MINNESOTA
TIMBERWORTS
The
April 2001 Rochester Homebrew Club Newsletter
Next
Meeting
April
7(Saturday)
IPAs at Nancy & Dave Lane’s.
Directions:
Nancy
& David Lane phone
# 288-7585
2609
12th Ave, NW, Rochester
If
coming from HWY 52, take the 19th street exit, and travel east on
Elton
Hills Drive, NW, and turn left (north) onto 12 th Ave when you come
across
it. There's a white A-Frame "Berean
Church" on the corner. Were
on
the left side, half-way down 12th.
The Timberworts sign will
probably
give us away. If coming from HWY
63, turn onto Elton Hills
Drive
and do what those guys from 52 are doing.
Please
plan to arrive around 7ish.
Topics
to be discussed/voted on:
Statewide
campout plans - we are hosts this year!!
Calendar
Of Events
Date
Host
Styles
04/07
Nancy & Dave Lane
IPAs
05/12
Leo Vitt
Bocks & Lagers
06/09
Wayne Theuer
Annual Club Campout(Meads)
07/14
???
08/04
Pam & Gerry
Miller & Bud & Pale Ale
09/08
Ken Vossen
40th B-day beers
10/13
James White
Marzen & Octoberfest
11/10
Ron Elshaug
Strong Belgians
12/08
Steve & Amy Determan
Barleywine and Christmas
Date
Event
07/14?
Statewide Campout hosted by Timberworts
09/08?
Brewery Tour at Mantorville Brewing
08/11
Great Taste of the Midwest
?
Club Only Competition host?
AHA/BJCP
Style Guidelines
http://www.hbd.org/ford/stylguid.html
http://www.mv.com/ipusers/slack/bjcp/
Other submitted pieces and
bits
From Pam King:
I
made it to the Real Ale Festival, Chicago.
It was held at Goose Island
(the
one by Wrigley Field not the brewery one by Sams).
All I can say is
WOW,
what great beer. There were three
sections (1) Once containing IPA,
ESB,
English Bitter and Best Bitter and Amber Ales; (2) All other cask beers
(not
in section one), (3) Bottle-conditioned beer.
I
did have three problems which does impede my ability to give a through
report.
First, too many beers too little time - we only attended the Friday
night
tasting. Second, I forgot to bring
a pen so I couldn't take notes as
we
went. Third, failure to eat prior
to tasting and replace the dinner hour
with
a few cocktails before heading to the event.
Here is what I do
remember.
The
British Cask Ales were exceptional. I
really liked the Dent Aviator and
the
Freeminer Trafalgar IPA. A brewery
called Pizza Port (from california I
think)
had a good barley wine called Pizza Port Carlsbad - Bombshell blonde
barley
wine. This was a big beer but it
had a lite crisp kind of belguim
style
to it that was (to use a tecnical term) scrumpsious.
I met one of the
brewers
from Pizza Port who was pretty cool and we were having a good beer
discussion.
Unfortunately my friend lost interest when his girlfriend
showed
up and we went back to tasting. (appearenly
she was more interested
in
his body than his brewing.) Bear
Republic had a foreign stout called Big
Bear
Black Ale. It was good if you like
foreign stouts. Not as good as
Wayne's
but all the same I didn't suffer through the experience.
Being
curious
about the Dogfish Head Brewery that is releasing the Midas Touch
mead/ale/wine
at the end of the month I gave their experimental Immort Ale a
try.
I liked it but this is not a beer for everyone.
The aroma is odd, not
bad
but odd. Angela (my friend) was
unimpressed and suggested it smelled
like
sweat socks. Once she placed the
smell for me it was more difficult to
drink.
You can tell it is a high alcohol brew (11%) and is not for the weak
at
heart (nor those that have already tried to taste too much in too little
time)
but it was certianly the most unusual beer I tried.
The Southampton
Publik
House had a Southampton Grand Cru Strong Ale which I thought was a
very
yummy belgian beer it also won first place in the Belgian & Specity
Ales
Bottle-Conditioned catigory, but the truth is by the time we made it
upstairs
to the bottled beers my memory was beginning to fade.
I
was suprised by some of the bottled-conditioned beer winners,
unfortunately
most the winners were not available or they had run out before
we
got there so I didn't have the opportunity to try them. In the Strong
Ale
catigory Southampton Old Ale, Southampton Publik House beat out Bells
Third
Coast Old Ale (Gerry's new personal favorite).
And in the Stouts
catigory
Deschuttes Brewery, Obsidian South took first over Bells Expedition
Stout.
Will wonders never cease.
All
in all, we had fun. I did meet Ray
Daniels (who I was introduced to by
Angela
because she had been at the Parade of Winners Tasting with him the
weekend
before). Talk about unfair, she got
good food, good beer and good
company
and didn't even appreciate it. This
is definately an event that the
club
should consider attending. (also, they had a bunch of volunteers so we
might
be able to get in on the action and save some $)
It is best attended
early
on Friday night. By the time we
left at about 10:00 it was very
crowded!!!!
I suspect the same is true for Saturday night.
I
will bring the info I got to the next beer club this weekend if anyone
wants
to look at it.
From James White:
We
started out the craw at 9:45 am on Saturday at Watertower. This was a
full
half hour before Wayne and Ron finally caught up with us, and at
least
6 samples later. Dave Berg
was busy brewing a pale ale (330
pounds
of grain, 10 lb. of tettnanger and cascade hops).
Dave was a
gracious
host and allowed us to sample many of his creations.
Luckily
the
Barleywine was still available, and still excellent.
Our
Timberworts crawlers were Dave and Nancy, Pam and Gerry, Mark,
Larry,
Ron, Wayne, and myself. We were
joined off and on by many from
the
cities including Dave, Brad, Steve, Jim, Betsy, and an endless
supply
of Pammy's friends. Luckily we had
a 15 passenger van and the
most
excellent sober driver (Dave Lane - Have we told you Dave how great
a
job you are doing?).
>From
the Watertower we headed off to Hops for lunch, and would you guess
it,
another beer. Hops had some great
food, but pretty mediocre beer.
We
even had to start mixing them together to improve taste.
The did
have
a kick butt prime rib sandwich. Most
excellent.
>From
Hops we went to (not necessarily in order) Great Waters, Townhall,
and
Rock Bottom. We found good crowds
at most establishments, since the
cities
was playing host to the final four. We
think that was
basketball,
but don't quote me on it. Rock
Bottom surprised me with a
really
nice triple. Tasted even better if
you brow beat the bartender
into
putting it a nice glass. Townhall
had a really good IPA, but ask
Mark
for the name of it. Just way too
much to remember.
After
this, we wandered over to the Green Mill for appetizers. Wow!
You've
got to watch the sauce on those buffalo wings.
Pretty intense.
Luckily
there was beer available. After the
Green Mill we found our way
to
Vine Place (I think is the name), where guess what?
We found some
more
beer. Pretty good beer at that.
Jim and Betsy pulled out their
latest
smoked meat creations, and very nicely shared it with us.
What
great
people!
After
vine place, we decided to head back the Watertower and see if the
food
was as good as we remember, and if the Barleywine keg was as good
near
the bottom. It was, and it was.
This was the end of day one, and
since
we were losing a hour that night, we headed back to the hotel.
Some
of us were done for the night, but others gathered up at Ron and
Wayne's
room to sample the Kastille Dark. These
guys had more energy
than
that damn bunny.
You
would have thought that one day was enough.
Well... nah, you know
better.
Come morning we jumped back into the wonder van and headed to
Bryant
Lake Bowl for some good food, great beer, and lots of gawking at
the
locals. Speaking of locals, we met
back up with Dave, and even Brad
joined
us. The breakfast
offerings were absolutely great, and they
had
that darn Kastille Dark on tap. They
even had the really nice
Kastille
glasses to put it in. Tough start
to the second day. After
BLB,
we went around the corner to another brew pub (Funny name, starts
with
an H) and found out that they had very little to offer, but did
have
good coffee and a reasonable Hefeweizen.
>From
there, we went to the Triple Rock social club, for more beer and
gawking.
I found the Triple Rock to be out of the most interesting
beers,
and so full of smoke to be uninteresting, but they did have Aass
Bock
on tap, and that helped the experience greatly.
After
the Triple Rock, it was time for Mark and I to call it a weekend,
and
head back home. It will be a few
days to recover from this trip,
but
hopefully that will happen before Wednesday when I set off with the
family
for San Francisco. Can you say
Anchor....
Club
Discounts with Membership card!
*
Hawkeye's Custom Home Brew Shop
(507) 583-7167 Wayne Theuer, Blooming Prairie, Cost + 10%
*
Brew & Grow
Fridley 10% discount
*
WindRiver Brewing Co.
Eden Prairie 10%
discount
*
Northern Brewer
St. Paul 10% discount
*
Andy's Liquor
Rochester 10% discount
on all non-sale beer
*
Tower Liquor
Fairbault 10% discount
*
Apollo Liquors (next to Best Buy)
Rochester 10% discount
Club
Information
The
Minnesota TimberWorts Homebrew Club meets on the second Saturday of each month.
Meetings are held at the homes of members or local pubs. Yearly dues are $10 per
individual or $15 per couple, and are used to cover the expense of this
newsletter and other costs. Anyone interested in information about the club can
contact:
Pam
King (President)
(507) 288-0583
mailto:kingwarp@rconnect.com
Peter
Sanders (Vice-President)
(507) 367-2421
mailto:plsander@us.ibm.com
James
White (Treasurer)
(507) 281-5992
mailto:james_white@iname.com
Ken
Vossen (Newsletter Editor) (507)
635-5362
mailto:vossen@means.net