2005 August Meeting Issue #82
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- Written by Gary Weston
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The Official WHALES Newsletter and Minutes August 2005 Issue #082
Preview:
Mike Orth’s fab Saison represents in the Belgian/French Club Only
Lager vs. Lager (sounds like a Divorce Court Labs offering, eh?)
Calendar:
*Beached Whales converge at
*Sept/Oct Club Only for Category 3 Euro Amber Lagers
*Split Rock Competition Weekend Nov 19-20
Quote:
“Nothing ever tasted any better than a cold beer on a beautiful afternoon with nothing to look forward to but more of the same.” -Hugh Hood
The WHALES held their Tuesday 16th August meeting at J.J. Bittings, home of the hottest waitresses and the coldest beer. We extend thanks to Mike Cerami for his welcoming smile these nine years. On hand were Prez, Crazy John & Robin, Luke, Neal, Keith, SteveG, Gary, Paff, Leo, SteveS, guests Josh & Tom and Tripka via the miracle of wireless voice technology.
The Whales will be heading down the
Lager vs. Lager: Prez and Luke split a 10 gal batch of pils at the Brewbash in May. Prez used the Bittings house Bavarian Lager yeast and Luke used Danish Lager Wyeast 2042. Differences were subtle, but it seems the Danish yeast produced a drier, Dortmunder-ish finish. A contributing factor was serving temp, as Luke’s beer was several degrees cooler.
The next Club Only Competition is in Sept/Oct and features category 3 Euro Amber Lagers. By that we mean Viennas and Octoberfests. At press time, the beertown.org site was down so Prez will email info regarding which meeting we will be judging at.
Neal suggested we have a meeting at Harvest Moon Brewery in
Although not a Whales sanctioned comp, Dave Housemann is running a Mead Only Comp in Philly on 10/15. Housed at the
Treasurer’s Report: According to Uncle Leo, we started with $789.61, had $67.07 in expenses for COC shipping, cups and business cards which leaves us a healthy $722.54
HBOY report: Orth on the map! With his decisive win in the Belgian/French COC, he now has moved into 11th place. Previously there were only 10 places, but hey, it’s a start. Next chance for points is the Euro Lager COC. A complete listing: Prez 17, Leo 12, Gene 10, Gary 9, Luke 7, MT 7, KeithS 6, SteveS 3, Neal 3, SteveG 3, Orth 2.
Tom Paffrath has pounds (literally) of EK Goldings whole hops. The distributor for Basil T’s made a boo-boo and sent whole hops then told Tommy to just keep it. PLEASE contact him and help yourself to a pound or two so he can reclaim his freezer space. bumzbrew@comcast.net
We are planning a run to Colrain, Mass the second weekend in November to pick up 60 gallons of blended cider for a club barrel fermentation project. Luke will do a presentation on the virtues of hard cider next meeting. The barrel will likely come from our friends at Laird’s Applejack and we are looking into the possibility of fermenting in the barrel itself.
The Flight:
Lager vs. Lager, then it was Hefe vs. Hefe. Gary and Keith split a batch of Hefe and primed half of it with Chambourd, 1Tbl per bottle. It was carbonated properly and the perfect amount of raspberry too! The baby Whales whipped out a Blueberry Braggot they got at the AHA Nationals as a freebie. It was very well balanced and a nice blueberry profile. Thanks to the homebrew club who brewed it and the sponsors who donated ingredients. In a similar experiment as the Hefe,
That’s all Folks! Hoppy brewing.
-Luke, CEO Pissoff Brothers Brewing