May 1997, Volume 20, Issue 5

April Events

Roger St. Denis ran April’s meeting while Charlie was out of town. We welcomed our newest member Bob Fitzgerald to the Club. Bob is relatively new to homebrewing and is just setting up his equipment in Hayward.

Business included preparations for the Walnut Creek Pub Crawl and the Group Brew-in at May’s meeting. Full articles appear later on in this newsletter.

The Draught Board kicked off its first round table discussion. April’s topic was grain. "Grain" is such a huge topic that it was difficult to get a starting point. But soon, one question lead to another and some key issues were brought out. For example, "How long does stored grain last?" Maybe 3-5 years, but that depends on storage conditions, with moisture content as a big factor. To eliminate moisture, choose an air-tight container. This also keeps out "bugs." So, how can you tell if you have bugs among grain? Look for white powder. And there seems to be much less bugs with highly roasted grains. So, how do you roast your own grains, and what gives a "nut" character? Belgian Special B at 350 ° F for "a while" gives a raisin-to-nuts flavor. Also, toasting should be done 1-3 weeks prior to use, to mellow out a "harshness" (which needs further research.)

Bob Jones passed around some German smoked malt to sample, which is much different than the over-powering peated malt.

Roger reported on the American Pale Ale kit that he and John Pyles tested. It was easy: just pour the pre-boiled sweet wort into the carboy, add water and yeast. There’s even a toll-free 800 number for customer support. The 6-gallon recipe had OG=1.040, FG=1.014, and tastes to style. All-in-all it was a nice, easy, fail-safe package.

Bob Jones brought the show-and-tell gadget-of-the-month. A 3-gallon tank with a tap mounted directly to the tank. Complete with Barleywine too!