The Barley Whispers
Official Newsletter of the
Forest
City Brewers
January 2006 Edition
Next meeting will be held at Shooter’s Bar and Grill
-
Wednesday January 18th, 2006
at
7:00 PM
Table of Contents:
President’s Notes – Page
1
Vice President’s Notes – Page 1
Meeting Notes -
Page 1
Website Notes -
Page 1
Club Event Notes – Page
1
Competition Corner – Page 1
Beer Notes -
Page 1
President’s Notes:
The Passion of the Brewer
It’s just a beer club, right? So what? Not to me.
Not to many. I have corresponded with homebrewers
and brewmasters on four continents, and we share
something very special, a passion for homebrewing.
It is my passion that leads me to create new brews,
experiment with recipes, and share homebrewing with
others. It was my passion that fueled the revival of
this monthly newsletter, finding a new and more
suitable meeting location for our club, promoting
our club in newspaper stories, and working with our
webdaddy to reinvigorate our club website. But, I’m
not done yet. I want more. I want our club to grow,
to reach out, to connect with the rest of the
homebrewing community. Most importantly, let’s have
some fun. In 2006, I hope to do even more for the
club, and I thank you all in advance for your
support.
To further the efforts of this endeavor, I kindly
ask that you pay your
Forest
City
Brewers membership dues promptly this year. We have
a new Treasurer this year, and we will be keeping
track of this. We will have official
Forest
City
Brewers membership cards, and I know that our
members are entitled to a discount at Brew and Grow.
Maybe we can convince some other local places to
offer us a discount too. To do this, we need to be
able to say to them, “We have ‘x’ paid
members!”. The club dues are going to be very
important this year in helping us grow.
Vice President’s Notes:
Just a little introduction, I am Eric Stromberg, FCB
member for about 3 years. I am taking on the office
of Vice President, as Ryan Cooper (Former VP) has
moved into The White House. I am writing this from
my undisclosed, secure location. I have some large
shoes to fill, as Ryan did an excellent job with the
Newsletter over the last year. I will be using much
the same format he used, not only for continuity,
but also because templates are much easier. As
Editor, I welcome submissions for the newsletter, in
the form of Guest Columns, random beer trivia, or
anything else you think the rest of the club might
be interested in. This is, after all, everyone’s
publication. Please send any submissions to me at
ericstromberg@gmail.com.
Meeting Notes:
The December meeting was a raucous affair beginning
with a presentation by Steve Hall and Allan Novak on
a series of Experimental Wheat Beers by
Bell’s
Brewing out of
Kalamazoo.
Bell’s has produced 5 new ales, 4 in a series and 1
strong ale. The idea is to experiment with the
different flavors and complexity of wheat malt. The
4 beers in series are all wheat beers, using 55%
wheat and 45% malted barley. The barley component
is the same in each as are the hopping schedules and
variety. The variable in each beer is the type of
wheat used and yeasts used. Each beer in the series
had more types of wheat and more yeasts than the
previous beer. With each beer, flavor complexity
increased, making a strong argument for the
all-grain brewing method.
The locations for the Taster’s Guild meetings for
the next few months were suggested and decided
upon. They are:
January - Der Rathskellar February –
Garrett’s
March – Old
Chicago
- Special Tuesday Big Beer Night!
Just a reminder, The Taster’s Guild meets the 1st
Wednesday of each month at a local establishment
with a good beer selection.
The monthly contest styles were amended to follow
the AHA styles for possible entry by the winner in
the AHA competition the following month.
The styles for the upcoming months are:
February – American Ales - AHA
March –
Munich
Dunkel
April – Extract Brews - AHA
The December style was
Holiday
or Christmas Beers. We sampled the entries for
style and open categories
Open Contest:
Style Contest:
1.
Chuck Nolen –
Porter 1. Ryan
Cooper
2. Ryan Cooper – Grand Cru
2. Ken Schultz
3. Mike Sears – Brown Ale
3. Chuck Nolen
Honorable Mention
Bill Lipscom
Charlie Mongan
Pat Cunningham
The January style is Poor Richard’s Ale, in honor of
the 300th birthday of
Benjamin Franklin, beer lover, scientist, statesman,
and revolutionary. “Poor Richard” is the name
Franklin adopted to write his best-selling almanacs,
in which Franklin was at his most witty and
down-to-earth.
On a side note, local brewer Don Carlyle of Carlyle
Brewing Co. is featured on January 15th
in “365 Bottles of Beer for the Year,” a calendar
featuring a different microbrewed beer each day for
his Poor Richard’s Ale.
Website Notes:
The updating and such has continued on the website.
We have added a link to a club email address at
forestcitybrewer@homebrew.com. Year end point
totals and such will be added shortly. Stop by and
check out the new layout.
Club Event Notes:
Dave Denale is organizing the FCB Bus Trip up to
Chilton for the 14th Annual Wisconsin
Microbrewers Fest, sort of a mini Great Taste,
featuring brewers from all over Wisconsin.
Further Details to follow, or contact Dave for more
info.
Jim Didier is organizing the Annual pilgrimage to
The Great Taste of the
Midwest.
As always, it is never too early to get your checks
to Jim to assure your spot on the bus as the trip
always fills up fast! If you’ve never been, you
gotta go. It sells out every year. Write your check.
Nuff said.
Competition Corner:
2006
Febfest – Brewers on the Bluff (BOB)
The Brewers on the Bluff are having their 11th
Annual FebFest on Saturday Feb. 18th,
2006
@ The Libertyville Civic Center. Full Details are
available
here.
Patronizing the events of other Homebrew clubs is a
great way to get our name out there and network with
the other clubs in the area and potentially get more
participants at our events, so if you are able to go
to any of these events, make sure to mention FCB to
organizers…
Coming Soon:
BABBLE Brew Off and UKG Drunk Monk Challenge
Beer Notes:
Bard of the
Barstool
- A Short History of the United States Beer
Drinking Team
From the Chicago Tribune
By Rod O'Connor
Special to the Tribune
January 1, 2006
Nearly four years ago, Downers Grove resident Bill
Krejci stumbled upon the opportunity he had been
looking for his whole life. While surfing the Web,
he found the official site of the newly formed U.S.
Beer Drinking Team and an ad seeking like-minded
individuals with a passion for beer. Not sure if the
organization was a joke, he nevertheless cranked out
a heartfelt letter and sent it to the team's world
headquarters in Baltimore.
"To Whom It May Consume," the letter began. "Short
of leaving my wife and kids, I would do anything to
help the team. This relationship could be the best
thing to happen since barley met hops."
Within an hour Krejci received a phone call from
Dennis Buettner, a former NASA employee and the
founder of the U.S. Beer Drinking Team. Truth be
told, the team was a joke; at least originally. That
is, until Buettner created a fake Web site and
nearly 500 people signed up as members to a team
that didn't exist. Now, he was seeking an everyman
like Krejci to help bring legitimacy to his new
site, with the goal of creating a global, multimedia
"beer lifestyle" brand.
Despite the frat house moniker, the U.S. Beer
Drinking Team is not about competitive chugging or
12-ounce curls; rather, it's about enjoying beer
responsibly and celebrating the relationship between
beer and the good times in our lives. For although
golf fanatics and wine lovers have their own
magazines and TV channels, until the U.S. Beer
Drinking Team came along, there was no real voice
for the nation's estimated 90 million beer drinkers,
Buettner said.
"It's about beer buddies," explained Krejci, 38.
"You'd never say to someone, `Hey, when you're in
town, why don't you stop by and we can get together
for a glass of wine or a brandy.' It's all about the
brotherhood and sisterhood of beer. Who doesn't like
hanging out, whether it's at a Bears game or on the
golf course or on a boat fishing, and drinking beers
with your buddies? Who doesn't like to do that?"
After being hired in 2002, Krejci kept his day job
but began contributing columns on the U.S. Beer
Drinking Team Web site. And each month, the site
received more and more hits. Then, in early 2003,
Buettner was contacted by a producer from The
Learning Channel. The network was looking for an
Average Joe beer guy to train as a wine sommelier at
a posh San Francisco restaurant for the reality show
"Faking It." Krejci was the first and only person
who came to mind.
"I told her that I would give her one name and that
if she didn't love this guy, I'd give her a list of
100 more," Buettner recalled. Krejci beat out brew
masters from major companies for the reality show
slot--extra sweet, considering he was turned down
three times for "Survivor." A few months later,
Oprah Winfrey's people called and he relived the
experience on her show.
Although the star treatment was nice (he even
enjoyed a few cold brews in Winfrey's limo), the
real benefits went far deeper. After 10 years of
bouncing around at various sales positions, this
former radio/TV major from Southern Illinois
University finally saw a path to go after his dream
job. "I started thinking, you know, this could be a
career," he said. "I realized I was comfortable on
camera. . . . It proved I had the ability to do
this."
Things took another step forward in 2004, when the
U.S. Beer Drinking Team launched the nationally
syndicated Beer Radio show, with Krejci as one of
the stars. His personality blends naturally with the
loose talk-show format, the match as perfect as,
well, as perfect as hops and barley. Each program
features guests from the brewing industry, beer
destination travel segments and news on beer events
around the world. (It can be heard in Chicago from 3
to 5 p.m. Saturdays on Sirius satellite radio and is
available on broadcast radio in seven markets, with
a likely Chicago affiliate station soon. Past
episodes also can be streamed at
www.beerradio.com.)
Known on-air as "Chicago Bill," Krejci delivers live
news reports at the top of each hour from the Beer
Radio mobile news van (also known as the family
minivan) or the sports bar in his basement. And the
guy's a gamer, missing only two of the more than 100
episodes over two years. His segments are more
barstool banter than news and cover what he has been
up to that week and what beers he has sampled.
Krejci's also known for his dogged
determination--beer journalism's answer to Dan
Rather--whether calling in from his son's Little
League game or sneaking away during his belated
honeymoonin the Dominican Republic to bring his
unique brand of beer news to the world.
"Bill is like everybody's Barney Rubble in a world
of Fred Flintstones," Buettner said of Krejci's
appeal. "He's everybody's best friend and beer
buddy. He's the neighbor you always wanted to have
because you're guaranteed a cold beer and some great
conversation."
One of Krejci's recent segments has taken on a life
of its own, as the U.S. Beer Drinking Team announced
a grass-roots campaign to rally beer drinkers to
celebrate special occasions with the beverage they
turn to every day. It all started when Krejci
watched his beloved White Sox during their World
Series run.
"When the Sox won the pennant, I had a bottle of
champagne, and it's really fun to squirt but not so
fun to drink," he said. "And you look at the Sox
players--you saw them squirting champagne, but they
were all drinking beer. Give up the champagne. Save
that for tennis or whatever. Blue-collar sports
should celebrate with beer. ... Or how about at a
wedding? Why not toast with a good beer?"
For Krejci, what began as a fun side job now has the
potential to become his real job. The U.S. Beer
Drinking Team has numerous projects in the works:
expansion of the radio show into more markets, a
Beer Hall of Fame in Cincinnati in 2007 and a deal
to bring a television version of Beer
Radio--co-hosted by "Chicago Bill"--to a major cable
channel near you.
"A few years ago I thought, this is his 15 minutes,
but now all of these other things keep happening,"
said his wife of 10 years, Angie. "I've been
watching this play out, and I think something's
going to happen--what, I don't know."
"Beer's been a part of my life ever since I was 5
years old, when I sat on a barstool next to my dad
watching Harry Caray drink Falstaff beer on TV,"
Krejci said. "Even if the radio show ended tomorrow,
it would all be worth it. But I have a feeling
people are going to start getting sick of seeing my
face in 2006. That's my goal."
- - -
Special brews for special times
Nursing a train-wreck hangover? It probably has
something to do with that cheap champagne you gulped
down at last night's New Year's Eve party.
But Beer Radio's "Chicago Bill" Krejci says there's
an easy way to ease your noggin next year: Toast
with a high-quality beer instead.
"People drink champagne because it's what you're
supposed to do," he said.
Instead, Krejci recommends heading to your
neighborhood liquor store and asking them to
recommend something special.
"Some high-end Belgian ales are even packaged in
magnums," he noted. "And if you're concerned beer
isn't fancy enough, serve it in a champagne flute."
Krejci recommends popping these brews at your next
big celebration.
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale: Hoppy and complex, a
great winter brew.
Michelob Celebrate: Almost a barley wine, this beer
features vanilla flavors, and its 10 percent alcohol
will warm you up.
Goose Island Christmas Ale: A nutty, spicy holiday
choice that's also very drinkable.
--R.O.
----------
For information about the U.S. Beer Drinking Team or
Beer Radio, go to
www.usbdt.com.
