Since this is last newsletter for the first half of the year, it includes a ballot for the election of club officers. If you are unable to attend the June club meeting for the election festivities, as a dues paying member you are requested to cast your vote and send the ballot to the address provided or give your ballot to a member who will be in attendance. In the August newsletter we will announce the results as well as present the new board of directors.
The first half of the year witnessed a sizeable number of victories for club members in various competitions. Besides the numerous awards garnered at the Drunk Monk Challenge, many of those winning entries went on to place at the BOSS competition (where the Knaves came very close to unseating the host club for the Chicago Cup) and the AHA Nationals first round of judging. In other competitions, two members were awarded the coveted "Pub Brewer for a Day" prize for having the best beer of the competition. Mike Uchima's Alt was selected as the best entry at the Founders Hill annual single style competition (see accompanying article) and was well received by the masses at the Spring Brewers Fest in mid May. On the other side of the state, Rich Janevicius' signature Raspberry Wheat was recognized as Best of Show at the Muddy Waters Homebrew Competition held recently in the Quad Cities. No word yet on when Rich's beer will be on tap at the Blue Cat for those of you inclined to take a road trip out west. Stay tuned for further details.
Another club-wide brewing experiment was proposed at a recent board of directors meeting which would be structured similar to last year's Yeast Common Denominator effort - this time focusing on the hop component. We're still in the planning stages at this point, but are looking for members who would be interested in participating. Recipes and ingredients will be provided by the club. We'll most likely be brewing smaller batches than last time and trying out some of the newer hop varieties. At press time we were still trying to secure a hop supplier that would be willing to donate small samples for the experiment. If you are interested in taking part, please contact me at the meetings, Social Nights, or 630-964-9172. We hope to conduct the evaluations at the October club meeting.
Also in the later half of the year we are planning a pub crawl in St. Charles which will be incorporated into the September Social Night on September 11. I would like to thank Curt Czapski and Chris Campanelli for proposing and bringing their idea to reality. As you may have heard, a number of new pubs have recently opened and a brew pub is on the drawing board (hopefully to open by Sept.). The crawl will likely start mid-afternoon with 4-5 stops on the itinerary. A complete schedule will be published in the August newsletter. So mark your calendars now for this late summer stroll along the Fox.
As always, if you have any other suggestions for club activities, let me know via any of the means mentioned previously or e-mail dproksa@anexsys.com .
A beer advertisement in a free magazine for gays and lesbians that shows two men (gasp!) holding hands has drawn so much response that Anheuser-Busch Inc.set up special hot lines to handle the calls. The ad for Bud Light in the April 22 issue of EXP magazine says "Be Yourself and Make It a Bud Light," and carries a tagline saying "Proud sponsor of the St. Louis Pridefest '99". PrideFest is a gay and lesbian festival held in June. Leaders in the gay community urged people to call A-B in support of the ad. Conservative Christain leader Jerry Falwell urged his followers to call Anheuser-Busch too. "Let's keep the heat on Anheuser-Busch so that they understand that pro-family Americans are terribly concerned about homosexual images coming into our homes through reckless advertising campaigns," Falwell wrote in his Falwell Confidential. In their reply, A-B said, "It's surprising to us that one print ad placed in select gay-oriented magazines has attracted attention. Today's consumer is not one of a specific gender, race, geography or orientation. We appreciate the views of of all our customers." (Note to Augie Busch - I checked this morning, and I do have a specific gender. Just thought you should know.)
I am not sure if this item belongs under the good or bad news column. Remember Bob and Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) from SCTV's Great White North? Back in 1983 they made the movie Stange Brew which attained something of a cult hit status. Well, the two beer guzzling canuck brothers are at it again. Dave Thomas' Maple Palm Productions has secured financing for Home Brew, a new film for the 2 hosers, which starts filming in Toronto July 12. Fellow SCTV'er Paul Flaherty (aka Count Floyd) will direct and word is Dan Akroyd may get involved with the project. Mmmm...is that back bacon I'm smelling?
The Belfast Telegraph reported that Caffrey's Irish Ale, brewed at the Ulster Brewery in Belfast, is the subject of an intense $5 million marketing campaign. In a joint venture between Bass Beers Worldwide and Guinness Import Co., Caffrey's is being imported into the USA by the re-named Guinness Bass Import Co. Andy Glaser, regional director of th Americas, Bass Beers Worldwide said that over the last 10 years there had been a smal revolution in American beer drinking habits. "We believe the next big beer idea to rock America will be nitrogenated beers as they did in the UK and Caffrey's will be at the vanguard. Consumers are primed and ready. We have identified a target consumer and have termed them the 'taste beer rookie'. They are consumers who would like to be able to enjoy these darker beers, but find the fuller flavors and tastes rather too challenging." Having tasted it, I can testify that "rookie" beer drinker or not, Caffrey's offers no "fuller flavors or tastes."
You don't have to be a baseball fan to know about Harry Caray. He did most of his work at the ballyard, but as pitchman for Budweiser, Harry was "on" 24 hours a day. Caray became an icon to his Chicago fans, and after passing away in 1997, the Chicago Cubs have continued to remind their fans of their recently departed cheerleader. They have released an audio CD of famous Harry moments, sell Harry T-shirts in their gift shop, and this spring they unveiled a 7-foot bronze statue of the man himself. The statue shows Harry posed to lead the crowd for his famous "7th-Inning-Stretch" rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballpark". One hand clutches a microphone while the other is outstretched to direct the fans. The fans have responded to this tribute with a gesture of their own. Not a day passes without someone placing a bottle or can of Budweiser in the statue's free hand. This has not pleased Kathleen Van Ella, the agent for the sculptors who created the statue. She claims her clients are not happy with the amatuer additions. "On the one hand, I smile with the fans," Van Ella said. "On the other hand, I'm an art professional, and we cringe about this happening on a consistent basis. My first interest is in the integrity of the art design." Wrigley Field Security occasionally shoos away statue-climbers, but they don't view this as any sort of desecration. Grant DePorter, managing partner of Harry Caray's Restaurant, thinks his old friend would have been proud to be immortalized in a beer-hoisting pose-so long as the beer was a Budweiser. "Harry started as a spokesman for Budweiser in 1954," DePorter said. "He drank heavily all his life. One night, we sat around and figured he drank 70,000 beers in his lifetime-not BudLite, not Miller, just Bud." DePorter added, "We counted up a bunch of other drinks too-but I don't want to comment on that number.
What's the chances of running across a microbrewery in the Caribbean ? Actually pretty good if you happen to fly or cruise to Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. Located in the town of Prospect on the south shore of Grand Cayman is a 3 year old 30 barrel brewery that produces a fresh, local product primarily for the large expatriate population as well as the thousands of tourists that visit almost daily.
In order to distinguish itself from the standard Caribbean light lager faire (Corona, Caribe, Heineken, Red Stripe, etc.), Stingray's flagship beer is an Altbier which is both bottled and kegged. Their "seasonal" selection was a bock which was only available on draft. I thought it somewhat unusual to find a bock beer being brewed in the Caribbean - after all, rarely does the temperature fall below 70 degrees.
If it appears that there is a strong German influence to the product line, it's probably no coincidence since the brewmaster, Andreas Moerl, is of German descent. The European influence carries over to the brewhouse which was fabricated and shipped from Hungary (Stingray's owner is Hungarian). Andreas currently brews twice each week. Marketing is limited to print, radio, billboard, and word-of-mouth. Cayman law does not permit local breweries to advertise on television. Consequently, since virtually all programming is pulled off of satellite, the benefactors are the biggies (A-B, Miller, Heineken ...).
So if your future travels allow you to visit the Caymans, try a Stingray - the beer that is.
While a contingent of UKG members were busy with pencil in hand lending their judging expertise to the AHA Nationals first round at Goose Island Brewery on April 17th, Mike Uchima was about 20 miles west with mash paddle in hand presiding over the brewing of his award winning Altbier at Founders Hill in Downers Grove. This day of brewing was Mike's "reward" for his entry being chosen best example of style in Founder's annual single style competition. Actually, Mike is probably becoming very familiar with Founder's brewhouse operation since he won the same event last year; that time for his IPA.
Mike may have to relinquish the mash paddle next year as fellow Knaves, Phil Gravel and John Mains, came in a close second and third with their Alt entries. Mike has very graciously agreed to share his recipe with the club and is reprinted here with his permission.
Mike's "Apocalypse Alt", (3 gallons):
Malt:
3 lbs Pilsener malt
3 lbs Munich malt (6.5L)
4 oz German crystal malt (20L)
1 oz black malt (580L)
Mash:
130F for 20 mins
raise to 150-152F and hold until conversion complete
Hops:
1.4 oz Mt Hood (5.1%AA) @ 60 mins
0.5 oz Mt Hood @ 30 mins
Total boil time: 60 minutes
Yeast: Wyeast 1007 (German Ale)
OG=1.054, FG=1.014
Don't forget to hoist a cold one in the direction of LaCrosse Wisconsin next July 30. That's the day that Stroh's Brewery Co. expects to shut down the brewery there. The move will put 500 workers in the unemployment line. Stroh's bought the plant from G. Heilemann's in 1996, but announced last February that it was leaving the beer business, selling its brands to Miller and Pabst, and selling its Lehigh Valley PA brewery to Pabst.
It's small consolation that the US is not the only country to waste its money on stupid research projects. In Canada the Alberta Health Foundation for Medical Research has given $69,000 to Dr. Tara MacDonald of the University of Lethbridge to study the effects of alcohol on decision-making.
My guess is just about any club member could come up with the right answer on only half that amount of money; but you get the big bucks only if you have the "Dr." in front of your name. So after three years, the good doctor MacDonald said her research, "suggests alcohol makes people focus on pleasure and ignore the consequence of their actions." (Gee, I wonder when she will have hard data on that?) Who could have possibly guessed such a shocking conclusion? Next I imagine she will suggest that this is why people actually consume alcohol!
Clem Stanton, from Little Rock, AK wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. Seems the liquor store window was made of Plexi-Glass. The whole event was caught on videotape.
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Last modified 7/14/99.