great presentation and a benefit to everyone, especially the members that are taking the BJCP class. If you have the chance in the future, please thank the staff of World of Beer. Thanks to everyone who showed up.

–Alex

March Birthdays – Happy Birthday!

Mike Ellis
Ramon Molledo
David Bennett
Robin Bennett
Robert Bennett (Belated)
Paula Sup (Belated)
Don Ferris (Belated)
Ed Meason (Belated)

Next Meeting – March 19th (Saturday)

This month’s meeting will be our Annual Spring Party:

Rotary Park (Suntree)
If you need directions, please email prez@saaz.org.

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!

Upcoming Competitions

NASA Inter Center Competition-5
Entry Fee: None (shipping only)
Entry Deadline: April 26, 2011
The competition will be on April 30, 2011 starting at 2pm ET (11am PT). There will be a live internet video stream. Each NASA center or participating homebrew club can submit up to 2 entries per style.
This year’s styles (judged using BJCP guidelines) are European Amber Lager (style 3), India Pale Ale (style 14), and Mead (styles 24, 25, 26)
website

Consider shipping your beer to other national competitions. For a list of upcoming competitions go here.


Local Events

First Thursdays at the Brewery, Florida Beer Company, March 3rd, 6-8pm!

Growlers are back in the Tasting Room. Take home your favorite Florida Beer and enjoy that straight from the keg, flavorful draught taste.

Join Florida Beer Company in the Tasting Room, next Thursday Night for First Thursdays, from 6-8pm. Performing live, Buck Barefoot. Also, for your added delight, Mary’s Downtown Salsa will be there with her award-winning salsas!

You will also be happy to know that we will be introducing a new glass this night for all who join us to take home!

The Space Coast Craft Beer Festival at Broken Barrel (Mar 5)

Broken Barrel Tavern is hosting a craft beer festival with 50+ Breweries Pouring 100+ Beers on Saturday March 5th.
The event is from 1pm to 6pm with 1-2pm being reserved for VIP Guests Only. Tickets are $25 Pre-Sale / $35 @ Door / $60 VIP (Includes access to special session and rare beers). 100% of profits go to The Reality Check Program

For all ticket information & pre-purchase, call The Broken Barrel Tavern @ 321-728-4755. This event has a limited number of tickets and will surely sell out!!!

Beers Available in the Area

Sunseed Food Co-op (Cape Canaveral) – website

  • O’hara Irish Stout – A classic Irish stout brewed in Ireland.
  • Sam Adams Noble Pils –  It Is Back!
  • Lagunitas GnarlyWine –  A Lagunitas style Barelywine.
  • Napa Smith ; Organic IPA, Red Ale, Wheat – New to the area.
  • Coronado Islander IPA, Mermaid Red – New brewery to Florida for the first time.
  • Twisted Pine: Big Shot Espresso Stout and Reilly’s Oak Wiskey Red Ale –  anther new brewery in Florida for the first time.
  • Cigar City/ St. Somewhere Vuja De – a great  collaboration between two of the best breweries in this fine state.
  • Terrapin Rye Squared- IT IS BACK!!!!!!!!!

World of Beer (Viera) – website

New on tap:

  • Effinheimer Ale, 5.2% (Florida)
  • Effinheimer India Pale Ale, 7.5% (Florida)
  • Effinheimer Porter, 6.8% (Florida)
  • Highland Little Hump Spring Ale, 4.5% (North Carolina)
  • Red Hook Mud Slinger Nut Brown Spring Ale, 5.8% (Washington)

New bottles:

  • Fruli Strawberry Ale, 4.1% (Belgium)
  • Left Hand St. Vrain Tripel, 9% (California)
  • Magic Hat Circus Boy, 4.5% (Vermont)
  • Magic Hat Vinyl, 5.1 (Vermont)
  • Napa Smith Pale Ale, 5.2% (California)
  • Starr Hill The Love, 6% (Virginia)
  • Victory Prima Pils, 5.3% (Pennsylvania)
  • Viru, 5% (Estonia)

Beer Education

Have you ever made a batch of homebrew that tasted “off”? Maybe you couln’t figure out what it tasted like, but something wasn’t quite right? Me TOO! I ran across this great resource from morebeer.com. Below is a note from their handout on off-flavors. Check out the link for 6 pages of more details on off-flavors, how to diagnose them, and most importantly, how to fix them!

A Note on Sanitation:

Proper sanitation is often said to be the most important thing when it comes to making great homebrew. A perfectlycrafted and flawlessly brewed beer can turn into an unpalatable mess if it is exposed to wild yeast or bacteria. Bacteria and wild yeast can generate almost every off flavor listed. If your beer develops a funky flavor and none of the referenced troubleshooting tips take care of the problem, you are probably dealing with an infection. Always practice good sanitation techniques and be sure to sanitize anything and everything that will be coming into contact with the wort or beer.

Unfortunately, not much can be done to salvage a contaminated batch, but you can learn from it. If your beer becomes an unlucky victim of the nasties, evaluate your sanitation techniques and try again.

http://morebeer.com/public/pdf/off_flavor.pdf

Cooking with Beer – Steak n Ale Pie

Ingredients

  • 1/2 (17.5 ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed
  • 1 tablespoon lard
  • 1/2 pound cubed beef
  • 1/4 pound carrots, diced
  • 1/4 pound turnips, diced
  • 1/2 pound peeled and cubed potatoes
  • 1/4 pound onions, diced
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup bitter ale
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup cold water
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
  2. Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add lard, then meat. Toss to coat meat, and saute just long enough to brown meat on all sides. Remove from heat. Place meat in a 1 quart baking dish. Add carrots, turnip, potatoes, and onion. Mix well.
  3. Place 1 cup water and ale in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer. Mix cornstarch with 1/4 cup cold water until smooth. Slowly pour cornstarch mixture into simmering ale mixture, whisking constantly. Continue to simmer until mixture has thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour mixture over meat and vegetables. Trim puff pastry to fit over top of filling.
  4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, until pastry is deep golden brown.

Equipment For Sale

These items are typically offered for sale by club members. If you are interested in a particular item, please email prez@saaz.org and we will put you in contact with the seller of that item.

  • Blichmann 7 Gallon Fermenator F3-7 – Standard Fittings with Fermenator Tri-Clamp Blowoff Assembly (asking $450)
  • Blichmann 10 gallon brew kettle with false bottom, autosparge, and hopblocker (asking $300)
  • Blichmann Top Tier Modular Brewing Stand. Three burners, shelf, pump bracket new in the box (asking $600)

If you have equipment you’d like to sell, give away, trade, or even find, email editor@saaz.org and we’ll try to list your offering/request in the next newsletter.

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.