----- Forwarded message from info(a)pointbeer.com -----
Date: 14 Jul 2006 10:54:32 -0500
To: james(a)brewingnews.com
From: info(a)pointbeer.com
Subject: *** spam *** POINT BEER GARAGE SALE NEXT WEEK!
POINT BREWERY ANNUAL GARAGE SALE NEXT WEEK!
JULY 20 - 22
THURSDAY & FRIDAY, 9:00 A.M. - 7:00 P.M.,
& SATURDAY 10:00 A.M. - 3:00 P.M.
HELD IN STEVENS POINT BREWERY GARAGE
2617 WATER ST., STEVENS POINT
FEATURING
CLOSE-OUT T-SHIRTS, SWEATSHIRTS, HATS, GLASSWARE, COASTERS, POSTERS, NEONS, TAP HANDLES, INFLATABLE POINT-OF-SALE ITEMS, AND MUCH MORE! WHILE SUPPLIES LAST! ALL AT DISCOUNTED PRICES!
SEE YOU THERE!
STEVENS POINT BREWERY STAFF
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----- End forwarded message -----
--
------------------------------ *
* Dr. James Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
Congratulations are in order for Steve Piatz, who has just achieved the rank
of Grand Master II in the Beer Judge Certification Program! There are only
a half-dozen or so GM II's in the country. The Grand Master level can only
be achieved by extensive service to the BJCP, in addition to having
accumulated 100 judging and non-judging points. GM II requires 200 judging
and non-judging points, and a doubling of service to the BJCP over Grand
Master. Good work Steve!
- Al
>From the NYTimes. You know the routine...
Z
July 12, 2006
Beers of The Times
It's Hot. Drink Your Wheat.
By ERIC ASIMOV
WHEAT beer. It sounds healthy and almost bready, like something you might
find in a New Age fantasy.
Imagine the wheat beer arriving as you complete your mud bath and
aromatherapy, hypnotic music in the background, something to sip as you slip
into your Birkenstocks and float away. Not to harsh the mellow, but aargh!
Regardless of how it sounds, wheat beer has brewski credentials. It is the
quintessential summer quencher, just right for Nascar races and baseball
games. Now, that is a fantasy worth having - sitting in Yankee Stadium with
a glass of cold hefeweizen, the leading south German style of wheat beer,
its lively bubbles and tart, brisk flavors ready to quash the steamy heat of
any July night. It would go just as well with hot dogs as with the
traditional Bavarian veal sausages and pretzel bread.
Instead, ballparks prefer to serve insipid, tasteless beer that might be
better dumped into the mud bath than consumed, at inflated prices to boot.
Is this world crazy? Now the mellow is truly harshed.
In an effort to ensure sanity in the heat, the tasting panel recently
sampled 24 wheat beers. We were looking for American versions of
Bavarian-style brews, mostly out of curiosity. American craft brewers have
been creative in taking European styles in unexpected directions, and we
anticipated more of the same in the wheat beer category.
Leave it to our wily tasting director, Bernard Kirsch, though, to throw in a
few German sleepers. I'll get back to that shortly. Florence Fabricant and I
were joined for the tasting by Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of the Brooklyn
Brewery, and Fred Dexheimer, wine director of the BLT restaurants in New
York.
First things first: How did wheat get into the brew in the first place?
In its purest form, beer is made solely of malted barley, water, yeast and
hops. Among grains, barley's association with brewing comes naturally. Its c
haracteristic hard husk makes it easier for brewers to employ without
clogging up their equipment, as happens with a grain like wheat, which has
no husk and can gum up the works. Barley's high starch content breaks down
easily into sugars, which are then converted by yeast into alcohol. Wheat,
by contrast, with its elastic glutens, is well suited to making bread;
unlike barley, which becomes dry and crumbly in the hands of a baker.
Perfect division of labor, right? Barley for beer, wheat for bread.
Humans resist this form of natural selection. Brewers have long looked to
other grains beyond barley for their beer. Oats are used in stout and rye is
used in Eastern Europe to make kvass. Mass-market brewers add rice to lager
beers, which stretches out the brew while contributing to a light, subdued -
some might say characterless - flavor, or corn, which contributes a sort of
sweetness. And then there is wheat.
Given the difficulty that brewers have with wheat, you would think they
would leave it for the bakers. But brewers found that the addition of wheat
contributed a bracing liveliness to the beer that made it worth the extra
trouble. In Germany and Belgium, the two centers of wheat beer production,
brewers settled on a proportion of 50 percent to 60 percent wheat, with
barley making up the rest.
In Belgium, the wheat beer is often flavored with orange peel and coriander.
But in Bavaria, brewers developed a particular kind of ale yeast that
imparts a most unusual flavor to the beer: clove, citrus, smoke and, you'll
taste for yourself, banana and bubblegum. As odd as it sounds, it's
tremendously refreshing and goes well with a wide variety of spicy foods.
The beer is called hefeweizen; weizen for wheat and hefe for yeast. It is
almost always unfiltered, which gives hefeweizen its characteristically
cloudy, hazy appearance.
As we expected, the American wheat beers were all over the map, with brewers
taking great liberties with the style. This caused no small amount of
consternation among the panel, particularly with those beers that styled
themselves hefeweizen. Magic Hat Circus Boy, for example, calls itself a
hefeweizen, yet it has a floral aroma that is wholly uncharacteristic of the
style. Widmer Hefeweizen, which the panel rejected, was another beer that
bore little relation to the style.
"You're trading on the good name of an actual, established style to sell
something that's different,'' Mr. Oliver said, likening such uses of the
term hefeweizen to labeling American white wines as Chablis. "It's confusing
and frustrating.''
Magic Hat had a second beer in the tasting, Hocus Pocus, which we rated
higher for its better balance. Unlike the Circus Boy, it did not call itself
a hefeweizen, a good thing since it seemed to be more in a Belgian style.
Our top beer was the Brooklyn Brewery's Brooklyner Weisse, which seemed dead
on in its approximation of the clove, smoke and banana aromas, and brisk,
refreshing texture of a hefeweizen. Mr. Oliver didn't identify it as his own
beer, but was unembarrassed by the panel's unanimous approval.
Among our other favorites, the Flying Dog In-Heat was a fine, lively version
of the hefeweizen style, while the Samuel Adams was a little more sedate,
unlike the Ramstein, which so overflowed with hefeweizen flavors that it
seemed a bit overwrought. We liked the Smuttynose, though it seemed maybe
more Belgian than German in style, and we enjoyed both the Butternuts
Heinnieweisse, which is sold in cans, and the Harpoon UFO, which both seemed
true to the German aromas and flavors.
Some of the beers seemed not to be in very good condition. The panel
rejected a Weyerbacher hefeweizen, a Penn Weizen and a Rogue Half-E-Weizen,
all of which seemed well past their primes. Mr. Oliver pointed out that
wheat beers are among the most difficult to make properly.
"They're very delicate and they must be insistently fresh,'' he said. "When
you lose that, the beers tend to fall apart.''
Which brings us to the three authentic German hefeweizens, which Mr. Kirsch
slipped into the tasting. One, from Erdinger, did not make the cut, but the
other two, from Schneider and Franziskaner, might well have been our top
beers of the tasting. It was a tribute to Mr. Dexheimer's acumen that he
picked those two beers as the truest hefeweizens in the tasting.
Then there were the American originals, like the Hop Sun summer wheat beer
from Southern Tier Brewing Company in Lakewood, N.Y. This beer might as well
have been a pale ale, for all the piney hop aroma that screamed from the
glass, not at all typical of a wheat beer. It had a pale ale bitterness,
too. It didn't make our top 10, since we were looking for wheat beer styles.
But you know what? It would be mighty fine at a ballgame, too.
Tasting Report: A Classic Balance of Spice and Banana, American Style
Brooklyn Brewery Brooklyner Weisse
$1.40 (12 ounces)
3 stars
Lively with classic aromas of clove, banana and smoke; refreshing.
Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat Hefeweizen
$1.60 (12 ounces)
2½ stars
Smoky, spicy, toasty aromas; fresh and harmonious.
Samuel Adams Hefeweizen
$1.40 (12 ounces)
2½ stars
Tart, toasty and refreshing; bright though not especially distinctive.
Magic Hat Hocus Pocus
$2 (12 ounces)
2½ stars
Lean and somewhat austere, with lively citrus and herbal flavors.
Smuttynose Summer Weizen
$1.50 (12 ounces)
2 stars
Creamy texture with pronounced clove and smoke flavors.
Ramstein Blonde Wheat Beer
$1.50 (12 ounces)
2 stars
Brassy and loud, with classic flavors that shout out.
Butternuts Beer and Ale Heinnieweisse
$1.30 (12 ounces)
2 stars
Fruity, spicy aromas; pleasing and easy to drink.
Harpoon UFO Hefeweizen
$1.50 (12 ounces)
2 stars
Lively yet restrained with flavors of banana and clove.
Magic Hat Circus Boy
$1.50 (12 ounces)
1½ stars
Unusual floral aromas; tart and lean.
Sierra Nevada Wheat
$1.60 (12 ounces)
1½ stars
Light-bodied, lemon-flavored and pleasant.
One more thing.
I should have mentioned that if you are interested in attending,
please go to the link below and RSVP. Space is limited.
See you there!
--Randy
On Jul 11, 2006, at 9:17 AM, Randy Mosher wrote:
> Hi Everybody,
>
> As you have probably heard by now, Goose Island has generously
> agreed to host an AHA Membership Rally, scheduled for this upcoming
> Saturday, July 15, from 1 to 4 pm, at Goose Island Clyborn.
>
> This should be a fun event, with some rare beers, a chance to talk
> to Goose island brewers, have a few snacks, maybe win a raffle
> prize, and who knows what else. The only cost of entry is an AHA
> membership. If you aren't a member already, we'll sell you an AHA
> membership at the door at a discounted rate. It should be a really
> enjoyable afternoon.
>
> I want to make a personal appeal to you to attend.
>
> Most of you know me as one of those involved with helping run CBS
> events, but I also have been involved with the AHA for several
> years now. And as of a couple weeks ago, I am the new Chairman of
> the AHA Governing Committee, the elected group that has been
> charged with determining the future direction of the AHA. This will
> be a great chance to bend my ear.
>
> Years ago, the AHA was completely a top-down organization, with
> only casual connections to the membership it served. With the
> merger last year of the Brewers Association of American and the
> AHA's parent organization the Association of Brewers, the new
> Brewers Association board charged the AHA Governing Committee with
> this task, and gave us the authority to do so. We have been working
> behind the scenes to provide direction to AHA staff, and we're
> starting to get to the point where we're having a real impact.
>
> The specific benefits of AHA membership have been covered
> elsewhere, but include Zymurgy magazine, discounts on books,
> competitions, GABF admission, plus discounts from better beer
> providers like Goose Island and Rock Bottom, among others--an easy
> way to earn your membership fee back. But most importantly, in my
> opinion, is the opportunity to be a part of America's only national
> homebrewing organization, and help it grow to serve its membership
> as we all know it can. CBS and the other clubs of the Chicago area
> have a long partnership with the AHA, and this rally is just one
> more example.
>
> And as you also probably are aware, since the day it opened, Goose
> Island has been as supportive a partner as you could imagine for
> CBS events and activities. This Rally is just one more example of
> their generosity to us and their belief in the importance of a
> strong, vital homebrewing community. Please turn out and make this
> a successful event for them as well as us.
>
> If you're a current AHA member, come on by, it's totally free. If
> you've let you're membership lapse, this is the perfect time to
> renew. And for those of you who have never joined, I can think of
> no better time to get introduced to the national homebrewing
> community that the AHA represents. The future is very bright, but
> only if people get involved.
>
> I sincerely hope you can attend. You know it's always a blast when
> us Beer Geeks get together!
>
> Full details of the event can be found at:
>
> http://www.beertown.org/email/aha/membership_drive/gooseisland.html
>
> I hope to see you there. I'll even have some radical homebrew to
> serve!
>
> --Randy
>
>
> ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
>
> http://radicalbrewing.com
> http://randymosherdesign.com
Randy Mosher
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://radicalbrewing.comhttp://randymosherdesign.com
FYI
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 2:58 PM
Subject: Beer & Cheese Tasting @ The Craftsman Restaurant 7/12
Join us for our monthly beer & cheese pairing and tasting featuring Surly
owner/brewers Todd & Omar. They will be guiding guests through a sampling
of their Bender, Furious, and CynicAle line of American Craft beers. Chef
Mike Phillips will pair a selection of local artisan cheeses to go with
these delicious local brews.
The event goes from 5:00 to 7:00pm. $15 cover for the beer and cheese
pairing. Call The Craftsman at 612-722-0175 to reserve. Visit the
Surly website for more info about this great new brewery:
http://www.surlybrewing.com/index.phphttp://www.craftsmanrestaurant.com/
_______________________________________________
Thanks Curtis - I'll sent this to the list.
- Al
-----Original Message-----
From: CURTIS LESMEISTER [mailto:cjlesmeister@msn.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 12:52 PM
To: info(a)mnbrewers.com
Subject: Ticket for Great Taste in Madison, August 12th
Hello,
I will not be using my ticket for the Great Taste in Madison on August 12th
and thought that one of your members might be interested. The ticket is $30
- face value.
When I checked for motel rooms several weeks ago they were almost
non-existent for that weekend, so if someone is interested they might want
to consider that.
Curt Lesmeister
(763) 416-0357
cjlesmeister(a)msn.com
Okay, Kids -
Although we are in the heat of summer, it is time to start thinking State
Fair. Not because we are ready for all the kids to go back to school
(although that is enough to get me thinking). It's because we are currently
accepting entries for the homebrew competition. If you haven't heard about
the competition, everything you need to know is attached. If you could
please pass this along to your peers and patrons, and if applicable set up
a link through your website, we would love it! Any questions, please
ask...Cheers!
Michael Corrigan
Publicity Coordinator
corr0050(a)umn.edu
ps. If you have any trouble with the attachments, let me know. I will be
more than happy to resend.
