The Official Newsletter of the Forest City Brewers

Febrewary2005 Edition

Next meeting will be held at The Olympic Tavern

Wednesday, Febrewary 16^th, 2005 at 7:00 PM

President’s Notes:

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Secretary’s Notes:

BAH! I totally lost all my notes that I dutifully took at last month’s meeting. I moved in to my new house at the end of January, and they must have been misplaced in the move. Anyhow, some content may be lacking or abbreviated due to this terrible oversight. Will do better next time! ( Didn’t I say that last month too? )

Treasurer’s Note:

Attention all Forest City Brewers! The 2005 yearly dues are now payable.

Make sure to bring your dues to the meeting and relieve your guilty conscience.

Meeting Notes:

The January meeting was held at The Olympic Tavern amidst their already planned Scotch Whiskey Tasting Night. We still managed to have a presentation By Lynn Foster and Ken Schultz about the effects of using different yeast strains on a batch of beer that had been separated into different fermenters. Then, we tasted the results. Then we saw the badgerbadgerbadger.com website on The Olympic’s free wireless internet connection courtesy of Lynn’s laptop. BadgerbadgerbadgerbadgerbadgerbadgerMushroomMushroom!

Then we had our monthly style competition, which was Oatmeal Stout. . I regret to say that the list of winners was on my notes. Dang.

Club Event Notes:

Cut and pasted from the website for you:

The annual bus trip will be heading to a beer festival in Chilton on May 22^nd,  The price will be approximately $40 per person which will include the price of admission and the bus there and back.  We need to have a firm count on attendance by the February meeting.  The tickets go on sale in Mid-March.  Please email me if you are interested in attending and cannot make the meeting.

Also, don’t forget about Febfest. Refer to last month’s Barley Whispers for further info, or go to ClubBob.org.

It’s gonna be this weekend you know!

And now, for something completely different….

• Saturday, March 5: Night of the Living Ales – a new real ale event at Goose Island Wrigleyville

The Real Ale Festival is on hiatus again in 2005 (can a brother get a new venue?!), but that’s no reason to cry in your pint glass. On Saturday night, March 5, CBS will be presenting Night of the Living Ales, a one-night real ale tasting featuring cask-conditioned ales from Chicagoland breweries and some potential out-of-town guests. This will definitely be a big firkin deal for real ale enthusiasts in Chicago (and beyond). The site will be Goose Island Wrigleyville, 3535 N. Clark Street, Chicago, the former location of several full-blown Real Ale Festivals, so you should feel right at home. And just so the beers feel comfortable, too, the casks will be coddled by the RAF cellar staff. That’s your assurance that these real ales will be in optimal condition when you vote for the Champion Real Ale of Chicagoland.

So make your plans now to join us from 6:30-10:30 pm on March 5. The admission price of $25 for members, $30 for nonmembers ($30 at the door) gets you a tasting glass, copious appetizers, and all your beer samples. As always, you must be 21 or older to attend this non-smoking event. To assure your spot, mail in your reservation form and payment ASAP! We already have commitments for some 32 casks of real ale, with almost certainly more to show. This may not be a full-blown Real Ale Festival, but at least for one evening it’s about as close as you can get.

Random Beer and Brewing Notes:

Beer in your chips?

Those who like a beer with their cheese and potato chips may soon be able to have all three tastes in one chip.

Kettle Foods, makers of the No. 1 selling, all natural Kettle brand Potato Chips, is asking fans to help choose its next flavor. On the ballot for consideration are: Cheddar Beer, Chai, Moroccan Curry, Spicy Thai and Strawberry Cream. The consumer favorite will go into production later this year.

"Inviting consumers to vote for their favorite is a great way for us to tap into flavor trends," said Carolyn Richards, chief flavor architect of Kettle Foods. "Every year we get hundreds of passionate letters from people totally devoted to a particular flavor or enamored with the idea of a new one. We've built a reputation for unconventional and delicious combinations. After more than 25 years we thought, 'why not ask our fans?'"

Consumers can rate each of the five flavors on Kettle Foods' Crave-O-Meter, a "five-point scale of deliciousness" at www.crave.kettlefoods.com, between now and March 31, 2005.

The winning flavor will be announced in April. Everyone who rates the flavors online will be entered into a random drawing to win a year's supply (for chip lovers out there, that's a case per month) of Kettle brand Potato Chips.

Last summer Kettle Foods asked fans of Kettle brand Potato Chips to assume the role of 'Flavor Architect' and share their cravings. The zealous response surprised the company, which received more than 16,000 suggestions for new flavors. While most were delicious sounding chip pairings, some of those that didn't make the cut include Chili Cheese Dog, Fish Oil & Garlic, Asparagus, Anchovy, Beef Stick, Broccoli, Bubble Gum, Cotton Candy, Peppermint, and Mustard & Ketchup.

Beer drinker is a whiz at survival

A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.

Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi was buried in Slovakia's Tatra mountains.

He told them that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out with his hands. But he realized the snow was falling faster than he could dig. and would soon fill his car.

He had 60 half-liter bottles of beer in his car as he was going on holiday, and after cracking one open to think about the problem he realized he could urinate on the snow to melt it.

"It was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt," he said later. "But I'm glad the beer I took on holiday turned out to be useful."