Brew With Charlie, A Good time Had By All
     Charlie Papazian's visit to Leeners on July 15th was a huge success. Over 60 beer enthusiasts and homebrewers spent the evening under the big top in an informal and informative chat with the icon of brewing at home. Most were surprised at Charlie's easy-going, laid-back approach to home brewing. I was among them. As I prepared for the event I was not relaxing, I was worrying and I ran out of homebrew. I kept imagining Charlie's conversation on his way back to the hotel being consumed with comments about our lack of sophistication. As it turns out, it was a none issue. Charlie's motto for 20 years is as true a representation of the man as there can be. Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew. Six words that say it all.
     Have a homebrew is what he did. A few homebrewers in the audience could not resist providing samples to their mentor. In the excitement, I think for some, Charlie's comments about their brews took on religious proportions. Before, during and after the presentation Charlie was gracious enough to sign his name on everything from his book, The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing, to brewing paddles. As he and I walked up to the store after the brewing he said he would be happy to sign any copies of his book we had in the store. Once we were inside I happily told him he signed all but one already. Later that evening we made our way to the Winking Lizard for a cold one and something to eat. The beer talk lasted until way past my bed time.
     Eileen and I will never forget the events of July. We thank everyone who helped and all those who came. We look forward to serving you as the 1997 brewing season opens in late August.
Morena Mild by Charlie Papazian a chocolate-brown English style mild ale
O.G. 1.036 F.G. 1.008 abv 3.7% (Yields 3.75 Gallons)
3.3 lb Edme Maris Otter Extract
1.0 lb English Crystal 40L Malt
8.0 oz English Chocolate Malt
0.8 oz East Kent Golding Plug 60 min.
0.3 oz East Kent Golding Plug 45 min.
1 tsp Irish Moss 10 min.
Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley Ale
     This recipe is formulated for a concentrated wort boil. Full wort boils will require a 10% reduction of hops. Steep grain in 1 gallon 150oF water for 30 minutes. Remove grain and sparge with hot tap water until the brew pot is back to 1 gallon volume. Add the Maris Otter extract, dissolve well, then bring to boil. Once a full boil is reached add 1st hops and boil 15 minutes. Add 2nd hops and boil 30 minutes. Add Irish Moss, boil 15 minutes. At the end of the boil place 1 gallon of very cold water in the fermenter. Strain the hot wort into fermenter and sparge the strainer with hot tap water to until the fermenter holds 3.75 gallons. Pitch yeast at 60 - 70 degrees F.
AHA Conference Review by Sam Santabarbara
     I wanted to share with my fellow homebrewers who were not able to attend the 1997 National Homebrewers Conference some of the information from certain seminars.
Beer Evaluation Lab presented by Charlie Papazian
     On Thursday, July 17th, Charlie Papazian ran a very interesting “Beginning Beer Evaluation Lab”. The purpose of this lab was to learn the art of evaluating the appearance, flavor, body and aroma of beers. The first thing one must do when evaluating a beer is find the particular style the beer fits. You must know if the beer in your hand is a Porter, IPA, Stout, etc. so you can decide if it follows the guidelines for that style. The steps for evaluating a beer are as follows:
     Look at the bottle. Especially, look for signs of bacterial contamination at the surface level of the beer. A white ring on the neck of the bottle can tip you off to a problem.
     Listen to the hiss. When opening the bottle, listen carefully to the hiss as this will tell you about the level of carbonation.
STARTER KITS
  • BREWERY KITS
  • RECIPE KITS
  • CANNED KITS

    • INGREDIENTS
  • MALTED BARLEY
  • MALT EXTRACTS
  • HOPS
  • BREWERS YEAST
  • HERBS SPICES
  • ADJUNCT SUGAR
  • FINING AGENTS

    • EQUIPMENT
  • BREW KETTLES
  • WORT CHILLERS
  • BOILING BAGS
  • FERMENTERS
  • GLASS CARBOYS
  • AIR LOCKS
  • STOPPERS
  • SPOONS
  • FUNNELS
  • SIPHON AIDS
  • LAB EQUIPMENT

    • BOTTLE SUPPLIES
  • CLEANING
  • BEER BOTTLES
  • CAPS & CAPPERS

    • KEGS & DRAFT BEER
  • HOMEBREW KEG
  • DRAFT BEER
  • KEG HOW TO

    • INFORMATION
  • HOW TO BREW
  • ABOUT BARLEY
  • USING EXTRACT
  • ABOUT HOPS
  • CHILLING WORT
  • EQUIPMENT
  • MORE EQUIPMENT
  • BOTTLING BEER
  • WHAT'S WRONG
  • BETTER MR.BEER
  • DRINKING BEER
  • SUMMER BREWS
  • FATHER'S DAY
  • BREW w/CHARLIE
  • THE BEER LIST
  • PEPE LePEW BREW
  • BEER RECIPES
    		•
         Pour the beer. Pouring the beer can be done in any way that will provide the type of head desired (depending on style and level of carbonation).
         Smell the beer. It is best to take several short smells and then make your notes. Your sense of smell will fatigue after a while.
         Look at the beer. Look at the color (is it appropriate for the style), clarity and the amount of head.
         Taste the beer. Be sure to move the beer all around your mouth as different parts of your tongue can taste different tastes.
         The best part of this seminar was, of course, the tasting and scoring of six different styles of beer. The beers ranged in style from American-Style Light Lager (Miller Lite) to an English Dark Mild (Homebrew). The purpose of the Miller Lite was to demonstrate that even though you may not like a style of beer, you must judge to that style and not your particular tastes. As you can probably imagine, most of the class gagged on this watery, generic American beer.
         The highlight of the beer tasting was when Charlie passed around an English Best Bitter which turned out to be The Great Barrel of Monkey’s Ale. The oak flavor imparted by the whiskey barrel really caught everyone off guard. Charlie did not say initially that this beer was conditioned in an oak whiskey barrel. However, I am happy and proud to report (as should be all members of the Rt. 82 Homebrewers Association) that the beer was well liked by Charlie and my fellow classmates. Charlie scored the Monkey Ale an excellent 45 out of 50 points.
    Off-flavor Workshop presented by Mary Pellettieri.
         Well now that you are armed with the above information, I suggest you put your five senses and your favorite homebrew to the test. If you are like me, you have probably never made a batch of homebrew that contained any off-flavors (yeah, right). However, you have probably tasted some of your friends homebrew that made you wonder if his cat fell into the brew pot and hasn’t been seen since. It was for that reason that I attended the “Sensory Analysis of Beer and Off-flavor Workshop” at the 1997 National Homebrew Conference.
         The purpose of this workshop was to learn how to recognize five common off-flavors found in beer. I know some of my homebrew has more than five off-flavors but the workshop was only 90 minutes. This was accomplished by tainting a control beer with the chemicals that cause these off-flavors.
         The instructor pointed out that not everyone can detect all the off-flavors and some are even desirable in some beers. For example, Sam Adams Boston Lager is purposely fermented to allow diacetyl to form. Rolling Rock has a certain level of DMS that the company found the customer’s missed if it was removed.
         Now that you are armed with the above information, get a friend’s Homebrew and let him/her know what you think. Just don’t be surprised if you are not offered more than one.
    copyright 2004 J.R.Leverentz
    winemaking homebrewing cheesemaking