mba July 2002

mba@thebarn.com

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Norprene tubing

by Paul Johnsen

Does anyone know where I can get norprene tubing in the Twin Cities area? Thanks, Paul

23 years, 4 months

Club Event

by Moranz, Mike

This weekend is the all-club campout at Collinwood County park in Cokato MN. If you're not a camper, you're still welcome to stop by. We've had folks stay one night, a few hours, or just stop in on their way to somewhere without good beer. :( You could hang a hammock, sleep in your car, or we've even seen someone just lay down on the edge of a bean field. :) The campout is sponsored this year by the MHBA. The competition will be directed by last years winner, Dick Nilles, from The Prairie Homebrewing Companions. The campground we have reserved can accommodate tents to motorhomes. There is a permanent pit toilet, a water source, plenty of shade and grass, an excellent firepit, and our own private group site is a short distance to a lake beach, showers, and the office store. The Saturday night barbeque meal will be supplied by the MHBA for all those who attend. If you would like to bring something to share, (desserts and beer!) that is more than welcome. If you have a keg, or two, or three, we'll have a 5 tap coldplate cooler setup for dispensing. Directions from the Twin Cities: Take Highway 12 West about 55 miles. Turn left before Cokato at big Collinwood County sign. Go 3 miles to the southwest. Follow the very good signs. At the campground entrance follow the gravel road to the left (not to the right - that is the main campground). The styles for the competition are: Open Pils (BJCP 1a, 2a and 2b) Open Belgian (BJCP Styles 18, 19 & 20 all sub-styles) Porter (BJCP Style 15) Session Beers (Any beer with 1.040 or less Original Gravity) Each club is allowed one entry in each style and must have at least one member on site for judging Saturday afternoon. The MHBA will be picking our entries from whatever is on site Saturday morning. (3 bottles please) If you can't make it, send your beer with someone who can. Lastly, bring some wood for the campfire. If you have "sentimental" wood, all the better. (Sentimental wood is simply wood with a story) Come on out, let's hope for good weather and good times! Mike Moranz, President Minnesota Home Brewers Association

23 years, 4 months

wanted: cold plate system

by Crist, Jonathan

does anyone have an extra cold plate system for sale? Or know where a good used system could be found? 2 taps minimum I need to find a system to use for the Autumn Brew Review. Thanks Jonathan

23 years, 4 months

Minnesota brewing industry on MPR

by David H Berg

Find the July 24 first hour and you can listen http://news.mpr.org/programs/midday/ David Berg President, Minnesota Craft Brewer's Guild Head Brewer, Water Tower Brewing Company ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.

23 years, 4 months

Fuji Beer Train (fwd)

by Jim L. Ellingson

----- Forwarded message from John Wyzkiewicz -----

23 years, 4 months

Golden Elixir

by Brewin' Beagle

>From the Baltimore Sun Brewer has the Midas Touch By Marego Athans Baltimore Sun staff writer BEACH, Del. -- The beer has always run toward the exotic in the Dogfish Head brew pub. But things got really interesting when the archaeologists came along. Suddenly the pub and microbrewery were swept into a 2,700-year-old puzzle involving King Midas, a royal funeral feast in eighth-century-B.C. Phrygia (modern-day Turkey) and an ancient recipe that combines -- heaven forbid -- beer and wine. What started as academic research at the University of Pennsylvania into mustard-yellow residue in ancient vessels from the days of the legendary king has produced a drink so popular that it's bottled and sold in 18 states, including Maryland. Using ingredients known to be available to the Phrygians, the brew, dubbed Midas Touch Golden Elixir, is made with white Muscat grapes, thyme honey, saffron, barley, yeast and water. Hops weren't cultivated in the area at the time, but to satisfy modern legal requirements for beer, some are added. "We never intended to brew it more than once - we thought of it as a novelty," says Sam Calagione, the brew pub's owner, who made the first batch for an archaeologists dinner at Penn two years ago. The meal re-created the 718 B.C. funerary banquet that researchers say honored the death of either King Midas or his father. "We had underestimated people's excitement about history," Calagione says. "We were always thinking about innovations, but we learned that people were making amazing things that tasted great two, three-thousand years ago. It kind of put things in perspective." Calagione, 33, a self-described "beer geek," began brewing beer on the stove of his New York apartment in 1993, one year after graduating from college with a major in English. Two years later, he and his wife, Mariah, picked a spot on this busy beach-town strip, cut the tops off two old kegs, installed propane heaters underneath and opened what was then the smallest commercial brewery in the country. Meanwhile, worlds away in New York, Elizabeth Simpson was in her third decade studying the largest tomb of Gordion - the capital city of Phrygia, about 60 miles south of Ankara, Turkey - which had been excavated in 1957 by a University of Pennsylvania museum archaeologist, Rodney Young. The tomb, dating to about 700 B.C., held the remains of a 60- to 65-year-old man believed to be King Midas or his father - not the Midas of Greek legend who turned everything he touched to gold but a real monarch, the most powerful of his time. It was also filled with fine wooden furniture, rich textiles, numerous bronze mixing and serving vessels, and more than 100 bowls, which Young concluded were placed there to be used in the afterlife. But Young's analysis didn't sit right with Simpson, a professor at New York's Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts and the world's leading expert on the furniture from the Gordion tombs. So in 1981 she went to Turkey to see for herself and concluded that the vessels and utensils were remains from a funerary banquet, and the food and beverage in them were the mourners' sacrifices to the goddess Matar. The body, she realized, had been on display outside the tomb during the feast and then moved inside, along with the furniture and vessels. (Some researchers hypothesize that the legend of Midas' touch got started when people mistook the bronze vessels, then new and polished, for gold.) Particularly intriguing was the fact that residue from the vessels had been sent back and saved by Penn's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In Young's days, the chemical analysis of the substances was crude. "They had no idea what it was," Simpson says. By 1997, Simpson was working on final publication of her study on the tomb and figured she'd try once more for an analysis. She called Patrick E. McGovern, a molecular biologist and senior research scientist at the museum. As it happened, newly developed science, which McGovern calls "molecular archaeology," enabled scientists to chemically analyze the yellow powder, which was once a beverage, and the brown clumpy porous substance, which resembled a dried stew, that had been sitting in paper bags one floor above McGovern's office for 40 years. "All I had to do was walk up the stairs, and there they were," McGovern says. "It was the easiest excavation I've ever been on." Reflecting a beam of infrared light off a sample, the scientists analyzed the electron structure of the molecules in the dried beverage. They found tartaric acid and its salts, which point to the presence of grapes; calcium oxalate, which is beerstone (the main precipitate of barley beer); and signs of beeswax, which indicated honey and which - when fermented - becomes mead. In the food remnants, researchers found evidence of sheep or goat stew. Other compounds present suggested that the meat was barbecued before being cut off the bone and seasoned with Mediterranean herbs and spices. The team published its findings in the Dec. 23/30, 1999, issue of Nature. "I was surprised at the beer- wine mixture," Simpson says. "Everybody was surprised at that. We tend to think of it in terms of wine and beer, and that's a modern-day prejudice. Everybody was thrown into a state of confusion about what it would taste like." But as they dug into ancient texts - including the Homeric epics reflecting Greek and Anatolian traditions of the eighth century B.C. and earlier - researchers found references to similar mixtures. There was no question about the next step: The feast had to be re-created and consumed. Dogfish Head, known for its nontraditional brews, was chosen to make the beverage for a September 2000 banquet in Philadelphia. The result tastes like a cross between a fine Belgian ale and delicate white wine. It was so well received at the feast, by the food media and Calagione's "laboratory" - the regulars at his brew pub - that he decided to invest $40,000 to bottle and market it in 750 milliliter champagne bottles. The brew sells for $8.99-$9.99 per bottle, or $80 a case, almost four times the cost of average microbrewed beer. At 9 percent alcohol, it is twice as potent as regular beer but comparable to some wines. David Howk, a paint contractor and brew pub regular, says he thought it was a joke when fliers first came around announcing a beer made from an ancient recipe taken from a funerary feast associated with King Midas. "It wasn't quite beer, it wasn't quite wine, it was almost like a champagne beer, very intriguing," he says. "I generally drink it as an aperitif when I'm ready to cleanse my palate. It has a clear, crisp taste, and that honey mead goes down so sweetly, but you have to be careful because it tastes so good." Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun Brewin' Beagle, Inc. Everything Real Ale www.brewinbeagle.com mailto:brewinbeagle@aol.com

23 years, 4 months

Press Release - "Schell's Acquires Grain Belt Brand" (fwd)

by Jim L. Ellingson

----- Forwarded message from Mike Tschida ----- Subject: Press Release - "Schell's Acquires Grain Belt Brand" From: Mike Tschida <mtschida(a)hpimarketing.com> To: "schell's press releases" <mtschida(a)hpimarketing.com> July 23, 2002 For immediate release: August Schell Brewing Company in New Ulm, Minnesota has reached an agreeement to purchase the Grain Belt beer brand. "The timing of this purchase is ideal" said Ted Marti, President of August Schell. "With the recent expansion of our brew house, storage and packaging facilities, we will be able to seamlessly add the production of Grain Belt. However, we must wait for government approval of the sale before we are able to produce and distribute the beer. Hopefully the process will move quickly so we can keep Grain Belt available. The bottom line is we will be able to brew enough beer to satisfy the current and future demand. It is our intention to continue the tradition of Grain Belt and it's connection to the beer drinkers of the Upper Midwest, growing the brand back to it's rightfull place in the market." For the immediate future, the Schell brands and Grain Belt brand will be operated as separate entities. "First and formost, we will not change the recipe of Grain Belt. The taste will be the same popular American Premium lager style that so many customers have enjoyed for generations." added Marti. "The Grain Belt brand will not change any of our strategies for Schell's products. We fully expect this to strengthen the August Schell Brewing Company, our distribution network and the rich tradition of brewing in Minnesota. I'm pleased we are able to step up and save the brand. Preserving the history of brewing in Minnesota is a big part of what we are all about." Marti added. For additional information please contact: Ted Marti at August Schell Brewing Co. 507-354-5528 Release sent by HPI Marketing, Representing the interests of August Schell Brewing Co. ----- End of forwarded message from Mike Tschida -----

23 years, 4 months

Autumn Home Brew Review - ONLINE REGISTRATION for beer and judges!

by allan.boyce＠usbank.com

Check it out! The Autumn Home Brew Review web site now features ONLINE REGISTRATION for both beers and judges! http://www.mnbrewers.com/events/autumn FEATURES: * The beer registration process allows you to print out your registration form AND your three bottle neck labels. * You may choose to print multiple copies of the registration if your web browser allows it, letting you print a copy for your own records. * The beer registration process allows you to enter your beer recipe as well, allowing many selections from drop-down menus. * The data is saved on a back-end server, so the chance of back-end data entry errors are reduced. * If you do all of your beer registration and judge registration at one time, you will only have to enter your personal information once. * The registration form includes the address for the Town Hall shipping point. * The judge registration form allows you to indicate your judging time preferences and style preferences. Entries will be accepted for the contest beginning Aug. 2 through Aug. 22 at Town Hall Brewery (in person and shipping) and at Midwest Homebrewing in St.Louis Park. - Al

23 years, 4 months

GRAIN BELT

by Rick Oftel

>From today's paper, the following tidbit just arrived. Diamond-clear Grain Belt beer - a legendary MN product that was in danger of going belly-up this summer - was hoisted back to life Monday by another state brewing institution. The August Schell Brewing Co. submitted the winning bid for the Grain belt brand name in the liquidation of St. Paul based MN Brewing Co.. For more info see today's Business Section. Rick Oftel

23 years, 4 months

Fwd: Investment Advise

by Michael Valentiner

>A little investment advice.....so sad but true....... > >If you had bought $1000.00 worth of Nortel stock one year ago, it >would now be worth $49.00. > >With Enron, you would have $16.50 of the original $1,000.00. > >With Worldcom, you would have less than $5.00 left. > >If you had bought $1,000.00 worth of Budweiser (the beer, not the >stock) one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for >the 10 cent deposit, you would have $214.00. > >Based on the above, my current investment advice is to drink heavily >and recycle :) Very tempting, given the stock market these days ... -- Michael Valentiner, Minneapolis, Minnesota mpv(a)yuck.net

23 years, 4 months

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mba July 2002