Novembeer 2005
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Novembeer 2005 |
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The Barley Whispers Official Newsletter of the Forest City Brewers Novembeer 2005 Edition Next meeting will be held at Shooter’s Bar and Grill Wednesday Novembeer 16th, 2005 at 7:00 PM
Table of Contents: Vice President’s Notes – Page 1 Meeting Notes - Page 1 Website Notes - Page 1 Club Event Notes – Page 1 Competition Corner – Page 1
Vice President’s Notes: Well, not too bad. Our first meeting at the new location was at least a moderate success. I sure would have liked to see more of the club there! Make sure to join us for our Novembeer meeting. I will make sure to try to get a waitress on duty for us at the next meeting. In this month’s newsletter, I am adding a brief section about the website. I hope that everyone checks it out. In each newsletter, I always feature the Competition Corner. Whenever possible, I try to select an upcoming event, preferably in Chicago or the Midwest for those of us who like to enter them. It is a great way to get feedback about your beer from the pros. Last month, I featured the Chicago Beer Society Spooky Brew Review, an event that is growing in popularity right in our backyard. There are annual contests hosted by Urban Knaves of Grain, Brewers on the Bluff, Boneyard Union of Zymyrgical Zealots ( BUZZ), Brewers of South Suburbia (BOSS), and many others. There are also many other area clubs, like The Midnight Carboys of Crystal Lake, Silverado Homebrew Club, Beer Barons of Milwaukee, Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild, MUGZ in the Quad Cities, and more. I encourage everyone who brews something to try to enter some of these contests. It will help us get our name out there with these guys, and if we decide to host any tasting events or contests, hopefully they will reciprocate. I’ve met a lot of great guys from many of these clubs, and there are a few guys in the Chicago area that are brewing legends, like Ray Daniels, Randy Mosher, and Joe Formanek to name a few. Lets show em’ what we got! All that being said, I did enter 3 beers into the 2005 Spooky Brew Review. I entered my Coffee Stout, Imperial Stout, and Honey Wheat. The Coffee Stout took second place in Fruit/Spice/Vegetable Beers, and the Imperial Stout took second place in Stouts. The Imperial was runner up to the American Stout that took second in Best of Show. The Honey Wheat was really entered just for the feedback. I’m still waiting on those score sheets. So, not too bad. Plus, on the posted results web page, they have a link to our club website posted with my name. ( http://www.chibeer.org/s05p2.html )
Meeting Notes: The FCB Octobeer meeting was held at our new location in the private meeting room at Shooter’s Bar and Grill in Don Carter Lanes. The new location most definitely was private, and afforded the club members attending a chance to talk club business, and have plenty of room. Although we were told we would have a waitress to serve us, we were not provided one, which I hope we can get corrected for the next meeting. A few of us did order food, and it seemed that the food and beer selections were well received by those attending. When business was called to order, we had a brief recap of our Octoberfest party activities, set a date for our FCB Christmas Party, and conducted nominations for our 2006 club officers. Nominated for President was Ryan Cooper, Dave Denale for Activities Director, Steve Hall for Treasurer, and Eric Stromberg for Vice President. There was a rather sloppy motion to eliminate the Web Director position. (This will be addressed at the Novembeer meeting.) Currently, all candidates are running unopposed. There will be an opportunity for nominations before voting is done at the Novembeer meeting. So, if you or someone you know would make a good FCB officer, let your voice be heard! Following nominations, we had some discussion on getting back to basics with our club meeting format. It used to be that there was an informative presentation each month about the contest beer style. The consensus was that the club wanted to have this again, and suggested that Lynn Foster start us off by doing a short presentation of his choice at the November meeting. We will likely forma system to select a presenter for each month following. As a related matter it was also suggested that we adopt a system to have the club treasurer bring a 6 pack of a reference beer to correspond to the monthly contest. This idea was supported by all. So, if the style of the month was to be, for example, American Stout, perhaps the Treasurer would bring a 6 pack of Sierra Nevada Stout. Then we would all have a sample before our tasting begins. This would help to understand some of the qualities we should be looking for in judging our monthly contest. There was also some discussion about mirroring our monthly contest styles to the AHA chosen monthly style competitions. As it seems that the club supports this idea, We may have to rethink our spring contest style selections. There was some discussion of sending our contest winner to the AHA official contest. I think there will be more discussion on this topic at the Novembeer meeting. Lastly, there was a motion to honor a longtime member of our club, Roger Hosfeld, at our Novembeer meeting. Charlie Mongan and Lynn Foster volunteered to take care of the details, and we invite all current and longtime FCB members to join us at our next monthly meeting to raise a pint in honor of our special guest. Then we sampled our contest brews. The monthly contest style was Coffee or Mocha Beers. Open Contest: Style Contest: 1. Chuck Nolen – English Pale Ale (tie) 1. Eric Stromberg 1. Ryan Cooper – Imperial Stout (tie) 2. Ryan Cooper 3. Lynn Foster – Brown Ale Honorable Mention Charlie Mongan _ IPA Our Featured Beer Style for Novembeer will be Belgian Dubbel or Trippel Ales
Website Notes: The updating and such has continued on the website. Stop by and check out the new layout. The meeting info for our FCB membership meeting and the Taster’s Guild meeting has been moved to the top of the page for easy access. I have updated and pruned the contest points list. If a new contestant scores, they will be added in as needed. I have also added a monthly recap of the winners in the contest points page. I have made sure all the links on the photo pages work as well, so check out some of the past FCB events, and laugh at yourself. I moved the menu items to the top of the page to allow more room for news and headline postings. I also added a new menu item for the monthly contest beer styles on its own page. I added a few items on the links page. Mostly links to other area homebrew clubs.
Club Event Notes:
For the road tripppers: The Third Annual Festival of Barrel-aged Beer Featuring Beers Aged in or on Wood Saturday, November 12th, 1-5 P.M.
Goose Island - Wrigleyville Come and enjoy some of the rarest most exotic beers on the planet, beers with the kiss of wood on them. "A wood- or barrel-aged beer is any lager, ale or hybrid beer, either a traditional style or a unique experimental beer that has been aged for a period of time in a wooden barrel or in contact with wood. This beer is aged with the intention of imparting the particularly unique character of the wood and/or what has previously been in [or currently lives in] the barrel." Our first festival in 2003 featured 36 entries, last year saw 53 and we continue to grow featuring some of the rarest, most exotic beers in the U.S. and perhaps some surprises from overseas. FoBAB II featured beers from Alaska, California, Chicago, Delaware (even Belgium) and many points in between. You can spend years travelling to the breweries of origin (how fun!) or you can take the easy way and sample them side-by-side at FoBAB III. All U.S. beers are judged in advance according to style by an experienced judging panel.Congratulations to the past grand champions: Pizza Port - Solana Beach, CA (2003) and Rock Bottom - Chicago, IL (2004). Click here for all of last year's winners. Find out first-hand who wins this year's awards. Tickets Tickets are now available for $25 in advance or $30 at the door. Your admission gets you a tasting glass and ten sample tickets. Additional sample tickets will be available for purchase. Check the official webpage for more info and participating breweries. http://www.illinoisbeer.com/
Competition Corner: The Happy Holiday Homebrew Competition is the St. Louis Brews annual homebrew competition. It is a fully sanctioned AHA and BJCP event. This year it will be held on December 10, 2005 at the Parish Hall of Our Lady of the Presentation Catholic Church in Overland, MO. So you think your brew can be a contender? Find out by entering it in the HHHC 2005. We are proud to be the final qualifying event for the Eighth Annual Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing. |
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