Next meeting: FRIDAY March 15th, 7:00 pm - 10:30 pm
At this month's meeting we will be sampling a selection of Dubbels
 to get an idea of the typical flavor profile.

March 2002 Issue
Buy an Alers t-shirt!

By Brian (I'd increase the gravity) Thatcher

Greetings Alers!
Unfortunately will not be able to grace you with my presence at this month's meeting as I will be in San Francisco for the Whiskey Expo that weekend.

Homebrewer of the Year

Congratulations to Kevin Fawcett on winning this year's Homebrewer of the Year. Kevin received the majority vote of a write in vote that took place at the February meeting. His name will go on the plaque on display at Larry's and he will be held in "awe" by his fellow brewers until someone else is chosen to replace him next year.

Beer Styles Brew Off: Belgian Dubbel

By now everyone should at least have a recipe for a Belgian Dubbel ready to brew, if not already finished brewing it (I got lucky, when the styles were scheduled I had just bottled my Dubbel, so I am ahead of the game right now). We discussed the style and handed out guidelines at the February meeting. At this month's meeting we will be sampling a selection of Dubbels to get an idea of the typical flavor profile. At the April meeting we will be judging homebrewed versions. Points will be awarded for the top 5 beers and these points will be used to help determine Homebrewer of the Year next January. So lets break out those brew kettles and have some fun with this.

At this time we should be thinking ahead to the Maibock that will be judged in June. This is the only lager on the schedule and we are trying to give plenty of notice for brewing this style. We will be sampling Maibock at the May meeting and judging the homebrew at the June meeting.

Elysian Winter Beer Festival 2002

This was my second year attending the Winter Beer Festival at the Elysian Brewery, and again it was an enjoyable experience. This year there were 15 beers on tap available in one of 3 different sampler trays or in a 12 ounce glass. Several of my friends joined me during the evening and a good time was had all around.

On tap included both the 2000 and 2001 brewing of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, which I tasted side by side. I really wouldn't have picked Celebration as a beer to let age, but the 2000 was better than the 2001 so I wonder how long it would continue to improve. I wonder...

Other beers of note (my notes of course, others may have different opinions) included Rogue Old Crustacean, the only barley wine on tap and always a favorite. When fresh it has a huge hop bitterness that almost overwhelms the malt, but not quite. I have had this when several years old in the past and it balances nicely after about 2 - 3 years. Another new favorite of mine is La Conner Dopplebock, with a huge malt palate with caramel sugar notes and 8% alcohol. Mmmmm.

Elysian had two of their own beers on tap. Pandora's Bock and Bifrost Winter Ale, both of which are quite tasty. Hales Wee Heavy also made an appearance. Most of the rest of the beers was a collection of the usual suspects (not that thats a bad thing) including Deschutes Jubel Ale, Pyramid Snowcap, Snoqualmie Avalanche to name a few.

International Beerfest News

Some of you may remember me submitting my review of the Portland International Beerfest to the newsletter last summer. For those who don't, last July Portland threw a beer festival at the North Park Blocks to celebrate beers from around the world. It was held the weekend before the Oregon Brewers Festival and the same weekend as the club campout (it was a tough decision but I think I made the right choice). There were about 140 beers being poured, with only 2 breweries from North America and there was a large number of Belgian beers.

Recently I jumped onto the website ( http://www.portlandbeerfest.com ) to see if the festival would be repeated this year and had a wonderful surprise. This year there will be two events. The Portland International Beerfest will be repeated this summer the weekend of July 12th -14th at Holladay Park at Lloyd Center (the same weekend as Seattle to Portland bicycle ride, I wonder if I can do the ride Saturday and still be up for some beer). The big new is that there will be a Seattle International Beerfest! It will be held at the Mural Amphitheater at Seattle Center the weekend of August 23rd -25th. Details are still slim, but I will be sure to keep this updated on the events calendar. My biggest question will be how closely the beer lists are going to match.

Sex in a Pan

This is rumored to be the dessert that everyone liked at the Oktoberfest Party and I was asked to include it in the newsletter, so here it is.

Using a 8 x 13 pan, layer the ingredients as follows:

1st layer (crust)
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans)

Bake 10 -15 minutes @ 325 until golden brown.

2nd layer
1 cup powdered sugar
8 oz cream cheese
8 oz Cool Whip

Cream together until light. Add Cool Whip. Spread on cooled crust.

3rd layer
2 6-oz packages of instant chocolate pudding
3-3/4 cup milk

Combine Pudding mix and milk. Stir until thick. Spread evenly on 2nd layer. Cover with more cool whip and sprinkle with chopped nuts (pecans).

Chill before serving.

Beer Will Protect Your Brain From Alcohol
Translated by Maria Gousseva

Scottish brewers will soon have to add vitamins to beer to help the fight with alcoholic effects on the brain. The new brewery regulations are being discussed by the Scottish government now. The authorities are likely to pass legislation on the addition of B1 vitamins to alcoholic drinks.

The project is a part of the program developed by the ministers for the reduction of the death rate because of excessive alcohol consumption. The consideration of the problem is in its initial stage so far.

The government of Scotland says that, as soon as the vitamin is added to alcoholic drinks, information about the vitamin content will be printed on labels. Over one million sterling pounds have already been appropriated for the fulfillment of the program designed for the protection of people from harm caused by alcoholic drinks.

Scientists were charged with the collection of proof to demonstrate the importance of the addition of vitamins to beer. Authors of the project hope that the data will be provided by the moment when a final decision on the project is made. It is really important to add the B1 vitamin to alcoholic drinks, because the lack of the vitamin in alcohol abuse has been already proved.

Oh, Aye!

The 48 Proof Beer
From the Real Beer Page, www.realbeer.com

Those wild and crazy guys at Boston Beer Co. have done it again, brewing a beer so strong they label it 48 proof, using terminology usually reserved for spirits. Sam Adams Utopias MMII, which goes on sale this month, is in fact 24% alcohol by volume, making it the strongest commercial beer in the world.

The previous strongest was Sam Adams Millennium, a one-time batch brewed in 1999, at 21%. To create the beer, Sam Adams' brewers used two-row, caramel and Vienna malts, then all four types of noble hops, leaving the beer spicy enough that some call it "fiery." The beer was aged in scotch, cognac and port barrels from February 2001 until late last year. The aroma has a "distinctive smell of cinnamon and vanilla with subtle hints of floral, citrus and pine."

"At a time when light beers are growing in popularity - we wanted to introduce a rich-tasting and unique beer that would rekindle interest in the other side of the beer spectrum," said Boston Beer founder Jim Koch, whose own brewery recently rolled out Sam Adams Light.

Utopias MMII is packaged in a copper-finished brew kettle designed to look like larger kettles used by brewers. The suggested retail for the 3,000 24-ounce bottles available is $100. The Millennium was priced at $200 when it first shipped in 1999, with a few bottles commanding $1,000 in Internet auctions before sanity prevailed.

Because we knew you'd ask, here's where Utopias will be available: Chicago, Denver-Boulder, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, Boston metro area, New York, Hartford (Conn.), Rhode Island, Long Island, Burlington (Vt.), Springfield (Mass.), Monmouth-Ocean City (N.J.), Albany (N.Y.) metro area, New Haven (Conn.), Augusta-Waterville (Me.), Portland (Me.), Stamford-Norwalk (Conn.), Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Washington D.C., and Baltimore.

And also because we knew you'd ask: Samichlaus, first brewed in 1980 by Hurlimann in Switzerland, was long the reigning strongest beer at 14% abv. A lager, it was brewed on St. Nicolas Day (Dec. 6) each year and released exactly one year later. Hurlimann raised a major ruckus when it quit brewing Samichlaus, but fortunately the Eggenburg Castle brewery in Austria has taken over production and shipped the beer each of the last two Decembers.

Sam Adams surpassed Samichlaus in 1994 with its Triple Bock, which included maple syrup as an ingredient. It was fermented with champagne yeast and finished at a hefty 17.5% abv. For the arrival of the millennium, Sam Adams and Dogfish Head in Delaware both went after the record. Dogfish Head released its World Wide Stout, fermented with seven different yeasts, in December 1999 with a record 18.1% abv.

Millennium, which was the talk of the Great American Beer Festival a couple of months before, was then shipped to the public a few weeks later.

Dark Chocolate May Help Fight Off Heart Attacks
By LEE BOWMAN, Scripps Howard News Service

BOSTON (February 18, 2002 6:13 a.m. EST) - There's more evidence that cocoa rich in cholesterol-battling antioxidants helps ward off some of the factors associated with heart attacks and stroke, scientists lecturing here Friday during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science said.
The antioxidants in chocolate are called flavonoids, potent plant compounds also found in tea, red wine and some fruits and vegetables. Studies show that flavonoids slow the processing of "bad" LDL cholesterol into material that clogs the arteries, and at the same time make blood platelets less likely to clump and cause clots.
"What we're finding, though, is that all flavonoids are not created equal. There are some foods that are richer in them, and seem to be more biologically active, and cocoa is right up there," said Carl Keen, chairman of the nutrition department at the University of California-Davis.
Keen compared the reactions of platelets to a flavanol-rich cocoa drink and a blood-thinning, 81-milligram dose of aspirin, and found similar reactions in a group of 20- to 40-year-olds.
"What we don't know is just what the dose-effect of this might be over a longer period of time," Keen said. "We have some research that shows eating foods high in flavanols is good for the arteries, but we don't yet know what the minimum amount is you can consume to have the effect you want, or what happens if you consume at these levels for weeks or months."
Another chocolate researcher, Dr. Norman Hollenberg of Brigham and Women's Hospital here, reported findings that flavanols may be associated with controlling another chemical that regulates the arteries, nitric oxide.
The compound is critical for healthy blood flow and pressure, Hollenberg said. "If our research results continue to support a link between consumption of flavanol-rich cocoa and nitric oxide synthesis, there could be significant implications for public health."
Both Keen and Hollenberg used a special experimental cocoa supplied by the Mars candy company that is not yet available to the public.
Dark chocolate, which is typically a bit more expensive and not quite as sweet, is richest in flavonoids because of the way it's processed. Milk chocolate, which also has added butterfat, contains fewer flavonoids, while cocoa powder and chocolate syrups are currently processed with a method that removes most of the flavonoids.
As far as the fat in dark chocolate goes, it's mostly a saturated vegetable fat that behaves in an artery-friendly way, like olive and canola oils.
Hollenberg began studying the effects of cocoa as part of a high blood pressure study on members of the Kuna tribe of Panama. He noted that members of the tribe who lived on the isolated islands almost never developed hypertension as they aged, while those who moved to urban Panama City did develop age-related high blood pressure. His team learned that in their homelands, the Kuna consume large amounts of cocoa.
And it was observed that the island-dwelling Kuna had significantly higher levels of nitrite-nitrate in their blood, which helps keep pressure down.
Back in Boston, people in a study group have nitric oxide numbers pretty much like those seen in the urban-dwelling Kuna. Hollenberg's team tried having them consume either high-flavanol or low-flavanol cocoa, and saw a significant response in the nitric oxide flow over a short time.
Now the scientists are preparing for a more specific study of the active ingredient of the compounds to conclusively determine if regulating nitric oxide with flavanols has a positive impact.
Keen noted that while early studies of flavanols showed they were beneficial, "it's only been in the last few years that we've been able to isolate some of the active components of flavanols and do the biochemistry that's needed to understand the mechanisms.
"Of course, it's still possible that flavanols are greater than the sum of their parts, and that they work well in the blood precisely because they are together," Keen said.

*** Gee, with them admitting that moderate beer drinking is good for you it looks like we all should be having Belgian beer and Chocolate for dessert every day. Darn.
 - Brian

Monthly Meeting schedule:

Club Events Calendar

These are this year's club events as they are known right now. More information and exact dates will be added as they get closer.

Upcoming Events

3rd Annual Whiskeys of the World Expo, San Francisco, March 16
Enjoy and evening of tasting and nosing over 300 of the world's finest single malts, boutique bourbons and specialty spirits.
The Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St., San Francisco, CA.
www.celticmalts.com
This one comes with a special recommendation from me. This will be my third year attending this and have really enjoyed myself in the past.

Oregon Spring Beer Festival, Portland April 19-21
Portland Expo Center, Hall D; N Marine Drive. www.springbeerfest.com
Fri - 4 -11, Sat - 12 -11, Sun - 12 -6.

Washington Summer Microbrew Festival, June 15-16
St. Edward State Park, Kenmore. www.washingtonbrewfest.com

Portland International Beerfest, July 12 - 14
Holladay Park at Lloyd Center, Portland. http://www.portlandbeerfest.com

Oregon Brewers Festival, Portland, July 26-28
Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Portland. www.oregonbrewfest.com

Great British Beer Festival, August 6-10
Olympia, London. www.gbbf.org

Seattle International Beerfest, August 23 - 25
Mural Amphitheater at Seattle Center. http://www.portlandbeerfest.com

Fremont Oktoberfest, September 20-22
Under the bridge in Fremont, www.washingtonbrewfest.com

Great American Beer Festival, October 3-5
Colorado Convention Center, Denver, CO. www.beertown.org