Hey everyone. Disappointed that Oktoberfest is only a few weeks long? Let's continue the celebration.
The October MHBA meeting is scheduled for Saturday, October 18th from noon-3 pm at the CSPS Hall.
There will be an "Oktoberfest" potluck, so bring your favorite German recipes.
And for German-style music, Eric Swann and Mark Johnson are organizing an Oompa Band. Got a favorite instrument? Bring it along! (Email Eric Swann, so he can get music set up in the key you need. mnbearhorn(a)yahoo.com. Didn't realize instruments had keys? Bring it along anyway. All are welcome regardless of skill level.)
There will also be German beer trivia.
All are welcome. Bring homebrewed and/or commercial beers to share.
Gera Exire LaTour
CSPS Hall
383 Michigan Street
St. Paul, MN
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I missed out on trying any of the Lift Bridge or the Fresh Hop beers
dang it... those lines...
I did get a taste of Surly's Darkness and Coffee Bender, Fitzgers always
awesome Cherry Beer, and the Apricot Breakfast Ale, along with that hot
Wildfire Lager. I liked some of Dave's creations at Schell's. Great
Water's Auld Braun was interesting. Town Hall came through again with a
nice Blueberry Oatmeal Pale Ale & Choc Oat Stout...love that place! The
Smoked Dopplebock at Rock Bottom was great. Summit surprised me with
their Brettanomyces Stout... very good. Furthermore's Oscura was very
good as was New Belgium's Giddy Up. New Holland's Dragon's Milk had the
WOW factor going! Then things got a little blurry... Just too many on my
list to get too this year... L
Cheers!
~Brian
Hops were tops at 2008 Autumn Brew Review
By CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER, Star Tribune
October 1, 2008
Testing the old marketing rule that people always want what they can't
have, this year's Autumn Brew Review served up heavy doses of the
world's most endangered beer ingredient: hops.
Hopped-up beers boiled over at the eighth annual festival of libations,
held last Saturday outside the Grain Belt Brewery in Minneapolis with
its usual, sold-out-in-a-day attendance of 2,500. For one day only, you
would have never known there was a worldwide hops shortage going on.
Favorite hops-laden flavors of recent Brew Reviews -- including the
Surly Furious, Tyranena's Hop Whore and Rush River's Bubblejack IPA
(India Pale Ale)-- were joined by such new standouts as Minneapolis Town
Hall's Fresh Hop 2008 and Brau Brothers' Fresh Hop Ale.
Town Hall's heavily hopped brand, on tap at the brew pub for a limited
time this fall, was a crisp brew with a powerful wallop comparable to
Boulder Brewing's Hazed & Infused (but, for obvious geographic reasons,
much fresher tasting). The Brau Brothers, from puny Lucan, Minn.,
balanced out its wet-hops-spiked, kegs-only ale with caramely Vienna
malt.
Also among the best of the new hop crop was a slightly darker but no
less pungent ale called Harvestor, one of four excellent brews by the
day's standout newcomer: Stillwater-based Lift Bridge Brewery, in
operation four months.
Lift Bridge's crew verbosely and rightfully boasted of the Harvestor's
freshness (the hops allegedly were picked two days earlier from a
"secret patch" in Stillwater). Their enthusiasm was as infectious as
their brews, which also included the Pioneer Pale Ale (a bold IPA), the
oak-aged, malt-roasted Slab House Dark (Belgian strong ale) and what
will probably become their flagship brand, the earthy-flavored Farm Girl
Saison.
Saison beers -- French ales associated with late-summer harvests -- were
also prevalent at Brew Review '08. The best was the just plain
refreshing Dumaine DuPage French Country Ale from Warrenville,
Ill.-based Two Brothers Brewing, which also boasted a divine hefeweizen,
Ebel's Weiss.
Other saisons included the (take a breath before saying it) Cherry
Saison Imperial Oak Aged Cherry Ale, from Southern Tier of Lakewood,
N.Y., another newcomer with a big (ahem) buzz. More conventional but
thoroughly satisfying was a French oak-flavored saison from Great Waters
Brewing Co., a St. Paul brew pub.
Perhaps the most unique new brew of the day was Obscura, a bold but
surprisingly accessible Mexican lager with coffee and maize flavoring,
served by Wisconsin newcomer Furthermore. I got there too late to try
another odd standout, the Serrano Pepper Ale from the St. Croix Brewing
Co. The St. Paul-based newcomer's maple and cream ales failed to make
much of an impression.
Also decent but ho-hum were the new brands from Cold Spring Brewing Co.,
including its pale ale and Honey Almond Weiss. Only Cold Spring's
unfiltered and malty Ebony Wheat was distinctive.
Nobody stands out at the Brew Review like Surly, though. The Brooklyn
Center-based microbrewery once again had the longest lines of the review
for its Darkness 2008 and again for its Oak-Aged Cranberry Saison. Good
luck finding those brews anywhere before the next Brew Review (Feb. 6 at
the History Center; details at www.mncraftbrew.org)
Chris Riemenschneider * 612-673-4658
(c) 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
---
Brian Hatcher
Sr. Master Scheduler
C.P.I.M.
Email: brian_hatcher(a)Xiotech.com
Office: 952 983 2466
Fax: 952 983 2488
Xiotech Corporation
6455 Flying Cloud Drive
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
www.xiotech.com : www.xiotech.com/demo : Toll-Free 866 472 6764
Not busy this Saturday? Go check out fellow homebrewer Jim LaRocque in
the Hot Hits orchestra at the Medina Ballroom this Saturday, 8:30pm! (He's
the guy in the blue shirt, second from the left in the attached photos.)
Medina box office phone # is 763-478-6661.
- Al
----- Forwarded by Allan V Boyce/MN/USB on 10/01/2008 10:43 AM -----
"larocqueman(a)netzero.net" <larocqueman(a)netzero.net>
10/01/2008 09:22 AM
To
Undisclosed-recipients:;
cc
Subject
Medina Show
Check out Hot Hits Orchestra on Youtube to get an idea of what we're
doing.
Jim LaRocque
U.S. BANCORP made the following annotations
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Hi,
Over the years, I've occasionally stashed a Barleywine or Old Ale down in the cellar, thinking "this will be better in a few years". Then I totally forget about it (out of sight, out of mind). Time really flies when you ignore things. Last night, I finally went down and did an inventory.
Among other things, I have a 19 year old bottle of Chimay Red, three 15 year old bottles of Thomas Hardy Ale, a bottle of barley wine that the brewmaster at Santa Fe Brewing gave me 14 years ago, two 12 year old bottles of Traquair House Ale, etc...
So, my question is... how long is long enough? Or more importantly, how long is too long?
I have no doubt that the barley wines and the Thomas Hardy Ale (11.7%), will be good for many more years. But the Chimay is only 7%, and Traquair House Ale is 7.2%. Even though they're all bottle conditioned, I suspect they may already be past their prime(?).
I also found a bottle of Samuel Smith Imperial Stout (7%) that was a few years old. I never intended to age that, so I drank it last night. It was still (very) good.
Does anyone have any experienceopinion about this? Thanks!
Cheers,
Tony
Guys and Gals,
I don't want to frighten you but we have some very old Scotch Ale in an
oak barrel. The barrel has a pellicle and the flavor is "interesting."
Maybe this could be entered in an experimental category?
This was the third time we used this barrel and obviously our sanitation
techniques were not as strong as the critters. The crew that
contributed to this barrel expressed limited interest with their 5
gallon portions so I'm opening up the barrel to anyone. If you want 5
or 10 or more gallons of barrel aged Scotch ale, leave a cornie by my
front door sometime this week and it will be filled by Saturday. After
Saturday, the beer departs on a secret mission within city drain lines.
Rick Oftel
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