Next meeting: FRIDAY April 19th, 7:00 pm - 10:30 pm
At this month's meeting we will be judging your homebrewed Dubbels.
Don’t forget to bring them with you!!!

April 2002 Issue
Buy an Alers t-shirt!

By Brian (I'd increase the gravity) Thatcher

Greetings Alers!

Spring is here! Hops are shooting up and flowers are starting to bloom. For me that means that brewing season is slowing down and I will be spending more time training on the bicycle. No worries about running out of beer though, I almost didn’t have enough bottles to hold the last beer I brewed. Now it is time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Unfortunately, this may have to be my last writing of the newsletter. GE purchased the company I work for and has decided to close the Seattle branch office. I get to fly to Nevada to the main office and see if there is still a job for me, in which case I will probably be moving down there in the near future. If there is no job for me at the main office, I will be without a job. If anyone knows of an opening for an Electrical Engineer I’m listening..

Belgian Dubbel Judging

This month’s meeting is the judging of the Belgian Dubbel. Don’t forget to bring in your homebrewed Dubbels. Of course you will have to beat me for the glory, and mine is pretty darn good!

Also, those interested in our next judging which will be in June should probably get started now. The style is a MaiBock so give plenty of time for lagering.

Club Campout

The date for the club campout has been set. It will be July 19, 20 and 21st at Buck Lake. Mark your calendars. More information will be forthcoming as the event draws closer.

Big Brew Day

At this month’s meeting we will be discussing our plans for Big Brew Day on May 4th. It will take place at Larry’s and, as in the past, other clubs from around the area are invited.

This year there are two official recipes (if you choose that route), an Old Ale from Homebrewer of the year Steve Jones and a Maibock recipe by George Fix. The recipes (one all-grain and one extract each) are given below:

Hunter's Moon Old Ale-All Grain
By Steve Jones

INGREDIENTS For 5.5 Gallons:
27.5 lbs. Maris Otter Pale Malt
1.0 lbs. English Crystal 55L
2.00 oz. East Kent Goldings Whole Hops, 6.60% AA 90 min.
1.00 oz. East Kent Goldings Whole Hops, 6.60% AA 30 min.
1.00 oz. East Kent Goldings Whole Hops, 6.60% AA 0 min.
Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale Yeast
OG: 1.118
FG: 1.035
50 IBU
Mash Efficiency: 65% (adjust recipe to your system, but you should expect a drop in efficiency when brewing high gravity beers)

INSTRUCTIONS:
Mash at 150F for 90 minutes
Mash out at 170F and sparge

Collect 9 Gallons of runoff and begin boil. Boil for 4½ hours and top up to 7½ gallons with boiling water. Add bittering hops and boil for another hour. Add second hop addition, boil another half-hour then add finishing hops and chill the wort. Aerate well and pitch a large starter of yeast or rack onto a yeast cake from a previous batch. You may need to add additional yeast to secondary fermenter to finish this beer out. Steve recommends slurry or a large starter of Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast for finishing.

NOTE: This recipe calls for a 6 hour boil to get the caramelization and the resulting flavor complexity Steve wanted, but if you wish to shorten the brew time, simply collect 7½ gallons of runoff from the mash and boil for 90 minutes.

Hunter's Moon Old Ale-Extract

INGREDIENTS For 5.5 Gallons:
13.5 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
1.0 lb. English Crystal 55L
4.00 oz. East Kent Goldings Whole Hops, 6.60% AA 90 min.
1.00 oz. East Kent Goldings Whole Hops, 6.60% AA 30 min.
1.00 oz. East Kent Goldings Whole Hops, 6.60% AA 0 min.
Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale Yeast
OG: 1.118
FG: 1.035
50 IBU

INSTRUCTIONS:
Add grains to 2½ gallons of water. Heat to 170F, then remove grains. Stir in malt extract and bring to a boil. Add boiling hops and boil for an hour. Add second hop addition, boil another half-hour then add finishing hops. Transfer to fermenter with enough cold water to make 5.5 gallons. Aerate well and pitch a large starter of yeast or rack onto a yeast cake from a previous batch. You may need to add additional yeast to secondary fermenter to finish this beer out. The author recommends slurry or a large starter of Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast for finishing.

MaiBock Fix-All Grain
By George Fix

INGREDIENTS For 5 Gallons:
11 lbs Pilsner Malt (George recommends moderately modified pilsner malts by Budvar, Durst, or Briess)
1.5 lbs Vienna Malt (George recommends Moravian Vienna Malt)
1.25 oz Hallertauer Mittelfruh Hop Pellets, 4.5% AA, 60 min
0.75 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker Hop Pellets, 4.75% AA, 30 min
0.75 oz Hallertauer Mittelfruh Hop Pellets, 4.5% AA, 15 min
Wyeast 2633 (if you can't find 2633, 2124 Bohemian Lager is a good second choice)
OG: 1.070-1.074
FG: 1.016-1.018
25 IBU

INSTRUCTIONS:
The Mash (decoction or infusion)
Mash In with 4 gallons soft water
First Rest - 30 mins. 105 degrees F
Second Rest - 15 mins. - 130 degrees F (moderately modified malt only)
Third Rest - 45 mins. 140-145 degrees F
Fourth Rest - 15 mins. 158-160 degrees F
Mash Out at 165o F and sparge with soft water

Collect 6 gallons of runoff and bring to a boil. Add boiling hops and boil 30 minutes. Add second hop addition and boil for another 15 minutes. Add finishing hops, boil 15 minutes then chill. Aerate well and pitch a large yeast starter (George recommends using a starter twice the size as for a normal lager) or rack onto a yeast cake from a previous batch. Ferment at 50o F until gravity drops to 1.020, around 12-14 days. Lager six weeks to six months.

MaiBock Fix-Extract

INGREDIENTS For 5 Gallons:
8.5 lbs Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
0.5 lbs CaraVienna Malt
2.00 oz Hallertauer Mittelfruh Hop Pellets, 4.5% AA, 60 min
0.75 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker Hop Pellets, 4.75% AA, 30 min
0.75 oz Hallertauer Mittelfruh Hop Pellets, 4.5% AA, 15 min
Wyeast 2633 (if you can't find 2633, 2124 Bohemian Lager is a good second choice)
OG: 1.070-1.074
FG: 1.016-1.018
25 IBU

INSTRUCTIONS:
Add grains to 2½ gallons of water. Heat to 170F, then remove grains. Stir in malt extract and bring to a boil. Add boiling hops and boil for half an hour. Add second hop addition, boil another 15 minutes then add finishing hops. Boil an additional 15 minutes, then transfer to fermenter with enough cold water to make 5 gallons. When sufficiently cooled, aerate well and pitch a large yeast starter (George recommends using a starter twice the size as for a normal lager) or rack onto a yeast cake from a previous batch. Ferment at 50o F until gravity drops to 1.020, around 12-14 days. Lager six weeks to six months.

Whiskeys of the World Expo

On March 16th it was my pleasure to attend the 3rd annual Whiskeys of the World Expo. This was also my third year attending the festivities and it has been a most enjoyable experience every time. The festival takes place at the banquet hall of the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. There are two tasting rooms set up. This year the main hall contained all of the whiskeys while the smaller specialty room had a selection of Cognac, Brandy, Tequila and other spirits. A dinner buffet and the Peninsula Scottish Fiddlers accompanied the evening. The speakers’ forum scheduled throughout the evening gave the opportunity to hear distillers and authors give their viewpoint.

Walking into a room where there are over 150 different whiskeys available for sampling, including single malt, blends and bourbons, raises the question on how one should proceed. Since sampling all of them in a single evening would be near impossible created the dilemma of choosing which ones to sample and which to pass over. Do I limit myself to only single malt, blend or bourbon? Do I only try those I have not experienced previously? I decided to partake mostly of single malts and see what struck my fancy as I wandered the room.

Listing all the whiskeys I tasted would be quite a list so I will just give a few that stood out in my mind. Balvenie was serving a 17 year old Islay Cask, which is their whiskey aged in barrels previously used for Islay whiskey. The malt picks up some of the peat character from the barrels. Another I have enjoyed since the first time at the expo is the Aberlour A’bunadh, a cask strength bottling of selected barrels of different ages. I sampled the lineup from Bruichladdich, an Islay distillery with a medium peat character, all of which are quite tasty. For the first time I decided to sample some of the independent bottlers and was really impressed with some of the Murray-McDavid offerings. They were pouring a 1989 Mortlach, a 1989 Bowmore, and an Ardbeg I think was 1988. How’s that for tempting your taste buds? If anyone wants to see what else was available I will try to remember to bring a copy of the program to this month’s meeting.

I also paid a short visit to the specialty hall. Essential Spirits was pouring their two Bierschnapps. The first is Original American Bierschnapps made from a beer they brew specially for that purpose; the other is distilled from Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Both were pretty good, the Sierra Nevada showing some of the hop character the beer is known for. The other thing I sampled in there was the Don Eduardo aged Tequila. The Silver is aged for about 3 months and the Anejo is aged for about 2 years. Wow, I was impressed. Having only experienced well-known Tequila such as Jose Cuervo I couldn’t believe how smooth this was. I may need to explore this some more.

With time flying by and me not paying close attention to the time, I only made it to one of the speakers that evening. I made it to the session with Jim McEwan and had a great time. The long time distiller for Bowmore, he had a hand in resurrecting the Bruichladdich distillery this past year, which was closed several years ago. Jim conducted a tasting of the Bruichladdich whiskeys along with a couple of Murray-McDavid bottlings, mixed with many stories of his experiences that kept the laughter coming.

This expo has become one of the events that I look forward to all year long and plan far in advance. Next year’s festival is set for Saturday march 22 and tickets usually go on sale sometime during the summer months. Go to http://www.celticmalts.com for more information.

Beery Good Meatballs

Meatballs
1 lb ground turkey
1 lb ground pork shoulder
2 1/2 C bread crumbs
1/4 C milk
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 eggs
2 Tblsp minced fresh rosemary leaves
2 Tblsp salt
2 Tblsp freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the ingredients and mix gently. Form into mini meatballs (about 30) and place in a shallow roasting pan. Bake until golden brown, turning occasionally.

Sauce
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
24 oz beer (your favorite ale)
10 oz barbeque sauce
salt and pepper

Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil until golden brown in color. Add beer and barbeque sauce. Add meatballs and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Beer Science

MEDICINE

Studies Show Effects of Cigarettes and Alcohol Are Intertwined
http://www.sciam.com/news/031502/2.html

As anyone who has walked into a smoky bar can tell you, alcohol and smoking often go hand in hand. Now two studies published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggest that they may in fact share similar mechanistic pathways in the brain. The findings could lead to a single treatment capable of benefiting both smokers and drinkers.

Yousef Tizabi of Howard University College of Medicine and colleagues gave rats both alcohol and nicotine. They analyzed the drugs' effects on the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that evokes feelings of pleasure and reward, in a region of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens. Although both drugs caused increases in dopamine release directly proportional to the administered dose, the researchers found that lower doses of the two substances administered simultaneously resulted in an additive effect on the release of dopamine that was not recorded with higher doses. The findings, Tazabi notes, "suggest that part of the reason why people drink and smoke at the same time is to increase their pleasure." He makes such interpretations cautiously, however, because the animals received the drugs only once. The effects in humans may be different--especially for those who smoke or drink habitually.

A second report in the same issue found that a nicotine-blocking compound also reduces the rewarding effects of alcohol in people. Mecamylamine has been used experimentally with the patch treatment for smoking cessation. Henry R. Kranzler of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and colleagues tested the chemical's effect on 20 volunteers who took it before consuming a standard dose of alcohol. The subjects had their breath alcohol levels (BALs), blood pressure and heart rates measured and they filled out three questionnaires describing their reactions to the drinks. According to the study, mecamylamine reduced both BAL and the rewarding effects of alcohol. The researchers report that mecamylamine reduces the release of dopamine by blocking binding sites on so-called nicotinic cholinergic synapses. David Overstreet of the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill proposes that the results "raise the possibility that treatments that are effective in smoking cessation may also be beneficial for alcoholics."
--Sarah Graham

PHYSICS

New Theory Explains the Physics of Foam
photo: Stephan Koehler/Harvard University
http://www.sciam.com/news/051601/3.html

Light and fluffy foam is actually serious business. To ensure that canned draughts have predictable, lasting heads, for example, Guinness developed the Widget, a plastic ring that releases nitrogen into the beer as it is opened; it won the Queens Award for Technological Advancement in 1991. Coca-Cola, on the other hand, has sought ways to create more fleeting foams from soda fountains. And all the while, physicists have chased after a theory to explain how foam behaves. Now they may have one, reported in this week's issue of Physical Review Letters by Howard Stone and his colleagues at Harvard University.

The real trick in understanding foams was figuring out just how they change over time. Researchers knew that two distinct processes took place. First, the foam coarsens meaning simply that its bubbles enlarge and second, the liquid in the foam drains away. What they didn't know was how these two events influenced each other. To find out, Stone and company developed computer simulations and then compared them to the actual events in two types of foam. In one concoction, the researchers used CO2 gas, and in another, C2F6, which diffuses from bubble to bubble less readily.

As expected, they found that drainage in the latter foam occurred 10 times more slowly than in the former because the C2F6 gas eliminated coarsening. But whereas adding more liquid to the C2F6 foam made it drain faster, the same was not true for the CO2 foam. Turning back to their model, the team concluded that the extra liquid actually inhibited coarsening in the CO2 foam because it made it harder for gas to diffuse. In the foam with the slower diffusion rate, though, the smaller bubbles continued to drain, thinning the bubble walls and accelerating coarsening and further drainage. In the end, the scientists reconciled the model with the data, thus offering the first demonstration of how coarsening affects drainage.
--Kristin Leutwyler

Home-Brewing Phase Comes To Long-Overdue Conclusion
From The Onion http://www.theonion.com/

BETHEL PARK, PA- Local resident Randy Paltz's two-year home-brewing phase finally came to its long-overdue conclusion Tuesday.
"Thank God, it's over at last," said Andrea Longo, girlfriend of the 33-year-old beer aficionado. "Every few weeks, he'd make a big production about his latest 'Paltz's Signature Brew.' It all tasted the same-like really thick, shitty beer."
Friend Tim Traschel also expressed relief, saying, "Now I can actually go to his house and bring some Michelob without getting a lecture about the low quality of hops in commercial beers."

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

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
Larry's will be selling tickets.

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