Jack Of All Brews July 2015 Meeting Recap

Hey folks!  This is the quick recap of this past week's Jack Of All Brews Homebrew Club meeting.  We meet the second Friday of the month with a variable theme, so put it on your calendars now!  This month we had a fairly small crowd (about 15) but that's never shocking in the busy summer months.

Brewcred:

1) Josh Welch will be brewing up his Sundrop summer ale with Waconia Brewing Company as the grand prize in the inaugural JAB/Waconia Brewing Competition.  I'll post details once we have a brew to try!

2) Mike Behrendt's Pub Ale is currently on tap at Schram Vineyards Winery & Brewery!

Upcoming Events:

1) Minnesota State Fair Homebrew Competition--this is one of the premier comps in the state and is run by one of our favorite other clubs the Primary Fermenters!  Registration is now open.

2) Carver County Fair--Entry drop off is Aug 3 from 5PM to 8:30PM, or Aug 4 from 8AM to Noon.  Free entry!  Check details of what to enter HERE.  Registration is HERE.

3) All Club Campout--This is from 7/31-8/2 near Cold Spring, MN.  Details are HERE on the the MN Homebrewer's site.

Talk:

This month I gave a talk on making tinctures for addition to beers, meads, ciders, and cocktails.  We tried some of my Belgian Strong with a few drops of hibiscus tincture which changed the aroma and taste just a bit.  I also demonstrated the ease of adding vodka (or you could use everclear) to dried elderberries in a mason jar to start out a tincture for future use.  I hope to use some homemade bitters for a beer cocktail demo soon...


Mash Paddle:

This month's theme was fruit beers, and we had 8 entries for the Golden Mash Paddle.  Several of these were fruited versions of the group lambic experiment from almost 2 years ago.  In order we tasted them:
Joe L.--Orange Kolsch
John F.--Raspberry Rhubarb Cream Ale
Anna O.--Raspberry Wheat
Mike L.--Strawsome (strawberry lambic)
Andrew G.--Stawberry Lambic
Mike L.--Peachness (peach lambic)
Eric W.--Cherry Red (cherry Flanders Red)
Eric W.--Cherry Rhubarb Lambic

And the winner was Eric Wentling (that's ME!) for Cherry Rhubarb.  We had several grain, hop, and swag giveaways for everyone who entered this month.  Put those things to good use!

Next Month:

Next meeting is August 14 starting at 6:30 at Mike and Joan Behrendt's place in Eden Prairie.  We will be having special guest Steve Piatz (author of The Complete Mead Guide to Mead Making) giving us a talk about mead!  The theme of the month is of course also mead, so bring your meads to share and for the monthly Golden Mash Paddle contest!  And maybe you'll learn something to improve your meads in the future.  Also Steve will be bringing some copies of his book to sell and sign so bring some money if you want one.  I already have my copy!

Jack Of All Brews April Meeting Recap

This month the Jack Of All Brews homebrew club met the SawBones Brewery (my basement bar) for the April 2015 meeting.  Here is a brief recap for those who missed it, or want more details!

1) Upcoming competitions
a) First Round Nationals--Judged 4/10-4/11 in Roseville in the dank caves beneath the VFW.
b) Lucid BFD--April 11 deadline
c) Waconia Brewing Pro-Am--Deadline April 18.  Contact me to arrange drop off to me, not the brewery.

2) May Meeting at John Focht's place.  Details to follow...

3) June Meeting: we still need someone to host this one, as myself and Mike Lebben are going to be out of town that weekend.

4) Off Flavor tasting:  Since we couldn't force ourselves to get a macro-brew to mix these vials of nasty into, Steven picked up some Grain Belt for the tasting.  We tried "Grainy", "Hefewiezen", and "Lactic".  The grainy one was pretty tough, since the aroma was worse than the flavor.

5) Pizza!  We had Unhinged Pizza delivered for those who showed up. We are going to try to get food for more meetings per the results of our JAB Survey.  If having food, we will post this on the Facebook group with the other details of the meeting.

6) Mash Paddle: Open category this month, so we had all sorts of cool beers to try ranging from IPA to mead to spice beers.  The winner was Ben Ducklow with an impressively good Lavender Ale that didn't taste like Grandma's bathroom!

7) Melt-Down

9) Next Month:  Mash paddle style is dark or amber lagers.  If we have less than 2 entrants we may open up the category to make it more fun.

Jack Of All Brews March 2015 Meeting Wrap-Up

JAB March 2015 Meeting!

This month Mike and Kristin Lebben were willing to open up their basement bar and brewing area for our meeting.  Thanks guys!  Here is a recap for those who couldn't make it, or who wanted more details...

Upcoming Events:

1) Lucid BFD contest--Register Feb 26-April 4.

2) Judging first round of NHC April 10-11

For those who haven't renewed dues for 2015, now is the time!  At least one of the local homebrew shops has been checking dates on cards and last year's is expired...Also please buy our hoodies so I can get them out of my house.  If you want one contact me or Steven!!!!

Review of JAB survey results: 23 responses

1) 60% wanted more field trips

2) Make-up of club: 65% intermediate, 21% expert, 14% noob

3) 40% would be willing to do BJCP class--however Primary Fermenters are working on one as well...

4) People expect to get to anywhere from 2-all of the meetings (average 5) with special occasions, work, and kids being the biggest barriers.

5) For mash paddle categories 52% want broader categories.  This certainly widens the options for bringing more beers and winning.  However this does cut down our ability to focus on specific styles of beer for learning/education purposes.

6) Involvement:  Not a lot here guys!  A couple people said they could host meetings once basements were finished--so just say the word when you are ready!  I think it might not be a bad idea to have one of our members give a short (2-5 minute) talk about a beer style monthly.  People learn by doing and by teaching, so this may be a way to get more involvement and teach our members who don't consider themselves experts...

7) Communication:  100% want to communicate via Facebook group.  We are letting JAB@thebarn go, since that has been not functioning well for us this past year.  We will look into an alternate e-mail list with only 1-2 monthly reminders of meetings or events--if people are interested.

8) Club funds:  Not a lot of interest in swag this year.  Split between larger club items like beergun and brewing equipment vs. food/beer for meetings.  We will come up with a plan for providing food at some of the meetings...the big issue is we never know if there will be 8 people or 30 showing up.

9) Mike Lebben suggested a mentorship program pairing more experienced brewers with less experienced ones.  65% of the group said they would be interested in this.  Thoughts?

10) Monthly social events: 82% of the group are interested in monthly social meetings of the club.  These would be more informal hang-out events at local breweries and pubs.  We will start our first one this month.

11) Several people mentioned concerns about homebrew taking a back seat to commercial beers at meetings, as well as the focus being more on drinking than education.  I think these are legitimate concerns.  I certainly think that we should limit commercial beer tasting to take place after all the homebrews are sampled--except if we are tasting commercial examples of the style of the month.  I do want to organize our mash paddle tasting to be a little more regimented, but do not want to take the "fun" out of our meetings.  However, I personally like the chance to share some rare beers with other beer geeks, so maybe we make that all happen in the "meltdown" time after all our official business is done.  

Whew!  I probably spent too much time on this at the meeting, putting everyone to sleep.  However, I felt this was important since it is a snapshot of what the club is interested in.  As always we want the club to be responsive to our member's desires, but in the end the decisions are made by your elected board members.  If you have concerns or questions, please talk to us.  Or run for office yourself next year and get more official power to use for good or evil!  

Talk on Brew Sculptures: 

Joe attempting to bring order from chaos...Or giving a talk at a brewclub meeting...

Joe Lushine was kind enough to give us a fairly extensive talk about brew sculptures.  He covered from basic to expensive store-bought devices.  If I didn't already have a sculpture, I would be itching to get/make one after that talk!  We were also able to ogle Mike's Sabco system in the basement as a nice reference.

Style of the Month:  Irish Red

I did a quick review of the style guidelines from BJCP and we tasted a commercial example of the beer (Smithwicks) thanks Mike B. for bringing that!  Mash paddle was a small sample size this month with only Anna's Irish Lass and my Craic Kills as the contenders.  I would be willing to say that both of our beers were better than the Smithwicks.  The voting was tight with SawBones Brewery getting 9 votes and Irate Princess Brewing getting 7.  

We also tried other homebrews from JAB members, but we had less than usual available.  Mostly we drank a lot of Mike's excellent beers from his huge and well-stocked Keezer.  Professional brewer Tim Roets also brought along some test batches of mead and cyser for feedback, that were quite tasty!

This meeting we waited until the homebrews were all finished before cracking into more commercial beers and I think that worked out really well to cut the chaos and make sure everyone got to try the homebrews.

Overall, a great meeting with a lot of education!  Next Month we get a talk about high gravity brewing from Mike Lebben, and Open Mash Paddle category!  

Jack Of All Brews February 2015 Meeting: "Where you can find IPA's that don't suck!"

For the February Jack Of All Brews Homebrew Club meeting we met up at my place in Waconia.  We had a pretty good showing with between 20-25 members (I was too lazy to actually count.)

BrewCred since last meeting:
Upper Mississippi Mash Out--Brett Lincoln 1st place Barleywines, Eric Wentling (me!) 1st in Spice/Herb/Veg and 3rd in Barleywines.

Dues &Shirts:  We still have many XL and XXL hoodies for sale and Sj wants them out of our house!  Contact Steven to buy one.  If you haven't renewed dues yet this year also talk to Steven--Jim brought our new member cards this month as well so you grab those if needed.

March Meeting topic will be brew sculptures, and the style of the month will be Irish Reds.

Upcoming Competitions:

1) March Mashness in St. /Cloud taking entries now through March 1.

2) 1st Round Nationals: Entries already done but judging is April 10-11 if you are interested in helping out.

Survey:  I released a survey on the Facebook Group in which we hope to gather some intel on what the make-up and desires of our club is like these days.  Please fill it out!

After official business, we broke open a few of the little brown vials of the off-flavor kit to taste some terrible flavors!  We poured each vial into a pitcher filled with Grain Belt (because I couldn't get myself to buy Bud Lite) for what JAB members lovingly called "roofie night".  We tasted through Metallic, Diacetyl, and Bitter--making Grain Belt even worse.  This also led to the great quote of the night: "Make the pennies go away!"

Washing the taste of dirty pennies and buttered popcorn from our palates, we moved on to our Mash Paddle style of the month: IPA!  We had 5 versions that evening with the Mash Paddle going to Mike Lebben for his extract Warrior IPA.  Second place went to Keith Brady for his Living in AmeRakau.  Every one of these beers was stellar and I would have been happy to find them on tap anywhere.  This sentiment prompted Tim Roets to ask the rhetorical question: "Where do you get IPA's that don't suck?  Homebrew club!"

Mike Lebben wins the Golden Mash Paddle!  With intense photobombing by Tim!

JAB Holiday Party Wrap-Up (Unwrap-Up?)

Just a quick review for those were not able to make it!  The Jack Of All Brews Holiday party has been going strong since our first Christmas pot-luck at Brett Schneider's place in Waconia (I think in 2006!)   And yes I will say Holidays, since we have members from different faiths in our mixed group of misfits!  From our very small first gathering we have continued several traditions.  We always encourage spouses to come to the party (and all meetings if they want!) so that we all get to know each other better.  This year Mike and Kristin Lebben were kind enough to invite our rowdy bunch of homebrewers into their basement bar.  Having just finished painting the basement, they improvised an awesome Christmas tree for us to use!

We continued our tradition of pot-luck and this year we had quite the glut of cocktail weenies and different specimens of meatballs!  There was plenty of food to go around as always.

And this wasn't all of it!  MEAT!!!

Of course we raided Mike's amazing kegerator, quickly emptying his stock of Cranberry Cider, Willie Nelson inspired "Always On My Mind Pale Ale," and bourbon barrel aged "Her Majesty's Purr."  We all spent time ogling Mike's Sabco brew system looming in the basement like some shiny religious idol to the gods of brewing.

Many amazing homebrews and commercial beers were cracked and passed around.  I vaguely remember some great Roets Mead and Cider concoctions figuring in there somewhere.  Others I remember are: Sierra Nevada Celebration ale, a disgusting sour travesty of a brown ale, overpriced swill from Guiness called The 1759, Keith Brady's wicked good IPA, Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza, and Alesmith Wee Heavy...to name a few!

We had door prizes of beers and beer memorabilia to hand out as well!

And of course the crowning glory of the party is the blind gift exchange!  Here everyone who wanted to take part brought a wrapped or bagged beer-related gift to put under the ghetto tree.  Then drawing names everyone got a turn picking out a gift.  We had some pretty impressive rare beers hiding in that pile!  Thanks to all who helped out and all who came for the festivities.  I look forward to doing it all again next year.

JAB Cider Pressing

Having just arrived back in Minnesota after a long trip down South, where Summer is still in full bloom and 80 degree days still the norm, the sudden transformation into full-blown Fall was a bit of a shock.  Tim Roets, Jack of All Brews' Secretary, had organized a cider pressing event at Sponsel's Minnesota Harvest Orchard in Jordan for us prior to my departure, and I was able to get out there on Sunday the 13th of October.  In about 2007 our club bought an old wooden cider press that would look at home in an 1890's museum.  In my opinion this type of shared purchase is one of the best things about belonging to a homebrew club.  We had one organized pressing at Deardorff Orchard shortly after that, and then smaller group and family pressings since.  I haven't used the thing since that first year and was happy to get another chance to see it in action.

The day broke with a startling fiery red sunrise upon the horizon.  The air was a sharp 53 degrees against my skin as I settled into my car for the drive to Jordan--about 30 minutes from my home in Waconia.  The country warble of Fred Eaglesmith twanged from the speakers in my car, singing about old cars, bootleg hooch, crazy women and (of course) trains.  Yellow leaves flitted across my windshield, blown about by a light, crisp breeze.  Over the river into Belle Plaine, past old firehouses, churches and 60's era maintenance shops.  Then onto Old Highway 169, aged and nearly empty, but still flat and picturesque country road.  On the left: an abandoned filling station with a single sad child's stroller parked on the trash littered concrete of its parking lot, throwing a long shadow against the faded and boarded up building.  Soon I was winding up a wooded hill and then following hand-painted wooded signs for the orchard--promising pumpkins, apple picking, petting zoo, and most intriguing: apple catapult!  I wound my way into thick forest canopy, yellow and orange leaves glinting in the early morning sun and swirling from road in my wake.  Old Fred continued to sing of lost love and Blue Tick hounds.  The trip up to this point had a surreal feel to it that is hard to convey--a feel of rural life, age, and the death of yet another Summer.

When I found myself on the orchard grounds, I felt that I had stepped into Fall incarnate.  The cool air, the smell of dry leaves and earth, the woodsmoke from the BBQ food truck, the flash of orange from an enormous mound off pumpkins--all assailed the senses at once.  I parked in the already busy grass parking area, and headed to a large white event tent that was set up for my crew.  Kent, Joe and Bob (and spouses) were already setting up the antediluvian press when I arrived.  A large pallet of Haralson apples had been left for us, as well as an empty to collect our apple leavings for the farm's goats to gorge upon.  A line of empty carboys, including my own, cried out to be filled with the sweet and sticky nectar of the apple.  In order to get the most juice from a apple it has to be ground into chunks before crushing, and somewhere along the line one of our men had hooked the ancient wooden press up to a motor for more efficient apple grinding. 

Not really Tidy Cat...

With a trickle of JAB members coming in over time we expanded our process, eventually finding a rhythm and a job for everyone to do.  Two to three people would dunk the sometimes muddy groundfall apples into buckets of water to rinse them off, then cut out any glaringly bad spots before throwing them into a collection bucket for the grind.  The water was bone-chillingly cold, leading to icy and numb fingers.  By the end of the day most of us were wielding our short and shining knives like miniature elven blades.  Rinse.  Scrub.  Stab.  Rotate.  Plop in the bucket.  Repeat.  Sarah and Debbie were like whirling dervishes with those knives.

Two men would run the ghetto motor and drop the cleaned and pared apples whole into the whirring grinder.  This part of process brought to mind visions of Stephen King's The Mangler, a story about a cursed industrial laundry press that gets possessed by a demonic entity and results in multiple "accidents."  Thankfully all digits remained in place at the end of the day's work.  A spray of white apple chunks would squirt and thump out the bottom of the grinder, into the waiting mesh-lined wooden bucket. 

When the bucket was filled and flattened, the wood top was placed over it and the hard work began.  With an old carved wooden pole placed atop the press, the press-gang would wind the huge screw down onto the waiting filled bucket and soon sweet brownish apple juice would trickle from between the wood slats into a waiting flat box.  When the whole wooden press would start to creak its outrage at this treatment, they would stop cranking and let the cider flow for a few minutes.

Catching the cider in a large tub, we would then run it into a carboy or bucket after passing it through a strainer to catch larger chunks, debris and yellow-jacket wasps (thankfully not many of those on this cool day.)  Each bucket of apples led to a bit under 1.5 gallons of cider.  We checked the specific gravity and it came out to around 1.056.
The bag of apple pomice (crushed apple guts) was then emptied into our apple graveyard, which was entirely full by the end of the day's pressing.

Periodically groups would head out on foot with a red wagon, or hop on the tractor to find more distant game--looking for sweeter apples to tone down the tartness of the Haralsons we already had.  The kids in the group had a great time doing this and helping out in myriad other ways, making this a full family affair.

This particular day was incredibly busy, striking me as the result of some twisted pairing between the Renaissance Festival and an apple orchard.  Thousands of people milled about the grounds, buying pumpkins, hopping on tractors to pick apples, and just enjoying the fine day.  The country strains of Willie Nelson (or at least a fantastic facsimile) floated from the main building.  Our cider pressing operation soon attracted groups of the milling throng, ogling our progress and asking many questions.  Several of the JAB members took turns fielding questions and demonstrating our process, as well as talking up the club and handing out flyers.  Still a bit exhausted from my recent trip, I sat back a bit more than I probably should have as president of the club.  Later in the afternoon Brent and Randy from Midwest Supplies arrived and brought their fancy technologically advanced stainless steel bladder press along with them.  At that point we had two presses going at once, one nearly unchanged from the 1800's and the other using space age technology.  Ours was more fun to watch!  I'm glad those guys showed up and helped us out or we never would have made it through the whole batch!

High Tech

Sooner than expected, our 5:00 PM finish time arrived, corresponding to running out of apples and topping off the last of Shawn's carboy.  I had expected to stay a few hours, get my cider and then head home.  Instead I spent nearly 7 hours lugging buckets, picking and cleaning apples, and more.  Though I wished Sj had been there with me, I had a remarkable day among friends and strangers.  This was certainly the most effort and time-consuming batch of cider I'll ever make, but well worth it.  With a sore back and a smile on my face, I hauled my carboys of sloshing raw cider to my car and headed back toward Waconia.  Now the sun was lowering and shining through the half-denuded trees with a startling orange glow.  A large bald eagle launched itself from a tree beside the road and swooped so close to my car that I could see the dying sunlight glint from its yellow reptilian eyes.  A magical moment.

Closer to home I discovered the price for driving on dirt and less traveled roads.  As I drove back through Belle Plaine, my car's tire sensors went off, alerting me to a tire pressure of 28 psi in the rear passenger tire.  The wonders of modern technology continued to demonstrate a slow and steady drop in pressure as I desperately tried to get all the way home before the tire completely went out on me.  27 psi as I left the outskirts of town.  26 psi as I made my way past desolate corn fields.  25 psi as I entered the outskirts of Cologne.  24 psi as I pulled into my driveway in Waconia.  Wiping cold sweat from my brow, I chocked the tires and pulled out the jack.  With superhuman effort (requiring me to literally jump up and down on the lug wrench) I managed to get the lug nuts off, and then throw on the donut from the trunk.  Not a perfect end to an otherwise perfect day, but that is often the way life is.

Thanks again to the fine folks at Minnesota Harvest Orchard and Midwest Supplies!  And special thanks to up-and-coming professional brewmaster Tim Roets!

JAB Barrel Exploits

I thought it was about time for an update on the Jack Of All Brews barrel experience!  Our red wine barrel arrived ahead of schedule, resulting in us scrambling a bit to get things organized.  We came up with a recipe for a Bier de Garde, a malty but earthy and sometimes funky French farmhouse style arising in the area bordering on Belgium.  We felt that this style would be a good showcase for the red wine and wood flavors from the barrel and I think this was a fantastic choice looking back.  Andrew needed to keep the barrel moist with water while we all brewed up the beer that would eventually take up residence within.  Some of the wine character was lost by this process, but we needed to keep a tight seal on the barrel staves or risk leakage and infection of our future beer.  Keep in mind that this is a 55 gallon beast that is quite difficult to move when empty and nigh impossible when full.  The most difficult part of the entire process was really the coordination of getting all the folks who were interested in taking part:  getting the beers brewed and then getting all of those beers together in one place!

When all was finally prepared a group of us including Andrew, Keith, Joe, Mike L., Mark G., myself and Sj met in Andrew's basement to fill this bad boy!  There was a brief tasting where we sampled each beer that was to go into the wood.  Taking a cue from the guys at Nordeast Brewers Alliance (who have been working on multiple barrels) we used the two-thumbs down rule: if two of us gave the beer a thumbs down, it would not make it into the barrel.  This is important to prevent putting a sour or infected beer in with all the others and essentially ruining the entire 55 gallon batch!  Most of the beers tasted similar with only one beer garnering a single thumbs-down.  We debated this a bit but decided that the flavors we were picking up were yeast derived and not infection.  We then took turns racking beer from the collection of plastic and glass carboys into the now empty barrel.  We of course drank some of Andrew's beer whilst doing this.  We ended up a bit short on beer, and in order to decrease the oxygen containing head space in the barrel added several gallons of Andrew's Belgian Dark Strong to the mix.  Since the base beer was fairly simple, we thought that this would only increase complexity and not drastically influence the entire beer.

Once all the beers were safely ensconced in their new wooden home, we left Andrew to clean up our mess.  As self-assigned cellar master, he would then periodically sample the beer to decide when it was ready. 

Last month the pioneers of the barrel project met again at Andrew's home fermentery to drain the barrel.  At first this was easy, but as the level of beer dropped, the height differential between the empty carboy and the barrel decreased--resulting in a very slow siphon.  They were able to lift up the barrel as it became lighter and stack some wooden planks beneath it to continue the process.  I had to leave early to pick up Sj from the airport and missed all the heavy lifting...so sad! 

The final product was an interesting beer to say the least!
Aroma: Hints of toffee and sweetness with a spice (nutmeg, cardamom?) tinge.  Slight fruity esters as it warms.  A bit of alcohol possibly.
Appearance:  Deep mahogany amber color with a mild haziness.  Fine white head that fades to edge of glass quickly.
Flavor/mouthfeel: Has an initial maltiness but is not nearly as sweet as the aroma would lead one to believe.  This has a similar spicy flavor that hinted at in the aroma.  There is a red wine tannic note as it warms that results in a dry and slightly astringent finish.  This evens out the sweetness nicely.  There is a bit of alcohol warming but does not seem too boozy.
Impression:  A very complex beer that has sweetness and spiciness as well as an earthy and tannic finish.  An interesting take on the Bier de Garde style, but would fit equally well as a spiced Old Ale.

Once one has a barrel, you want to keep using it!  With most of the wood character leached out into the wine and then the JAB de Garde, we didn't think that much would be added by doing another regular beer.  So the third life of this barrel will be to house a sour beer!  This time we came up with a ball-park recipe for a lambic using some wheat and pilsner or 2-row malt with a bit of malto-dextrin. Most of the brewers just used a regular clean American ale yeast for the primary fermentation.  I used the Wyeast Lambic blend for both of mine, while Andrew used a mixed culture of yeasts from Cantillon and a couple other famous lambic producers that he has been propagating over the past year.  The base beer for this one is pretty simple with most of the unusual flavors derived from the wild yeasts and bacteria. 

Again organizing the process of brewing and gathering was the hard part!  But thanks to the JAB facebook group we made it happen.  Most of the folks were not able to show up to the filling session, but were able to drop off their beers before that, so we had everything present.  The actual fill was just Andrew, Ben D., Janelle, Sj and myself.  No problem!  Filling is easier than emptying!  While sipping on Bruery Batch 50 Grand Funk Aleroad, we drained carboy after carboy into the waiting barrel.  We were not as concerned this time about mild infections or off flavor since we would be introducing quite a mélange of funk to this brew.  At the end, Andrew gently poured in the swirled yeast dregs from that wonderful sour beer and popped in the bung.  This is the last we will see of the beer for possibly a year or more.  Andrew plans on driving a nail into the barrel below the level of the liquid which can be removed every 4-6 months to taste the product without disturbing the pellicle on top and introducing too much oxygen to the brew.  The delayed gratification of waiting this long to taste the finished beer is going to be the most difficult part!  We could still use another 5 gallons to fill the head space and then another 5 gallons to fill in the angel's share over the coming year, so if anyone already has some ready or wants to still get in on the action, there is time yet!

Belgian Bonanza! The JAB May 2013 Meeting Recap

Starting back several months ago our illustrious club secretary, Tim Roets, contacted several companies about supplying us with ingredients for a Club Belgian Brew-Off.  Wyeast, Whitelabs and www.candisyrup.com all jumped on board and provided multiple yeasts, candi sugars and syrups for this event.  For the last few months we have been encouraging Jack Of All Brews members to brew us up some Belgian style beers and I'm impressed with how many people decided to take up the challenge!  We had 17 different homebrewed beers to try (a few people did more than one!) 

I took a trip to Belgium last Fall and had the time of my life.  Since coming back I have a new appreciation for the myriad styles of Belgian ales, with many of them not fitting into any particular category.  What better way to celebrate that unique lack of style with an open category Belgian Brew Off?  For this event I brewed up a Belgian Dark Strong ale using a D90 and D180 candi syrup in the batch.  I also brewed up a Wit as part of my Hefe-Wit experiment.   I didn't even break into my homebrewed sour collection! 

I had won a 6 foot sub from Subway from a benefit and thought this would be a great time to cash it in.  When Sj brought in the 3 foot cardboard carrier I was shocked by how big the sub was...and then she brought in the second half!  I figured that we would be eating leftover subs for days.  That entire thing was quickly devoured by the hungry piranha feeding frenzy that is Brew Club!  Not to mention bags of chips and jars of spicy pickles. 

Ever notice how Steven in the foreground of every JAB group picture?

For our tasting we started with the lighter and lower alcohol beers.  My Wit was first, mainly because it was on tap and easy to serve.  Dave brought his fabled 3.2% ABV Tafelbier, and a tart cherry version as well.  We moved to Saisons with the high point of Wayne's really tasty Petite Saison.  We had 4 Dubbels, a mystery Belgian, a golden strong, a grand cru, and two dark strongs.  I was surprised we didn't have any tripels.  Overall we had a huge amount of beers to try and most were very good.  JAB members are becoming darn good brewers in my humble opinion!  The overall clear winner of the Golden Mash Paddle was Dave for his cherry Tafelbier.

Dave the proud winner!

We finished up with tasting Dave's sour barrel aged version of the Surly wort from the AHA rally several years back.  Well worth the wait!  We also ended up trying some good commercial Belgian style beers like Ommegang's Gnommegang, Iron Throne, and Art of Darkness.  Also tasted were: Boom Island Hoodoo Dubbel, Pour Decisions Salinity (not Belgian but pretty interesting,) Lost Abbey Lost & Found and Inferno, and the Kasteel Donker.  Yes Donker.  I am now going to use that as a dirty word for all eternity.

Dead Belgians?

We had a great meeting with nearly 30 members in attendance and a huge range of homebrewed and commercial beers to try.  I have to say that some of our homebrews were better than some of the commercial.  Thanks to Tim for getting this rolling, though I feel bad that he wasn't there to enjoy the spoils of his labor!  Also our new JAB work shirts arrived just in time for the meeting and they look really sharp.  Thanks to Tim, Mike and Steven for making that happen.

We are nearly ready for our next JAB barrel beer, and we need volunteers to help brew up some beer for it!  We aim to do a lambic and details will be on our JAB facebook group if you want to take part.

Also next month we will be assigning hops for our JAB yeast experiment!  More details to follow....

Jack Of All Brews Excelsior Brewing Company Tour 2013

Excelsior Brewing Company is a veritable baby in the local Minnesota craft beer scene, clocking in at just over 6 months old at this time.  I visited the brewery shortly after they opened and felt that they needed some time to mature before I would really want to go back: here is my previous review.

Our club Social Director Bryce contacted the folks at Excelsior and organized a tour for us this past Saturday.  We arrived at the quiet parking lot outside the brewery at 11:30 am with a group of about 12 members.  We were greeted by Ben Flattum, the brewery's main PR guy, and immediately handed samples of beer for us to try.  I have to say that Ben did a fantastic job of handling our group!  I know how hard it is to run herd on a bunch of drinking homebrewers but he seemed to know when to move on the the next sample or show off a new gadget to us.  He was also very knowledgeable about the brewing process and equipment, able to answer most of our beer-geekery questions.

The brewery is in a fairly small building that used to house a mechanic shop.  One can tell from the way things are stacked tightly in every corner that the brewery needs more active space.  Ben showed us plans for an expansion to knock down the back wall and take over the other mechanic shop next door.  Since they have done that particular demo before they already know what they are getting into.  It sounds like they are limited in production now due to storage space.  The tasting room itself is right in the center of the brewery with two separate stainless bars are placed in an L shape around the periphery.  Unlike some tasting rooms, this one really lets you feel like you are in smack-dab in the middle of a working brewery.

We were shown the huge old monstrosity of a boiler that came with the building: looming in a small back room like some industrial behemoth from a long past Steam-Punk age of dirigibles, gears and lots of bowler hats.  We saw the grain storage and milling equipment, and Gary took his obligatory pictures of the Rahr malt.  We saw the new stainless steel brew kettle and mash tun.  Apparently that boiler is so wickedly powerful that the brewer has to constantly toggle the switches to prevent boil overs!  Another interesting tidbit is the growler filler that came with instructions only in Russian and took the brewery a while to get the hang of.

Jim in front of his favorite Industrial Revolution Relic

And of course there was beer.  Compared to my first time here the beers have improved greatly, as has the serving of those beers.  The beers are now served out of taps at the correct temperature and with the correct amount of head.  They were serving 5 different beers on this visit and let us try them all.  The Pale ale is probably my least favorite of their beers.  The Big Island Blonde was still much stronger than a real blonde ale, but much more balanced and drinkable than my previous experience with it.  I almost feel like that one should be their  pale ale flagship beer.  I guess Fulton's blonde ale is also much more bitter and strong than I expect, so maybe soon we'll have a special category for Minnesota-Style Blonde at the GABF...  The wonderfully named Bitteschlappe Brown was a bit hazy but had a nice subtle nutty and roast character that was easy to enjoy.  The Shattered Solstice ale was a spiced winter ale that I liked quite a bit.  I think they got just the right amount of spice in this beer for my tastes.  And the last beer was my favorite, the Oar Lock oat stout.  That one was just a really smooth and tasty beer and I'd go back just for a pint of it.

The brewery really has its own style and great branding with a ton of options for shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, glassware, hats and bottle openers for sale.  Yes Sj and I bought shirts, they actually have long sleeved options!  I'm always annoyed by MN breweries who only sell short sleeved shirts...we live in a state where you can only wear those for 4 months out of the year!

Before we finished our tour Ben pulled a couple of unmarked shiny cans from some obscure hiding place and cracked them for us.  This was a canned version of their first beer, the Bridge Jumper IPA, that ended up having a crazy high ABV due to a much better extract efficiency than they were expecting.  I tasted that first batch in growler and was less than impressed, so it was interesting to try it again in the context of their new beers.  The beer has mellowed and is drinkable now, but has a pretty strong buttery character that I think was hidden initially by the now-fading hop flavor and bitterness.

Overall, I think that I can safely recommend Excelsior Brewing Company to anyone who wants to check out a young brewery and try some interesting new Minnesota beers.  I still think the brewery has a little growing up to do, but is more of a gawky adolescent now than the mewling newborn babe that I met earlier in the year.  Once that expansion takes place, I think the brewery will get its driver's licence and get to play with the grown ups.  I really appreciate Ben and the brewery owners hosting our tour and providing us with tastes of all the beers.  We were made to feel at home and our group had a fantastic time tasting, talking and exploring at this new venue.

Addendum 1/28/12:  My friends just shared a growler of the Excelsior baltic porter and I have to say I was very impressed with this beer.  It is one I would search out--very rich and complex with a smooth lager character.  Good job guys, make more!

JAB Family cookout 2012

Just a quick one today.  On last Sunday we had our fourth annual Jack Of All Brews Family Cookout!  The first year we had this was way back when we were first starting and it was hosted in the back yard of member Brett S.  We talked about doing it again for a couple of years and then member Kent O. got us access to a perfect spot for it.  This was at The Rosemount Pavilion in Eden Prairie, and includes a large indoor space with outdoor park area for kids to romp.  There is a huge gas grill, bathrooms, large cooler, running water, volleyball net, etc. 

This year we met again, doing our typical BYOM (bring your own meat) and a side dish to share pot-luck style.  Also Dave brought and hooked up the club jockeybox and populated it with a Dale's Pale Ale clone, his amazing session Belgian Tafel Bier, and a mango cider.  Later Scott brought a Gratzer made with oak smoked malt to hook up as well.  Kent had some bottles of his version of the Dale's to serve up as well...I think I liked the hopping on Dave's slightly more, (Falconer's Flight hop blend,) but both were excellent.  I didn't have time to grab a keg since Steven and I were coming straight from Renfest that morning.  I had Sj bring some commercial beers including a growler of Town Hall Smoked Porter yumminess. 

I had a great time, despite being a bit over-tired from working at Byggvir all weekend.  It was really nice to see a few of our earliest members and their spouses too.  And kudos to Kent for arranging the building again for us.

Overall we had a low turnout this year, and I'm not sure if it was a lack of interest or just poor timing.  This event was actually on our calendar since last year, but I know summers get busy for folks.  I would like to get some feedback on if people want to do this again, and also if there is a better way of getting the word out.  I'm wondering about trying to get spouse e-mails for "family" events like this and the Holiday party, since they usually do a better job of planning than us male homebrewers.  What say you?  I know I like the option of having the kids and spouses able to meet all of our members and hang out, rather than just have homebrew club Fridays as something the guys escape to once a month...

Oh, and I totally forgot to take any pictures...told you I was tired!

Minnesota Inter-Club Campout 2012

Every year emissaries from various MN homebrew clubs converge upon an unsuspecting campground and proceed to have a weekend of homebrew festivities unrivalled by any other event.  Each year the campout is sponsored by a different club, who arranges the camp site and a Saturday dinner, and this year Jack Of All Brews stepped up to take control.  Mike Behrendt and Tim Roets did most of the work, so huge kudos go to them for all the time and effort they put into this venture!  We couldn't have done it without them, and all the other JABbers who showed up to represent us. 

This year we stayed at the KOA in Jordan, just 15 minutes from my home in Waconia.  Much closer than last year's event, which I think was in Duluth.  Apparently the festivities went on until 1:30-3 AM on Friday, but I was lame and didn't show up until Saturday morning.  When I arrived folks were serving up bloody-marys and waking up.  The previous night had had some rain, so things were drying out and the sun was starting to poke its head out from behind the lowering cloud-cover.  Our member Chris German from BSG/Rahr was kind enough to organize a school bus to Rahr for an early morning tour of the facility and new tasting room.  I missed that part, but see my earlier post about Rahr for more info on the place!  Most of the group was on the tour, which included coffee and breakfast, so it was pretty quiet at the camp when I got there.  Once the bus returned around noon, things got hopping!  Rahr was an awesome host and provided a huge bag of grain to each member of the tour group!

Bill with his big sack

Once our group had returned, we started to organize for our JAB beer/mead tasting.  Part of the camp-out is a homebrew competition which allows clubs to earn bragging rights and a sweet travelling trophy to show off for the next year.  The competition is run by the previous year's Master Of Malt (BOS) winner, and this year that was Susan Ruud.  Around 12:30 we settled ourselves on a tippy picnic table and started tasting our beers to decide which ones would represent JAB for the day.  There are four categories: Ale, Lager, Belgian, and Mead. 

JAB gang tasting meads

Mike's beers were really good, but ended up not going on as JAB, so he entered them under CRAZY...and apparently we chose poorly because he rocked the house with them: 1st for lagers with his pilsner for the second year running; and 2nd for his IPA in ales.  Next year we take Mike's beers first!  JAB also got some brewcred with 3rd place in meads for Tim's wacky tamarind and agave mead, and 1st place for my Sour Loser Flemish red! Did we wear our medals all night like geeks?  Oh Yeah!  Master Of Malt went to Al Boyce, for MHBA:  now he has to organize the competition next year.  I'll put his picture up because he is a great guy, and because he is a member of JAB too!

Bling!



Al with his trophy

Heat.  Oh man was it hot out there!  I'm happy it wasn't raining on Saturday, but the humidity was insane sticky and the sun very hot.  We had a couple early casualties that I chalk up to combining the Rahr tasting room, judging the competition and the heat.  Not to mention some wicked sun burn.  I am now a true red-neck!  There were several distinct groups of us hanging out in whatever patches of shade we could find, though folks seemed to travel more once things got rolling.  I had a lot of great talks with folks I know and folks I didn't.  The incredible amount of beer on tap was certainly a help when it came to socializing!  Had Mike's great IPA several times.  Pat Sundberg from the soon-to-be-opened Jack Pine Brewery had an IPA and a roasty brown ale that get me excited check out his place. 

Jockey box heaven!

  Our Pit Boss Tim Roets was working on smoking a metric @#$%-ton of pork shoulder over Jamaican allspice wood all Friday, then started up his dueling Webers for hot and mild jerk chicken around 2PM Saturday.  With the help of some other JAB members he got some beans and rice with coconut milk cooking and some slaw to kill the heat.  During all this cookery, Tim maintained his high-energy style and helped us drink a bunch of beers and rum.  I wish I could bottle said energy and sell it on the black market...I'd be a rich rich man!



Jerk Master!

By 5:30 my stomach was trying to jump out of my abdomen after smelling this amazing smoking meat for three hours.  Tim served up several hot sauces (many home made!) and a bunch of pickled condiments to go with the pulled pork sandwiches and chicken.  Anyone who has been to one of the brewclub meetings where Tim tested these dishes out on us knows how amazing the food was.  Those who missed all three opportunities to try...you lose!  The spice was perfect, hopefully not too much for the other Minnesotans who feel that black pepper is "hot."  I didn't see anyone taking food back.  I'm guessing the bar has just been set higher for future camp-out dinners.

After dinner we all hung out and drank more homebrews, with some good commercial beers making the rounds as well.  The sun started to go down, bringing a tiny bit of blessed cool.  Time for a big fire and Fire Jenga!  Best not to ask details.  Sj came to help us eat after she finished work and ended up staying later than she thought.  After all day in the hot sun, I was ready for a shower and a night in my own bed and hitched a ride back home with her.  I used to love camping, but I think I've grown soft in my old age. 

Over all I think this event was a smashing success!  Thanks again to Mike for organizing and Tim for cooking his tail off.  Thanks to all the 14+ JAB members (and wives!) who showed up to help and hang out.  It was great getting to shoot the breeze with some old friends, and some new, in a very laid-back atmosphere.  I think we had 8 or 9 clubs represented, and want to see more for next year!  Now we just need another club to step up and organize it.

Brewclub Meeting July 2012

On the second Friday of each month a crazed group of home brewers called Jack Of All Brews join together for a night of excess and insanity we like to call Brewclub.  Last night Tim was gracious enough to host the meeting at his place and to serve up some amazing grub.  As a dry run for next weekend's Inter-Club Campout he served up some wicked-hot jerk wings and his signature allspice wood smoked jerk pork.  If you have not had it yet--you must come to the campout to try it!


This month we covered a lot of upcoming events and competitions, including deciding to send Mike Lebben's porter to the AHA Club Only Competition.  Our style of the month was cream ales, so I gave a quick run-down of the style and we tried a commercial example (New Glarus Spotted Cow.)  Of course everyone bolted down the calibration beer in seconds instead of tasting along with my presentation.  Like herding cats I tell you!  Homebrewers are a thirsty and independent lot.  We had six home-brewed examples and the winner of the Golden Mash Paddle for the month was Keith Brady, with Mike Behrendt following close behind.  I was totally skunked, but I'm used to it.  One of our members, Matt, managed to wheedle a fantastic prize for this contest from one of the Rogue Public Houses which was really a fun addition to the paddle.  I actually plan on continuing this tradition with the paddle winner getting a prize each month in the future.

Keith shows off his prize!

We also had a set of secondary prizes this month for Best of the Rest!  Tim supplied a bottle of the Rogue bacon beer and Liftbridge Biscotti for Mike B's "Burn" (a fiery version of his cream ale,) and Scott's witbier.

Dead soldiers, with Scott and Mike in background

As always, a great night and a not so great next morning!  Thanks to all the old JABbers, and the new members who bring new ideas and fire to the club.

Izzy's artwork