The Barley Whispers

Official Newsletter of the Forest City Brewers

April 2005 Edition

Next meeting will be held at The Olympic Tavern

Wednesday April 13^th, 2005 at 7:00 PM

President’s Notes:

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The Wisdom of Homer:

From Maryanne Theryl. J

DO RE MI BEER, by Homer J. Simpson.

DOUGH... the stuff... that buys me beer...
RAY..... the guy that sells me beer...
ME...... the guy... who drinks the beer,
FAR..... the distance to my beer
SO...... I think I'll have a beer...
LA...... La la la la la la beer
TEA..... no thanks, I'm drinking beer...
That will bring us back to...
(Looks into an empty glass)

D'OH!

Secretary’s Notes:

Thanks to those of you who responded in support of doing newsletter guest columns. Keep up the good work. And, Mr. Coletta, yes it was funny, no it won’t be going to print. ;)

Meeting Notes:

Our April meeting was held at the Olympic, but was again displaced by something else going on. Hopefully they will give us a permanent reservation for Wednesday Club Nights soon. Dave Denale updated us on information for the May 22^nd club bus trip. Charlie looked for volunteers for a Oktoberfest brewing location. And lastly, we determined to forego April’s Brown Ale extract kit brew in favor of just doing any Brown Ale for style competition. The style of the month for March was Bock. Results were as follows:

Style Open

1. Eric Stromberg / Pat Cunningham (tie) 1. Steve Kindell/Gary Haun - Pilsner

2. Lynn Foster 2. Eric Stromberg – Amer. Pale Ale

3. Charlie Mongan 3. Steve/ Anita – Oatmeal IPA

Other entries:

Dan Hunt – Pilsner

Chuck Nolen – Special Bitter

The May Style competition will be Belgian Saison.

Club Event Notes:

I have received word from David Denale that he has received the tickets for the bus trip and currently has 4 extras. Get em now! See our website for more trip info.

Guest Column:

From our former president Pat Cunningham!

You know you’re a homebrewer if…

1. If you’ve ever tried to improve a Budweiser by stirring in a crumbled hop pellet

2. If you have a hose adapter permanently attached to your kitchen faucet.

3. If you wanted to name the puppy “Fuggles”

4. If you own a sterile trash can

5. If you have more than 10 gallons of beer in your home right now

6. If you measure beer in gallons

7. If you don’t think that 10 gallons of beer is a lot

8. If you’ve ever used a mop on a ceiling (ß-----TROOF! - ..editor)

9. If all party invitations you receive say, “bring a keg”.

10. If you have a large stove pot that no one else is allowed to use

11. If you’ve ever driven your car in winter with the windows down and the heat off because you were afraid the cooler in the backseat was getting warm.

12. If you’ve ever stumped the tour guide on a megabrewery tour deliberately

13. If you have a glass that you wash by hand instead of the dishwasher

14. If you’ve ever said any of these phrases:

· In a not frosted glass, please

· Probably dirty hoses

· What kind of beer is it supposed to be?

· By weight or volume?

· My yeast is ready

· Aw…crap…twist off

15. If there is a bottle in your refrigerator with an air lock on it

16. If you’ve ever butted into a conversation of total strangers because you overheard the word “sparge”

17. If you can’t remember the last time you popped open a flip top beer can

18. If you’re favorite character on Bonanza is Hop Sing

19. If you’ve ever cut a hole in a refrigerator door

20. If you’ve ever gone to a redemption center to buy bottles

21. If you’re 10-year old critiques the clarity and head retention of her root beer

22. If the owner of the beer store doesn’t remember your name anymore

23. If a waitress has said you’re the first person to ever send a beer back

24. If your kid entered the science fair with a demonstration of fermentation

25. If you’ve ever bought a six pack of beer just because you like the empties

26. If walking across the kitchen floor sounds like Velcro

27. If you even thought about adding hop oil to unscented love oil

28. If you’ve ever pulled bottles out of others peoples recycling bins

29. If you’ve ever put the kids to bed dirty because the tub was full of soaking bottles

30. If every T-shirt you own is from a brewpub or microbrewery

Guest Column:

From Steve, our Mead guy!

Here's a basic braggot recipe.

Braggot: a beverage brewed by combining honey and malted barley

Yields 5 gallons

Ingredients: 6# amber clover honey, 3# amber dried malt extract, 4 oz lager malt – crushed, 8oz. crystal 120L – crushed, 1 oz Halletauer pellets, 1/2 oz. Fuggles pellets, 1/4 oz. Kent Goldings pellets - boil these 3 for 60 min, 1/2 oz. Fuggles pellets - boil 30 minutes, 1/4 oz. Kent Goldings pellets - steep, 1/2 oz. Fuggles whole leaf plugs - dry hopping, 5 100 mg B-1 tabs - crushed, 1 tsp acid blend, 1 pkt dried ale yeast - rehydrate in 2 c warm water, which has had 2 Tbsp honey and 1 B-1 tab dissolved therein (mix this before starting to brew), 1 packet unflavored gelatin, 1/2 c light DME

Procedure: Start with 3 gal cold water in brew pot, add grains in grain
bag , light burner, monitor water temp, remove grains when water hits 200F. Dissolve in the amber DME and honey. Add the initial boiling hops in muslin "teabag." After 30 minutes add finishing hops in same sort of bag, boil additional 30 minutes. Remove from heat and add the steeping hops, B-1 and acid blend, let sit for 30 minutes. Carefully siphon off lees into primary, top off to 5 1/2 gallons, let cool to 75F - 80F, then pitch the yeast water. Let ferment for 1 week. Carefully add dry hop in hop bag and ferment an additional 2 weeks, or until fermentation has appeared to slow considerably. Rack to secondary and add in the gelatin dissolved in 1 c boiling water. Let set - ferment out an additinal 2 weeks. Siphon into bottling tun and add-in the 1/2 c Light DME dissolved in 1 c hot water. Bottle just like a favorite ale or beer. Let sit for at least a week or two before drinking.

Eat hearty, drink deep, enjoy life – Steven

Editors Note – Make braggot on the go by blending beer and mead in your glass. Good Stuff!

Random Beer and Brewing Notes:

Jumbo beer craving!

Guwahati, India - Three villagers were trampled to death and seven wounded by a wild Asiatic elephant searching for home-made rice beer in India's northeastern state of Assam, a wildlife official said Monday.

"The elephant went on a rampage tearing apart huts and then attacked sleeping villagers killing three and seriously injuring seven more," said M Rahman.

The tusker strayed from a big herd in the jungle and ransacked the village of Dalokgarupara Sunday morning in a hunt for fermented "chang" made from rice grains.

"The elephant herd came near the village looking for home-brewed rice beer. One of the animals strayed out from the herd and did the damage," Rahman said.

The injured suffered multiple wounds and were taken to a local hospital, 70km west of Assam's main city of Guwahati.

In the past two weeks, elephants have wreaked havoc in several parts of Assam as farmers harvest rice and use some of the grain to make the strong drink.

"For a stiff drink, elephants would blast through walls... they go berserk, at times plundering granaries and tearing apart huts, besides inflicting fatal attacks on human beings," elephant expert Kushal Konwar Sharma said.

"Wanton destruction of the forest cover has forced elephants to enter human settlement areas," Assam Forest Minister Pradyut Bordoloi said.

Villagers have resorted to poison to halt the elephant attacks that have killed at least 150 people in Assam in the past five years, Bordoloi said. Some 200 elephants have been killed during the same period by poisoned-tipped arrows, he added.

A 1999 census recorded 5 400 elephants in Assam, more than half of India's count of 10 000.