July 2010 BIER Meeting

July 14, 2010

Distinguished attendees;

Chris Given          Brian Murphy       Dave Semo          Dan Kelly         Dick Tuthill       Jay & Jenny Edwards  

Dave King (1)      Ed Miner              Dave King (2)      Dave Clark       Otto Behrens    Dan Viviano 

James Dunn         Jim Parks              Jeff Poltz              Tim & Corrine O’Leary             Rich Andel       Paul Sarkisian

July's Beer Talk

Dave King (2) told us about the AHA National Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota in June.  It was the homebrew event of the year.  Great pre-conference tours, FBI (Foam Blowers of Indiana), 2nd round Judging, Pro-Night, Club-Night, the Banquet, hanging out with all the rock stars of home brewing, it was all great.  San Diego is the place next year, so I hope you won’t miss it.  We are working on a bid to bring the conference to Niagara Falls for 2014, too.  We’ll need lots of help with that. 

The Ithaca Fest is going to be Sept. 4th, don't miss it!  The Ithaca club, IPA (Ithaca Practitioners of Alemaking) is taking the lead in homebrewing, with the AHA tent.

The Madison County Hop Fest is scheduled for Sept. 18th.  We need volunteers for the homebrew tent, examples of equipment, ingredients, and oh yea, homebrew to serve.  We should have folks from about 4 or 5 different clubs, and it should be a great time, so I hope you can help us.

The Finger Lakes Wine Festival was rather good for wine lovers, and lousy for beer lovers, who knew.  I guess you have to read the name of the fest.  

Rochester’s Flour City Fest?  Not this year, hopefully in 2011.

Barrel Aged Porter Project – James Dunn and Jim Parks sanitized the rye whiskey barrel they got from Ithaca Beer.  All we need to do is brew 55 gallons of porter.   They also stopped by the new Horseheads Brewery, their blueberry ale was apparently very good, and someone needs to write a full review.  Hint!

Jim Parks’ new 20 gallon system – Wes Davies sold his giant system to Jim, so he and his buddies have lots of capacity now.  

Chris mentioned Ray Daniel’s Cicerone Exam.  If you really want to know beer and how to serve it, this is for you. 

Jim Parks told us that in 2009, the Brewers Association compiled the Draught Beer Quality Manual.  It is a 58 page manual covering all types of draft systems, set up, maintenance, cleaning, serving, etc.  The 2.7MB file can be downloaded.

We got to the beers:

Otto – Kölsch, 1 year old now, holding up just fine.  

Otto – German Pils Lager, nice mild brew.  

Dave Clark – California Pale Ale, a kit from Oregon, no ID on the ingredients, hmmm.

James Dunn – American Amber Ale, with Rohr malt, Columbus hops, and US-05 yeast, very tasty. 

Jim Parks – Very Angry Amber Ale, must be the brew day did not go well.  It’s a split batch, one with Willamette, the other with US Golding hops.  Both very nice.

Brian – Irish Red, a clone of Murphy’s Red.  It’s the malts that make this ale, very lightly hopped.  Nice likeness, Brian.

Rich – Gumballhead clone, American wheat beer, 50% wheat, Chico yeast, Amarillo hops, low ABV, hop head lawn mower.  Thanks, Rich.

James Dunn – Butt Pucker Sour Ale, next day sparged parti-gyle, yes it did sour, needs some aging to mellow out. 

Chris – ESB, kit from Northern Brewer, good example of fine beer from a relatively simple kit.

Dave Semo – Pale Ale, his 1st all-grain, holding up well.  Keep it up, Dave

Chris – Bourbon Barrel Porter, with Bourbon soaked oak cubes, very oaky, thanks, Chris.   

Dave King (1) – New Old Ale, kit from Northern Brewer, with 1 lb. of Belgian sugar, 1yr old now, aging well, seems to be drying out.

Jim Parks – Impreial Stout, with Currents, extract that is, 9% ABV, from last Nov.  Aging well, thanks Jim.

Dave Semo – IPA, nice interpretation, not real bitter, easy drinking.

Dave King (2) – Imperial ESB, big on dry hop aroma, needs more 60L & 150L X-stal malt. 

Paul – Belgian Ale, nice high ABV, very low spice character, well done.   

Dave King (2) – Whiskey Barrel Imperial Stout, Commemorative Beer from the Minneapolis AHA Convention, oaky, intense. 

 

Commercial Examples;

Jim & James – Blueberry Amber, from Horseheads Brewery, really strong blueberry, not very sweet, great idea, well done.

Dave King (2) – Imperial ESB, big on dry hop

Good meeting, August is getting close.  I'm running low on homebrew, how about you?  See you next month. August 11th.  Ithaca’s and Madison Co.’s Fests are coming up soon.

Dave