Hi all,
I hope everyone is surviving the heat. We're getting settled in here in Raleigh and I got a chance to go to my first beer club meeting. There are 2 clubs here, and I went to the one that meets about 20 minutes north of my apartment.
What a let down. They meet in a back room of a tired old restaurant/bar. They had about 6 folding tables set up in a "U" shape and all of the attendees sat around the table. When I showed up, I was one of 10 people. By the time the meeting got going, 3 or 4 more people showed up. There were no announcements about upcoming events or parties. Some of the members brought homebrew, and they passed these around in a structured manner, one by one, with the brewer saying a few words about his beer. None of the beers was that great, in fact I poured a few out into my spit bucket (the one made with prune juice and sage was too much!).
At the end of the month I'll be going to the other club's meeting and I hope that one's better.
Keep brewin'
Bill Dubas
My first "exposure" to Raleigh beer club
Moderator: Jimmy Orkin
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Bill Lawrence
- Posts: 374
- Joined: Tue Jun 27, 2006 8:18 am
Well, you will just have to wip these guys into shape (and I know you can do it). Just organize one of those Belgium tasting deals like you did for the officers meeting a couple of years ago, that was a blast. Once these guys get an idea of what the good stuff is like, then do a brewday and show them how it is done. Pretty soon, they will start making better beer and also find out how to have a good time doing it.
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Mike Grover
- Posts: 331
- Joined: Thu May 18, 2006 8:23 am
Prune juice and sage?!? Was he trying to make beer or stool softener?
Once you settle on a club (or get that one into shape), we should try to do something fun like a beer exchange once a year. It would be fun to swap homebrews and do something like the club only competition - but judging the other club's beers.
I went to my 20-year HS reunion this past weekend. At the Saturday event the only beer they had was...Bud Light! Although, unlike the wine & liquor it was free. So, at least they weren't making people PAY to suffer!
Mike
Once you settle on a club (or get that one into shape), we should try to do something fun like a beer exchange once a year. It would be fun to swap homebrews and do something like the club only competition - but judging the other club's beers.
I went to my 20-year HS reunion this past weekend. At the Saturday event the only beer they had was...Bud Light! Although, unlike the wine & liquor it was free. So, at least they weren't making people PAY to suffer!
Mike
Another guy proudly introduced a beer that he had just brewed last week (yes. . . you heard that right. . . brewed, bottled, and served from a bottle in less than a week). He recited the recipe. I was amused when he read the hop additions. "Two heaping tablespoons of Cascade pellets and 1 heaping tablespoon of Fuggles. . . . . "
Have you found a local HB shop?...It sounds like your going to have to make a lot of homebrew if you want something good to drink at these meetings...lets hope the other club has more to offer.
Sorry your going to miss the FIRST annual Limbo Challenge. Did you enter anything?
We miss you already.
Cheers!
Kelly
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by bdubas</i>
<br />Another guy proudly introduced a beer that he had just brewed last week (yes. . . you heard that right. . . brewed, bottled, and served from a bottle in less than a week). He recited the recipe. I was amused when he read the hop additions. "Two heaping tablespoons of Cascade pellets and 1 heaping tablespoon of Fuggles. . . . . "
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Sorry your going to miss the FIRST annual Limbo Challenge. Did you enter anything?
We miss you already.
Cheers!
Kelly
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by bdubas</i>
<br />Another guy proudly introduced a beer that he had just brewed last week (yes. . . you heard that right. . . brewed, bottled, and served from a bottle in less than a week). He recited the recipe. I was amused when he read the hop additions. "Two heaping tablespoons of Cascade pellets and 1 heaping tablespoon of Fuggles. . . . . "
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I haven't even looked for a homebrew shop yet. I'm not brewing because all of my stuff is in storage until we buy a house. Hopefully that will be by the end of the year. We looked at a house the other day that was on 3/4 acre of land, but the garage was too small to hold 2 cars, a lawn tractor, AND my homebrew equipment. Julie said "We could build a detached garage and you could have your own brewery!" What a great wife!
I must say, Bill, your posts were the talk of the town at the Limbo Challenge judging. I can't get over the boil-to-bottle-and-serve in one week.... Looks like you will have your hands full training.... I mean, I know I've given you bad beers before, but you've never spit them out (at least in front of my face, that is).
We missed you at judging.
Bruce
We missed you at judging.
Bruce
So I went to the other club's meeting last night and the situation was better. The club that I visited last week was the Durham club. The club that I went to last night was the Raleigh club.
Like the Durham club, the Raleigh club meets in a restaurant, but in this case it's a lunch-only restaurant that's on the ground floor of an office building. It's not open for dinner, so the owner gives them the keys so that they can let themselves in and hold their meetings there. It was strange going in to an office building, normally full of doctors and law offices during the day, to have a homebrew club meeting.
The meeting format was the same. . . . all of the members sat quietly around the tables and homebrew was passed around in an orderly fashion, with the brewer reciting his recipe and any special brewday tidbits. The members offered their opinions and suggestions.
The beers passed around were very good. There was one that I think Bruce would like. The guy put oak chips in his oven under the broiler until they were VERY VERY toasted. He then soaked them in Southern Comfort. These were added to the secondary, along with one gallon of very strong coffee to top the batch up to 5 gallons. Oh, and the recipe used 1.5 lbs of roasted malt. To say this beer was roasty would be an understatement! That was my least favorite beer. My favorite was a rye IPA.
Another cool thing is that I met a former Dallas native and Denton Fermented Brewers member. He and his wife left Dallas in 1995 to come to Raleigh. He asked about Russ Bee, Tom Henderson, Al Kinchen, and a couple other "old-timers".
The members were very friendly and I was one of the last people to leave because everyone came by to introduce themselves after the meeting.
Bill
Like the Durham club, the Raleigh club meets in a restaurant, but in this case it's a lunch-only restaurant that's on the ground floor of an office building. It's not open for dinner, so the owner gives them the keys so that they can let themselves in and hold their meetings there. It was strange going in to an office building, normally full of doctors and law offices during the day, to have a homebrew club meeting.
The meeting format was the same. . . . all of the members sat quietly around the tables and homebrew was passed around in an orderly fashion, with the brewer reciting his recipe and any special brewday tidbits. The members offered their opinions and suggestions.
The beers passed around were very good. There was one that I think Bruce would like. The guy put oak chips in his oven under the broiler until they were VERY VERY toasted. He then soaked them in Southern Comfort. These were added to the secondary, along with one gallon of very strong coffee to top the batch up to 5 gallons. Oh, and the recipe used 1.5 lbs of roasted malt. To say this beer was roasty would be an understatement! That was my least favorite beer. My favorite was a rye IPA.
Another cool thing is that I met a former Dallas native and Denton Fermented Brewers member. He and his wife left Dallas in 1995 to come to Raleigh. He asked about Russ Bee, Tom Henderson, Al Kinchen, and a couple other "old-timers".
The members were very friendly and I was one of the last people to leave because everyone came by to introduce themselves after the meeting.
Bill
I saw just saw this:
One week until ready to drink
Submitted by TheHomebrewer on Sat, 06/10/2006 - 10:11pm.
The current issue of BYO Magazine has an article that discusses brewing beers that are ready to drink in a week. 1 week from brewday to drink day. It presents several suggestions for shortcutting the process. The basics are to brew a low gravity beer (original gravity of 1.040 or less), using a yeast starter, and kegging instead of bottling. They also included a few recipes.
? add new comment | read more
One week until ready to drink
Submitted by TheHomebrewer on Sat, 06/10/2006 - 10:11pm.
The current issue of BYO Magazine has an article that discusses brewing beers that are ready to drink in a week. 1 week from brewday to drink day. It presents several suggestions for shortcutting the process. The basics are to brew a low gravity beer (original gravity of 1.040 or less), using a yeast starter, and kegging instead of bottling. They also included a few recipes.
? add new comment | read more